Chapter 54#

The “Devoted” Movie King (8)#

Once he decided to let Kong Si enter the entertainment industry, Lu Yi accelerated the pace of building his entertainment media company.

Star Media & Entertainment Co., Ltd. was also established in memory of the original owner, Lu Xingchen. After all, the original owner’s true dream was to become a movie king, standing on a star-studded stage, remembered by everyone.

Lu Yi was really not good at acting and had no talent for it. After some thought, he decided this was the only way to commemorate the other person.

When registering the company, he only had thirty million in hand. Since a joint-stock company in China requires at least seven shareholders, he had Kong Si take one shareholder spot, while the others were big-name capital players he had gotten to know as a trader.

In the financial market circle, there are many wealthy people. They don’t just focus on stocks; they also make a variety of investments.

With his connections and abilities, Lu Yi secured about thirty million in investment for the company. He himself had thirty million in funds, and the registered capital of Star Media was one hundred million. He and Kong Si held seventy percent, giving them absolute controlling rights.

That meant that if the company went bankrupt and liquidated, he would still have to come up with the remaining forty million.

There was naturally risk involved, but Lu Yi didn’t go into detail with Kong Si. It wasn’t that he was deliberately hiding things, but mainly he didn’t want to put too much pressure on Kong Si, lest it crush him.

After all, for most people, unless they win the lottery and suddenly get rich, one hundred million is money they couldn’t earn in ten lifetimes.

Since he had decided to start a media company, Lu Yi wanted to work diligently and do things well.

After waking up in the original owner’s body, he had changed the original trajectory of Lu Xingchen’s fate. Perhaps there was a trade-off: he was very lucky, initially altering Lu Xingchen’s experience of online harassment and even having him choose to leave the entertainment industry.

But precisely because of this, he had no way to get close to He Xiao. The world’s development after Lu Xingchen’s death became completely blurry. What he remembered clearly was only the memories before Lu Xingchen’s death and the profound pain the other person felt at that moment.

After he decided to start an entertainment company, the desperate, gloomy scenes from before Lu Xingchen’s death repeatedly appeared in his dreams. As an observer, he couldn’t fully empathize, but that mood still affected him to some extent.

Because of the online harassment, after being abandoned by his own company, Lu Xingchen completely cut off his life from the internet. Like an ostrich in danger, he buried his head in the sand regardless of everything.

Lu Xingchen didn’t even dare to go online anymore, so he had no way of knowing which TV series would become popular in the future.

It would be good to be able to foresee which works would be huge hits and invest in them, but even without that, Lu Yi wasn’t panicking. He conducted detailed market research and, after comparing the development trends of the entertainment industry in this world and his own, decided to invest in IP dramas.

In the world he came from, IP dramas had already developed to the mid-to-late stage, with golden IPs basically being snatched up and divided by major media companies.

The IP market had cooled down, with a large number of IPs being bought and hoarded, and very few were actually made into TV series.

But in this world, when people heard “IP,” they would only think of Internet Protocol—that is, the IP address closely related to hackers and networks.

As for intellectual property, although there were many novel adaptations in the market, they were all adaptations of classic literature or works by famous martial arts authors.

As for the emerging web novel IPs, the media market in this world had not yet fully realized their value.

But now, Lu Yi wanted to be the first to eat this crab in the market.

The first drama he prepared for Kong Si was a xianxia (fantasy immortal) series selected by the newly established marketing department from a vast sea of books.

Based on its reach and popularity, in Lu Yi’s country where IP deals often started at millions, it would have taken at least ten million to acquire.

But in the current early stage, his employees secured the script for only one hundred thousand. Even at that price, the author felt it was a great bargain.

Because online piracy of web novels was rampant, although the work was highly popular, the author hadn’t earned much from subscriptions. Plus, the novel was too long and hadn’t been successfully published.

Moreover, if his writing could be made into a TV series, even if it didn’t cause much of a stir, it would increase his value.

Ordinary web novel authors are not like big-screenwriters or famous authors. They don’t care whether the media company is new or has no notable works. As long as it’s not a scam and they don’t have to pay out of pocket, the money feels like it fell from the sky—free money not taken is wasted.

Lu Yi had set aside a budget of about three million for the marketing department. He originally thought it would be good if they could stock up on five or six titles, but his capable employees secured about thirty deals, many of which included full copyrights.

If Lu Yi ever wanted to develop mobile games in the future, he would save a huge amount of money.

To recoup the invested funds as quickly as possible, Kong Si’s first drama was filmed and broadcast simultaneously. From preparation to the start of filming was about a month; the shooting cycle was three months, followed by extensive post-production.

