Chairman of Zhang Weiping Xintu Pictures Co., Ltd.

Personal resume

Born on October 8, 1958 in Jinan, Shandong.

In 1977, he graduated from high school and entered Beijing Puren Hospital. After studying at Beijing Pharmacy College for two years, I returned to the hospital and became a pharmacist.

In 1988, he joined Siemens Beijing Company as the manager of the Commercial Administration Department. Two years later, he left his job and started his own business, working in real estate agency, pharmaceutical agency, and aviation food industry.

In 1997, invested in Zhang Yimou's movie "Speak Well". After that, movies such as "No One Less", "My Father and Mother", and "House of Flying Daggers" started filming one after another. Among them, "Hero" and "The Golden Armor" successively broke the box office records of domestic movies.

Reasons for listing

In the eyes of movie audiences around the world, the pronoun of "Chinese movies" is almost "Zhang Yimou". In the eyes of the Chinese film industry, the synonym for "Zhang Yimou's movies" is "Zhang Weiping". In 1997, after the first cooperation in "Speak Well" due to an accidental reason, the "Zhang Shuang Group" began a ten-year one-on-one cooperation. This is the only cooperation model in the world, and it seems that it will continue to happen now. continue. After Chinese films gave birth to great directors like Zhang Yimou, they also created "movie tycoons" like Zhang Weiping.

Xintu Pictures, which has successively broken domestic box office records, has only 12 employees from boss to employee, but there are always one or two hundred on-site staff at the premiere of Xintu. Xintu boss Zhang Weiping does not hire temporary workers. He likes to "transfer" people from his friend's company. From being a marketer for foreign companies in his early years, to later becoming a real estate owner, medical agent, and then investing in movies, Zhang Weiping's greatest resource is his "iron buddies." This Shandong man has his own way of making friends.

Our reporter Zhang Jianyue

-Childhood

Grew up in the three major military regions.

Maybe because he is "half a monk", Zhang Weiping's early growth experience is not known to the public. Because he grew up in Shenyang, many people classify him as a Northeastern person; now that he speaks Beijing dialect and has been working in Beijing, he is classified as a Beijinger. However, Zhang Weiping, a native of Shandong and Jinan, still regards himself as a Shandong native.

On October 8, 1958, Zhang Weiping was born into a military family in the Jinan Military Region. His father is an Air Force technician, his mother is a military doctor, and he has an older brother. Before Zhang Weiping was one year old, his family moved to Beijing, "from the Jinan Military Region compound to the Beijing Gongzhufen Air Force compound." Zhang Weiping said.

Not long after arriving in Beijing, the Zhang family added a little daughter. The mother, who was in poor health, could not take care of three children at all. So, four-year-old Zhang Weiping was sent to the Shenyang Military Region to live with his grandparents until he was fifteen. So some people laugh that Zhang Weiping was "raised as an only child" by his grandparents. This is indeed the case. In those years, wherever grandparents went, Zhang Weiping followed them. This kind of growth experience made the influence of grandparents on Zhang Weiping far greater than that of his parents. "I have a very good relationship with my grandparents, and my personality is very similar to that of my grandfather, unlike my father. My father is a doctoral tutor and scholar, and now he receives a State Council subsidy, which is quite boring. But my grandfather is a simple and cheerful person, and I am also very, very boring. Strange, my height is the same as that of my grandfather. My father is only 1.74 meters, I am 1.83 meters, and my grandfather is 1.82 meters tall.”

Zhang Weiping’s frankness is outstanding in the industry. Famous. "When I do things, I always do what I say, and when I take action, I always implement it. I am the kind of person who can't hold anything back. The most unacceptable thing for me is to face a hypocritical face and say What I said was untrue. "

-Transfer

Pharmacist switched jobs to foreign companies

When he was in his senior year of high school, Zhang Weiping returned to Beijing because of his mother's illness. Shortly after his mother's death, 19-year-old Zhang Weiping "stepped up" and entered Beijing Puren Hospital. After studying at Beijing Pharmaceutical College for two years, he began a mediocre career as a pharmacist for nine years. Regarding that experience, Zhang Weiping himself summed it up as "Being a monk and hitting the clock every day is very boring."

