Chapter 361 The Reason Why the Xiang Family Goes Crazy

Looking at the caller ID on the phone, Xiang Huaqiang and Liu Zhou were confused, but still answered the call.

"Mr. Xiang, how come you have the time to call me?" Liu Zhou said with a smile.

"I heard that Mr. Liu is preparing to shoot another science fiction movie. I wonder if Mr. Liu can take us to play with it? Investment is not a problem."

"Boss Xiang, it's too late for you to say that. The investment has already been finalized, and the film has already started its early preparations."

Liu Zhou understood that the other party definitely did not call because he wanted to invest in "Interstellar". After all, he had already reached a cooperation with China Film Group, which was no secret to the boss of the film company.

Sure enough, after being rejected, Xiang Huaqiang didn't care at all and changed the subject:

"That's a pity. Mr. Liu, what do you think of my previous cooperation proposal?"

"Boss Xiang, I've been busy with the company's IPO recently, and Zhang Zhao is even busier. We haven't had time to discuss the cooperation with Yongsheng."

The cooperation that Xiang Huaqiang mentioned was a plan he proposed at the beginning of the year.

He plans to join forces with four mainland film and television companies and invest at least 5 million yuan to shoot 5 films within five years.

He named this plan "5510 Big Movie Project".

Golden Harvest Group is a mainland film and television giant, and is recognized as the number one giant. The first mainland film and television company that Xiang Huaqiang found was Golden Harvest.

Besides, Xiang Huaqiang had dealt with Liu Zhou several times and helped him a lot. For example, Xiang Huaqiang also contributed a lot to the smooth reform of the Academy Awards.

So the relationship between the two is actually pretty good.

But for Liu Zhou, it was precisely because he had a good relationship with Xiang Huaqiang that he felt conflicted.

If it's normal cooperation, of course there is no problem.

After all, his "5510 Big Movie Plan" was led by Yongsheng, and Golden Harvest was just involved, so Liu Zhou was willing to give him this face.

But the problem is, some people just can't change their bad habits. Instead of thinking about making a good movie, they always want to do some unnecessary things.

Making a movie is fake, having other purposes is real.

In that very outrageous movie in later generations, the Xiang family used their powerful network of contacts to gather a group of stars including Jet Li, Tony Leung, Louis Koo, Fan Xiaopang, Yang Baobei, Huang Xiaoming, and Wen Zhang to play supporting roles for his son in "Legend of the Gods". Even the onlookers found it a little abnormal.

The investment was said to be 500 million yuan, even if there was some water in it, it should be 300 to 400 million yuan. But in the end, the film turned out to be as bad as shit, and the box office barely exceeded 100 million yuan. It was a complete loss.

But Yongsheng Group seems to be calm, and even its stock price has not fluctuated much.

They tell others that they are promoting their son, but who among people in the industry doesn’t know what they are doing?
Such unscrupulous behavior also makes people in the circle fear them.

So after this movie, no film and television company cooperated with Yongsheng again, and Yongsheng almost stopped production.

After that, the family members showed off their wealth, participated in variety shows, and sold goods through live broadcasts, making the whole family look like internet celebrities.

Therefore, Liu Zhou was really too lazy to get involved in this mess.

Golden Harvest has grown to such a large scale now. All it needs to do is run it well. Even if the stock price rises by one or two percentage points, it will make more money than cooperating with Yongsheng, and there is no risk at all.

So Liu Zhou kept asking Zhang Zhao to drag him along in the name of Jiahe's preparation for listing. By then, he would naturally understand Jiahe's attitude.

In fact, Xiang Huaqiang had already noticed the attitude of Liu Zhou and Golden Harvest, so he had long given up hope of cooperating with Golden Harvest and had been looking for cooperation with other film and television companies in the mainland.

He called today. The cooperation was just an excuse. His real purpose was to confirm Liu Zhou's attitude towards Zhou Xingxing.

Because in the anti-Stephen Chow movement he started, among the few people who supported Stephen Chow, besides Ning Hao, Xu Ke also expressed his support for Stephen Chow.

These two well-known directors in the industry are both under Golden Harvest.

Xiang Huaqiang inevitably has the idea that Golden Harvest or Liu Zhou also supports Stephen Chow.

So this time he personally called Liu Zhou to confirm his attitude so that he could decide what to do next.

"Mr. Liu, have you cooperated with Zhou Xingxing recently? Or do you have a good relationship with him?"

"Why do you ask?"

Then Liu Zhou immediately understood why Xiang Huaqiang thought so.

Liu Zhou will definitely not care about what Ning Hao and Xu Ke say, as it is their freedom.

