Rebirth of the Great Entertainment Empire

…

Sunbeam Theater is a well-known theater in Hong Kong, located in Kiu Fai Building, 423 King's Road, North Point, Hong Kong Island.

Qiaohui Building is located at the former site of the Xiangjiang Branch of the Commercial Press Printing Factory. The location was originally used to build Blocks C and D of Qiaoguan Building.

In the middle of 1965, Qiaoguang Real Estate Co., Ltd. canceled the plan to build Blocks C and D of Qiaoguan Building, and instead built Qiaohui Building and a movie theater with stage facilities. The theater lobby was composed of Wenlou and Xu Dunle. Cooperatively designed, the courtyard is equipped with a large revolving stage and dressing room, new projectors, audio and lighting equipment, which can accommodate 1,709 people. It opened on September 16, 1972.

In the early days of its establishment, Xinguang Cinema was entrusted by Huachang Enterprise Co., Ltd. to operate and manage Yindu Entertainment Co., Ltd., and became the stronghold of Shuangnan Cinema Line in North Point.

This time, the stock market plummeted and the real estate market collapsed, causing Qiaoguang Real Estate to also suffer a disaster, which in turn caused Qiaoguang Real Estate's capital turnover to also be poor.

Therefore, when Mei Aifang approached Qiaoguang Real Estate and proposed to buy Xinguang Cinema and the 28-story Qiaohui Building in cash, Qiaoguang Real Estate offered a reasonable price of 450 million yuan after a brief discussion within the company. price.

After discussing with Qiaoguang Real Estate, Mei Aifang, on behalf of Xu Cun, bought the Xinguang Theater and the 28-story Qiaohui Building in the name of Huangtu Land for 415 million, and transferred the Qiaohui Building Renamed to Xinguang Building.

...

Yau Ma Tei Theater is located in Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon, Hong Kong, at the junction of Waterloo Road and New Reclamation Street. It was a movie theater and theater in the pre-war period, and was known as one of the "Five Great Theaters" at that time.

Yau Ma Tei Theater Land is located in the center of the old district, with ample source of tourists. At the beginning of its opening, it was a recreational spot for dock workers and coachmen in nearby Yau Ma Tei. Movies and Cantonese opera performances were often full.

However, with the changing times, Yau Ma Tei Theater failed to compete with the new cinema, so that the business gradually declined.

The Yau Ma Tei Theater originally belonged to the Shaw Cinemas, but was rented by Lei Juekun two years ago and joined the Golden Princess Cinemas.

If Xu Cun does not show up, Yau Ma Tei Theater will withdraw from Golden Princess in three years and join Rihuo Cinemas (a cinema dedicated to pornography) in order to increase its turnover.

but--

Xu Cun appeared!

In the name of Huangtu Land, Xu Cun bought the Yau Ma Tei Theater and the adjacent Yau Ma Tei Pumping Station Dormitory (red brick house) at the same time for 6.5 million Hong Kong dollars, and then demolished them and rebuilt them into a building covering an area of ​​about 8,000 square meters. It is a state-of-the-art multiplex cinema with three floors and five halls with 500 seats each, and it was renamed Yau Ma Tei Cinema.

In other words, a very historic building was completely destroyed by Xu Cun.

...

In addition to buying theaters, Xu Cun also rented the Lee Theater and the Emerald Pearl Theater, which had been abandoned by the Shaw Brothers.

Lee Theater is located at 99 Percival Street, Causeway Bay, at the junction of Percival Street and Sharp East Street, facing Leighton Road. It is mainly used for performances such as Cantonese opera, opera and concerts, as well as film screenings. It used to be a high-end entertainment performance venue in Hong Kong.

As a theater, Lee Theater is good in every aspect, the only downside is the rent. The annual rent of Lee Theater is 7.5 million, and it takes five years to repay the rent.

Today, the Shaw Brothers has been going downhill, and it is really difficult for Shao Yifu to sign a five-year long-term contract with Lee Stage.

Therefore, after the lease contract between Shaw Brothers and Lee Stage expired, Shaw Yifu did not renew the contract.

While Lijia was looking for a new partner, it redecorated the Lee Stage, and at the same time raised the rent to 9 million per year.

In fact, according to Xu Cun's original intention, he wanted to directly buy Li Stage, but the Li family was much richer than Xu Cun, so they had no intention of selling the golden egg of Li Stage.

Therefore, Xu Cun can only sign a ten-year long-term contract with Lijia in the name of Huangtu Land, and rent the Lijia stage for ten years (the rent is paid every two years).

The Emerald Pearl Theater is located at No. 23-36 Paterson Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Island, at the junction of Great George Street, in the Emerald Pearl Plaza. It is also a large theater with a thousand seats.

The situation of the Emerald Pearl Theater is similar to that of the Lee Theater. After the lease expired, the Shaw Brothers did not renew the lease (also because the owner of the Emerald Pearl Theater wanted to increase the rent by 20%, and signed a five-year long contract with the Shaw Brothers. Only the family abandoned the lease.), was rented by Xu Cun in the name of Huangtu Land.

...

In other words, Xu Cun now owns eight theaters: Taiping Theatre, Queen's Theatre, Sunbeam Theatre, Amusement Theatre, International Cinema, Yau Ma Tei Cinema, Lee Theatre, and Emerald Pearl Theatre.

Although the number of theaters in Xu Cun's hands is much smaller than that of Shaw Brothers Cinemas, Golden Princess Cinemas, Golden Harvest Cinemas, and Shuangnan Cinemas, the theaters in Xu Cun's hands are all second to none in Xiangjiang Great theater - both in terms of location and the number of seats.

Taiping Theater has two thousand seats.

The Queen's Theater has 1,400 seats.

Shin Kong Cinema has 1,709 seats.

The entertainment theater has a thousand seats.

The number of seats in an international cinema is 3,000.

Yau Ma Tei Cinema has 2,500 seats.

Lee Theater has 2,000 seats.

The Emerald Pearl Theater has 1,000 seats.

Total: These eight theaters have a total of more than 14,600 seats.

This number of seats is not much worse than that of Shaw Cinemas, which only has 14 old theaters left. Therefore, as long as Xu Cun announces that these eight theaters are all owned by Xu Cun, Xiangjiang's fifth largest theater chain will be born in an instant.

Of course, the premise is that Xu Cun's six theaters have to be renovated.

now.

Yau Ma Tei Cinema had to be rebuilt as a whole, which took a lot of time.

Although the International Cinema does not need to be rebuilt, the effort required to convert a two-story commercial building into a multiplex cinema will definitely not be much worse than the effort required to rebuild the Yau Ma Tei Cinema.

The most troublesome thing is the Taiping Theater-Xu Cun plans to build the Taiping Theater into the leading theater of his own theater chain. Therefore, the design alone has not been completed yet. By the way, Taiping Theater was also incorporated into Huangtu Land.

Relatively speaking, the Queen's Theater, Amusement Theater, and Xinguang Theater are easier to manage—these three theaters mainly need to be refurbished and replaced with the most advanced projection equipment, which will not take too much time.

but--

does not matter!

Xu Cun is rich!

And money can turn ghosts around!

Regardless of the cost, the cinema design team Xu Cun invited from the United States and Chen Yaoqing gave Xu Cun a military order—they promised that before the end of the year, all of Xu Cun’s six theaters would be able to open normally.

...