The change in life happened in 1988. This year, a friend of Zhang Weiping wanted to help his nephew find a job as a driver for a foreign company. Zhang Weiping happened to know a friend who worked at Siemens in Beijing, so he took his children to Siemens for an interview. But things got a little dramatic.

“After chatting for about half an hour, the HR manager suddenly said that the company no longer needs drivers.

What they need is people like me. Let me go back and think about it. "Ten years later, Zhang Weiping still seemed a little surprised when he talked about this incident. "I thought at the time, I am a pharmacist who has done a good job and is an iron rice bowl! So I didn't take it seriously at first. "

A week later, Siemens called to inquire about the matter. Zhang Weiping argued that he did not understand foreign languages. Unexpectedly, the other party simply said, "Then we will provide you with a translator and driver." "After that, Siemens made several calls again and again, and finally Zhang Weiping was moved. He lost his iron job and became the deputy manager of the Business Administration Department of Siemens Beijing Company.

It is said that when he was at Siemens Beijing Company , Zhang Weiping is the only one who doesn’t speak foreign languages. His job is to sell medical equipment. “When I arrived at a foreign company, I discovered that there is such a world. I suddenly felt very excited and doing things was quite easy. "The manager of the human resources department is really discerning. Half a year later, Zhang Weiping, who had outstanding performance, was promoted to the manager of the enterprise management department.

"The first month's salary is 380 foreign exchange coupons. I got it at Xiushui Street and exchanged it for 760 yuan, while my previous salary was 37 yuan and 50 yuan. Think about it, what that feels like! "Zhang Weiping's life has undergone tremendous changes since then, and his horizons have rapidly broadened. "After two years, I know what the market economy is, and I also know that I need to accumulate some wealth as soon as possible so that I can do things. Siemens' work can no longer meet this demand. "Around 1990, Zhang Weiping quit his job at Siemens and started his own business.

-Career

Started to become famous in real estate movies

In the early 1990s, Hainan was a A hot spot for entrepreneurship. Several friends encouraged Zhang Weiping to go to Hainan to engage in real estate, so Zhang Weiping and his friends went to Hainan. “On the street in front of the Nanhua Hotel, people were sitting there talking about the real estate business. The entrepreneurial impulse of 'Who is in charge of the ups and downs'. "Inspired by this, Zhang Weiping also decided to enter the real estate industry. "At that time, there were not many people engaged in real estate investment, and there was no need to spend money to acquire land.

A few friends and I worked together, and we could make money after we connected the ground three ways and leveled it. ”

Zhang Weiping claimed to be impatient and could not do a single business but had to develop real estate for several years, so he could only work as a real estate agency. However, this allowed him to quickly complete the primitive accumulation of capital and avoid falling into During the real estate bubble. In addition to real estate, Zhang Weiping also expanded into other industries, the most successful of which was supplying airline food to the Capital Airport and working as a pharmaceutical agent. “At that time, as long as the planes docked at the Capital Airport, I would provide all the fast food. of. Speaking of pharmaceutical agents, Zhang Weiping smiled, "In the old society, it was said that 'three robbers are not as good as one medicine seller'. Medicines are not like clothes. If they are expensive, you don't have to buy them. People are sick no matter how much medicine they cost." You have to buy it, this business is really profitable. ”

In 1997, after accidentally coming into contact with movies, Zhang Weiping slowly focused his energy and financial resources on movies. Today, Zhang Weiping has completely given up his business in the fields of real estate and medical agency. , even the airline food business, which makes a steady profit, is in a semi-exit state, only retaining part of the shares to pay dividends every year.

“I like freedom and don’t want to live too hard to make money, so I can live a relaxed life. Just fine. "After New Picture Company became famous, many venture capital institutions came to the door, but Zhang Weiping rejected them one by one, "I originally didn't want to make the company as big as this, so that's fine. It's as big as it can be. I don't want to work for others, so I might as well save my time and "hook up" with my buddies. "

In Zhang Weiping's mind, the position of friends is of vital importance. Zhang Weiping has his own "Tao" on how to have friends who treat each other sincerely. "No matter how powerful a person is, After all, it is limited, and we must need a group of buddies, not just one, not just a few, but a large group, and they come from all walks of life. Whether they can support you without hesitation depends on how you conduct yourself. Only if you are sincere to others will they be willing to help you. "

Zhang Weiping pays attention to quality when making friends - he wants to make friends who are "no hesitation". "I have a trick for making friends now: when I meet a person, I look at what he is like around him. friend.

