The Box Office Of Dragon Boat Festival Stalls Is Dismal, And Film Giants Have More Troubles

"Fierce and bleak."

When it comes to the main forum of the Shanghai Film Festival in June, most participants will feel that way.

It is very rare for the entertainment industry leaders who always pay attention to relationship and dignity to "choke on each other" in the film festival forum, which shows the depth of resentment.

On June 12, at the Opening Forum of Shanghai International Film Festival, Yu Dong, founder, chairman and President of Bona film, bombarded cat's eyes and high service fees for ticket shopping. He believes that it is unreasonable for online ticket platforms to charge 3-5 yuan for each ticket sold. He even made a direct comparison between the service fee and the cost of the office, saying that "from the perspective of industry development, (service fee) can not exceed the national standard. At least the special funds are used for the development of the film and television industry. Where is the service fee

"You can take out your mobile phone and have a look. Yesterday, the box office of the day before the Dragon Boat Festival was 75 million. How much is the service charge removed? More than 67 million, of which 8 million are service fees. " Yu Dong said.

At the China Film and television capital summit on June 11, Wang Changtian, chairman of the board of light media, did not deny that there was a very serious "triangle debt" problem in the film industry, "the cinema owes money to the distribution company, the distribution company owes money to the production company, the production company owes money to each other, and the production company still owes money to the chief creators".

All the arguments emphasize the same problem, lack of money, but eventually the outlet is clogged. According to the statistics released by the state film special finance office, the box office of the film "Dragon Boat Festival" (from June 12 to June 14) in 2021 is about 466 million yuan, which is at a historical low point. Based on the large number of more than ten films, the industry generally expected the box office of "Dragon Boat Festival" to exceed 1 billion yuan this year.

From 2015 to 2019, the films "Dragon Boat Festival" are 605 million yuan, 846 million yuan, 760 million yuan, 912 million yuan and 785 million yuan respectively, which is in a gradual upward trend. Affected by the epidemic situation, cinemas will be closed in 2020.

From the film point of view, Zheng Kai's sports inspirational film "beyond" won 88.783 million box office in three days; The American cartoon "bide rabbit 2: escape plan" was released for 4 days, and the box office was 77.2031 million yuan; The tropical past, which is supervised by Ning Hao and starred by Peng Yuyan and Zhang Aijia, has a box office of 52.35 million in three days. None of the films made more than 100 million at the box office.

In addition, the film giants are also facing a strong invasion of Internet companies. On June 13, Tencent pictures released a list of 70 works, including time melody series, Oriental story series and international exploration series. Tencent pictures, together with Xinli media and Yuewen film and television, have formed a "troika", which is creating its own ecology.

A number of project directors have stated that the key to cooperation with Tencent is that they own the copyright, and Tencent has gone deep into the whole process of the main investment projects.

On the other side of the world, Amazon announced a wholly-owned acquisition of MGM for $8.45 billion. So far, in addition to Disneyland, eight Hollywood film companies have been acquired.

Capital is moving away from the film industry

The film giants are still in the ice age, although they have the most resources in the industry.

According to the financial report, Huayi Brothers had a revenue of 397 million yuan and a net profit of 235 million yuan in the first quarter, but its non net profit was a loss of 70.891 million yuan. From 2018 to 2020, the losses of Huayi Brothers will reach 1.169 billion yuan, 3.978 billion yuan and 1.048 billion yuan respectively. In the first quarter, Huayi's debt ratio rose to 65% from 63% in 2020.

Light media tried to maintain stability during the ice age. In the first quarter, its revenue was 239.8 million yuan and the net profit was 198 million yuan. In 2020, the revenue of light will be 1.159 billion yuan, a decrease of 59.04% year on year; The net profit was 291 million yuan, with a year-on-year decrease of 69.28%.

The light has repeatedly said to the public that it has adopted prudent and prudent strategies in terms of funds. Even so, the balance of cash and cash equivalents at the end of the first quarter fell to 1.515 billion yuan, compared with 2.175 billion yuan in the same period last year.

Capital market reaction is very direct. On June 15, Huayi Brothers closed at 3.75 yuan, down 2.19%; Light media closed at 11.3 yuan, down 1.48%.

