Wen | Li Shiyun

Wang Zhongjun founded an art museum called "Pine" on the bank of Wenyu River in Shunyi, Beijing, where Picasso's "Seated Portrait of a Woman in a Haircut" is hidden.

In 2015, he shot this painting from the legendary Hollywood producer Gawain's family for nearly 30 million dollars. Some media even described it as "the evolution of power in the collection industry". In 2014, he once sold Van Gogh's Daisy and Poppy for more than 55 million dollars.

These are two achievements of the Chinese Tibetan Wang Zhongjun in Sotheby's.

Almost at the same time as the generosity of the auction house, Wang Zhongjun and his brother Wang Zhonglei founded Huayi Brothers Media Co., Ltd. has begun to seize the capital market, opening the way for this film company to expand its "big entertainment, de filmization".

That was the golden age of Huayi Brothers.

"If Huayi ever returns to its peak, it is right throughout history, and there is nothing wrong with it. If it is wrong, it can only be because the current environment has put a lot of pressure on you."

Huayi lost money for the first time since its listing in 2018, amounting to 1.09 billion yuan. 2019 is more difficult, and the performance loss is nearly 4 billion yuan. The schedule of the main movie "Eight Hundred" is blank, and the debt and cash flow problems have not been alleviated. The year 2020 is probably more difficult.

In August of last year, in his speech at the Yabuli Summer Forum, Wang Zhongjun suddenly mentioned that he was selling his paintings. In order to "get some cash back to solve the liquidity problem, there is nothing wrong with it. I don't think it is shameful to sell my paintings... I can sell everything for the sake of life and the safety of the company."

This is believed to be the first time that he directly responded to the financial crisis encountered by Huayi in public.

In the dialogue with At least One Hour, Wang Zhongjun always answered "What's the matter" blandly to these seemingly vital questions from the outside.

The dialogue was held in Wang Zhongjun's private club in Nanchizi. Here, the 59 year old film company boss is wearing a black hoodie. Surrounding him, there are not only some masterpieces, but also the portraits created by him for several years.

"Whether it's Disney or Warner, I don't think its life and death will be the same. In 25 years' time, even if you encounter such great difficulties as 2018 and 19 years, you may have forgotten about them. (People) should go through the difficulties little by little."

　　 Layout and making friends is the first productive force

In 1989, Wang Zhongjun went to the United States to study. In 1994, at the age of 34, Wang Zhongjun returned to China and founded Huayi Brothers with his brother Wang Zhonglei. Huayi Brothers started with advertising business at first. In 1998, they became friends with Feng Xiaogang and formally entered the film and television industry. In the first ten years of Huayi Brothers, they went smoothly, launching a series of "acclaimed and successful" films, such as "Mobile Phone", "No Thieves in the World", "Baby Project", "Assembly Number", "The King of Kung Fu", and "The Wind".

In 2009, Huayi Brothers also ushered in the highlight moment since its establishment, successfully landed on the Shenzhen Growth Enterprise Market and issued 42 million shares at a price of 28.58 yuan per share, raising a total of 1.2 billion yuan. In an interview with People, Wang Zhonglei said that Huayi had grown up in the past ten years under the curse, but he also said that no one could question Huayi's right to Chinese movie Contribution of. At that time, Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei were regarded as the "big and small kings" who forged the entertainment empire.

In the golden two decades of smooth sailing, Ma Yun once commented that Wang Zhongjun was the "laziest" CEO he had ever seen in China. "He wakes up at 11:00 every day. After coming to the company, he just drinks tea, finds someone to talk to, then goes to the company to have lunch, and then takes a lunch break. In the afternoon, he goes to the company to drink tea, talk, and then starts to prepare for a party in the evening."

Indeed, Wang Zhongjun loves making friends and getting together. Before the interview with At least One Hour, Wang Zhongjun came back from Sanya to attend Ma Yun's public welfare foundation. He also got together with his primary school classmates at noon the next day. For Wang Zhongjun, "It's boring to have no friends." He once said that I think that making friends is the first productive force for entrepreneurs today. After all, within Huayi, Wang Zhongjun is in charge of the company's strategy and capital and is responsible for finding money, while Wang Zhonglei is responsible for implementing the strategy.

