Every reporter: Bi Yuanyuan Every editor: Dong Xingsheng
After the theater resumes work in 2020, " Eight Hundred ", as the first blockbuster, not only achieved box office results that exceeded expectations, but also revitalized the morale of Huayi Brothers .
The old film company wants to be "younger" in the face of market changes. During the 24th Shanghai International Film Festival, Huayi Brothers Vice Chairman and CEO Wang Zhonglei accepted an exclusive interview with the Daily Economic News reporter, saying that this year is the first year of Huayi Brothers' animated films. In the second half of this year, not only have two animated films, "Saving the Donuts: Time and Space Rescue" and "Rock Tibetan Mastiff: Blue Ray" have been finalized, "Huayi will have its own animated films in the list every year from now on. ".
Wang Zhonglei Image source: Every photo by reporter Zhang Jian (data map)
Different from other film companies, Huayi Brothers wants to push animation films to the adult market. Wang Zhonglei said that Huayi animation films are characterized by focusing on parent-child and family fun .
"China's animation films are not enough now. I think there should be animation films in the top 10 films every year, so the market space is still very large." Huayi Brothers appeared on the red carpet of the opening ceremony with three films, "Beyond", "Midsummer Future" and "Railroad Hero".
"Beyond" is directed by Han Bowen, with Zheng Kai as the producer and starring. Wang Zhonglei said that he hopes to add a new angle to the domestic film with the story of the new film. The film was released during the Dragon Boat Festival and won the box office champion of the Dragon Boat Festival. As of July 1, "Beyond" had a box office of 140 million yuan.
"Midsummer Future" is scheduled to be released on the Qixi Festival on August 13. The film is based on the campus life and growth of the "post-00s" as a story background, directed by Chen Zhengdao , Zhang Zifeng , Wu Lei starring.Speaking of "Midsummer Future", Wang Zhonglei predicted confidently: "I think it will be a relatively successful commercial and word-of-mouth work this summer." "Railroad Hero" starring , Yu Haoming will be the first to be released on October 1st.
In September 2020, Huayi Brothers continued the tradition and released the seventh season of "H Project ", which covers 18 works by 19 directors. "One year later, Huayi has completed the shooting of 16 films." Wang Zhonglei revealed.
Every time a reporter finds out that in addition to the industrialized commercial blockbusters that Huayi Brothers is good at, animation genres and international blockbusters are also included in the company's film strategy.
” released the three animated films “Saving the Donuts: Time and Space Rescue”, “Blade Bitch” and “Rock Tibetan Mastiff: Blue Ray”, all of which have been produced for three years, and the international film list is not a simple capital investment. They are all produced by the international cooperation companies that Huayi Brothers have deployed internationally." Wang Zhonglei once introduced the thinking of Huayi Brothers' new film layout to every reporter .
In the second half of this year, thinking will be further implemented. The two animated films "Saving the Donuts: Time and Space Rescue" and "Rock Tibetan Mastiff: Blue Ray" have been confirmed to be released in the summer and the Mid-Autumn Festival on September 19.
This is the first answer sheet that Huayi Brothers will hand over three years after entering the animation business. For Wang Zhonglei, animated films have become an important part of Huayi. "This year is the first year of the year, and Huayi will have its own animated films in the list every year."
According to every reporter's statistics, 46 films will be released this summer, including 15 animated films, far more than 10 in 2019 and 11 in 2018.
In the top ten films every year, there should be an animated film
making animation. Huayi Brothers is not too early, but the animation film track still has enough imagination.
An important point that differentiates animated movies from live-action movies is the long chain of IP extension. Wang Zhonglei said that in the film industry in China, if the combination of business models is based on a short time window of a single film, it proves that it is not mature enough.
"Animated movies are a very important part of the movie genre. All mature movie markets are made up of animation." Wang Zhonglei told the reporter.
According to every reporter's statistics, except for the special situation in 2020, the number of animated films with an annual box office of over 100 million has been slowly rising since 2015. In 2015, after " Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage " won a box office of nearly 1 billion yuan, the film market ignited attention to animated films, until 2019 " Nezha: The Devil's Child Comes into the World " won the Only when the box office exceeded 5 billion yuan did the market truly realize the explosive power of animated films.
However, for now only, "Nezha's Devil Child Comes into the World" is not a stable product in the market. Even though "Jiang Ziya", the second part of "Mythical Universe" still received a box office of 1.6 billion yuan, Wang Changtian, chairman of Guangguang Media , publicly reflected: "The box office of "Jiang Ziya" is not bad, but the content is still flawed."
