2016 summer high-profile films and low-box office film and television companies are under great pressure

According to statistics from the Yien Film Think Tank, as of July 24, the box office of domestic movies this month was approximately 3.607 billion yuan, down more than 18% compared with the same period last year. This is also the first time in five years that the box office of domestic summer movies has dropped.

Original title: 2016 Summer Movies Meet Heavy Pressure on Film and Television Companies

Following the unexpected decline in the box office in April and May, this year's summer movie box office is once again blowing hard, which is completely incomparable to the popularity of summer movies in previous years. According to statistics from the Yien Film Think Tank, as of July 24, the box office of domestic movies this month was approximately 3.607 billion yuan, down more than 18% compared with the same period last year. This is also the first time in five years that the box office of domestic summer movies has dropped.

Contrast in the weak film market: There are many screenings and cold box office. The

summer box office explosion for several consecutive years has made this year's summer season highly valued by the film market, with as many as 90 films piled up for release during the summer season. On July 15, there were even eight new films, including "Lu Yao Know Ma Li","Fast Hand Shooter","Shocking Reversal","Roadside Picnic", and "Super Sun Duck", which were released on the same day." However, the numerous movie layouts did not bring the imagined box office "bumper harvest".

In terms of domestic films, it is difficult to see the gratifying trend that the three domestic films "Monster Hunt","Pancake Man" and "Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage" were released almost at the same time last year, but the box office continued to soar without being affected at all. Although "Three's People", which was released in the early part of the summer period, was directed by To Qifeng and starred as Zhao Wei, Gu Tianle and Zhong Hanliang, the box office continued to be sluggish, with box office just reaching 100 million in 30 days; while "The Bounty Hunter", which was released a week later, although performed slightly better, it only achieved a box office score of just over 200 million; The domestically produced animation "Big Fish and Begonia", which has been missing for 12 years, was released for more than two weeks, but its performance was disappointing. The box office just exceeded 500 million yuan in 16 days, far less than the animated film "The Return of the Great Sage" released in the same period last year, and its polarized reputation has become a drag on the subsequent box office; Although the box office of the two sequels released during the same period,"Chills 2" and "To Youth: So You Are Here" improved slightly, although the box office exceeded 600 million and 300 million respectively in the 16-day period, the low schedule also made it difficult to make breakthroughs in the subsequent box office; Recent box office pressure has basically been concentrated on Jackie Chan and Fan Bingbing's kung fu comedy "Escape from the Jedi"."Escape from the Jedi", which had a box office guarantee of 1 billion yuan, was released in three days, and the box office was lukewarm and just exceeded 300 million yuan. Although it is not difficult for the subsequent box office to meet the minimum requirement due to the screening rate of more than 35%, the low scores from major film review websites show that even if the appeal of Jackie Chan's kung fu comedy and Fan Bingbing's high popularity, There is little hope of saving the summer season at the subsequent box office of "Escape from the Jedi".

This year's Hollywood blockbusters have also joined the box office competition in the hottest month of the summer. During the traditional "Domestic Film Protection Month" in previous years, from June 10 to July 10, in order to reverse the downturn in the film market that has lasted for several months, several Hollywood blockbusters entered the market this year, but it seemed that they did not attract more fans. Pull them into the theater. The three Hollywood blockbusters "Warcraft","Independence Day 2" and "Shocking Robbers 2" released in the early summer period all had good box office performances. Although "Warcraft" ultimately had a global box office of only 2.7 billion yuan, its domestic box office was close to 1.5 billion yuan, contributing more than half of the box office;"Independence Day 2" and "Shocking Robbers 2" received good box office receipts of 500 million and 600 million respectively. However, the blockbuster overtures "Teenage Ninja Turtles 2" and "Return of Mount Tai: Dangerous War in the Jungle" did not achieve very good results. The former had only received 400 million yuan at the box office in 20 days after its release, which has fallen out of the top ten domestic daily box office. The latter's box office has just reached 150 million yuan in five days after its release. The low number of screenings made it difficult for its subsequent box office to explode.

The box office is cold. Is it because of the lack of ticket replenishment or poor quality?

During the Spring Festival in 2016, the box office of Chinese films exceeded 10 billion yuan in seven days, and the box office results of Chinese films exceeded 10 billion yuan in 54 days. Many people in the film industry rejoiced to predict that the 60 billion yuan mark would be easily exceeded this year. However, the box office fell more than expected in the second quarter, and the summer season was once again cold, which stunned many insiders. Why on earth is the domestic box office so weak?

Wang Changtian, president of Enlight Media, said in an interview that the recent weak domestic box office performance has a lot to do with the decrease in ticket compensation this year. Ticket replacement is a popular practice in the industry since the establishment of online ticketing websites. Generally, movies cooperate with online ticketing websites to sell movie tickets at low prices, and even enjoy activities such as watching movies for 9.9 yuan. Although ticket subsidies have greatly stimulated the growth of domestic box office in recent years, they have also created a lot of bubbles. For a movie ticket with a face value of 35 yuan, consumers will pay 9.9 yuan, and the film company and online ticketing platform will pay 25.1 yuan, but the box office is still calculated at 35 yuan. According to industry estimates, of the 44 billion yuan in the box office of China films last year, 3 billion to 5 billion yuan came from ticket subsidies.

Wang Changtian believes that because China's entire film industry is still in a relatively weak state, the industry's profits are inherently small. At present, after the reduction in movie ticket supplements, the audience's spending power for watching movies cannot be improved for the time being. Today's box office market is the reflection of the audience's real spending power.

