Having faced setbacks with two new films at the beginning of the year, Andy Lau announced on April 23rd the official launch of his concert tour in mainland China. A poster released recently indicates that Lau’s tour will cover several cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Chongqing.
Lau has named this tour “Today… is the Day,” as revealed on the concert poster. While he appears in a sunny and handsome demeanor, some are puzzled as to why Andy Lau, who has been absent from the music scene for quite some time, suddenly announced a concert tour.
According to insiders, Lau was forced to return to performing due to financial strain caused by the failure of his starring film “Mr. Red Carpet” in a betting agreement. The Chinese media outlet “Sohu” disclosed this information, stating, “Indeed, the dismal performance of ‘Mr. Red Carpet’ at the box office has become a nailed fact. Although Andy Lau still showcased his superb acting skills in the film, it couldn’t rescue the declining box office. During this year’s New Year period, everyone’s attention was drawn to ‘Hi, Mom,’ directed by Jia Ling, while Andy Lau’s ‘Mr. Red Carpet’ went unnoticed.”
In fact, “Mr. Red Carpet,” starring Andy Lau, grossed only 73 million yuan in its five-day box office run since its release on February 10th of this year. Seeing the unfavorable trend, the film’s production team immediately announced its withdrawal from the Lunar New Year period. However, after a re-release on March 15th, the box office performance was even more dismal, with only 2.45 million yuan on the first day and dropping to 2 million yuan on the second day.
According to financial data disclosed in the financial report of the production company, “Joy 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 lead actor Andy Lau’s fee of 60.7 million yuan. Since the final box office did not exceed 100 million yuan, the loss is estimated to exceed 230 million yuan, and the share of the film’s revenue is not enough to cover Andy Lau’s fee alone.
Industry estimates suggest that besides the director and the lead actor’s fees, along with other expenses, the total cost of “Mr. Red Carpet” definitely exceeded 260 million yuan. Stepping back, even for a film with a budget of 260 million yuan, it would need to gross over 1 billion yuan to ensure a balanced budget. Thus, the loss incurred by “Mr. Red Carpet” may be the largest of the year. And as the lead actor, Andy Lau, if he had signed a betting agreement with the investors beforehand, might have to pay a considerable amount in compensation.
In recent years, some investment companies in mainland China have been accustomed to using “betting agreements” to deeply bind celebrity artists in their wealth accumulation process.
For instance, Feng Xiaogang signed a “betting agreement” with “Huayi Brothers” in 2015. The latter acquired 70% of the equity of Feng Xiaogang’s “Dongyang Meila” for 1.05 billion yuan, while the total assets of “Dongyang Meila” at that time were only 13,600 yuan, with total liabilities of 19,100 yuan. The high premium valuation once sparked strong market doubts. The performance betting agreement includes: from 2016 to 2020, the net profit of “Dongyang Meila” should not be less than 100 million, 115 million, 132 million, 152 million, and 175 million yuan respectively. The final financial report data showed that Feng Xiaogang failed to meet the performance commitments in 2018 and 2020, and ultimately paid “Huayi Brothers” a total of about 230 million yuan.