In the second golden decade, Huayi Brothers began to move towards the road of "great entertainment and de cinema". In 2014, Huayi Brothers called film and television entertainment, brand authorization and live entertainment, and Internet entertainment "the new troika".

In the live entertainment part, Huayi Brothers has successively arranged film and television towns in 17 places, including Haikou, Suzhou and Changsha. Wang Zhongjun also helped his friend Hu Baosen, chairman of Jianye Group, build a film town in Zhengzhou.

As the first live entertainment project put into operation by Huayi Brothers, Haikou Guanlan Lake Huayi Feng Xiaogang Film Community has officially opened in 2014. According to data statistics, Feng Xiaogang Film Commune received more than 2 million tourists in 2016 and 2017 for two consecutive years, and received nearly 200000 tourists during the Spring Festival in 2018.

Huayi Brothers Film World (Suzhou) officially opened on July 23, 2018. The park has five theme areas, which gather 7 Huayi Brothers' movie IPs, including If You Are the One, Gathering Number, Tai Chi, Di Renjie's Empire to the Sky; It restored and built the real scene in history for the movie Eight Hundred. Huayi Brothers Film Town (Changsha) opened to the public for the first time in 2018.

In addition, Huayi Brothers also subscribed for mutual entertainment and equity participation in mobile e-sports star companies Palm Fun Technology And acquired Guangzhou Yinhan Technology.

In the nearly ten years since its listing, Huayi Brothers has made breakthroughs in performance again and again. From 2009 to 2017, the net profits were 85 million yuan, 149 million yuan, 203 million yuan, 105 million yuan, 403 million yuan, 891 million yuan, 976 million yuan, 808 million yuan and 828 million yuan, respectively, and the accumulated net profits over the nine years were 4.448 billion yuan.

However, high-speed enterprises, such as ships sailing on the sea, often encounter undercurrents, hurricanes or other unstable factors. In 2018, on the one hand, some films released in the film and television entertainment sector during the reporting period did not achieve the expected box office, and only two works, "Fanghua" and "Former 3", showed outstanding performance; The revenue of brand authorization and live entertainment is close to "waist fold". On the other hand, Huayi also made a total provision for goodwill impairment of assets such as Bookseller and Dongyang Meila. Huayi lost for the first time since its listing, amounting to 1.09 billion yuan.

In Wang Zhongjun's opinion, "2018 is a difficult year at the beginning, but I didn't expect 2019 to be so difficult." In 2019, the schedule of "Eight Hundred" was adjusted, the main control film was blank, and the cash flow at maturity of debt was urgent, which also coincided with a high proportion of pledge by the actual controller. According to its performance forecast, the company expects a loss of 3.962 billion yuan to 3.967 billion yuan in 2019, and Huayi Brothers is in a more critical situation.

　　 Breaking "What's the matter here?"

Wang Zhongjun has the warmth and delicacy of an artist, but also the hardness and rebound under pressure. In order to break the current crisis situation, Wang Zhongjun temporarily removed his identity as an artist.

At the beginning of 2019, Wang Zhongjun took charge of the company's film business again. He said at the internal exchange meeting, "From 2019, I will participate in all the company's film projects, from incubation and development to launch and landing, to comprehensively strengthen the control of the film business. And I will officially return to the company's green light committee, with a veto."

As for the previous series of layout, Wang Zhongjun looked back and did not regret that "there was no mistake for Huayi at that time."

"Before 2014 and 2015, China's entertainment industry was booming. Huayi had a market value of 80 billion yuan, and its debt ratio was actually very low. So I made some investments at that time. Today, some people say that we invested in (Feng) Xiaogang's Meila, and invested in vast and heroic mutual entertainment, which is relatively large. These three companies have used nearly 4 billion cash, which is really a bit overweight today. But there was nothing wrong with Huayi at that time.

If Huayi ever returns to its peak, it is right throughout history, and there is nothing wrong with it. If it is wrong, it can only be because the current environment has put a lot of pressure on you. "

In the dialogue with Wang Zhongjun, he was not an easy target to communicate with. The reason is that Wang Zhongjun always answered "what's the matter" blandly to some life and death issues that appear to the outside world.