This year It is the "big year" of animated films, with about 80 animated films to be released. As of June 29, there have been 4 animated films with a box office of over 100 million yuan, namely "Bears in the Wild Continent" with a box office of 595 million yuan, "New God List: Rebirth of Nezha" with a total of 456 million yuan, and "Nezha Rebirth" with a total of 168 million yuan. Wishing Dragon " and 112 million yuan "Journey to the West: Rebirth of the Demon King".
Wang Zhonglei also observed that with imported films, on average, at least two animated films are released every week." Chinese movie now has a rigid demand for animated films, regardless of the size of the market, the industrial system, or the needs of the audience." Wang Zhonglei said, "We have laid out an industrial chain for a long time, including online and offline and live-action parks. We really need some IPs for family fun.”
According to Huayi Brothers’ 2020 annual report, the operating income of from the brand licensing and live entertainment segment is .125 billion, second only to the revenue of the film and television entertainment segment.
Wang Zhonglei took the bear haunt as an example, the bear haunt IP's pull on the other side of the park has been on the right track. "They are more driven by the future offline derivative products, and then the production and sales of bears in the film every time, more for derivative toys and licensing. This part of the income may have been far behind the film. Ontology, which is difficult for other types of films to produce."
Huayi Animation Film's " Rock Tibetan Mastiff " series has been developed to the third part, Wang Zhonglei said that Huayi animation films are not characterized by shooting adult-oriented films. Instead, it focuses on parent-child and family fun.
Image source: Maoyan Professional Edition
"China's animation movies are not enough now. I think there should be animation movies in the top 10 movies every year, so the market space is still very large."
When the film company develops into a global Industry chain companies will again need capital to help the
movie market change rapidly, especially after an epidemic, the viewing patterns and consumption habits of audiences are changing.
Speaking of this, Wang Zhonglei said frankly that this kind of change will have an impact on movies to some extent, but as an art system that has been born for more than 100 years, the market structure of movie has not changed because of the epidemic, but the market has changed in stages. .
From the outbreak of the Spring Festival file "Hello, Li Huanying" to the Qingming file "My Sister" became a dark horse at the box office, the most primitive human emotions such as mother-daughter love and sister-brother love have become more and more touching. "After that, there will be movies with fathers and brothers as the main lines. Now audiences prefer movies that show the emotional conflict of modern people. On the contrary, some movies made by big IPs may not have performed well recently. However, for movies like Huayi, Content companies, adhering to the principle of telling a good story, I think it will be beneficial.”
In addition, another obvious change in the film market this year is that blockbusters and box office tend to be concentrated, resulting in a dismal box office in the non-scheduled market. Throughout April, there were even 6 days where the box office did not reach 30 million yuan. "This phenomenon also exists in the film market, but it is becoming more and more obvious now, because the film itself is an entertainment product, and it definitely tends to be weekends and holidays. This is the siphon effect of the normal market. Good movies are placed at a certain time. The market space is more imaginative." Wang Zhonglei believes.
However, the extension of the off-season is also an indisputable fact. "I think it is difficult to change by a single company, and I hope there will be some commercial and policy skills. For example, cinema wants to attract some capable films to the usual holidays. Is it possible to communicate with the distribution company and content during non-holidays? The company talked about the change in the form of account sharing. This requires the efforts of both parties, and effective discussions can also be carried out in terms of policies.”
The current enthusiasm for the film industry is indeed not as good as in 2015 during its heyday, but the capital’s attention to film and culture , investment has not completely disappeared. "Content companies like Huayi and Guangguang, and offline cinema platform companies like Wanda Films , did not take the initiative to connect a lot of capital, on the contrary, we were passive.Wang Zhonglei said that many times, the outside world has exaggerated the market size of the industry. After the tsunami-like wave of capital has receded, the current content company is at a good time.
"We are not starting anew, because the industry itself does not need For capital that is too large and too heavy, more capital links can play a role in industrial integration, development and growth. "
Image source: Maoyan Professional Edition
Back to why Huayi is developing animation movies, Wang Zhonglei bluntly said that this will open up the industry chain. "There are already many mature cases at home and abroad, which are to convert animation IP into new products, New market item. If there is good capital to connect them, it will be a good direction. "
If capital joins hands with content companies to build a large media company, Wang Zhonglei believes that the valuation will rise again. Wang Zhonglei takes Mango Supermedia as an example. The company not only has policy dividends, but also has , Mango TV as a platform, as well as the foundation of TV stations. Supermedia has not only become the only profitable company in the domestic video industry, but also has a market value of 100 billion at a stable line.
Wang Zhonglei believes that the current Chinese film and television industry is in a period of underestimation. "Now back to the content itself, However, in the future, the development direction of China's large film companies should be a relatively large-scale company in the industry chain, and at that time, capital will be greatly needed. Besides funding, they may bring something more that we content creators don't know. "
Daily Economic News
