Owing a huge sum of money due to a failed bet?Andy Lau officially announces the start of mainland tour | Mr. Red Carpet | The Epoch Times

[The Epoch Times, April 26, 2024](Epoch Times reporter Tong Yijia reported) Andy Lau, whose two new films at the beginning of the year were met with failure, announced on April 23 that he would officially start a concert tour in the Mainland. Posters released recently show that Andy Lau’s tour will cover multiple cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Chongqing.

Andy Lau named the theme of this tour “Today…is the Day”. On the concert poster that was exposed at the same time, although he appeared in a sunny and handsome look, some people were wondering why Andy Lau, who had disappeared from the music scene for a long time, suddenly made an official announcement. News about a concert?

According to insiders, due to the failure of the bet on the movie “Mr. Red Carpet” starring Andy Lau, his financial situation was affected and he had no choice but to come back to sing. When the mainland media “Sohu.com” disclosed the news, it also stated: “Indeed, it has become a certain fact that “Mr. Red Carpet” failed at the box office. Although Andy Lau still contributed his superb acting skills in the movie this time, It still can’t save the sluggish box office. In this year’s New Year’s season, everyone’s attention was attracted by “Hot” directed by Jia Ling, while “Mr. Red Carpet” starring Andy Lau was ignored.”

In fact, “Mr. Red Carpet” starring Andy Lau has grossed only 73 million yuan (RMB, the same below) in the five days since it was released on the Lunar New Year’s Day on February 10 this year. At that time, the film studio saw that the situation was not good and immediately announced that it would withdraw from the New Year’s release. However, after the re-release on March 15, the box office was even more bleak. The box office was only 2.45 million on the first day of the re-release, and dropped to 2 million the next day.

According to data disclosed in the financial report of the producer “Huanxi Media”, the production cost of “Mr. Red Carpet” was 260 million yuan, including a production fee of 20.86 million yuan, director Ning Hao’s remuneration of 24.6 million yuan, and the protagonist Andy Lau’s remuneration of 60.7 million yuan. Since the film’s final box office did not exceed 100 million, the loss may exceed 230 million. The film’s studio share is not enough to pay Andy Lau’s salary alone.

According to industry estimates, in addition to the remuneration of the director and the first starring actor, plus other expenses, the total cost of “Mr. Red Carpet” must have exceeded 260 million yuan. To take a step back, even a film with a cost of 260 million yuan will need to earn at least 1 billion yuan in box office to ensure break-even. In this way, the loss amount of “Mr. Red Carpet” may become the highest of the year. And as the leading actor, Andy Lau, if he had signed a gambling agreement with investors in the early stage, he might have paid a large amount of compensation.

In recent years, some mainland investment companies have been accustomed to using “gambling agreements” to deeply bind celebrity artists in the process of accumulating wealth.

For example, Feng Xiaogang signed a “gambling agreement” with “Huayi Brothers” in 2015. The latter acquired 70% of the equity of Feng Xiaogang’s “Dongyang Mera” for 1.05 billion yuan. The total assets of “Dongyang Mera” at that time were only 13,600 yuan, with total liabilities of 19,100 yuan. The high premium valuation once aroused strong doubts in the market. The performance gambling agreement includes: from 2016 to 2020, the net profit of “Dongyang Mera” should be no less than 100 million, 115 million, 132 million, 152 million and 175 million. As a result, the final financial report data showed that Feng Xiaogang ultimately paid a total compensation of approximately 230 million yuan to “Huayi Brothers” due to unfulfilled performance commitments in 2018 and 2020.

I just didn’t expect that Andy Lau, who has been deeply integrated into the mainland entertainment industry in recent years, would also become a Hong Kong star bound by the CCP system.

Although Andy Lau said that he has been planning to hold a concert tour with his team, some netizens left a message saying: “Liu started out as a singer, but he didn’t start acting in movies until he became popular. He started singing after he became popular.” Since Andy Lau on January 30 this year The scandal-ridden Jackie Chan was replaced by Jackie Chan and was “elected” as the 11th Vice Chairman of the China Film Association. Some netizens bluntly said: “I made my debut with “The Wrath of the Sea” (a 1982 film directed by Xu Anhua) and ended up defecting to the CCP.” It is inevitable. I feel sorry for Andy Lau.

Editor in charge: Yang Ming