Chapter 1492
Deception
"Small."
“It’s too small.” Zhang Yuan stood up and made the same fingertip universe gesture with his other hand.
At the same time, he turned his back to the other person, while his body faced east.
"Before I arrived here, I thought we were here to discuss a much larger investment plan."
"I didn't expect your fundraising target to be so small."
His words were powerful and resonant, leaving the foreigners speechless.
Am I being stingy?
A deep frown appeared between the blond, blue-eyed Smith's brows.
Because he used standard American jargon when he talked to Zhang Yuan.
I'll give you a big one right off the bat!
In terms of both momentum and will, they have the upper hand over you first.
If you think this number is too big, we can talk about a smaller one.
On a smaller scale, however, the initiative is in my hands, since you can't keep up with my goals.
This is called creating a target out of thin air. With just a few words, you can conjure up a target out of thin air and then use that target as a bargaining chip.
Zero cost, high efficiency.
It is particularly effective when dealing with negotiating partners who lack confidence in their own side, especially when their strength is unequal.
Indians also often use this trick to scam people.
They negotiated the price based on 1 million units, but only paid for 100 units when signing the contract, and didn't even pay a deposit.
This is why Indians do well in North America, especially in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley.
Because they are of Asian descent, they are very good at abstract thinking, which is incompatible with the pragmatic style of East Asian monster rooms.
The more we interact with foreign countries, especially underdeveloped regions, the more we realize the true value of the phrase "seeking truth from facts."
Zhang Yuan was already very familiar with American tactics.
They initially asked for 7000 million, but their actual final target is probably less than 5000 million.
But none of that matters.
The important thing is that I can't follow your line of thinking.
"Smith, do you know?"
There's a saying in China: "The bolder the people, the greater the harvest."
"Humans can defeat gods through willpower."
Zhang Yuan turned to look at this person.
The foreigner thought to himself, "We can do that too; we can even nail it to a shelf."
"So I think Legendary Pictures' goals are too small."
"7000 million is not enough."
"It will cost at least $7 million!"
The tone and manner in which Zhang Yuan spoke these words imitated the mannerisms of Jack Ma when he was bragging.
His eyes held an arrogant air that looked down on all living beings.
Smith thought about it and realized that the entire Legendary Pictures was now worth a total of $10 billion.
This Chinese man immediately mentioned 7 million.
Do you want to invest, or do you want to buy our company?
American scams involve blowing up balloons, but Zhang Yuan is different; he wants to use Chinese-style "scams" on his victims.
To be precise, it's a Chinese-style Northeastern scam, or simply "deception".
These two characters are now known to everyone in China, and it has to be Zhao Benshan.
Actually, the skit "Selling Crutches" was reviewed by CCTV for the Spring Festival Gala back then.
He just starts spouting nonsense the moment he steps on stage; I don't care what you say.
This is what makes Zhao Benshan so remarkable: he knows how to maneuver while staying true to himself and daring to take responsibility.
If it were someone else, like Chen Peisi, the other actors would obediently recite the revised lines.
Only Zhao Benshan dared to do that.
Subsequently, the word "deception" was included in the Huaxia Library and became a "formal employee".
Today, he's going to try and fool the foreigners.
"Smith, what do you feel is the biggest problem since Legendary Pictures was established in recent years?"
"Huh?" The foreigners were stunned, still reeling from the number 7 million.
After realizing what had happened, I thought to myself, "I'm the one who invited you here, why are you asking about me now?"
"There are no problems at all; our company is developing quite rapidly."
"Established in 2000, it received $5 million in funding from private equity funds."
"It's already 2012, and Legendary Pictures is only valued at $10 billion."
"It took a full 12 years for the market value to double. Isn't that a problem?"
"So, let's go back to my question: do you feel that Legendary Pictures has some problems?"
Zhang Yuan: Have you noticed any difference in any part of your body recently compared to before?
Think about it, think about it slowly, think about it carefully.
The man was speechless, only feeling that this Chinese person was too arrogant.
I've never seen such an arrogant Asian.
"Our company's film projects, whether in distribution or production, have been quite successful in the North American market."
"That's it!" Zhang Yuan clapped his hands: "That's the problem!"
