Ruco Chan Pockets $500,000 in 3 Months, Becomes New Darling Among Advertisers
Despite the poaching battle for TVB artists, Ruco Chan (陳展鵬), who rose to sudden popularity after leading for the first time in The Other Truth <真相>, was not part of the current recruitment efforts among rival television stations. He could only focus on doing his own job well at TVB. Three months after signing a management contract with TVB in August 2011, he has already earned his salary worth of $500,000 HKD, proving that there were a lot of monetary opportunities waiting at TVB too!
Earning His Worth in 3 Months
After working at ATV for six years, 34-year-old Ruco Chan joined TVB in 2008. Achieving immense popularity after the airing of The Other Truth, Ruco became highly promoted by TVB. Producer Amy Wong (王心慰) substantially increased Ruco’s screen time in ATF Counter Terrorism Unit < ATF反恐>and cast him as the male lead actor, causing Ron Ng (吳卓羲) to step aside. A month ago, Ruco signed a TVB management contract with an annual salary of $500,000 HKD.
After completing ATF Counter Terrorism Unit in September, Ruco fully immersed in earning “real” money, appearing at restaurant performances, mall promotions, travel agency shows, and insurance seminars, accepting all forms of short-term advertising. In the last two months, Ruco took on nearly twenty outside jobs, excluding his normal filming requirements and appearances in TVB variety programs. His income from these outside shows already amounted to $500,000 HKD, allowing Ruco to achieve his salary target within three months. Any additional jobs will become incremental income.
Fans Fighting To Kiss Him
Ruco revealed, “Many jobs were offered to me after the broadcast of The Other Truth, such as the insurance seminar. The insurance company felt that my lawyer image was deeply ingrained [in the public’s minds] and was convinced I possessed the adequate life-experience, since the press dubbed me as a ‘dead fish revived after 17 years.’ As for the Alainmikli optical ad, many customers called to ask about their glasses after I wore the brand in The Other Truth. Thus, Alainmikli decided to ask me to film an advertisement for their optical line.”
Staying at TVB posed a lucky streak for Ruco Chan. On October 12th, Ruco appeared as a guest performer at god-sister, Suzan Guterres’ (李麗霞) concert. In the same evening, Ruco flew to Melbourne, Australia to appear as a special guest at a local Asian beauty pageant. Closely following will be appearances in Macau, Zhuhai, Malaysia, and Vancouver.
At Suzan Guterres’ concert, Ruco was the first performer to appear due to his need to take a subsequent flight to Australia. Ruco sang Latent <潛伏>, the theme song to The Other Truth and Jacky Cheung’s (張學友) Unwilling to Let You Go <怎麼捨得你>. Ruco and god-sister Suzan Guterrez sang the duet, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow <明天你是否依然愛我>, after which a large group of female fans rushed to the side of the stage to offer lucky packets, hugging and kissing him. Ruco was very responsive to his fans.
Three Series On Hand
At 9 PM that evening, Ruco arrived at the Hong Kong airport while accompanied by his manager to take an 11 PM flight to Melbourne, Australia. Ruco’s excited fans rushed to the airport via taxicabs to bid farewell to him.
In December, Ruco will be filming TVB series, Big Eunuch <大太監>with Wayne Lai (黎耀祥) and Maggie Cheung (張可頤). After which, Ruco will film The Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang <酉陽雜俎> with Bosco Wong (黃宗澤)and Aimee Chan (陳茵媺). Including ATF Counter Terrorism Unit, Ruco will have three series on hand. Perhaps he will attain even greater opportunities in the coming year!
Source: Next Magazine # 1128
Jayne: Not bad, so Ruco is slated to earn under a cool million (HKD) this year. Since he is pegged to win the Most Improved Actor Award this year, his appearance fees should only rise, helping him earn even more money next year!
Hong Kong tabloids are quite resourceful in giving us an idea of how much money celebrities earn, even leaking very specific appearance fees!
Good for him, he deserved it.
totally agree!!! ^^v
After several years of dying for an good oppertunity, he nailed it. I am not convinced of his acting but The O.T was his first leading role, he will be better as time goes by
well it’s a win-win situation for both the advertisers and Ruco 🙂
He really deserves this.
I’m so happy for him, he deserves this. 🙂
Monica says:
Ruco, congrats to you. All your hardwork pays off and you deserve it. May you continue having this streak of good luck and with your hard work, I am sure you can continue to earn even more. All the best.
TVB’s new cash cow. Nah, he deserves more. 500 000 HK is so paltry considering his workload. At least bump up the hourly rate man!!!!!!