What surprised him was that, unlike in his previous life, Xu Ke actually openly expressed his support for Stephen Chow.

It seems that the two have a good relationship in private, no wonder they often work together later.

But no matter what Xu Ke thinks, it has nothing to do with Liu Zhou. As long as it does not harm the interests of Golden Harvest, he will not care and will not get involved in the dispute between the Xiang family and Stephen Chow.

So Liu Zhou then directly stated:
"I have no connection with him, and we haven't cooperated recently. What happened between you has nothing to do with me. I am just a spectator like many netizens."

Hearing Liu Zhou say this, Xiang Huaqiang felt relieved.

If Liu Zhou wanted to protect Zhou Xingxing, it would be difficult for him.

He is very clear about Liu Zhou's power. No one in the circle can touch the people Liu Zhou wants to protect, and all their plans against Zhou Xingxing will fail.

Xiang Huaqiang certainly doesn't want to see this situation.

"Okay, I thought Ning Hao and Xu Ke represented Jiahe's position." Xiang Huaqiang said with a smile.

"No, they only represent themselves. If I really wanted to stand on Zhou Xingxing's side, I would call you directly and ask you to sit down and have a good talk."

"Haha, that's right, Mr. Liu, why would you need to go through so much trouble to protect someone?"

"Boss Xiang, I'm actually a little curious too. What's the grudge between you and Zhou Xingxing that has led you to target him so much and your wife even intervened personally."

It is well known in the circle that Zhou Xingxing has conflicts with the Xiang family.

When Stephen Chow left Yongsheng to set up his own company, Xiang Huaqiang threatened to ban him and publicly stated that anyone who dared to invest in Stephen Chow's movies would be against him.

So when Stephen Chow was looking for investment for "Shaolin Soccer", he searched all over Hong Kong but found no one to invest.

In the end, it was Lin Xiaomin of Media Asia who invested in "Shaolin Soccer". When he gave his acceptance speech at the Academy Awards, he mocked Xiang Huaqiang and spoke up for Stephen Chow.

Lin Xiaomin's Media Asia, like the AIU Group, started out by distributing discs, so its background is equally strong and he is not very afraid of the Xiang family.

But in the end, he and Zhou Xingxing became enemies because of money issues.

Although the departure of Stephen Chow has caused Yongsheng to lose a lot of money, it is not necessary for them to hold on to it for ten years.

And looking at Mrs. Xiang's appearance, it seems that she has a life-and-death feud with Mr. Xing, and she looks like she wants to kill him. "There is no other reason, it's all because of money. It's just that my wife is more vindictive. If she wants to make a fuss, let her make a fuss."

It turned out to be because of money.

In fact, the conflicts between many people and Stephen Chow, apart from conflicts in creative concepts, is mainly due to money. Lin Xiaomin is a typical example.

Perhaps because he grew up in a poor family and was afraid of poverty, he was a little calculative about money, and could even be said to be stingy.

But Liu Zhou instinctively felt that things were not as simple as Xiang Huaqiang said.

Not only did Xiang Tai look like she was determined to fight to the death, but Xiang Huaqiang also called him personally to confirm his attitude towards Zhou Xingxing at the slightest sign of trouble.

The conflict between him and the Xiang family might not be as simple as an economic dispute; there must be other reasons involved.

So after hanging up the phone with Xiang Huaqiang, Liu Zhou couldn't help but call Boss Yang out of curiosity.

Boss Yang is another big shot in the Hong Kong film industry after Zou Wenhuai, and his influence is even more powerful than that of the Xiang family. He probably knows the reason behind this.

After hearing Liu Zhou's question, Boss Yang said with a smile:

"Haha, I didn't expect you, Mr. Liu, to be so gossipy."

"I'm just a little curious. Judging from your tone, Mr. Yang, you should know the specific reason?"

"It's actually a matter of money, but this money is not tens of millions, but billions!"

"What the hell? Billions?" Liu Zhou asked in surprise. "At that time, the total box office of Hong Kong movies was only a few hundred million a year. How could it involve billions of funds?"

Boss Yang, who saw Liu Zhou so shocked for the first time, explained slowly:

"In the 1990s, when Hong Kong films were at their peak, Golden Harvest and Yongsheng were the two major Hong Kong film companies, and Stephen Chow's early films were almost all produced by Yongsheng.

The confrontation between Aaron's kung fu comedy and Stephen Chow's nonsensical comedy was also a major attraction in the Hong Kong film industry at that time.

