27. Contract signing, preparing for momentum

  Ye Sumang and the other two were suddenly startled by the laughter, and they didn't expect that there was someone else in the projection room.

  Three people immediately turned around to look for the source of the laughter, but unfortunately the projection room was pitch black and couldn't see where anyone was.

  "Yehzi, do you think it's going to be the hospital's representative?" Huang Bo immediately asked Ye Sumang with a tense expression after turning his head around.

  "It's probably not, and you don't think about it either. All the hospital representatives have left, leaving only him? That's too strange." Ning Hao shook his head, breaking Huang Bo's fantasy.

  "That's right, haha."

  "Never mind him, let's just watch the movie first. If he really is a representative of the film academy, then he will naturally find us after the screening."

  Ye Su Meng's words immediately refocused the two on the movie, but as the film played on, bursts of laughter erupted from behind, making it difficult for the three to concentrate on the movie. Even Ye Su Meng couldn't help but feel a glimmer of hope towards the owner of the laughter behind them.

  The 80-minute film ended quickly, and Li Mao, who had been laughing from start to finish, was now holding his stomach, because he laughed too exaggeratedly and accidentally inhaled air.

  "This is the movie I want!" Li Maoping repeated, and after calming down his emotions, he excitedly punched his own palm with his fist.

  He usually thinks of himself as a person who doesn't talk or laugh easily, in other words, someone with a high threshold for humor.

  But after watching this movie, Li Mao was still laughing out loud.

  The movie doesn't rely on hollow and piled-up funny words, but instead uses contrast and implicit methods to bring out the humor to the fullest. Although the whole movie doesn't have a shocking plot or touching characters, it can still make you laugh all the way through. For a comedy film, it has already met the conditions for success.

  The lights in the screening room lit up again, Li Mao squinted his eyes and stood up before he could even get used to the light, excitedly shouting: "Who is the director of this movie!?"

  "Hello, I am the director of this film, Ye Sumang." A spark of excitement flashed in Ye Sumang's eyes, knowing that his chance for this movie had come.

  Huang Bo and Ning Hao on the side also looked at Li Mao with a face full of expectation.

  Li Maosheng was taken aback.

  He didn't expect the director of this movie to be such a handsome boy. And he looks like he's only eighteen or nineteen years old, which is really too young.

  But he quickly came back to his senses. If he hadn't seen the movie, he might have still been a bit dismissive, but at this moment, all he had in his heart was endless admiration for Ye Sumang's remarkable achievements at such a young age.

  "Hello, I'm the boss of Times Cinema, my name is Li Mao!" Li Mao's face was flushed with excitement, and before Ye Sumang could move forward, he took a few steps to Ye Sumang's side, shook his hand, and handed over his business card.

  Ye Sumang looked at the business card in her hand and her eyebrows furrowed slightly.

  The reason is simple, because there is no name related to the film industry on the business card, only the title of the general manager of the Times Cinema. This also made Ye Sumang somewhat puzzled for a while, could it be that the person in front of him was a swindler who specialized in selling movie copyrights?

  "Director Ye, your movie is really well-made, I highly appreciate this film. May I ask if it's possible to discuss the contract with you?" Li Mao asked, still unaware that his identity was suspected by Ye SuMang, and asked with an expectant face.

  "The contract can wait, may I ask, how many cinemas are under your chain and how many screens can be provided for our movie? Also, what is the screening schedule for our film?" Ye Sumang did not reveal his concerns, but instead calmly put away the business card and then raised a few questions that he thought were crucial.

  "Uh... we... actually, we don't have a formal distribution license. We're just an alliance of over a dozen small cinemas." Li Mao rubbed his head somewhat embarrassedly, but seeing Ye Su Mang's gaze gradually turn cold, he hastily added: "However, we're willing to allocate all our screening halls and time for this film, for at least a month, and the final profit-sharing can be negotiated!"

  "Everything?" Ye Sumang asked in surprise. That would mean that for the next month, these cinemas could only show his movies.

  "Right, all of it. If you don't believe me, we can put this clause in the contract." Li Mao nodded, having already made up his mind to burn his boats and go all out.

  "Yèzi, agree to it! This opportunity is hard to come by!"

  "Leaf..."

  Ning Hao and Huang Bo were anxious on the side, wishing they could go forward and kick Ye Sumang away to talk to Li Mao themselves.

  Ye Sumang did not rush to respond at this moment, but instead thought about the pros and cons.

  It's good if there is a cinema showing movies.

  But Li Mao's cinema alliance is really too small, and it's mainly concentrated in the Kyoto area, with a poor geographical location and not much traffic. Also, looking at their appearance, they probably can't even provide funds to promote their own films, which may affect the box office to some extent.

  If the box office performance is really poor after its release, it will naturally lose the favor of those major cinemas and the film will be thrown into the dumpster.

  But then again, Ye Sumang thought that she was really overthinking things. The institute had never considered her in the first place, and now someone was offering to screen a movie for free; what was there to hesitate about? Whether it was good or bad, they would only know after giving it a try!

  "Manager Li, I think we can find a place to discuss the contract now." Ye Sumang was relieved that he didn't get into an awkward situation, slowly let out a breath, and shook hands tightly with Li Mao, who had an excited face.

  The contract was finalized with ease, except for the several preferential policies proposed by Li Mao, the profit-sharing aspect was a 50-50 split between the production team and the cinema alliance, which also benefited the cinemas, leaving only the theater chain's fees in between.

  Afterwards, both parties also confirmed the screening time, and Li Mao had to return to the cinema to start a new wave of promotional work.

  Because of the lack of money, Li Mao couldn't make a big splash. However, in his own dozen or so cinemas, he still managed to create some buzz. Things like movie posters and trailers had to be played every day, and he also planned to put the trailer for this film at the end of every movie shown in the cinema, trying his best to brainwash the audience with propaganda.

  Ye Sumang still has about 200,000 yuan left, which is definitely not enough for TV commercials and the like. Ye Sumang never thought of spending money on such things anyway.

  He had already prepared his own publicity stunt because he had set his sights on the internet games that were gradually becoming popular in Huaxia.