Super Zoo

The camera faced Long Wu, who sat ramrod straight and stared intently at the screen as if he were being interviewed by journalists, giving off the vibe that he was in the middle of an interview.

"Brother Wu, you don't have to act like a robot, we're not on camera here. Relax a bit," Suming said with a laugh.

"Oh... When I see the camera lights flashing, habit takes over..." Long Wu also smiled, looking much more relaxed as he leaned back in his chair. While rummaging in the drawer under the computer, he asked, "What made you think of making films?"

Looking at the smiling young man on the other side of the camera lens, Long Wu's expression remained calm, but four words arose in his heart: "The younger generation is formidable."

To independently invest in film-making at just over twenty years old was extremely rare, even during the golden age of Xiangjiang cinema. Back then, the prodigal sons who dared to invest in films all had the backing of huge wealthy families; there were almost none who started from scratch on their own merit.

Even for himself, with the Xiang's Family behind him, nearly dominating the order of Xiangjiang's underworld, what was he doing in his early twenties? It seemed he was still running around as an extra with Master Liu.

"Really, I'm short on funds," Suming roughly explained his plan to buy a zoo.

Long Wu listened, nodding slightly, then took a cigar from the drawer, cut the end with a cigar cutter, lit it, and took a puff, exhaling a thick cloud of smoke.

"Are you planning to focus on the tourism industry in the future?" Long Wu asked, raising his eyebrows slightly.

In recent years, many Xiangjiang filmmakers had headed north to make money, and Long Wu's company had also produced several films for release in the mainland. Sadly, very few made substantial profits, and box office hits were few and far between. The mainland movie industry was a big cake, and Long Wu, who started in film entertainment, naturally didn't want to miss out, but he always struggled to find a breakthrough.

Even big names like Wang Jing, leading a squad of dazzling stars, had produced several lackluster films. While the box office figures seemed decent, once actor fees and production costs were subtracted, Long Wu's company didn't earn much.

So, when he heard Suming, an outsider, mention making a film, his first reaction wasn't to find it amusing, but to see an opportunity.

Suming might not know about films, but he had some clout in the mainland. Perhaps their cooperation could open up different possibilities.

But if Suming was just toying with the idea of film-making, without serious intent, it would be difficult for them to cooperate in the long term.

Suming's opinion of Long Wu rose even higher. He obviously had seen the world, his perspective different from ordinary people. From just a few sentences, he had seized the key point, ignoring the zoo and guessing Suming's real future planning blueprint.

But tourism was still not the entirety of Suming's plan. After a moment's thought, he said, "These days, many industries are connected. Be it tourism or cinema, they're both about leisure and entertainment. They not only don't obstruct each other, they can actually boost one another. Look at Disney, thriving in both movies and theme park entertainment. If I can make money from films, of course, I won't miss out."

"Do you aim to build a business empire? Ambitious!" Long Wu's eyes lit up, and he gave a thumbs-up to the camera, saying, "The entertainment market in the mainland is huge, enough to support a comprehensive, large-scale entertainment empire. If you can get in before everyone else, there's a lot to be gained."

Suming just smiled. It was hard to say whether he could get started before others. There were quite a few large corporations in the country with ambitions to build an entertainment empire, such as Wanda. He had already gotten a late start.

But as Long Wu said, the mainland market was vast, and this big pond had room enough for many a giant crocodile.

"So, how big are you planning to go this time?" Long Wu asked with great enthusiasm.
Find your next read on My Virtual Library Empire

Suming thought for a moment, "Ten million, with a possible addition of two million. Twelve million is the absolute cap, in Huaxia currency."

Long Wu had just been praising Suming for his great ambition and considering him an impressive young man, but upon hearing this figure, his face involuntarily twitched.

"Suming, do you know what this number means?" Long Wu said with a bitter smile.

"Low budget, small production," Suming said, shrugging his shoulders.

"If this was twenty years ago, ten million wouldn't be considered a small budget, it could barely qualify as a big production. But now..."

Long Wu said, "Ten million, it's really not enough. Hiring any famous director and a few somewhat-known actors, that ten million would be spent in no time. What would be left for shooting the movie? An investment of ten million means no stars, no big-name directors, no special effects, and even location shooting would be scarce. If you talk about it, the theaters might not even be willing to schedule your film."

Suming was probably aware of what Long Wu was explaining. These days, money isn't worth much. In the past, top stars from Xiangjiang would only get a million Hong Kong dollars per movie, and two or three million was already considered a sky-high paycheck. The biggest expenses in movies were for stunts, explosions, and car chases. A crew member's daily wage was only a few dozen or a hundred dollars, so a movie with an investment of ten million could barely be considered a blockbuster.

And now, everything costs ten times more. Movies with investments of fifty to sixty million are everywhere, and every year there are more than a dozen films with investments over a hundred million. Mentioning an investment of ten million would make people laugh.

But it wasn't entirely impossible either. As Suming knew, there were many domestic films with budgets of ten million or even a few million, and some, like "Love is Not Blind," achieved quite good results. In theory, an investment of ten million wasn't a dead end.

"Let's take it step by step. It's my first foray, so of course, I should be more cautious," Suming said. "We can do without famous actors; we should minimize special effects and focus on realism."

"Do you have a script, and what genre of movie is it?" Long Wu asked.

"I don't have a specific script yet, just a rough story idea," Suming said with a grin. "As for the genre, with a small production, of course, it'll be a niche route, a horror film."

"A horror film?!" Long Wu felt even more perplexed. Who makes horror films these days?

The mainland's film censorship is so strict; it's hard to say whether a horror film could even pass the scrutiny.

Not to mention the market. The era for horror films has long passed. In recent years, horror films from both the mainland and Xiangjiang have almost vanished from movie theaters. On the rare occasions when one is released, the box office is disastrously poor. Any kind of film can unexpectedly hit it big, even pure art films. If handled well and with a stroke of luck, turning a small profit is still possible.

Horror films alone don't have this potential. Last year, Xiangjiang released a nostalgic zombie film that gathered a lot of big names and paid tribute to classic zombie movies. It had the sentiment, the plot, and decent production standards, but the audience just wasn't interested, and it ended up being a financial disaster.

For the first time, Long Wu felt he couldn't quite grasp Suming's vision.

A pitiful investment of ten million and a doomed genre like horror films—however you look at it, Suming's understanding of cinema seemed stuck twenty years in the past.