Producer Amy Wong (王心慰) substantially increased Ruco’s screen time in ATF Counter Terrorism Unit and cast him as the male lead actor, causing Ron Ng (吳卓羲) to step aside.
Poor Ron.
^_one must scarify for other people’s happiness _^
If it’s true, then Ron’s fans have reasons to get mad.
This, I agree. Poor Ron
yeah esp. when it’s obvious who’s the most talented in terms of acting.
Let both’s fans beat each other to death…we will have a chance to be drinking while they are fighting.
Let me start the fire. Ron seemed to be more famous in the past than he is right now. He played leading roles in a few series and I have to say: for all actor who played leading role in TVB series, Ron was the worst one. I see his acting career going down. This year I saw he playing high suporting roles in Yes Sir Sorry Sir and the one with Kate – these roles were so nothing, even without him the ywo series would have been fine.
sorry for a few mispelled words. Oh, I forgot to mention, Ruco Chan and Ron both suck but Ruco Chan will improve and Ron will stay the same as he is right now – bad.
@WhoAmI: Ron is younger than Ruco, why Ruco can improve but Ron can’t?
Ron is undeniably cute, but he lack charisma on screen.
You mean ‘sacrifice’?
He is cute but I wish he can replace another pair of glasses. He looks kind of nerdy in my opinion.
I hope he can win for most improve and most popular this year.
If you guys were wonder how much 500000 hkd= to usd…its around 65000. I am kind of confuse, his annual salary is only 500000 hkd, he don’t get pay per episode?
Kay,
I think Ruco would get paid his annual base salary of $500k HKD.
Additional money should come from:
1) # of episodes filmed per year times filming fee per episode
2) promotional event appearance fees
Yeah, that’s what I thought.. 500k is annual salary on contract. For instance if he didn’t work that year he would still pocket that 500k.
From Joel’s old word, if Ruco doesn’t work that year, he might be cut down the salary. It’s TVB’s sole decision.
I’ve noticed him previously (when he was only an extra in other investigation series) and thought his acting was quite good, and wondered why he wasn’t popular since he’s also very good looking.
Now, finally someone notices him.
I’m glad that Ruco’s getting noticed! However, leading roles tend to be rather uninteresting and exhaustive, while supporting roles tend to be really interesting. Tavia, for example, are one of those actresses who shine a lot more doing supporting roles. I hope Ruco’s roles continue to be interesting!
Ruco and Tavia are different. Ruco makes it with his first leading role but Tavia failed to make it. She was a darling before in her supporting roles, but she’s lacking in her leading roles.
I also consider Ruco to be a much better actor than Tavia in general. Tavia’s only good at portraying certain roles.
Couldn’t be happier for Ruco. He’s getting the recognition and the salary he deserves. 🙂 Wish him even more success to come!
Would like to see the performance of his mentioned in the article. Want to hear his cover of the theme song of “The Other Truth”. 🙂 Have any fans uploaded it online?
here you go Ruco singing The Other Truth’s themesong! Wish he sang the song for the actual series. He has strong vocal skills if you’ve watched his two medleys for ATV’s commercial awards 2005 and 2006 in the past!
The Other Truth Themesong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUkZ2pnB04s
ATV Commercial Song Medley 2005
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAXmEtxiBow
ATV Commercial Song Medley 2006
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIJ_d-NCHL0
Thank you for the links! Great performances. I love his energy, hehe. His vocal skills, range, and control is a lot better than most others. Wish he would’ve sang the theme song for TOT too. His voice is more fitting. He’ll probably have more chances to sing for TVB in the future?
Congrats to Ruco. That means 2 million a year and not counting his TVB salary?
Sooner or later he might have performances in mainland China, US and Canada just like what other siu sangs are always doing 😉
I didn’t notice Vancouver in the article so he already had concert in Canada! Great jump for Ruco. His fees will only rise more next year after the Most Improvement award
Hey lol
Ruco is coming for the Miss Vancouver. He haven’t arrived yet, but he will when Miss Vancouver happens.
Not all the month can earn the same amount. Might be more or less.
Is this true? Producer Amy Wong (王心慰) substantially increased Ruco’s screen time in ATF Counter Terrorism Unit and cast him as the male lead actor, causing Ron Ng (吳卓羲) to step aside.
I think it’s just rumour only. Ron’s name is always first before Ruco in all the events for ATF so far.