So until 96 when Stephen Chow founded Star Shine, Xiang Huaqiang was the boss with whom he worked most closely, and the two seemed to have a very good relationship.

Yongsheng Entertainment went public in 1992. After producing a series of hit movies, its stock price skyrocketed and its market value reached tens of billions of yuan, which was a very prosperous time.

Among them, Zhou Xingxing undoubtedly played a crucial role.

However, with Stephen Chow setting up his own studio and the collapse of the Hong Kong film industry, Yongsheng's share price has plummeted. Now, each share is worth just over one dollar, not much different from Golden Harvest's original value.

From the initial market value of several billion to now only worth over 100 million, and even about to be delisted, the economic loss is several billion, isn’t it? "

Liu Zhou now realized that Xiang Huaqiang was blaming Zhou Xingxing for all of Yongsheng's collapse. He thought that if he hadn't set up his own business, Yongsheng's stock price wouldn't have continued to fall.

But Liu Zhou felt that this was too far-fetched. Perhaps if Zhou Xingxing was still in Yongsheng, the situation would be better, but the stock price would still have to collapse.

The entire Hong Kong film industry has collapsed. How can it rest easy just because of the existence of one person?

In response to Liu Zhou's doubts, Boss Yang continued:

“The company collapsed in just one or two months, billions of dollars of wealth evaporated, and no one could remain calm.

When people are extremely angry, they will take their anger out on others, not to mention that Zhou Xingxing just happened to be determined to leave Yongsheng at this time.

Wouldn't that naturally make him the target of the Xiang family's anger, and they would also blame him for all the reasons for Yongsheng's collapse."

"That seems to be true. Even if the Xiang family calmed down and realized they couldn't blame Zhou Xingxing, they believed it after saying it to others for so long."

"That's right. In fact, there may be another reason. Although the Xiang family's assets are not low, the only thing that can be brought to the surface is Yongsheng.

Therefore, the collapse of Yongsheng Entertainment also means that the Xiang family’s assets have shrunk sharply, which has completely disrupted their plans.

After 97, financial regulation became stricter. So this is also one of the reasons why they are very angry. "

"Why didn't we see the Xiang family suppress Zhou Xingxing so fiercely in the past few years as they do now? It seems like they want to put him to death." Liu Zhou asked.

"The reason why Xiang Tai is making such a fuss this time is because Zhou Xingxing has been secretly acquiring shares of the listed company Emperor International and is preparing to go public through a backdoor listing.

Just think about it, they originally blamed Zhou Xingxing for Yongsheng’s collapse and wished he would die.

But now his enemy is about to list the company. Given the current market conditions and with Zhou Xingxing in charge, the stock price will definitely not be low.

On the other hand, Yongsheng has not seen any improvement since the beginning of the new century, and its stock price is still languishing. How can they swallow this? "

Liu Zhou was immediately attracted by a piece of information in Boss Yang's words, and couldn't help but confirm:
"Xinghui is preparing to go public?"

"That's right, although Zhou Xingxing did it very secretly, if you pay attention, you can still detect it.

But backdoor listing is not that simple. If you really want to package it well, it will take at least until next year, or even the year after, so that it won’t steal the limelight from Golden Harvest’s listing. Moreover, Xinghui’s size is definitely far less than Golden Harvest’s.”

Liu Zhou didn't feel embarrassed when his thoughts were exposed by Boss Yang. He smiled and said:

"I was just a little surprised. I didn't expect Zhou Xingxing to be so good at capital operations."

"You are underestimating him. He is not only a filmmaker, but also a shrewd businessman.

It’s just that his identity as a filmmaker is so dazzling that it overshadows his identity as a businessman, so everyone ignores his business operations.

According to conservative estimates, Zhou Xingxing's assets are no less than 2 billion yuan, no less than the Xiang family.

I admire him a lot. From a poor boy, he became a billionaire with his talent. No one in the circle can compare to him except Cheng Long. "

"Then he is really amazing."

His more powerful self is yet to come. He took his company public and bet against capital, directly increasing his wealth to tens of billions.

"Why, are you going to help him out this time and save him?"

“I never thought about it. In fact, even if no one helps, the Xiang family can’t do anything to Zhou Xingxing this time.

His fan base and popularity are just too huge.

So they are destined to work in vain, and this may even make Stephen Chow's fans more cohesive."

This is not Liu Zhou's nonsense. The subsequent "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" sold 1.3 billion yuan, and "The Mermaid" sold 3.3 billion yuan, which is also related to this dispute.

Otherwise, the marketing slogan “I owe Stephen Chow a movie ticket” would not have caused such a big sensation.

(End of this chapter)