It is true that the film giants are suffering from poor performance due to multiple reasons such as epidemic situation and projects not meeting expectations. However, in Wang Changtian's view, capital blockade is an important factor.

"Since the second half of 2018, the attitude of the whole capital towards the film and television industry has undergone a significant change, resulting in a sharp decrease in investment in the whole industry. For example, in terms of equity investment, few companies can get equity investment in the initial stage of establishment or operation. As for the investment of the project itself, the capital has also decreased sharply, resulting in many projects unable to start. Basically, it is a policy of blockade. There are no new companies listed in our industry, and there is no way to raise funds. Directly, some enterprises and listed film and television companies also have capital problems. " He said.

As the most well preserved survivor of strength, Wang Changtian is not too optimistic. For the future, he said, "it is not clear.".

Why does capital "block" the film industry? Yan Yan, founding managing partner of Saifu Asia Investment Fund, believes that there are too many uncontrollable factors.

"The box office in China accounts for almost 90% of the revenue, but in the United States, the box office usually only accounts for about 30% of the revenue. One third and two-thirds of the revenue comes from the back market, including DVD, cable pay TV, and derivatives (income) are also very high. "Titanic," for example, grossed more than $2 billion at the box office, but nearly $20 billion came from behind. " Yan Yan explained at the China Film and television capital summit.

Yan Yan also stressed that uncontrollable factors in the film industry are full of various links. In China, the director centered system is adopted. There are projects in which all the investment is wasted after the director is arrested for whoring. In addition, the general environment also affects the weak film projects“ A lot of cast members, the investors promised to invest, and in the end, half of the money was paid out, and the second half of the money was gone. They said that the real estate is not good recently, the house can't be sold, and the money can't reach the position. " He said.

The high risk of Chinese film completion is another major difficulty“ If there are actors who have some personal problems in the process of filming, they will not be able to make the film. A Chinese filmmaker can only get about 30% of the box office income, and the other 70% will be distributed to different channels. And American production companies, a film, can get about 60% - 70% of the money. China has been divided too much. " Yan Yan added.

This year, the box office of Dragon Boat Festival is less than 500 million, which is in a historical low. Visual China

Internet giants speed up enclosure

While the film giants are exhausted for financing, the dimension reduction of Internet companies is increasing.

Cheng Wu, vice president of Tencent group, CEO of Yuewen group, CEO of Tencent pictures and chairman of Tencent animation, revealed at the press conference that his "troika" will make efforts in three directions, including realistic themes, systematic development of high-quality Internet and animation IP, and promotion of exploration of ecological creativity and production industrialization.

So far, achievements have been made. Director Xu Hongyu told the 21st century economic report that he volunteered to invite Cheng Wu to be the director of the film and television version of the cartoon "under one man.". The works directed by Xu Hongyu, including "like you" starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Zhou Dongyu, and "home at one point" starred by Liu Haoran, all won double box office reputation.

Tencent's biggest barrier lies in IP. Cheng Wu revealed that in 2020, the most popular online drama, the proportion of online adaptation has increased to 60%. In addition, according to the "evaluation report on the adaptation potential of Internet Literature IP films and TV dramas" released by the China Film Association, among the 46 listed IPS, reading accounts for more than 52%, of which, among the most valuable first tier, reading accounts for 75%.

In addition, Tencent is also involved in the production process, which was originally the core advantage of film giants“ The production team is still my own, but Tencent has gone deep into the whole process. The production team of sunri is excellent. " Another well-known director told reporters of the 21st century economic report.

In the face of Internet companies with capital, traffic and even IP, the advantages of traditional film and television giants are quite limited, and even it is difficult to bear the title of "giant".

In this case, they are also looking for their own way out. Light media chose to dig deep into animation, Huayi Brothers are telling stories about the integration of culture and tourism, and bona film is betting on the main theme.

"It's hard to say which one has found the way, but the existing path is certainly not going to work. Traditional film companies will only become more and more passive. " There is a head of the film, former executives told the 21st century economic reporter.

He chose to start his own business in the giant ecology.

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