It is not difficult to see from the 2021 financial report that in addition to a few companies such as Wanda Film and Maoyan Entertainment, more film and television companies mainly based on film business, such as Huayi Brothers, Light Media, Huanxi Media, Jinyi Film and Televisio

Image source @Visual China

Text｜Yu Shuer, author｜Yiqing, edited｜Zhisan

The cold winter theory of the film and television industry has appeared in the topics of every financial report season in recent years, and 2022 is no exception.

It is not difficult to see from the 2021 financial report that in addition to a few companies such as Wanda Movie and Maoyan Entertainment, more film and television companies mainly based on film business, such as Huayi Brothers, Light Media, Huanxi Media, Jinyi Film and Television, and ST Beiwen, are all in a loss-making state.

Since 2018, Huayi Brothers has shrunk from a net profit attributable to a loss of 1.169 billion yuan to a loss of 246 million yuan in 2021; Light Media turned profit to a loss in 2021, and the net profit attributable to a parent was 312 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 207.09%.

In contrast, there are a few signs of improvement in drama companies - destocking, losing bags, and rolling projects. One year after Straw Bear was listed, its annual adjusted net profit was approximately RMB 194 million; Huanrui Century suffered losses for three consecutive years, but also learned to give up inappropriate projects; on the other hand, New Classics Media and Huace Film and Television, which mainly produce dramas, continue to be inverted in terms of quality and quantity.

In 2021, due to the impact of the epidemic, film and television companies with films as their main business are still waiting for spring, while film and television companies with dramas as their main business are working hard to move upward after some revisions.

In the case of the continuous impact of the epidemic, short video diversion, Internet layoffs, and long video cancellations, for investors Cao Haitao , the situation of film and television companies is still not optimistic, whether it is the losses on the books or profits on the books, "The film and television industry as a whole is facing an extremely difficult situation."

, on the one hand, is affected by the industry trend, and the space for innovation in subject content is limited; on the other hand, the decline in the Internet and advertising industries and the strict control of video platform costs will directly affect the income of film and television companies. "Film and television companies are likely to have more and more debts, and newly listed companies will also face the problems of sustainable development."

, but the adjustments in it may also bring good changes.

At the Tencent Video Early Spring Sharing Conference in April 2022, Tencent Video proposed to price actors high pay, as well as directors, screenwriters, publicity and other jobs to reduce costs. Industry observer Chen Cheng believes that "reducing actor pay" is also a good signal for film and television companies.

"Everyone will invest more funds in production, and companies with high-quality production capabilities will be more popular." Chen Cheng said that the trend of survival of the fittest in the film and television industry will be more obvious.

"Vision" in the dilemma

When the film company is in a stage where there is no vitality, good news comes from film and television companies whose main revenue is series.

In 2021, Tangde Film and Television finally ushered in a turning point of turning losses into profits.

Since 2018, Tangde Film and Television has experienced various changes such as the net profit loss of over 900 million yuan, concessions of 128 million yuan, and the entry of state-owned assets, and finally reversed the dilemma in 2021. Not only did it achieve operating income of 476 million yuan, an increase of 277 million yuan year-on-year, an increase of 139.27% ​​year-on-year. At the same time, after three consecutive years of losses, Tangde Film and Television's net profit attributable to shareholders finally reached a positive value, at 18.846 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 123.89%.

In 2021, Tangde Film and Television Drama Production and Distribution Business achieved revenue of 458 million yuan, accounting for 96.35% of the main business revenue in the same period. Among them, the five dramas, "The Wind and Break the Waves", "The Summer Dream Crazy Poem", "The Secret in the Secret", "The Name of the Law", and "The Wolf" (Overseas Copyright Agency Distribution). The total number of these five film and television dramas was 365 million yuan, accounting for 76.84% of the main business revenue in the same period.