Smith: ...
If we succeed, is there still a problem?
"Your success in North America is just a facade."
"Because no matter how successful you are, you can't surpass Warner Bros., which you have a close partnership with, not to mention other big companies like Universal, Paramount, Disney, and Sony."
"The North American market is already saturated; it's an absolute red ocean market."
"And in this world, there is only one absolutely blue ocean market."
That is China!
Smith felt there was nothing wrong with the company, except that it was a bit arrogant.
Zhang Yuan told him that this was not the root cause of the illness, but rather the necrosis of peripheral nerves, which had caused the upper part of the body to swell up.
He certainly didn't want to admit it, so Zhang Yuan planned to make him walk around a bit even though he wasn't sick.
"Transformers 1 grossed $3600 million in mainland China in 2007."
"Two years later, in 2009, when Transformers 2 was released, it grossed $6300 million at the box office in mainland China."
"In just two years, the box office of the same series of films has increased by more than 40%."
Actually, there is also the exchange rate factor involved. Between 07 and 09, with the 08 financial crisis in between, the US dollar exchange rate plummeted.
"Also at the end of 2009, Avatar grossed more than $2.5 million at the Chinese box office."
"As far as I know, the total cost of Avatar was only over 4 million US dollars."
"The production cost was exactly around 2.5 million US dollars."
"According to my calculations, China will become the world's largest single market within the next three years."
"At that time, the revenue from mainland China alone will be enough to cover the costs of a successful Hollywood commercial film."
The period from 2008 to 2018 was a golden decade for China's film and television industry!
His words may have been exaggerated, but that's the general trend.
China is a blue ocean market, and its growth is extremely rapid.
Not only the film and television industry, but almost all industries are developing at a speed that leaves foreigners speechless.
As a result, most foreigners whose impression of China is still based on what it was 30 years ago have no idea what the mainland is like today.
After all, the power grids and highways in many parts of North America were built during the year President Luo took office, so they are truly remarkable.
"If Legendary Pictures wants to grow rapidly and become one of the top film studios in Hollywood."
"The Chinese market is your only hope and a source of rapid growth."
Zhang Yuan raised his hand and pointed due east.
The people on the other side of the sea are not enemies, but partners.
"Legendary Pictures needs a strong local partner if it wants to develop the mainland market."
"Coincidentally, my company has been the highest-grossing company during the best release period in China for the past two years."
“IM The Best You Can Have,” Zhang Yuan said confidently to the other party.
"Therefore, I am not here today seeking an opportunity to cooperate with you."
"I'm giving you an opportunity to cooperate with me!" "With me, let alone 7000 million."
“There will be an investment of 70 million, or even 7 billion in the future.”
“Dude, you’re exaggerating.” Smith shook his head.
Damn it, this Chinese guy can brag even more than I can.
$70 billion back...
Zhang Yuan completely disregarded the other party's attitude and continued speaking.
"You're the head of international operations at Legendary Pictures, right?"
"Yes."
"In other words, all international business will have to go through your arrangements." Zhang Yuan sat down again, looking intently at the other party.
"So for you, the higher the amount of international business, the better, and the bigger the project, the better, right?"
“Investment in a single project versus comprehensive cooperation between two companies.” He blinked. “I think the effect of these on your resume would be quite different.”
Upon hearing this, the older man dropped his slightly disdainful expression.
In the workplace, everyone is just a wage earner.
They only put in their best effort when it comes to their own interests.
The other person thought for a moment and nodded.
"I will consider it and raise it with the president."
“Very good!” Zhang Yuan extended his arm to shake hands with the other party.
“I think Pacific Rim can be the starting point for our full-scale cooperation.”
"If my company reaches a cross-border cooperation agreement with Legendary Pictures, investing in a movie is very simple."
He chatted with the other person for a while longer, mainly bragging about how powerful his company was in China.
After he left, Smith pondered for a long time in his office before getting up and knocking on the door of the president, who was also the founder, Thomas Tull.
“Hey, Tull, I’ve already talked to that Chinese guy about the Pacific Rim project.”
"Guess what?"
"I find the Chinese market to be very promising."
"When Transformers 1 was released in mainland China in 2007..."
