Chinese films are collectively caught in the syndrome of "tiny Times". Is there still a cure?

if you want to compete with Hollywood, or become the Hollywood of Asia, Chinese films must complete the heavy industrial task of blockbuster production.

2015 is a landmark year for domestic blockbusters, from "Wise Tiger Mountain 3D" at the end of last year to "Monster Hunt" and "the Great return of Journey to the West" in the summer. It has been four years since the outbreak of domestic blockbusters, which is about to unsheathed the heavy sword at the end of the year.

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< strong > Why are blockbusters important < / strong >

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Why are domestic blockbusters important? it is a challenge and lesson for Chinese films and even China. According to Hollywood, almost all the imported western films exported to China since 1994 are blockbusters, from fugitive to Titanic to Avatar and Interstellar, as well as continuous series such as Lord of the Rings, Fast and Furious, Batman, Transformers and so on for a long time. The box office records of the Chinese film market have always been refreshed or dominated by imported blockbusters. The ability of these blockbusters to attract money is amazing not only in the Chinese market, but also in the domestic market and overseas markets around the world for the United States.

the box office explosion caused by blockbusters will also spread to all nodes of the industrial chain driven by locomotives, including DVD sales, pay TV, books, toys, theme parks, etc., as well as a wider range of industrial value created by joint and bundled marketing. That's why the film industry is the backbone of the American economy.

"Chinese films should form a pattern in which heavy industrial products are promoted, light industrial products are followed, and big plot films are embedded in the middle. Only in this way can they be relatively scientific as a product system and maintain sustainable development." Zhang Hongsen, director of the State Administration of Press, publication, Radio, Film and Television, specifically mentioned the issue of China's film product system at the "New Power of China Film" forum at the end of October this year, emphasizing the current imbalance. "the development of Chinese film is still very uneven. When we look at the degree of development of a country's films, we first of all look at its level of promotion of heavy industry. The promotion of heavy industry can often drive the follow-up of other products, but the promotion of our heavy industry is not enough. "

if you want to compete with Hollywood, or become the Hollywood of Asia, Chinese films must complete the heavy industrial task of blockbuster production.

and the degree of film industrialization of a country is mainly reflected in the level of film science and technology.

starting from Hero (2002), after "Assembly" (2007), "painted skin" (2008), "Tangshan earthquake" (2010), "the Empire of Di Renjie" (2010), "Dragon Gate Flying Armor" (2011), "Journey to the West" (2013), "outsmart Tiger Mountain" (2014), and then to "Monster Hunt" (2015)-- domestic blockbusters have always forged ahead in the journey of scientific and technological armed forces. The heavy industry characteristics of blockbuster production are reflected in the audience experience, that is, audio-visual wonders. Those wanton imagination and the challenge and transcendence to human limits all rely on the support of science and technology.

< strong > domestic blockbusters are becoming less and less attractive to capital < / strong >

domestic blockbusters are a brand-new topic-new tasks and new challenges for Chinese films at the beginning of the new century. Of course, there will inevitably be a process of groping, learning and trial and error. Since Hero, in just a few years, from directors to enterprises, there have been ancient costumes, martial arts, and action blockbusters, such as Heroes of Heaven and Earth, ambush on all sides, Wuji, Seven Swords, Golden Armor all over the City, and Night Banquet. each has its own advantages, but from the context of the whole product, there is nothing to talk about, which of course leads to the aesthetic fatigue of the media and the audience.

the subsequent breakthroughs in the types of war films, magic films, disaster films and suspense films have injected vitality into the new stage of the development of domestic blockbusters, among which the participation of mature teams from South Korea and Hong Kong is also the key for the film to reach a new level of industrialization.

however, the high risk of domestic blockbusters remains high, while the attractiveness of its high output is "getting worse". In contrast, the small and medium-sized cost comedies and youth films in the category of "light industry" mentioned by Director Zhang Hongsen have become a more attractive hot spot than domestic blockbusters. In the past five years, these two types of projects have been particularly lively, with many projects accomplishing the miracle of "counterattack" and even breaking box office records that only blockbusters could have hoped for in the past. Let's call this phenomenon the rise of "tiny Times" syndrome.

