Chapitre 225: Chapter 225: Hong Kong
In the early 2000s, at Hong Kong International Airport (Chek Lap Kok) on Lantau Island, New Territories, a Gulfstream G550 private jet landed on the runway.
After flying for over 11 hours from London, Charles Capet stepped out of the cabin, dressed in a loose shirt and relaxed trousers, looking like he was on vacation.
He looked up at the sunshine. It was clear he departed yesterday afternoon. After around 11 hours of flying, it should be early morning London time.
Unfortunately, Hong Kong was six to seven hours ahead of London. So, it was already noon.
Phyllis Jones was already waiting nearby in a business car for Charles' arrival.
Once they were in the luxurious business car, Charles told his assistants, Odette and Amelia, "Hong Kong is a shopping paradise and a tourist city. You guys can have a good time exploring!"
The two women nodded in agreement. On the plane, they served as Charles' personal assistants and were considered his close confidantes.
"Donna has been at the Hong Kong International Finance Centre's office with Lily, overseeing the setup of the East Asia division for Dawn Investments," Phyllis Jones said, updating Charles on recent events as the car headed towards a beachfront villa in Deep Water Bay.
Charles had known about the purchase of the Deep Water Bay villa by Phyllis Jones, but he was still impressed by Hong Kong's real estate prices.
Located in the Mid-Levels with an unbeatable sea view, the three-story modern villa was connected by a private road leading directly to the entrance.
The total cost was 68 million HKD, roughly 8.7 million USD. It's worth noting that since the stock market crash in the 1970s, Hong Kong real estate prices surged until 1997, followed by continuous declines for six to seven years after the financial crisis.
The value only began to rise again in 2004, and by 2006, it had increased significantly.
"Wow, it's beautiful and huge!"
Charles didn't pay them much attention and headed straight to the study with Phyllis Jones as they were there to conduct business.
"The USD to RMB exchange rate has fallen below 8 now. Donna predicts it will drop further by the end of the year. Capet International Cinema Company has sent many people to China," Phyllis said, glancing at Charles.
"We have around 1 billion RMB in foreign exchange available!" she added.
Charles nodded. He hadn't pulled overseas funds back home in quite some time.
So, most of this 1 billion RMB in cash had been directly exchanged from USD, planned for extensive cinema construction in China. With the support of Chinese bank loans, Capet International Cinema Group had over 2 billion RMB available.
Capet Pictures was committing around 100 million USD for its expansion into China's cinema market and real estate.
"What's the expected total box office for the Chinese market this year?" Charles asked, knowing they couldn't blindly build cinemas without understanding the market.
"It's estimated to be 2.5 billion RMB, up from 2 billion RMB last year. Our The Da Vinci Code is currently the top-grossing movie in China with about 130 million RMB," Phyllis reported, including figures from both Chinese domestic films and revenue-sharing blockbusters.
"King Kong grossed 100 million RMB while Mission: Impossible III made 82 million RMB and Poseidon earned 69 million RMB, all being revenue-sharing blockbusters!"
"By the way, why was The Da Vinci Code suddenly pulled from theaters in China?" Charles wanted to understand the reason, even though he wasn't particularly concerned about the Chinese box office revenue.
Currently, the revenue-sharing split for imported blockbusters in China was only 13% for the producers, with a quota of ten imported revenue-sharing films per year.
Given The Da Vinci Code's box office numbers in China, Capet Pictures would only earn around 13 million RMB, plus modest earnings from DVD and TV rights sales.
The Chinese market was still small and closed off to some degree. Even though Hollywood saw potential in China's market size, MPAA kept lobbying the Chinese government to open up its film market more. The topic was routinely discussed during China-US trade talks.
"A lot of Christians protested, so it got banned. Otherwise, The Da Vinci Code's box office would've continued to rise," Phyllis explained, feeling a bit regretful.
Charles chuckled, "Even Europe didn't ban the movie, except for Singapore rating it NC-16 and Lebanon completely banning it. Who'd have thought China would ban it too?"
"It was Hong Kong's Christian community that protested. You know, Hong Kong is now the wealthiest city in China, and they have a lot of influence!" Phyllis Jones clarified.
"Well, if it's banned, it's banned. The box office potential was nearly capped anyway," Charles wasn't too concerned about this small portion of the Chinese box office.
"Let's rest for two or three days, then go to Beijing," Charles said, looking out at the sea, as if gazing at the distant city.
Phyllis Jones nodded. The main objective of this trip was to take over the Warner Bros' abandoned theater construction project and to continue expanding cinema construction in China.
While Charles crossed the Pacific to the other side of the world, Capet Pictures' The Devil Wears Prada, also known as The Queen Wearing LV, opened in 2,900 theaters across North America, earning 28 million USD in its opening weekend.
At the same time, Warner Bros. DC Comics' movie Superman Returns, which opened three days earlier, premiered in 4,065 theaters in North America, grossing 52.5 million USD in its opening weekend.
This extended to the Independence Day weekend in the US.
By the end of the holiday, The Devil Wears Prada had grossed 41 million USD in North America, while Superman Returns had earned 86 million USD.
However, The Devil Wears Prada cost only around 35 million USD and received rave reviews.
In contrast, Warner Bros. spent nearly 300 million USD rebooting Superman Returns, which received a barrage of negative reviews.
*****
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État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
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