Recently, the news that Feng Xiaogang was "sold at a low price" by Huayi Brothers has dominated the search screens, and various discussions have emerged one after another.
Feng Xiaogang, a well-known director, can be said to be a box office guarantee.
Huayi and Huayi Brothers are known to everyone in the entertainment industry. The two giants
are together. It is a win-win situation no matter how you look at it. Now, as soon as the word "sale" comes out, are they breaking up?
In 2015, Feng Xiaogang established Zhejiang Dongyang Meila Media Co., Ltd. At this time, Huayi Brothers was still quite wealthy. They paid 1.05 billion to occupy 70% of the shares of Dongyang Meila Company.
all say that half of Huayi's world was conquered by Feng Xiaogang, and even the Huayi Brothers' platform said that Feng Xiaogang is their closest brother.
In fact, with the subsequent development of the company, the words of close brothers are true.
A few months after the establishment of Dongyang Meila, the total assets did not increase significantly, only 136 million yuan, which was seriously inconsistent with expectations. The company became worthless, and the only valuable thing was Feng Xiaogang's IP.
To this end, Huayi Brothers and Feng Xiaogang signed a five-year "gambling agreement". After five years, the net profit will be no less than 674 million. If there is any unfinished part, Feng Xiaogang will make up for it.
Anyone with a discerning eye can see this kind of gambling. In the end, it was Feng Xiaogang who benefited. Even if Dongyang Meila Company did not make money for 5 years, Feng Xiaogang made up 674 million.
But compared to the 1.05 billion paid by Huayi Brothers, Feng Xiaogang could still get a price difference of nearly 300 million. The brotherhood was vividly reflected at this moment.
However, with the changes in the market, Feng Xiaogang’s IP efficiency seems to have become less effective.
Except for "Youth" released in 2017, which grossed 1 billion at the box office, all the films directed by Feng Xiaogang have more or less failed.
Especially the 2018 "Mobile Phone 2" caused a chain reaction that even caused Huayi Brothers to fall from the "altar".
Since then, Feng Xiaogang's blockbuster films have continued to increase. First, "Only the Cloud Knows" did not meet expectations at the box office, and then "If You Are the One 3" lagged behind. The results of each film were disastrous.
After the successive Waterloos, Huayi Brothers also fell into a financial crisis and once reached the point of selling assets to pay off debts.
When talking about Huayi’s debt, we have to talk about Huayi’s expansion. In 2015, which was still Huayi’s peak period, it raised 3.5 billion to start its own expansion business.
That year, Huayi Chu not only bought 70% of the shares of Dongyang Meila Company, but also bought a company called Dongyang Haohan, whose shareholders include Li Chen, Feng Shaofeng and others.
bought these two companies at the time and disturbed the supervision. After all, spending 1.8 billion on two new companies at once was too risky.
However, the reply given by Huayi was that they were interested in talents, and talents were immeasurable, not to mention the "gambling agreement" signed with Feng Xiaogang.
The reason is very good, and it is difficult for the supervision to hold on to it and let Huayi pass smoothly.
However, Feng Xiaogang did not complete the five-year gambling agreement. He generously made up the difference of 290 million.
In this calculation, Feng Xiaogang earned 700 million in this gambling agreement. Seeing this, I have to say, Huayi Brothers are righteous!
Another company, Dongyang Haohan, is in a similar situation. It set a task of hundreds of millions, but only completed tens of millions, resulting in a huge deficit.
And these are all borne by Huayi Brothers.
Perhaps everything goes well but must decline. In 2018, the chain reaction caused by "Mobile Phone 2", Huayi's yin and yang contract, etc. became hot searches. It is no longer a secret that Huayi Brothers is insolvent.
In order to save the company, Wang Zhongjun of Huayi Brothers began to sell hundreds of millions of authentic calligraphy and paintings. In his own words: "After an auction, half of them were his collection."
Not only is the collection of hundreds of millions of dollars Calligraphy, painting, and even luxury houses in Hong Kong were sold as soon as possible, and they received a return of 220 million Hong Kong dollars.
Hundreds of millions of yuan sounds like a lot, but compared to the six consecutive years of losses of nearly 8 billion, it is still a drop in the bucket.
I still remember that in 2020, Wang Zhonglei wrote in a letter to his employees: "The investment is too large, the front is too long, the burden is too heavy, etc., all because of the side effects of rapid expansion."
And this side effect has already It was fully reflected in 2019.
In the past few years, Huayi Brothers has been looking for money to support itself, while also hoping to find new movies to become hits. In the most difficult times, Huayi Brothers never thought of "selling" Feng Xiaogang.
However, they were stretched thin and could only use funds to pay off debts. Huayi Brothers had to bear the pain and transferred its equity to Alibaba Pictures for 350 million.
Since then, Feng Xiaogang's IP has no relationship with Huayi. With all the shares frozen, Alibaba Pictures is willing to take over and allow Huayi Brothers to temporarily "bail out" Huayi Brothers. Huayi Brothers also wants to say "thank you".
Will Huayi Brothers and Feng Xiaogang fall out because of such a thing? Of course not. After all, they are close brothers who have worked hard together. The brotherhood cannot be perfected. It can only be said that the market is developing and changing rapidly, and it is just fate!
In 1998, at the premiere of "See You or Be Parted", Feng Xiaogang and Huayi Brothers met after being introduced by a friend.
At that time, the Huayi Brothers were very unfamiliar with movies, but their respect for Feng Xiaogang remained undiminished and they showed great enthusiasm.
Enthusiasm is also Feng Xiaogang’s first impression of Huayi Brothers.
As for the actual contact between the two parties, it really started with a very casual remark. At that time, the investors of "Endless" had not yet received the money, and Feng Xiaogang did not dare to disband the filming team. Once
is dissolved, it will have to pay the other party, and Feng Xiaogang still has no money in his hands.
By chance, Feng Xiaogang and Wang Zhongjun met at the airport and chatted about film shooting. Feng Xiaogang said that there was a shortage of funds.
After hearing this, Wang Zhongjun said: "I will advance this money for you first." After saying this, he joked that he simply took Feng Xiaogang's investment and counted it as his.
After hearing these words, Feng Xiaogang naturally didn't care. But who would have thought that Wang Zhongjun actually sent the money over later without mentioning investment.
Feng Xiao just found out that Wang Zhongjun was serious. How the two of them discussed it is unknown, but "Endless" did have Huayi's investment.
After that, Feng Xiaogang had more and more contact with Huayi Brothers and felt that they were very loyal and worth making friends with. Therefore, the two parties began to cooperate.
With the backing of Huayi Brothers, director Feng Xiaogang no longer has to worry about the sudden interruption of the capital chain and can focus more on creation.
Many excellent works such as "Big Shot", "Mobile Phone", "Assembly Number" and "Tangshan Earthquake" all became box office champions that year. Huayi Brothers and Feng Xiaogang made a lot of money and gained both fame and fortune.
Huayi Brothers also used this shareholder style to successfully go public in 2009.
Therefore, it is no exaggeration at all to say that half of Huayi’s empire was built by Feng Xiaogang.
However, today, with the rapid changes in the market, the strong alliance has finally encountered a bottleneck period, and Huayi Brothers has to cut off its tail to survive.
Huayi Brothers and Feng Xiaogang were caught off guard by such a result, but they still hope that they can withstand the test and go further together in the future!
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picture | source network intrusion and deletion
source: network information