All the entertainment new sources both Chinese and English (which usually translate their sources from the Chinese)appears to imply this is true. Personally, I like Ruco’s style of acting very much and have no problem with him getting more screen time but after reading this piece I’m fearing that he might get ‘overexposed’ with so many series of his coming out one after another in such s short space of time.
well so far he only has two series that have complete but haven’t aired which is 3 kingdoms and ATF. Filming for the Eunuch series haven’t started and that will probably take several months to film. As for the series with Bosco and Aimee it’s a wonder whether it will actually film since it’s just a sales presentation. And many times the actors of the sale clip are all temporary and uncomfirmed. Truthfully I’d rather they film the Majong series I loved the cast and the storyline looked so good! Just as long as they don’t pair up Ruco with Natalie ><"
Ruco is too good for Aimee Chan or Natalie. Pair him with a better and more experienced actress!
The Mahjong series. I remember this was one of the series in the sales presentation that I like and hope will actually get made. I don’t remember who played in the sales presentation though, except Yuan Wah as the dad. But, I remember liking the concept.
@Kidd: I rmb the sale clip has Linda. Guess that this one turned River of Wine already, always think that.
@Vivien: How do you feel if a better and more experienced actress’s fans comment that Ruco is using this actress to climb high and this actress is too good for Ruco?
Ruco will overexpose soon, it’s predicted after he becomes TVB’s fave.
@Fox
Ruco is experienced and well known as a great actor. There’s noting for experienced actress to complain because Ruco is as good if not better than them. Aimee and Natalie are still a bunch of newbies who can’t act. I think TVB is just using Ruco to promote the likes of Aimee, Natalie. Ruco can do better.
I don’t think he is well-known as a great actor at all. I don’t say anything about his acting or he is a great actor or not (because from wat I watch about him in the past, he dun leave any memory on me and I didn’t watch as well as don’t plan to watch TOT), but can’t deny that his fame only comes from TOT, means from 2011. That’s why the experience actress’s fans can complain that she will have to boost him up or promote him, since before TOT he is only a supporting, and actually has complaints like this.
And Natalie isn’t a newbie at all. Aimee, you can say she is a newbie because she is in the industry for few years, but Natalie joined quite long ago.
Never give up + patience leads to reward. Well done!
Good for him.
Ruco is very verstile in his looks.
He looks good even with lots of facial hair….lol…..
Ron is boring!
agree!! ron is boring >,<!!
love ruco ^^v
I was wondering who this Ruco Chan was so finally I watched “The Other Truth” – and wow, I must admit I’m a new fan now. He is one of the few newer people (although he is not really new from what I’ve read) that I like… (note: I am NOT fond of the Raymond Lam, Ron, Linda etc. bunch). Finally for TVB – a refreshing face with talent! This guy looks great and yes, love that he can be versatile. He can sing too apparently. I only hope he won’t ever be paired with Linda, Myolie, Kate gang – but unfortunately… who else is left?? Looking forward to ATF but am disappointed that Aimee Chan is taking on the female lead – Yoyo Mung would have been a better lead (she deserves it!)… and I hope he ends up with her instead.
I am a new fan too, welcome to the club…lol
Agreed. Aimee Chan can’t act. TVB is using Ruco to promote her.
I will say that TVB is using Aimee to promote Ruco and let’s see how Ruco fans react, lol.
In ATF, Aimee is leading over Yoyo??? I can’t believe this… I hope it’s not true because Aimee can’t act and Yoyo is so much better! I’m looking forward to ATF only for Yoyo and Ruco. I hope Ruco ends up with Yoyo, too!
@swtlav3ndar
I was under the impression that Yoyo would be the female lead, although Aimee Chan will be in a love triangle with Ruco and Ron. Allegedly, Ruco was presumed dead by Aimee, thus Ruco’s younger brother (Ron) took care of Aimee, causing the pair to fall for each other.
I think it was mentioned in an earlier article that Ruco and Aimee will get back together in the end? (That’s probably why a lot of Ron fans were so upset, lol – Ron’s character is a “third person” and therefore not as likeable as the mysterious Ruco) But Yoyo has a thing for Ruco in the show, so we’ll definitely get to see some Ruco/Yoyo scenes.
I’m upset that Aimee was even casted the first place LOL. And she’s also in Lee Tim-shing’s new anticipated drama… I have nothing against Aimee, but she has really needs to brush up her acting! She was really cute in “Every Move You Make”, though.
He’s coming to Malaysia. Or is he here already> Anyway he’s either coming or gone but point is the sexy has either landed or landing. Whatever. Head a bit giddy, but not because of Mr Glassy Smexy but rather well… something else.
he was there last weekend.. he should have left by now… haha!!
