Knowing that Li Mu was going to acquire a cinema chain, Ning Hao, Xu Zheng, Huang Bo, and even Tang Wei were all looking forward to the future of Makino Image.
With a cinema chain, they could at least guarantee that all the movies of their company would have the opportunity to test the water in the cinema chain. In this day and age, some low-budget movies were not favored by the cinema chain, and there were also many movies that the cinema chain itself was not optimistic about, so they would deliberately reduce the number of screenings or not at all. In this case, if a movie was not favored by all the cinema chains, there was basically no way for it to survive. However, if there was a cinema chain that could test the water to prove its attendance rate, it might be able to turn the tide. Even if it did not affect other cinema chains, if their own cinema chain reached a certain scale, the box office of their movies would also be greatly guaranteed.
What's more, there was a bigger conspiracy behind Li Mu's acquisition of cinema chains. He was asking the development team of Makino Technology to develop a full set of ticketing systems. It was not easy to popularize this system to the cinema chains all over the country. Letting these traditional cinema chains take the first step to the Internet was equivalent to opening the most critical ticketing sales to his own online ticketing system. For traditional businessmen, they would probably be very resistant at the beginning. If they wanted this system to popularize faster, they had to first launch it in their own cinema chains and show them.
The two cinema chains that Li Mu wanted to acquire this time had a total of 14 cinemas of different sizes in Yan Jing, with a total of 65 screening halls, 65 screens, and 12590 seats, accounting for about one-third of the total number of screens in Yan Jing. If he acquired this cinema chain, then Makino Image would directly lock in one-third of the box office in Yan Jing. Moreover, if Li Mu immediately invested money to expand and upgrade the hardware after acquiring the cinema chain, the proportion would increase again.
If he acquired these two cinema chains, successfully launched the online ticketing system and integrated it into Taobao, then the audience in Yan Jing could be the first to experience the convenience of choosing seats and buying tickets on the Internet through Taobao. At that time, he would use YY to promote it. He believed that the proportion of the box office of Yan Jing cinema chains would definitely tilt. In the case of the same screenings, the attendance rate of the two cinema chains would definitely be far higher than that of other cinema chains.
Similarly, because the online ticketing system would concentrate more moviegoers to his own cinema chain, the business of other cinema chains would definitely be greatly reduced. Moreover, the new payment channel would definitely attract new users. At that time, some users who usually did not go to the cinema to buy tickets and watch movies through the online ticketing system, and the number of users of his cinema chain would increase to another level.
At that time, other cinema chains would see the advantages of the online ticketing system and see that their own attendance rate would be affected. They would also be eager to be able to access the online ticketing system. However, based on the current situation in China, the first thing that could be confirmed was that all the film and television companies and cinema chains would not have the ability to independently develop a mature online ticketing system. This was because they did not understand the Internet, and they did not have any products, technology, or hardware accumulation. Developing a usable online ticketing system by themselves was simply a pipe dream.
Secondly, it could be confirmed that even if there were domestic Internet companies who saw the business opportunities in this and wanted to develop an online ticketing system, they could not be his opponent at all. After all, he was ahead of his opponents in terms of product level by an era. His own product had already matured, and his opponents had only started to catch up from scratch. This itself maintained a huge gap in product technology.
What was more, if the online ticketing system wanted to succeed, it must rely on the ecosystem. For example, his own online ticketing system could rely on the four major sectors of "Makino Technology – Alipay – Taobao Network – Cinema Chain" to form a complete ecosystem. This was something that no domestic Internet company had.
Therefore, Li Mu could finally confirm that once his online ticketing system was launched in his own cinema chain, all the cinema chains would scramble to cooperate with him. This was because they could not unite to resist him. Once a cinema chain in a region cooperated with him first, the other cinema chains in the same region would be left far behind.
Li Mu had two ambitions regarding cinema chains. First, he wanted to acquire and build more cinema chains. Second, he wanted all the cinemas in the country to be connected to his own online ticketing system, so that they would be firmly under his control.
At that time, whichever cinema chain he promoted online, the attendance rate of that cinema chain would increase; whichever cinema chain he shelved online, the attendance rate of that cinema chain would decline. All the cinema chains would be under his control at this stage and would have to follow his orders. For every ticket they sold in his own online ticketing system, he had the right to enjoy a certain period of account, and he would have to take a commission according to a certain percentage. He wanted to be an absolutely powerful online ticketing sales platform.
…
In this year, the concept of a closed loop was not that obvious. The film industry had not really broken the ice, so very few film companies could touch the cinema chain. However, Li Mu was someone who had been influenced by the Internet for many years. Everything he pursued was a closed loop and ecology. If he only focused on film production and left the distribution and cinema chain to others, he could not be at ease. To him, doing film and television without a cinema chain was like doing Taobao without Alipay. It was basically a half-failure. This was because, like Alipay, the cinema chain was the most important part of getting money out of the pockets of consumers. This part could not be completely grasped in the hands of others no matter what.
