Chapter 21: 420

Ever since the beginning, he just wanted to compete with Shen Yichong. This was also why he snatched away his projects such as ‘Allure’ to ‘Emergency Moment’. Later, although he just wanted to get Yu Yaoyao to return to his side, he did a lot of childish things. Now that she was pregnant with a second child, his dream of reuniting with her was directly shattered.

Now, even Chen Jiao himself didn’t know what the point was of competing against Guangxin.

But if he hated to admit his defeat regarding ‘Allure’. If Shen Yichong hadn’t deliberately misled him, he wouldn’t have been so enthusiastic about plunging into the investment, which led him to eventually lose more than 10 million Yuan.

Moreover, playing the supporting role of this movie caused him to lose many fans. People were saying that he had tainted the original role and his acting was unacceptable. He had been scolded by many people.

Chen Jiao squeezed his fist and called Xu Hong again, “Find a way to persuade Shen Yichong to withdraw from this investment! As long as you do it, you’ll be rewarded with a huge benefit afterwards.”

Even Xu Hong’s liver trembled, “He is not that foolish.”

“Aren’t you people as investors the best at making up stories?! You’ve been working under Shen Yichong for so many years, don’t you understand his temperament? I think you must know one or two of his taboo points that would make him give up on this investment. Change the data. It’s that easy!” Chen Jiao growled out loud.

He had lost Yu Yaoyao, and he could never get her back ever again! He could now only focus on earning money, hoping to prove Shen Yichong wrong!

“If you can’t do it,…don’t come to me anymore! Sooner or later, Shen Yichong’ll find out that you betrayed him. By that time, even I couldn’t help you!” Chen Jiao said harshly and hung up the call!

*

The next day, Guangxin held an urgent investment meeting. Shen Yichong joined the meeting remotely.

As the head of the investment department and the keynote speaker, Xu Hong made the conclusion that investment was not recommended from the beginning.

“We did relevant market research and felt that there were several major drawbacks.

“High-special effects films like Garfield and Kung Fu Panda require a lot of investment. The investment cost is estimated to be between 100 million and 1 billion, and the production time is usually about two years, which means that the payback period is much longer than other investments.

“At present, the audience of this kind of film is not large in the domestic market, as the focus group of the audience would not be people under the age of 40. Even the Kung Fu Panda cannot recover the cost by relying on the domestic box office alone. It needs to be distributed overseas.”

Xu Hong paused and squeezed his fists nervously before continuing.

“But if it is distributed globally, then we need to fight against global animation scripts. However, the current theme of this stray cat is not in line with Western aesthetics. They are relatively more inclined to stimulating action movies, such as Kung Fu Panda.

“To sum up, although there is a market for this investment project, the profitability is extremely small, and the investment return period is very long, which will cause the occupation of company funds. The investment department recommends that we take on projects that could help us generate profit in the short-term.

Xu Hong finished speaking very quickly, and his forehead was already sweaty. His expression was obviously a little nervous, and he looked at Shen Yichong on the video conference screen.

He saw Shen Yichong folding his arms in front of his chest, “Did you make this analysis report?”

Xu Hong’s expression was a little stiff in an instant, “It was from the investment department who worked overtime.”

But he was the one that changed the conclusion. He made changes on the market survey about the children and reached a conclusion that an investment was not recommended.

Shen Yi Chong squinted his eyes and went silent for a moment, ” How did you come to the conclusion that the audience under the age of 40 is not the target group?”

Xu Hong was stunned, “Older people are generally not interested in animated special effects films. Their acceptance rate is very low, and they also don’t usually enter the theater to watch movies. This is the result of our questionnaire.”

Shen Yichong glanced at him directly, “In the past ten years, what is the average childbearing age in China?”

Xu Hong’s face suddenly turned pale.

“On average, women have their first child at the age of 29.1.  There is also a gradually increasing number of people who give birth to their second child, and the average age is between 45 to 49 years old.”

Shen Yichong put his finger on the table and knocked twice.

“In other words, suppose that the child is ten years old, the average age of the mother would be over 40, while the age of the father between over 40-45.”

He did not continue, but Xu Hong already felt a tingling in the back of his neck.

Shen Yichong was indeed very thoughtful! He always picked up great projects largely due to his sensitivity to data and his familiarity with the entire macro market!

The statistics that Xu Hong changed were the number of people aged 20-28 in the country. The conclusion of the survey questionnaire for those over 40 years old was that the group did not like such cute and childish movies, but preferred exciting action movies. The conclusion was obviously… biased!

Xu Hong had cold feet and saw the problem right when Shen Yichong pointed it out!

Audiences over the age of forty years old would not watch the movie by themselves, but they definitely belonged to the age group of parents who would take their children to the movies! In fact, this age group would also have a higher purchasing power than the audience who were in their 20s, and they would be more willing to enter the theater!

Xu Hong hadn’t noticed this problem before.

“Start the investment. Bring me the investment agreement tomorrow for signing.” Shen Yichong dropped these words and stared at Xu Hong coldly. “Go to the HR Department tomorrow and hand over your work.”

Xu Hong trembled all over, “Mr. Shen, it was my negligence, but that was because the timeline was too tight.”

“It’s not the first time. I have given you enough chances.” Shen Yichong’s face was cold. “I don’t need a person who is unclear-headed in my management, let alone a subordinate who has problems with integrity.”

Xu Hong’s legs went soft, and he leaned directly against the wall behind, “I didn’t! Mr. Shen, please give me one more chance!”

Shen Yichong glared at him, “Do you think I’m a kid? Even my son can recite the numbers he has read.”