However, some industry insiders believe that the main reason is that the quality of films after the first quarter of this year is not high, which leads to a decrease in the number of viewers. Commentator Hu Naijun believes that after May and June, especially in the summer season, domestic films lack good films, and imported blockbusters do not have particularly excellent blockbusters.

It is true that film typology in China's film market has gradually matured, but the quality of various types of films has been criticized in recent years. Taking animated films as an example, the domestic animated film "Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage", which was highly praised by fans last year, has been praised as the "work of conscience" of domestic animated films for many years, making people's favorable impression on domestic animation just warm. The release of "Big Fish Begonia" during this summer has disappointed many fans of the long-awaited animated movie again. Even Japanese music master Kiyoshida and South Korean professional animation production team have no way to save this 12-year-old "work of emotion". Many people lament, apart from the Hakka Tulou, what else does this animated movie have?

Liu Jia, a visiting professor at the Beijing Film Academy, believes that after several small-budget films such as "33 Days of Lovelorn" and "Lost in Thailand" achieved high box office results, capital began to enter the film industry, but the capital side operated from the perspective of capital., especially eager for quick success and instant benefits, they operated in the film industry in accordance with the rules of finance.

Film and television companies

are under great pressure. With the box office falling in the second quarter and summer, several major film and television companies are also feeling the pressure. Judging from the performance forecasts for the first half of 2016 recently announced by several major film and television companies, the performance of films in the first half of the year was not very good.

Huayi Brothers 'first-half performance forecast dropped by 25% to 50% compared with the same period last year. The company explained that the box office results of the films "The Heroes of the Sky","Running Brothers" and "The Lost Orphans" in the first half of last year were so good that this year's box office could not withstand the pressure of last year. Huayi has placed its hopes for this year's films in the second half of the year. The main film and television drama projects released in the second half of the year,"Rock Tibetan Mastiff","Lu Yao Know Ma Li","The Death of Romantics" and "I am Not Pan Jinlian" are expected to relieve Huayi's film box office pressure in the first half of the year? Judging from the already released "Rock Tibetan Mastiff" and "Lu Yao Zhi Ma Li", the hope is slim. Although "Rock Tibetan Medicine" has a good reputation, it has not been popular and has only grossed 39 million yuan in box office in 17 days after its release. "Lu Yao Zhi Ma Li" relied on the topic effect of the article's direction and only earned 160 million yuan in box office after nine days of release. In addition, Huayi Brothers said that Warcraft, which participated in the investment, had not yet formed split income in the first half of the year due to its participation in global split accounts. However, according to analysis,"Warcraft" will have to earn more than US$450 million in box office worldwide to recover its capital. Therefore, it is worth pondering how much "Warcraft" will receive Huayi Brothers in the end with a global box office score of 430 million.

Tangde Film and Television's performance in the first half of the year was slightly better. The performance forecast shows that the first half of this year increased slightly by 0.99% to 23.03% compared with the same period last year. However, its operating income mainly comes from the first and second rounds of the TV series "Tianlun". Income from the transfer of satellite TV broadcasting rights and information network communication rights, as well as the first round of TV series "Why Get Married", etc., which means that the film performance in the first half of the year is almost worthless. In fact, in the first half of the year, Tang De Film and Television produced a movie "Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty", but the box office hit the streets, and in the end it only reached 32.84 million yuan. "Escape from the Jedi", which Donder has always been counting on, has already made a box office guarantee agreement of 1 billion yuan before its release. Although given the current high-profile situation of the film and the scarcity of competing films, there is almost no suspense that the box office will exceed 1 billion yuan, relying on the poor reputation of major film review websites, it seems difficult to achieve higher box office results.

Among several film and television companies, Enlight Media is estimated to be the best performing company in the first half of the year. The performance forecast shows that the company increased by 277% to 302% in the first half of the year compared with the same period last year. Light said that in the first half of the year, six films, including "Mermaid","Who Is Not Lost in Youth" and "Hot Pot Hero", were released, with box office sales of 3.98 billion yuan; two films released in 2015 and some of the box office carried forward to this reporting period, including "The Quest for the Dragon" and "The Villain Angel", with box office sales of 360 million yuan. Box office revenue increased significantly compared with the same period last year.

The recent weak box office of movies has made life a little difficult for listed film and television companies, and the new regulations by the regulatory authorities have put new pressure on the box office of movies. These are undoubtedly "worse" for film and television companies. Recently, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange issued the "GEM Industry Information Disclosure Guidelines No. 1-Listed Companies Engaging in Radio, Film and Television Business (Revised in 2016)"(hereinafter referred to as the "Guidelines"), which makes new requirements for the information disclosure of box office revenue of film and television companies., among which companies need to explain the relationship between box office and revenue of popular films.

For example, a film and television company claimed that the box office of a certain film it had invested in had exceeded 1 billion yuan. The previous information disclosure rules did not need to clearly state how much the company would get from the 1 billion box office. Investors could only base on the industry's past investment experience and share the box office in the industry. By making regular estimates, it is easy to follow suit and hype the stock price. But in fact, most of the box office revenue is divided by theaters, distribution and other channels, and the film and television companies ultimately receive not much box office share from the box office of the film.

The "Guidelines" require that listed companies participate in the production or distribution of high-box office films (the cumulative box office exceeds 50% of the company's revenue) not only announce the actual box office revenue, but also announce detailed information such as the company's investment share and income. In addition, the "Guidelines" also require listed companies to announce the names of the top five works, the total revenue amount and the proportion of the company's main business income for the same period, and need to refine the revenue into box office accounts, distribution, online broadcast rights licensing, copyright sales, related derivatives and other details.

Listed film and television companies under such new regulations can no longer just rely on releasing a box office announcement of a hit movie and waiting for their stock prices to rise slowly.

Editor: Nancy