To put it bluntly, this pep rally organized by Ning Hao was just a gathering to eat, drink, and have fun. In his own words, he was a rough person and a vulgar person. He did not know how to organize too many formalistic things. He told everyone to eat, drink, and have fun. Tomorrow afternoon, everyone would take a plane to Yuzhou together. That would be the official start of filming for "Crazy Stone."
The one million extra budget that Li Mu had given to Ning Hao was very useful. For example, he could organize a high-end, small-scale banquet in a five-star hotel. For example, he could let everyone in the crew take a plane instead of a long, hard sleeper. He did not even book an early morning flight to save money. Instead, he chose the most comfortable time of 3: 30 in the afternoon. Everyone could go home and sleep in. Then, after lunch, they could rush to the airport without any delay. They would not feel rushed at all.
At the pep rally, as the boss of Makino Image, Li Mu went on stage and gave a short speech. He did not prepare a script for his speech. He just held the microphone and said casually to the crowd, "As everyone knows, Makino Technology is not the only company behind Makino Image. We also have the unconditional support of Easy Listening Technology and Taobao. I will gather all the resources that can be gathered to promote the films and television works under Makino Image. I will also build Makino Image into a first-class film company in the country. I believe that when the time comes, everyone will be able to see the great strength that Makino Image possesses."
After a round of warm applause, Li Mu said again, "It is also fate that we can gather in the same crew. 'Crazy Stone' is the first big movie of Makino Image. Makino Image will do its best to support this movie. I also hope that everyone can do their best to make this movie a good one. In the future, Makino Image will invest in more big movies. I hope that after this cooperation, everyone can establish a long-term cooperative relationship with Makino Image. Thank you, everyone. At the same time, I wish that 'Crazy Stone' will start shooting."
It was a simple speech without too much ambition. It was more about Li Mu's plan for the future of Makino Image. However, it still cheered everyone up. Everyone now had the same idea in their minds: no matter what, we must work hard to make this movie, because this was the first big movie of Makino Image. Their performance in this movie would determine whether they would have more opportunities to cooperate with Makino Image in the future. Now the influence of Makino Technology could be said to be unprecedentedly strong, and no one wanted to miss its good influence.
Ning Hao's' Crazy Stone 'would start shooting in July, and Teng Huatao's' The Girl We Chased Together All Those Years Ago 'had already begun preparations and would officially start shooting at the end of the month. This time, Teng Huatao listened to Li Mu's suggestion for the filming location, and all of it was set in Ludao City, Minnan. After inspecting the city, he had the same opinion as Li Mu: this might be the most suitable city for a youth school drama in Hua Xia.
On the last day of the college entrance examination, Ning Hao flew to Yuzhou with his crew. Wang Xinran also finally ended her two-day college entrance examination. On the night that the college entrance examination ended, Wang Xinran's grandparents set up a banquet in a restaurant, and the whole family celebrated Wang Xinran. Although Su Yuehua strongly invited Su Yingxue to go with them, Su Yingxue still refused.
In her words, this was an occasion for the Wang family to celebrate, and it was not appropriate for her to be there. Su Yingxue knew that she might be afraid of embarrassment, and even wanted her to invite Li Mu, but Su Yingxue still refused. Su Yuehua had no choice but to tell her to tell Li Mu that she and her husband would treat Li Mu to dinner alone tomorrow night.
When Li Mu heard that Su Yingxue was alone, he specially drove Su Yingxue to pick her up, and the two of them had a meal together.
By the time they left the restaurant, it was already past eight in the evening. Li Mu suggested going to a movie, and Su Yingxue didn't refuse. So, the two of them randomly picked a non-nutritious movie at the entrance of a movie theater. There weren't many people in the theater, so Li Mu and Su Yingxue sat in the middle of the last row. There were only the two of them in the last three rows. Su Yingxue gently leaned her head on Li Mu's shoulder, and her whole body was abnormally relaxed.
Ever since Cai Yu found out about the accident, Su Yingxue could only truly calm down when she was with Li Mu. At other times, no matter what she did, it was difficult for her to control her brain, and it was difficult for her to get rid of the psychological shadow that the accident had brought to her. For the past few days, she had been tutoring Wang Xinran and worrying about her college entrance examination. She could only bear it. Now that Wang Xinran had finally finished her college entrance examination, Su Yingxue didn't feel relieved. Instead, she was worried about her state after suddenly having nothing to do. Luckily, Li Mu appeared in time.
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