@Jess,
Did you see Ruco in Malaysia? Please tell us the details if you were there! 🙂
Oh done and gone already? The ads were like just yesterday.
i wasn’t there but there are many videos on youtube which you can watch..
here’s one of it.. http://youtu.be/poJH06onrw4
this person actually upload many high quality videos of the promotional even in malaysia..
Jess,
Thank you for the link! The fans were so sharp! I didn’t recognize a lot of the theme songs!
I don’t know his acting because I never watch his series,but his singing not superb,just ok for me,at least better than Bosco
How many actor turned singers actually sing “that” well???
“That” well mean Ruco’s level? Ok, maybe good voice is on the beholder’s ears but to my ears, I can have a not so short list.
Ruco’s singing technique is ok, maybe that’s why he wanna be a singer first, but his voice doesn’t fit my ears. It’s like voice of the ones who live in 80s. Not sweet enough.
If he’s so good, why didn’t he succeed in his singing career? It only means that his singing do not have enough audience LOL
So far I’ve been notice LF(which I notice his voice in TLB theme song long before I notice that he is actually an actor),Susanna Kwan,and last but not least;Myolie Wu(who has been improve a lot since her bad singing debut).
You may try to listen to Mimi Lo, Mimi Chu, Wu Fung, Loretta Chow and maybe Cilla Kung. Loretta and Cilla have cute voice. Joyce Cheng is also a good one to listen.
Although I’m not a fan of SM’s voice but his voice is quite ok to listen. Chilam has a quite good voice but like SM’s, not my gout :P.
Haha, I tried to listen the old album of Jacky Wu and it isn’t bad at all.
@Fox @Norika
Actually Michael Tse surprised me with his voice; he has a singer quality to his voice and good delivery.
Some TVB artists may have the right pitch, but lack the emotion in delivering the lyrics. Like a good actor, simply reading the words is not enough. Music studios have equipment to auto-tune voices, so anyone can sound pitch perfect from a studio recording. The right delivery includes putting emotion and weight on the proper words to perform music that touches upon the audience.
@Jayne: Maybe because I listened to Micheal live twice and my feeling when listening to him is not good, so I don’t find Micheal as a good vocal :P. But after I listened his voice in the CD (of course, having a little edit), it sounds better than the live performance.
I often judge a person by his live performance more than the studio version because I know the magic that studio can do now. There are 2 factors for me: Voice and singing technique. Voice is wat they are born with but the singing technique shows their hard-work and improvement. The emotion, like you said, is an addition point to make the singer boring or not.
@Fox
Studio recording allows for auto-tune refining, thus anyone can sound amazing. As for the live version, they can also lip synch, as some singers reportedly do at Hong Kong Coliseum performances. If truly singing live, then the quality of the venue’s sound equipment and speakers can do wonders. I have seen Joey Yung perform in the USA a long time ago and her voice squeaked into the microphone, partly because of poor stage set up.
“Voice is wat they are born with but the singing technique shows their hard-work and improvement. The emotion, like you said, is an addition point to make the singer boring or not.”
Yep, agree. For example, Eason Chan mumbles his lyrics a bit, but he injects good emotion into his music. Some singers are better live performers because they work up the crowd’s energy and make the fans feel the music much more than CD version. Again Eason is a good example.
@Jayne: For the live performance, agree that the sound equipments and speaker’ quality affect. However in Michael’s case, the quality of these stuffs for both times I listened to him live is good so I think it’s part of his not good performance. Moreover, these occasions not only have Micheal but others then I also have more chance to compare.
Uhm, I’m not a fan of Eason’s performance so maybe using Eason as an example will be hard for me to imagine :P. I rmb the time when I listened to Eason and Hacken live in a same event, I thought Hacken is a better performer and delivered more emotions to me. BTW, this day, Mimi Chu was the one who made me feel the voice the best.
I like Chilam,Leo Ku and JJ Lin but they are not actor turn singer.
hey do you all remember Michael Tse was in “Fung For Hoi” (Wind Fire Sea) and Steven Ma was also debute as a singer? Oh is Kevin Cheng also?? that was ages ago but I have that impression.
@ Noriko
I only ‘remember’ Steven Ma. Michael Tse and Kevin Cheng, I only know they used to be singers after they became actors. But, for Steven, I already know him as a singing when he was still a singer releasing albums.