He simply copied and pasted Zhang Yuan's words and turned them into his own research findings.
That's just right.
Zhang Yuan's target for deception was not only this matter, but also him as a person.
Whoever handles the project gets a share of the credit.
In business, ideals are unreliable; only profit is reliable.
He had another meal with Cage and then rested for the night.
The following day, they met again, this time with director Guillermo del Toro and president Toul also in attendance.
We had a general discussion about our intention to invest in the film.
His statement was consistent with yesterday: he was open to investing in single projects, but he wasn't particularly interested.
They are more interested in full cooperation and jointly developing the mainland market.
The president didn't say much, but he understood what the president meant.
Money is fine, let's cooperate.
Without cooperation, it will be difficult to get money.
After several days of back-and-forth negotiations, the other party agreed to send a team to the mainland for an investigation.
We'll discuss the details then.
He returned to the country carrying a stack of detailed film materials weighing over ten kilograms and company information for Legendary Pictures.
My luggage was overweight and I ended up spending several hundred more dollars.
After returning to China, I had just put down my luggage when I rushed to the Hilton in Beijing to attend the advance press conference for the movie "囧未来" (Jiong Weilai).
Xu Zheng, Bao Qiang, and Huang Bo were all present.
He came to the set as a guest star of "Lost in Thailand" to liven up the atmosphere.
The questions asked by the reporters were nothing more than the same ones, and the process went very smoothly.
Besides announcing the main creative team, they also publicly revealed an enormous map.
It was covered with thumbtacks, serving as a candidate location for filming.
"This new film will continue the style of 'Lost in Thailand'."
"But the filming locations will move to the international market and overseas."
"This is a comprehensive upgrade."
"We will launch an online poll to find out which country viewers want to see us get into trouble in."
Xu Zheng cautiously stated the main point of the press conference.
After the meeting, this person deliberately sat next to him during dinner.
“Didn’t you say that I should write it like Siam?”
"Then the vote..."
"Who doesn't cheat in voting?" Zhang Yuan didn't take it seriously at all: "Even the Double Color Ball lottery...right?"
"But lately, there's been too much negative information about traveling to Siam online," Xu Zheng said with great concern.
"Especially some strange and unusual stories."
"It's creepy to even hear about it."
"Even my wife said she didn't dare to go."
"That's great." Zhang Yuan was quite satisfied.
"Only then can we have negotiating terms."
"But what if it scares the audience away?" That's what he was really worried about.
"Don't panic." Zhang Yuan remained completely unperturbed.
Although it's a bit frustrating to see them fail, to be honest, most Chinese people have worse memories than goldfish.
Especially netizens.
Putting aside everything else, from reading books and watching TV since childhood, it's clear that the island nation's numerous past crimes have affected Chinese tourists' travel plans.
And it gets more every year.
Even nuclear leaks and wastewater discharges cannot stop them.
They even stole rice cookers and toilet seats.
This is a characteristic of our times; this is just how this generation is.
It's like Zhang Yimou is thinking about winning a major foreign award.
People of this generation think that foreign countries are better, and that going abroad to play is more exciting; you can't persuade them otherwise.
For many, even traveling abroad is something to brag about.
He simply had someone amplify these accident warnings and urban legends about Siam; he didn't create them himself.
It's been around for a while!
What Zhang Yuan did was simply to flood the internal network with these messages in a short period of time, creating a certain group effect.
With those goldfish-like brains that think foreign things are better all the time, they'll forget everything in seven seconds.
The day before, I was sharing photos online of people going to Siam to get kidneys, and the next day I was strolling through a night market in Bangkok.
Ultimately, as long as it doesn't directly affect them, they feel that these things are far removed from their lives.
Moreover, the internet at that time was completely different from the later short video era, and the lower-tier market had not yet been developed.
"Just focus on the filming."
"I'll take care of the rest."
"I'll take full responsibility for all the risks," he said, patting his chest confidently.
The bald man looked conflicted, but he couldn't refute it.
“I just remembered something else,” Zhang Yuan said, taking out his phone.
I called Lao Han.
"Re-release?"
Old Han was baffled by what he said.
"Yes, I want to re-release my previous film, 'Ip Man 1'." (End of Chapter)