Wang Zhongjun's courage to put all his eggs in one basket in dealing with the crisis can be seen in early years. In the program "Let's Talk", Wang Zhongjun revealed that he mortgaged his family's property when shooting "Assembly Number". "When I signed, I didn't think so carefully. Today is tomorrow." He regarded this as a case of success based on ideals and determination.

In the second golden decade of Huayi Brothers, Wang Zhongjun spent hundreds of millions on paintings. In November 2014, he shot the highly anticipated painting Daisy and Poppy by Van Gogh at a price of about 377 million yuan. In 2015, he took the picture of Picasso's famous painting "Woman in a bun" with US $29.9 million.

When Huayi was short of cash flow, Wang Zhongjun did not hesitate to sell his paintings. In August 2019, Wang Zhongjun made a speech at the Yabuli Forum Summer Summit, Suddenly he said, "Actually, I have been selling my paintings. I recently sold a batch of works of art and brought back some cash to solve my liquidity problem. There is nothing bad about it. I don't think I am ashamed to sell my paintings... I want to talk about my collection today. I can sell everything for the sake of life and the safety of the company."

When it comes to selling paintings, Wang Zhongjun thinks it is too normal. "When you have the ability, you can buy it. If you don't have the ability, you can get rid of it and live first."

In addition to selling paintings, Wang Zhongjun also transferred 4% of the shares held by Huayi Brothers to Chen Yingkui, CEO of Bookseller. In a dialogue with At least One Hour, Wang Zhongjun revealed that he also sold his fund and the cinema equipment company GDC. [2] "In the short term, these are measures that must be taken to survive."

　　 Survival "Look at these difficulties in life and death in 25 years"

If you want to get through the crisis successfully, you can't just "sell". According to the third quarter report of Huayi Brothers in 2019, as of the end of September 2019, short-term borrowings of Huayi Brothers had reached 2.039 billion yuan and long-term borrowings of 1.442 billion yuan. In the same period, the monetary capital on its account was only 1.409 billion yuan, and the debt gap has not been made up.

For Wang Zhongjun, who regards making friends as the first productive force of entrepreneurs, the power of friends is more obvious in adversity.

In the program "At least One Hour", Wang Zhongjun confessed that he asked his friends to borrow money in the most difficult time in 2018. "In 2018, Cao Guowei was one of the people who helped me personally pay for the decline in the stock market. (Also) Ma Yun, Lu Zhiqiang, Shi Yuzhu, Chen Yihong, Wang Yusuo, Yu Feng, Liu Chuanzhi, Hu Baosen, and Chen Dongsheng. This is the complex of friends."

At the beginning of 2019, Ali Pictures also "stood up" and borrowed 700 million yuan for a period of five years. The premise is that Huayi Brothers takes 70% of the equity of Dongyang Meila, a company under Feng Xiaogang's name, and the partnership share usufruct of an investment company enjoyed by Huayi Mutual, a wholly-owned subsidiary, as the pledge guarantee, and associates Wang Zhongjun Wang Zhonglei and their wives provide joint liability guarantee.

Wang Zhongjun believes that Ma Yun and others are willing to borrow money based on friendship and trust. "I must believe that I can get up, and no one will admit to compensation. I will not let others compensate. It is that I must be able to pay back the money. It is so simple."

In an interview with Daily Economy, Wang Zhongjun once said that Huayi would not lose again in 2020, which is the core indicator for the chairman and the whole team. It is a hard battle to turn losses into profits.

At this time, Wang Zhongjun is facing the trust of friends and the commitment to shareholders. "Whether it's Disney or Warner, I don't think its life and death will be the same. In 25 years' time, even if you encounter such great difficulties as 2018 and 19 years, you may have forgotten about them. (People) should go through the difficulties little by little."

Wang Zhongjun once mentioned that Dunkirk is one of his favorite films. In the film, 400000 British and French allies were besieged by the enemy on the beach in Dunkirk. Facing the siege of the German army, everyone had to fight for their own fate to return home alive. For the soldiers in Dunkirk battlefield, the meaning of retreat is not to win or lose, but to survive.

Editor in charge: Sun Jiansong