It is not difficult to see that destocking has become an important proposition for Tangde Film and Television in the past year. In addition to the successful success of "The Wind and Break the Waves" produced in 2018 and the "Summer Dream Crazy Song" completed in 2016, "We Are Young in War" produced in was also sold to Zhejiang Radio and Television for 87.4 million yuan. The inventory quantity of

has decreased, and new projects have also shown hope. Tangde focuses on investing in the information network dissemination rights of the era spy drama "Wujian", which was filmed. It signed a contract sales amount of 200 million yuan with Tencent Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd.; and signed a sales contract of 360 million yuan with Penguin Film and Television.

Tangde Film and Television has finally gained a breath of breath while successfully avoiding delisting.

The film and television companies in the crisis have successfully overcome the tribulation, and the newly listed film and television companies also seem to be full of energy.

On January 15, 2021, Straw Bear Entertainment opened on the first day of its listing, and the increase in by more than 80%, bringing considerable confidence to the film and television sector shrouded in the cold winter. In the past year, Straw Bear has also used "works" to constantly prove its strength.

is most intuitive in terms of revenue and profit. According to Straw Bear's 2021 financial report, as of December 31, 2021, the company's annual revenue was approximately RMB 1.703 billion, an increase of 78.8% from RMB 952 million in 2020. As of December 31, 2021, Straw Bear's adjusted net profit for the year was approximately RMB 194 million, an increase of 48.3% from RMB 131 million in 2020.

's revenue is mainly due to the drama broadcasting rights license and the significant increase in revenue generated by customized drama production.

In 2021, Straw Bear broadcasted 15 dramas including the modern revolutionary theme "Forward" starring Zhang Luyi , Lin Gengxin and Wu Jinyan , and other romantic light comedy " My Bargaining Queen ". Compared with the 9 movies in 2020, has increased 6 in number of drama broadcast licenses in 2021, and the revenue has also increased from 625 million yuan in 2020 to 1.107 billion yuan in 2021.

On the other hand, the number of customized dramas is the same as in 2020, with three films, but the revenue generated increased from 280 million yuan to 540 million yuan.

Thanks to the company's resources, Straw Bear's drama is not only broadcast on first-tier satellite TV such as Beijing TV , Oriental TV , but also closely linked to video platforms such as iQiyi and YouTian. Unfortunately, the ideal broadcast effect has not been achieved.

When "The Forward" starring Zhang Luyi premiered on Beijing Satellite TV, the ratings were mostly ranked 3rd and 4th in the same period, and its Douban score was 6.2 points, which was almost passed; and after "My Bargaining Queen" was broadcast on Oriental Satellite TV, its Douban score was even as low as 2.9. Some netizens even wrote in a short comment: "What mistake did I make? Show me this."

Source: Douban Screenshot

Other TV series have been broadcast, and they cannot splash out more in terms of viewership or reputation. According to China's audio-visual big data, the average viewership rating of "City of the Ocean" starring Zhang Han and Wang Likun is only 0.242%; China's first foreign-aided medical group drama " Take Deep Breathing " starring Qi Wei and Yang Youning was broadcast on the Internet and backstage first, but the Douban score was only 6.1 points; , while " Spiritual Domain " starring Fan Chengcheng and Cheng Xiao , the Douban score was only 5.9. Due to the high cost of special effects production of this fantasy drama, the gross profit margin of Straw Bear customized drama has dropped from 21% in 2020 to 5.3% in 2021. Although the drama "

" by Satellite TV and the platform, and has won the development of quantity within one year, it has never been remarkable.

But this company is still on the rise. The 8 episodes of Straw Bear's main investment and executive production include "Futuyuan" starring Wang Hedi and Chen Yuqi and Chen Yuqi and , the suspense emotional drama " Please " starring Ren Jialun and Li Qin and , and the contemporary urban drama " My Assistant Sixty-year-old " starring Wang Ziwen and Bai Jingting. Both the cast and IP popularity are eye-catching.

In addition to Tangde Film and Television's recovery, Straw Bear's "new official took office", while creating a hit, Ningmeng Film continued to go to Hong Kong to fight for IPOs in September 2021 and April 2022. It seems that the film and television industry has reorganized after experiencing a cold wave, and it also brought a glimmer of light to practitioners.

