Reporter Zhang Jingchao reports from Beijing.
At about 11 o'clock on February 17, 2024, the movie "Eight Rings: The Nether of the Canopy" announced that it would withdraw from the Spring Festival file and postpone its release.
The reporter of "China Business Daily" noticed that this is the fourth film to announce the withdrawal of the Spring Festival file in 2024. Previously, "Let's Shake the Sun Together" and "Huang Pi: The God of Wealth Cat" announced their withdrawal from the 2024 Spring Festival file at 21 o'clock on February 14 and 20 o'clock on February 16 respectively, and "Mr. Red Carpet" also announced its official withdrawal from the 2024 Spring Festival file at 23 o'clock on the evening of February 16 and will be re-released at a later date. "Breaking the War", which is scheduled for February 16, has been selected for online release, and the only Spring Festival films that are still competing in theaters are "Hot and Hot", "Flying Life 2", "Bear Infested: Reversing Time and Space" and "Article 20".
According to public information, the producers behind "Mr. Red Carpet" are Bad Monkey Pictures and Huanxi Media; The main controller of "Let's Shake the Sun Together" is Lianrui Pictures; "Huang Pi: The God of Wealth Cat from the Sky" is produced by Shenzhen Yuankong Cultural Creativity***, Beijing Sky City Cultural Creativity***, etc.; "Eight Rings: The Nether of the Canopy" is produced by 4 companies including Beijing Huanyu Xingman Cultural Communication*** and Zhongqing Xinying Culture Media (Beijing)**.
The above-mentioned films are withdrawn from the 2024 Spring Festival file, which can't help but be embarrassing. "This year's Spring Festival stalls will have a great probability of breaking the record in Chinese film history at many levels such as box office and moviegoers. Although there is still nearly a day before the end of the schedule, there should be no problem for the Spring Festival stalls in 2024 to become the strongest Spring Festival stalls. On the morning of February 17, a person from a theater management company said, "This is also the most brutal competition in history, half of the films have been withdrawn, which also means that only the investors behind the first and second echelon films can get a piece of the pie in the end." ”
Internet vs cutting-edge vs traditional forces
In the list of producers of the three films that announced the withdrawal, there are many cutting-edge forces that have performed well in the Chinese film industry in recent years.
Founded in 2014, Lianrui Pictures has participated in a total of 221 films as a producer3.8 billion yuan at the box office. Among them, "Monster Hunt", which was released in the summer of 2015, won 24The box office of 3.4 billion yuan was the annual box office champion in Chinese mainland that year; "The Mermaid" released during the Spring Festival in 2016 achieved 33The box office of 8.6 billion yuan was also the annual box office champion in Chinese mainland that year; In addition, films such as "Journey to the West" and "Send You a Little Red Flower" released in the summer of 2017 during the Spring Festival were also produced by Lianrui Pictures, ranking among the top ten at the box office that year.
Bad Monkey Pictures was established in 2013, and the actual controller is the famous director Ning Hao. The company has produced films such as "Crazy Stone", "Crazy Racing", "Heart Flower Road" and "No Man's Land". In the summer of 2023, Bad Monkey Pictures, as the main controller of "All or Nothing", is not only the box office champion of the schedule, but also ranks third in the annual box office list.
At the same time, Huanxi Media also has a strong relationship with Ning Hao. In the list of its shareholders, Xu Zheng and Ning Hao both hold 12% of the shares, and Bilibili Danmaku also holds 948% of the shares. In 2023, the box office champion in Chinese mainland "Man Jiang Hong", "I Am Not the God of Medicine, the runner-up of the Spring Festival file, "Crazy Alien" and other films are also in the list of producers of films.
In the competition for the 2024 Spring Festival, in stark contrast to the above-mentioned cutting-edge forces, are the Internet forces represented by Tencent and Alibaba, as well as traditional film companies led by China Film, Guangguang Media, and Hengdian Film and Television.
