Wang Jiawei's online drama single episode investment exceeds 20 million yuan profit model is questioned

Recently, Huanxi Media Group Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as Huanxi Media) announced that it will exclusively invest in 18 episodes of Wong Kar-wai's online film and television dramas. The single episode of the drama has invested as much as 20 million to 25 million yuan. Among online dramas with public data (Except for American dramas), this is the most invested in online dramas.

Original title: Huanxi Media wants to bet 360 million yuan on Wang Kar-wai's first online film and television series

,"Evil East and Evil West","Chongqing Forest","Spring Light","2046","A Generation of Masters"... Every work by well-known art film director Wang Kar-wai, is a long-lasting afterthought. But few people know that Wong Kar-wai is also a filmmaker with a great commercial mind. 25 years ago, he and Liu Zhenwei jointly established the Zedong Film Company to invest and distribute their own films and act as a star agent. Last year, Wong Kar-wai joined hands with Alibaba Pictures to serve as the producer of "The Ferry Man", a film project invested by Alibaba Pictures owners.

Now, Wong Kar-wai has decided to make another bold and innovative attempt and produce his first online film and television series. Recently, Huanxi Media Group Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as Huanxi Media) announced that it will exclusively invest in 18 episodes of Wong Kar-wai's online film and television dramas. The single episode of the drama has invested as much as 20 million to 25 million yuan. Among online dramas with public data (Except for American dramas), this is the most invested in online dramas.

Can Huanxi Media recover its costs by binding Wong Kar-wai and betting out at least 360 million yuan on online dramas?

With an investment of more than 20 million yuan per episode

, Huanxi Media announced that the company has entered into an agreement with Master China Films Limited, which is indirectly wholly owned by Wong Kar-wai. According to the agreement, Huanxi Media has conditionally agreed to allot and issue 100 million shares to Master China Films (or its designee), accounting for 4.33% of the total share capital on the announcement date; for each Wong Kar-wai work, Master China Films awarded Huanxi Media a 10-year period (from the delivery of the relevant work) of the world's exclusive new media Internet distribution rights.

At the same time, Huanxi Media will have the right to exclusively invest in two seasons of Wong Kar-wai's online film and television series, with a total of 18 episodes. Huanxi Media will invest 20 million yuan to 25 million yuan as a development fund to develop and produce each episode of Wong Kar-wai's works, of which 100 million yuan will be paid in advance to Master China Films within three business days after the agreement is signed.

Huanxi Media's investment in Wong Kar-wai's online film and television dramas is luxurious. Based on the investment per episode, the total investment in these 18 episodes of online film and television dramas is as high as 360 million yuan to 450 million yuan.

According to the "2016 White Paper on Pure Internet Content" of Capital on Entertainment, in 2015, there were nearly 20 online dramas invested more than 20 million yuan, and three online dramas invested between 50 million yuan and 100 million yuan. Previously, the online drama "Tomb Robber Notes" attracted much attention due to rumors that a total investment of 80 million yuan to 100 million yuan was invested in 12 episodes. Jiang Lei, the chief planner of the drama and vice president of Huanrui Century, specifically clarified that the real figure for the total investment in this drama was 60 million yuan., the investment cost per episode is 5 million yuan. Even so, 5 million yuan is still high in the production cost of online dramas, and Wong Kar-wai's online dramas invest 4 to 5 times that amount per episode. Among the current online dramas (excluding American dramas) with public data, this is the most invested in online dramas.

According to the American media "Hollywood Reporter", the first season of the show is expected to be completed in 2017. The first season has 12 episodes and the second season has been halved to 6 episodes. However, details such as the script, story and cast have not been disclosed. In addition to literary and artistic style, another well-known label of Wong Kar-wai is "Slow work leads to detailed work." He has directed only 12 films in more than 30 years."The Master of the Generation" has been filmed for 7 years. Netizens can't help but complain: "The 18-episode online drama can be completed as scheduled in 2017? Will it wait until 2046?"

Industry insiders say that "Too Boorish"

Huanxi Media was founded by Dong Ping, with directors Ning Hao, Xu Zheng and others taking shares. Dong Ping can be said to be the most outstanding film investor, launching many films including "Let the Bullets Fly","Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon","Journey to the West to Conquering the Devil" and "Lost in Hong Kong". Among them,"Lost in Hong Kong" grossed 1.61 billion yuan, making it the fourth highest-grossing film in the history of Chinese films. The top ones are "Mermaid","The Demon Hunt" and "The Quest for the Dragon". At present, Huanxi Media's talent cooperation also includes Li Yang, who directed "Blind Mountain", and well-known science fiction writer Liu Cixin.

Huanxi Media is an expert in investing in movies, but now it wants to spend 360 million yuan on Wong Kar-wai's online drama. How to recover the cost has become a concern of the industry.

Analyst Huang Guofeng told reporters that Wong Kar-wai's lavishly invested series does not conform to the current general form of online dramas in China."The cost of 5 million yuan per episode of" Tomb Robbing Notes "is already very high, and 20 million yuan per episode is too exaggerated. Currently, online dramas in China generally cost hundreds of thousands of yuan to 1 million yuan per episode. Wong Kar-wai is a very well-known director, but it is hard to say whether he can produce an online drama that suits the tastes of online generations. The director's reputation is not useful in online aesthetics. If it is the income from member services and advertising, then the risk of such a high investment in this work is still very high." However, Huang Guofeng also mentioned that the actors and content of this work, including the broadcast platform to be selected, are currently unclear, which also affects the outside world's judgment on the work.

At present, only some high-investment American TV series that are only broadcast on the Internet have achieved profits, such as "House of Cards", which costs an average of US$4 million per episode. At that time, it was estimated that Netflix would need to add 1 million new one-year contract paying users to recover the cost of the show. The end result was that Netflix gained about 10 million new paid users, thus making a lot of money.

However, at present, online dramas in China are still a low-cost, fast-production model. Even for "Tomb Robber Notes" with a large production cost, the producer only sells online copyright and cannot make a profit. Bai Yicong, the screenwriter of the show, said: "The online payment aspect of" Tomb Robber Notes "is actually the website making money, but the producer does not. It is not a share, it is a buyout. After the buyout, the website will make a payment model."

However, Chen Shaofeng, deputy dean of the Institute of Cultural Industry at Peking University, believes that a profit model like "House of Cards" is difficult to replicate."The high-investment American drama production model is completely different. I think the investment of 20 million yuan per episode of Wong Kar-wai's online drama is too high and there is no way to recover the cost. Even if you develop paying users, it will be difficult to achieve the market effect of American TV dramas."

Editor: Nancy