And this light is particularly important for today's film and television industry.

Timely stop loss

Compared to betting on a hit, most film and television companies today need to understand more about which projects should be done and which projects cannot be done.

Tangde Film and Television, which was almost crushed by a "Ba Qing Legend", was once hit and hit the thundering drama "Just Ask Love in Cangming in This Life", are all typical cases in the industry. In 2021, after relevant departments restricted the content of Danchange, Danchange dramas became a past and also a backlog in the hands of some companies.

"Many film and television companies should not do it because of one thing, but they are wrong after doing it. So many companies should not always think about what to do, but think about what to do, what not to do." Cao Haitao told Yushuer (ID: yuci-er).

Compared to the ambition of making hot products, film and television companies that are not easy to live adopt a more cautious strategy of "controlling costs + strengthening quality control".

, and the film and television projects broadcast by Ciwen have become more secure and are very consistent with mainstream themes, such as the " Ice Hockey Boys " related to the Winter Olympics, the urban spy war drama " Storm Dance " and the realistic theme "two conjectures of marriage in " and the documentary "1950 They Are Young " has also been launched in theaters. In the shooting plan for 2022, Ciwen Media mainly focuses on main themes such as aerospace, national security, and history.

The same is true for Happy Blue Ocean. In 2021, Happy Blue Ocean is still losing money, with a net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies losing 170 million yuan, a rebound of 56.14% from 2020. Although there are not many film and television projects, the main investment or participating projects " Aba Family ", " Sea Flowers " and " Who else but me " were all successfully broadcast. The series that has been filmed by

also include the major revolutionary TV series "Counting Romantic People" and the public security drama " People's Police ", all of which are the main themes.

Huanrui Century is also working hard to stop losses in time.

Due to the increase in the number of TV series confirmed revenue, the sales revenue of TV series increased by 323.35% over the same period last year; while the revenue of artist brokerage services increased by 9.84% over the same period last year.

The series projects broadcast by Huanrui Century in 2021 mainly involve categories such as suspense adventure, costume, youth, and main theme. But there are not many outstanding dramas. The costume drama " and Junge " that is good at has won an average viewership rate of 2.14% across the country. The top 1 of the Mango TV TV series list, but the reputation of Douban is only 4.1 points; although " Mountains, Rivers, Moon Bright " broadcast in 2022 integrates acting schools such as Chen Baoguo , Zhang Fengyi , but the reputation of Douban is only 5.6.

only looks at word of mouth, both works are not as good as the 2019 work " Liuli " (Douban score 7.4) mentioned many times in the financial report. While broadcasting the film and television project, Huanrui also terminated investment in the movies " Zhuxian I", "New Shushan I", "Legend of the Emperor", "Heart Erosioner", TV series " Kunlun ", "New Shushan Series (1-2), "Love-breaking Front Alliance", "Heart Erosioner", "Canghai". The script of the surviving investment project "Auspicious Pattern Lotus Tower" has been completed, and the company will implement it in a timely manner depending on the changes in the market.

Source: Huanrui Century 2021 Financial Report

With the slowdown in the growth of the domestic film market, investing in films is not what Huanrui is good at; on the other hand, among the films invested in films, there are also works with high production difficulties, such as "Loulan I". After the "Theft of Love" and "Loulan I" projects are terminated, Huanrui World will use the corresponding raised funds of 250 million to be used for the shooting of " Jiangshan Yongle " (i.e. "Moonlight in Mountains and Rivers".

reduces burden, puts investment in a more suitable field, and finds your own direction, which is also a correct choice.

After all, in the film and television industry, success or failure often depends on a drama or movie.

in terms of quality and quantity " inverter "

In the wave of industry changes in 2021, some film and television companies have been affected, but they still use good content to create a good report card. "The Legend of the Blue Hairpin" produced by Xinmei Media has been affected to a certain extent due to the actor problem. However, in the face of changes, the Xinmei in 2021 still achieved a profit of 533 million yuan, an increase of 24.3% year-on-year, exceeding the betting agreement with China Literature this year.

