Top of the big era

At dinner, Sun Wanran, on behalf of Zhou Buqi, invited two Korean girls, Xu Zhuxian and Zheng Xiujing, to visit her home and have dinner together.

As the male host, Zhou Buqi was not one to be neglected. He took the two of them to the bedroom for a sweaty chase in Wushan, which fully demonstrated Boss Zhou's hospitality as a warm friend.

This is not enough.

The next day, Zhou Buqi was going to participate in a Universal Pictures event, so he simply took them with him.

The entertainment industry is now a national policy of South Korea. During several exchanges, South Korean officials have requested Zhou Buqi, saying that they hope to establish in-depth cooperation with Ziweixing Global.

To this end, hundreds of millions of dollars in cooperation funds have been provided.

Why don't you use free money?

Zhou Buqi made a high-profile statement that he was willing to contribute to the development of South Korea's film and television entertainment industry, and promoted the cooperation between Universal Pictures and CJ Entertainment, South Korea's largest film and television company.

S/M Entertainment, supported by Jieyu Media, is just an idol company. No matter how popular a boy group or a girl group is, it is still at the bottom of the entertainment industry.

Movies are the leader of the entertainment industry.

CJ Entertainment is the largest film company in South Korea. It belongs to the CJ Foundation. Its industry status is much higher than that of S/M Entertainment.

This cooperation between Universal Pictures and CJ Entertainment has attracted the attention of all parties.

In addition to Boss Zhou who happened to be in South Korea to participate in Ziweixing Global, there were also two big figures here, namely Michael Moore, Senior Vice President of Ziweixing Global Group and President of Universal Pictures, and Chief Creative Officer and DreamWorks Animation president Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Seven or eight of the entire management team came.

It fully demonstrates everyone's respect for the hundreds of millions of dollars from the Korean Film Bureau.

Of course, it is also related to the overall thriving environment of Korean movies.

Zhou Buqi appointed two great Korean directors, namely Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho, and Summit Entertainment, a subsidiary of MGM, came forward to collaborate with CJ Entertainment on a film project - "Snowpiercer".

The producer is Park Chan-wook and the director is Bong Joon-ho.

Ziweixing Global is not here to do charity, nor is it here to cheat money. Since we want to cooperate in making movies... it is of course the best if we can make the movie a success and sell it globally.

Zhou Buqi is a movie fan himself.

Time is limited in this world, and I am usually too busy to watch movies. But in his previous life, he had watched many movies. Basically, he had watched all the movies with a Douban score of 7.5 or above.

Among Korean directors, Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho's films are certainly the most exciting. In fact, there is another director named Kim Ki-duk, who is good at making ethical dramas, which are often of an astonishingly large scale and full of artistry and philosophy. It's just that this person's style is not very good and he has ruined many little girls.

Zhou Buqi disdains the company of such people.

I took two Korean girls, Xu Zhuxian and Zheng Xiujing, to meet my own people first.

Zhou Buqi was a little surprised. He didn't expect so many senior executives to come, including Katzenberg.

Katzenberg said with a smile: "I have been dealing with CJ Entertainment for more than ten years and are relatively familiar with it."

"oh?"

"When I was at DreamWorks, because I was short of money, I introduced some investors, and CJ Entertainment was the most important one. For this reason, the distribution rights of the movies produced by DreamWorks in South Korea, mainland China and Hong Kong Island are all in In the hands of CJ Entertainment.”

"ah?"

Zhou Buqi really didn't know about this.

This is more important.

Interest matters are easy to deal with and interests can be shared, but power must be shared with caution. Forget about the distribution rights in South Korea, the distribution rights in mainland China and Hong Kong Island are both in his hands, which is a bit unreasonable.

Zhou Buqi then asked: "What now? Are the DreamWorks movies we bought the same?"

When forming Ziweixing Global Group, Zhou Buqi acquired DreamWorks Animation. At one time, he also wanted to acquire DreamWorks, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, because DreamWorks had a super big IP "Transformers".

However, they have been talking to Paramount for a long time but failed to reach an agreement. They are unwilling to give up the "Transformers" series.

If we can't get this series, then there is no point in acquiring the empty shell of DreamWorks.

It is indeed an empty shell.