If he is surrounded by people who seem to be busy and lively, who are older and younger, but in fact they are just acquaintances and change every few days, then this person can only be a business friend or a friend with interests. The key is He is definitely unreliable at all times; if he is surrounded by friends who have been with him for many years, then this person must be worth dating! "

-Anecdotes

"I never signed a contract with Zhang Yimou"

As we all know, Zhang Weiping's best friend is his old partner Zhang Yimou. "We have cooperated. For more than ten years, we have made so many movies, each involving tens or hundreds of millions of investments, but the two of us have never signed a word of contract, and I have never read a script. There may not be another example of our kind of cooperation. "In the circle, it is widely spread that Zhang Weiping "does not read the script": firstly, he does not read the script, and secondly, he does not read the account book.

"Everything depends on mutual trust. Yimou is a person with character and artistic ethics. , I will never be petty and can definitely be trusted. Of course, I treat him with the same sincerity. This is called "treating him with sincerity". "Zhang Weiping is very satisfied with the complementary cooperation between him and Zhang Yimou, "He is a taciturn person, suitable for art, I am an extroverted person, suitable for marketing, and they complement each other. Feng Xiaogang said that he was particularly envious of having me behind Yimou. "

Perhaps the cooperation with Zhang Yimou was so smooth. In Zhang Weiping's eyes, it has been difficult to find other suitable co-directors for him. "In my opinion, the directors who really have market appeal in China are Yimou and Xiao. Just two people, I can't see the others. "After Zhang Yimou was selected as the chief director of the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, many directors approached Zhang Weiping, hoping to fill the vacancy in the film market during Zhang Yimou's departure. However, Zhang Weiping rejected them all, "I just took a two-year break and did my own thing. Yes, he is busy with the Olympics, so I will take a group of buddies on a trip! ”

■Reporter’s Notes

Zhang Weiping is a businessman. Real estate agency, pharmaceutical agent, airline food, and movie blockbuster production, the industries are intertwined, and his family fortune is hundreds of millions, but “talking about business” This is by no means the starting point of the life of this "movie tycoon". Before "talking about business", Zhang Weiping was accustomed to "talking about friendship".

Before filming Zhang Yimou's "Let's Talk" in 1997, Zhang Weiping and We have known each other for many years, but “we only eat, drink and have fun together and never talk about movies. We treat each other as a friend with whom we can talk." At that time, Zhang Weiping was working as a real estate agent, and Zhang Yimou was making movies, each doing his own thing. In 1996, Zhang Yimou and Gong Li broke up, and their careers also hit a low point. They couldn't find investors for their new films, and they were emotionally depressed. He often went to Zhang Weiping to drink to relieve his boredom. When he learned that his friend was in trouble, Zhang Weiping gave more than 20 million to support Zhang Yimou's filming. At that time, Zhang Weiping did not regard the money as an investment because he did not know the film business at all. What happened? The film ended up costing more than 10 million yuan. Zhang Yimou was very embarrassed, but Zhang Weiping took it for granted and said, "You are not a friend if you don't help me at critical moments." It took ten years of close cooperation between "Double Zhang" to achieve the success of "Hero", "House of Flying Daggers", and today's "Golden Armor"

Not only for Zhang Yimou, not only in the film industry, but also in business matters. As long as you listen carefully to Zhang Weiping, there will almost always be some friendship stories behind it: Zhang Weiping's New Picture Film Company only has 12 people. But every time a new movie is released, there are one or two hundred "employees" on site, "all transferred from a friend's company." Zhang Weiping first started working as a hospital pharmacist, and he was hired by Siemens because he helped a friend. , and then entered the business world.

“We have friendship with each other and can trust each other. This kind of business is easy to do. " Zhang Weiping explained. It is reported that in the past ten years, he and Zhang Yimou have collaborated on six or seven movies, with investments ranging from tens to hundreds of millions of yuan. However, the two have never signed a single word of the contract, let alone reconciled the account books. link