From 2017 to 2021, although the overall environment has always been unfriendly to the film and television industry, Xinli Media not only achieved profits ranging from 300 million to 500 million, but also became a hot manufacturing machine in the process of breaking through the mystery.

According to Yunhe data, the effective broadcast of the entire network drama in 2021 is the top " Son-in-law ", the 11th " Golden Years " and the 19th " Rebel " are all from the hands of New Arts. The number of views of " Snow Sword Walk " broadcast in December was nearly 7 billion, and it continued to use the field of male adaptation that he is good at, and has gained great popularity in the market.

In 2022, this film and television company appears to be more "volume". As one of the producers, New Arts proved its strength in the 2022 Spring Festival period with ", the killer is not very calm ". The movie has a cumulative box office of 2.622 billion (Maoyan Professional Edition), ranking second in the box office of the Spring Festival period.

In the field of dramas, the 2022 New Colors are almost seamlessly connected. From "The World", "Handle 5 Please Call Me Director " and "The Wind Rises in Longxi", film and television works have appeared one after another in the audience's sight. Among them, "The World" has set a new high in the prime viewing rate of CCTV's first set in the past 8 years, with a Douban score of 8.1 points.

When New Arts impressed the market with high-quality works, Huace Film and Television continued to "invert" in terms of quantity and popularity.

In fact, in terms of operating income and net profit, Huace Film and Television fell into a growth bottleneck in 2021. During the reporting period of , the company achieved a total operating income of 3.807 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of only 2.00%, and a net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 400 million yuan. Although it continued to maintain profits since 2020, it only increased by 0.30% year-on-year.

In 2021, Huace continued to perform steadily in the drama field, with a total of 19 dramas broadcasted in the year, 6 more than in 2020, and has also achieved good results on major video platforms.

accounts for 30% of the top ten TV series with the number of views in Tencent videos, such as "You Fei" with a total click volume of 5.6 billion, " Swordsmanship like Jade " with a total click volume of 5.1 billion, and " Long Song Xing " with a total view volume of 3.4 billion; in the top ten dramas with the top ten popularity index, the company accounts for 20%, " Lifetime " and " Weekly Life As Away " respectively ranked second and ninth in the top ten lists with the popularity index of 9208 and 8512; in the top ten dramas with the number of views in Mango TV, the company accounts for 20%, " 8090 " and " Sleeping Garden " rank second and tenth with a total click volume of 2.4 billion and 1.1 billion.

Among them, "Our New Era", "Mirror", "Long Song", "You Are My City Camp", "Eighty,090" The five works have contributed the most to their main business, creating nearly 1.454 billion yuan in revenue.

Huace's works are always very popular in the market, but in addition to their popularity, they lack a truly high-quality hit work. The top projects "You Fei" and "Chang Ge Xing" Douban scores were 5.6 and 5.8 respectively; and on the list of effective broadcasting of full-network drama series in Yunhe Data in 2021, the best broadcast "You Are My City Camp" ranked only sixth.

is not only ranked among the top in quantity, but also quality and reputation should be the pursuit of Huace Film and Television.

Huace Film and Television's number of TV series started in 2021 is 14, and 13 TV series production plans are planned for 2022. The number of production continues to be stable, and hot products may be hidden among them.

According to statistics from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, there are only 41 institutions that obtained the "TV Drama Production License (Type A)" from 2021 to 2023, a decrease of 44% from 73 in 2019 to 2020. The trend of survival of the fittest in the film and television industry is becoming more and more obvious.

Some film and television companies have long learned to seek new growth points in the cold winter.In Huanrui's operating income composition in 2021, e-commerce and live broadcast revenue increased from a blank to 13,303,786.00 yuan, accounting for 3.43% of the revenue; and in the financial reports of Ciwen, Huace and other companies, it was also mentioned that the company will focus on the metaverse and digital virtual technology.

Under pressure, good stories can drive vitality. Some of the fate of listed film and television companies may change with the environment, but quality makers are always favored.