Because DreamWorks was too poor and short of money, parent company Paramount sold all of DreamWorks' past movies and TV series to a Wall Street hedge fund.

Zhou Buqi bought all these DreamWorks movies from hedge funds for about US$1 billion, including "Saving Private Ryan", "Gladiator", "How to Get Away with Murder", "Flags of Our Fathers" and many others. Classic movies, and legendary American TV series like Band of Brothers.

There are more than 20 films and 5 TV series in total.

These old films can earn US$45 million per year through DVD sales, TV broadcast rights, subscription-on-demand and other channels.

However, Zhou Buqi’s original acquisition of these film copyrights at high prices was not for the sake of profits from these traditional channels.

But for streaming!

In the past few years, under the operation of Ziweixing Universal, these movies have completely ended the income from traditional DVD sales, TV broadcasts and other channels.

Movie fans who want to watch these movies have only one channel - Netflix.

This creates huge exclusive broadcast value.

These more than 20 movies and 5 TV series can bring US$120 million in exclusive streaming revenue to Ziweixing Global every year!

Income is almost three times what it was before!

This is the huge change that Boss Zhou’s strategic plan has brought to Ziweixing Global. The move towards technology has been most intuitively reflected in profits.

Katzenberg sighed, "It's still in their hands."

Zhou Buqi frowned, "This is not possible!"

Katzenberg continued: "Not only the old DreamWorks films we acquired, but also the new films of our DreamWorks Animation."

"What?"

Zhou Buqi was a little angry.

Katzenberg said: "When CJ Entertainment invested in DreamWorks, the condition was to obtain the distribution rights of all films in South Korea, mainland China and Hong Kong Island. DreamWorks Animation was spun off from DreamWorks and inherited all DreamWorks terms.”

Zhou Buqi was very dissatisfied, "This won't work! Taking advantage of this cooperation, we have to take back the distribution rights!"

Katzenberg nodded. He was appointed by CEO Jason Kilar to come to South Korea this time, mainly because he wanted to use his friendly relationship with CJ Entertainment Co., Ltd. to handle this matter.

This is a bit outrageous.

Boss Zhou is Chinese, but the distribution rights of many of his company's products in China are actually in the hands of Koreans... This is simply humiliating.

Katzenberg said that he can take back the distribution rights in mainland China and Hong Kong Island, and the next step is the cooperation between Universal Pictures and CJ Entertainment to jointly develop 5-8 co-production movies in the next 10 years to promote South Korea The movie goes overseas.

Zhou Buqi said: "Not enough, there are also related rights and interests of streaming media!"

Such as "Saving Private Ryan."

The copyright is in the hands of Ziweixing International and can be licensed to Netflix. But this is not possible in South Korea. The distribution rights in South Korea are in the hands of CJ Entertainment. They may not necessarily authorize it to Netflix, but to some other local streaming media platform.

This is not possible!

Streaming media is a key business direction of Ziweixing Global in the future. It will not only support Netflix, but also launch its own streaming media platform.

Monopoly-level exclusive broadcast rights are the biggest magic weapon to promote business growth. How can it fall into the hands of others?

Katzenberg laughed and said, "Yes, before coming here, Jason talked to me and focused on this matter. He wanted to take back all the distribution rights of the streaming media copyright."

Zhou Buqi asked: "Is it difficult?"

Katzenberg said plainly but loudly: "There is no difficulty. In front of Ziweixing Global, they have no ability to negotiate."

"That's good..." Zhou Buqi nodded, "Has the filming of "Snowpiercer", a collaboration between the two parties, finished?"

Katzenberg said: "It seems that the filming is finished, and in the post-production period...there are some funding problems, so we can only find some second- and third-rate special effects companies. They can't afford the services of Industrial Light and Magic."

Then he made an assertion, "CJ Entertainment seems to be very confident in this project, but if the special effects are not good, it will be difficult to become a phenomenal commercial blockbuster."

Zhou Buqi's reaction was relatively dull, so he introduced the two Korean girls next to him, saying that in the future co-production between Universal Pictures and CJ Entertainment, there would be some small roles, so he might as well provide them with them.

Make them happy.

As idols, what they hope most is to be recognized by the mainstream of the entertainment industry.

Making a movie is my biggest dream.