Because it was a new company with a new script, although the director was a professional they poached, the actors were mostly newcomers, or actors who had acting skills but weren’t famous in the industry.

As a new entrant into the entertainment market, despite Star Media’s registered capital looking substantial, registered capital can often be bloated, and Lu Yi’s connections in the entertainment circle weren’t extensive.

The first drama produced by Star Media was initially only aired on a local TV station with low viewership, and in a late-night time slot at that.

Even that was only after spending money and using connections, just to get the station to reluctantly agree to air it.

Unexpectedly, the drama caused a sudden surge in the station’s nighttime traffic. Within less than ten days of airing, the station announced that the drama would be moved from the late-night slot to prime time.

As the viewership of this sudden hit xianxia drama climbed, other TV stations also came to Star Media to negotiate broadcasting rights.

Kong Si was the first artist signed by Lu Yi’s Star Entertainment, and he received the best treatment. His stage name, as mentioned earlier, was changed to Yu Si ( Yu Si ), reminiscent of “yu xiang rou si” (shredded pork with garlic sauce) or “you yu si” (squid strips)—simple and easy to remember.

As the male lead of the year’s hottest drama, actor Yu Si began appearing frequently on major screens and website headlines.

To help Lu Yi’s company quickly develop in the industry, Kong Si was very keen to take Star Media along. He was naturally outgoing, made many connections in the circle, and turned them into support for Lu Yi.

Apart from starring in the dramas he selected, Kong Si also participated in variety shows, gaining fans with his straightforward personality and charismatic smile.

With a professional star-making team working hard behind the scenes, Kong Si’s fan base grew at an alarming rate, making artist Yu Si the hottest newcomer in the year’s entertainment charts.

The entertainment market is only so big. The rise of a new star means someone else’s popularity declines.

For those in different categories, it’s fine, but for those with the same positioning and type, it’s a constant struggle for resources. The ascent of this new star “Yu Si” meant a loss of popularity and attention for those of similar type.

As Lu Yi had said before, Kong Si’s positioning clashed with He Xiao’s, and to a large extent, they overlapped by seventy to eighty percent.

Same age, same non-flower-boy looks, same outgoing and open personality persona, same massive publicity, and rapid rise to fame.

Moreover, both had their first dramas explode with acclaim, and their acting was commendable. As artist Yu Si became popular, some gossipy marketing accounts started digging into his background and quickly crafted a persona for him:

X University high-achiever, highly educated, rich second generation, good family background, not short on money…

In the entertainment industry, many female and male celebrities adopt a rich second-generation persona, to tell fans that they aren’t lacking money, are clean, and would never be exploited by anyone.

But some are genuinely wealthy, while others just build a persona.

For example, He Xiao. His family background is actually ordinary, but his company arranged this persona for him, stirring up various promotional articles.

He Xiao himself would clarify in some less important occasions, saying his family is ordinary and not really wealthy.

But there’s a strange phenomenon in the entertainment industry: people don’t believe what you say; they only believe what those marketing accounts dig up.

He Xiao wears a watch worth hundreds of thousands, drives luxury cars, stays in presidential suites at five-star hotels—so he’s a thorough rich second generation.

In the eyes of his fans, He Xiao is a cheerful, straightforward, innocent, good actor with good character, a straightforward rich second-generation guy with acting skills and looks.

His debut drama exploded. Over the past two years, He Xiao took on two or three more dramas, but none performed well. Originally, he had a fairly good production this year—a xianxia drama, aired on one of the country’s top TV stations, in prime time.

He was hoping for a huge hit, but then a dark horse appeared out of nowhere. Both were xianxia dramas, but the other’s script was far superior. For xianxia dramas, besides the script, post-production is also very important.

The drama He Xiao starred in claimed an investment of one hundred million, but pre-release publicity cost tens of millions, and the actors’ salaries took up two-thirds of the remaining budget, leaving very little for actual production.

Originally, without comparison, it would have been fine—even if it didn’t explode, it wouldn’t be too bad.

But Kong Si’s drama exploded, making He Xiao’s drama seem relatively lackluster. Moreover, as a veteran actor in a xianxia lead role, He Xiao was compared to the newcomer Yu Si.

When he was the praised newcomer, being touted as vastly superior to seniors in promotional articles, He Xiao felt quite pleased. But now the tables had turned, and having a junior overshadow him made him extremely resentful.

After seeing the other’s resume and appearance, He Xiao suddenly remembered something important. He managed to get Yu Si’s private contact information from another artist and reached out to him.

He Xiao: Kong Si, you’re Kong Si, right? Do you remember me? Back then, in that alley near XX Middle School, you once saved me.