@ Fox
“Ruco’s singing technique is ok, maybe that’s why he wanna be a singer first, but his voice doesn’t fit my ears. It’s like voice of the ones who live in 80s. Not sweet enough.”
80s have many great singers. Yeah, I agree voice is in the ears of the beholder. I like 80’s singers’ voice. I find their voice more solid. Actually, when Raymond sangs those old TVB themesongs like TLB’s themesong, he also sounds like 80s singers.
I cannot remember any songs by FFH. Besides I think Jordan was the lead vocal and Michael was like a background dancer.
Anyway, I think letting Steven, Kevin, bowie, Bosco, Ron, et al sing themesongs is a win-win situation. TVB saves money on paying real singers and the artists get to satisfy their craving for singing.
Btw, my favorite 80’s themesong will always be Alan tam’s “who can change”.
‘Who Can Change’ is my favourite Alan Tam song. The melody is beautiful and Alan sing it well. But, the guy in the song is very ‘fan jin’. 😛
The girl loves him so much but he rejects the girl. When, the girl finally gives up, he realises that he loves the girl and wants her back. But, she doesn’t want him anymore.
Alan Tam’s MV make the story more touching by making the girl dies instead of not wanting the guy anymore.
@RayIan: I don’t rmb about Chilam but Leo Ku debuted as an actor before turning singer :). He was a young TVB actor but don’t leave much impression on the audience’s heart, then he went to China to do actor job and also not very successful. After the success of a series with Vickie Zhao, Ruby Lin and Alec Su, he decided to turn singer. Honesty, this time, I think he is making a bad decision since his voice was kinda bad. But he improved so much after that few years and I felt surprised at her vocal improvement.
@Kidd: Haha, Ruco’s voice reminds me of the ones who sang old TVB themesongs :P. I like low and sweet voice. If Ron has good singing technique, he has potential to be my fave. Too bad, he dun have and also didn’t improve.
For TVB actor who can sing, I’m most impressed with this guy. Kwok Cheuk Wah. The guy in black shirt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyRept570pM
Too bad he’s only a 3rd line actor who won’t ever have chance to sing TVB themesong.
TVB actually has a lot of actors who can sing like Mimi Lo, Rain Lau Yuk Chui, Fred Cheng, Lui Shan. TVB should let them sing the themesongs.
@Kidd – Wow, he is great! And yes, Rain Lau and Mimi Lo have excellent voices! If TVB doesn’t want to give them larger, more prominent roles, at least let them sing theme songs!
Ricky Wong (王俊棠), another TVB third/fourth-line actor, is also an excellent singer. But there are those who recognize Ricky’s talent in singing, so he is doing shows occasionally.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkLG7zbUtCg
@Addy
Not everyone like opera types songs,as for me,I prefer ballads and pop rock,that’s why I like Bryan Adams(Canadian singer),Michael Learns to Rock(a Danish band),LF,Chilam,Leo Ku and JJ Lin
@Raylan – Oh, I wasn’t trying to imply that Ricky Wong should sing every single song of every single genre, I was just using Ricky Wong as an example of someone who CAN sing. I don’t like opera either, but there’s no denying that opera singers are excellent vocalists. They enunciate well, sing with proper vocal techniques, and they have mighty strong voices. Opera singers also are very flexible singers – they can pretty much sing in every genre.
@ Raylan
Ricky Wong does have good singing technique.
Bosco is quite ok with Rap but not ok with love ballads and the songs that requires voice and singing technique.
I think it’s his voice that effect the most. His voice does not suit love ballads, but his rap was cute
I like his love ballads, especially the light and easy type. His voice is very pleasant when singing this type of songs.
hey, who likes Ron’s singing? he is cute! and LF songs touches me before his acting. Like Ruco sing not until i watched him sing Leo Ku’s “愛得太遲” at ATV advertising award ceremony, think his range(high + low) and rhythm not bad at all
Ron has voice but too bad, he has no singing technique. That’s why his live performance isn’t good for all the time.
I can’t wait to see him in the up coming series for 2011:. ATF, Back to The Three Kingdoms, The Great Eunuch, The other Trush 2, and maybe The Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang.
here’s his performance during miss chinese melbourne 2011.. i felt that he sang quite well.. much better than many other tvb singers..
http://youtu.be/suVtLwBrlHk
He is a good singer. There are actually a lot of good singers in TVB, but TVB only let’s the promoted ones, aka the ones who CAN’T sing, sing. It’s sad and stupid.
He is not good with high notes,maybe he should practice more
He is good actor so good for him!
He’s famos now. Even though he sold” His body contract”.