There are a total of 8 producers behind "Hot and Hot", which leads the box office list of the 2024 Spring Festival, as the main investors of the film, they are ranked by importance, they are Xinli Media, China Film, Alibaba Pictures, China Literature and Television, Big Bowl Entertainment, Sanya Literature and Art Xiaohong, Beijing Pony Riding Culture and Penguin Pictures. Among them, Tencent's Xinli Media, China Literature Film and Television and Penguin Pictures occupy 3 seats, which can be described as one of the biggest winners of this Spring Festival.
"Flying Life 2" and "Hot and Hot" are both the first echelon of the 2024 Spring Festival box office list, and as of 11 o'clock on February 17, the cumulative box office has reached 2.3 billion yuan. Among its 9 producers, in addition to director Han Han's Tingdong Pictures, there are also Alibaba's Taopiaopiao, Maoyan controlled by Guangguang Media, Bona Film, China Film, Happy Twist, Hengdian Film and Television, Ruyi Film and Television, Shanghai Film and other companies that have a pivotal position in the industry.
"Bear Infested: Reversing Time and Space", which ranks third in the box office list, has Huaqiang Fangte, Hengdian Film and Television, China Film, Wanda Film, Confucian Film and Television, and Maoyan as producers. followed by "Article 20", the producers include Guangguang Media, Chinese Film, Happy Twist, Confucian Film and Television, etc.
To sum up the above information, it is not difficult to find that in the 2024 Spring Festival stalls, which is extremely cruel competition, among the cutting-edge film companies, China Film, Hengdian Film and Television, Alibaba Pictures, Guangguang Media, etc., as companies covering multiple industrial links, will also gain benefits from multiple films while reducing and diversifying risks.
How to hedge the risk of film investment?
One of the mainstream ways to reduce the risk of film investment is to diversify the share of film investment. Jin Yan (pseudonym), who is engaged in film production, told reporters that the main producer will generally transfer the film investment share to other investors at a premium in multiple rounds at the production stage such as the maturity of the script, the completion of pre-shooting, and the completion of post-production.
In this process, the transfer of shares often has different degrees of premium. The sooner the producer enters the film production process, the more risks it takes, and the more shares and benefits it will eventually receive. Jin Yan said, "Normally, the more information the producer has about the film, the more shares it will hold, and the less it will transfer it to other investors." But the current situation is that there are as few as five or six producers behind a film, and as many as dozens. At the end of the film, the list of producers and co-producers couldn't even fit a page. ”
Maoyan Professional Edition shows that there are 8 producers and 16 co-producers of "Hot and Hot"; The number of producers and co-producers of "Flying Life 2" is 9; There are 7 producers and 16 co-producers of "Bear Infested: Reversing Time and Space"; The number of producers of Article 20 is as high as 17. Even "Let's Shake the Sun Together", "Huang Pi: God of Wealth Cat" and "Mr. Red Carpet", which withdrew from the Spring Festival file, have as many as 9, 4, and 11 producers respectively.
According to the "2023 China Film Industry Research Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") jointly released by the China Film Association and the Film Art Center of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, in the past 10 years, the number of film investment producers in the top 20 domestic film box office has been rising, and the average number in 2014 was 615, which has increased to 18 in 20229.
The report pointed out that more and more investors are piling up a film, reflecting the high risk of film investment and the lack of accurate prediction ability of film investors on the return of the film market; Moreover, more and more film investors are surrounding the main producers such as Guangguang Media, China Film, and Huanxi Media, which is not conducive to the growth of more film companies with project and control capabilities.
However, there are also many companies in the industry exploring other paths, such as participating in the issuance and derivative development. The person from the above-mentioned theater management company said, "From 2023, the role of publicity and distribution will become more and more important, and the short ** platform is an important position for publicity, especially the popularity of Douyin will greatly affect the scheduling of theaters." From this point of view, publicity and data services may be one of the important development directions in the future. ”
Editor: Zhang Jingchao Proofreader: Yan Yuxia).