according to public data, the Wechat ID:HBresearch found that the output-input ratio of domestic blockbusters in the annual box office TOP10 is indeed a bit worrying. According to the general practice of fees, tax deductions and sharing ratio at the box office in China, the income of a film is more than four times the investment to ensure the profitability of the project. Domestic blockbusters only passed 4% in the average output-input ratio in 2009 and 2010, then fell again in 2011, then rose to 4.4 in 2012 and 5.88 in 2013, but was hit hard again in 2014.

another fact is that the domestic blockbusters in the annual box office TOP10 in recent years are "weak" in terms of both quantity share and box office share. In terms of quantity, domestic blockbusters once accounted for 6 TOP10 in 2008, but since 2012, there have been less than 3 per year. In terms of box office share, it reached 60% in 2005 and 2008, fell to 23% in 2012, rebounded slightly to 34% in 2013, but fell again to 20% in 2014-except for the two domestic blockbusters "Journey to the West" and "outsmart Tiger Mountain 3D" at the box office in 2014, the domestic films included "Heart Flowers", "where is Dad going" and "breakup Master".

in the words of Director Zhang Hongsen, "now we have too many light industrial film products, and the proportion is not balanced enough."

compared with those low-cost miracles, domestic blockbusters seem a little lonely.

echoing this round of "small cost miracle" fever, Internet enterprises are frequently electrocuted with some emerging private capital. Internet companies, which are keen on short-term investment strategies and outspoken communication strategies, have concentrated a lot of capital and resources on small and medium-sized cost project comedies and youth films. For these investors, failure may only be a loss of a small amount of money, but once successful, it can not only be obsessed by public opinion, but also rise to the sky in one step-the listing of the new third board.

but there must always be some big enterprises that can withstand the loneliness of prosperity, and there must be some big people who can withstand the pressure of high risks. China Film, Huayi, the Emperor, Atlanta and Boehner are the film companies that have been on the front line of domestic blockbuster production in the past 14 years, and they have always invested capital and resources in the learning path of domestic blockbusters.

take Huayi Brothers as an example. As a private enterprise, Huayi Brothers has actively cooperated with overseas capital and talents since the birth of domestic blockbusters, learning and gradually mastering the distribution, production and creation of blockbusters.

in 2003, he co-produced "Hero of Heaven and Earth" with Columbia (Asia) in Hollywood; "Kung Fu" in 2004 became the No. 1 at the annual box office; "Banquet" in 2006 became the second at the annual box office; the 2007 war film "Assembly" ranked second at the annual box office, and the domestic film ranked first. In 2008, he co-produced the Sino-American co-production "King of Kung Fu" with Jet Li and Jackie Chan, becoming the sixth at the annual box office. In 2009, the spy film "the Wind" became the seventh at the annual box office; in 2010, the disaster film "Tangshan earthquake" took the second place at the box office; "the Empire of Di Renjie" ranked sixth at the box office; in 2011, "the New Shaolin Temple" ranked 12th at the box office; the 2012 epic "1942" ranked 11th at the box office; in 2013, "Journey to the West" broke several domestic box office records and won the annual box office champion. The 2015 Legend of the Dragon, which may be the most industrialized blockbuster in China so far, is expected by the industry to break the box office record again.

both Huayi Brothers and other Chinese film companies on the journey of domestic blockbusters have experienced the pain of falling on this road of learning, and also tasted the joy of standing on the top of the mountain, of course, the most important thing is to successfully control the experience and experience of big production.

< strong > what should happen to domestic blockbusters without the support of overseas markets? < / strong >

for China's film industry, a premise that must be faced squarely is the "desperate situation" that domestic blockbusters have been facing-- the weakness of overseas export earnings. Unlike Hollywood's global export gains, the performance of Chinese domestic films in overseas exports in recent years is almost bleak compared with the unprecedented prosperity of the domestic market.

according to official data, "overseas sales revenue from domestic films" has declined for two consecutive years since 2010, falling from 3.517 billion yuan to 1.016 billion yuan (2012), and improved slightly in 2013 and 2014, climbing to 2 billion yuan (2014).

Hollywood Industries is able to support such a huge blockbuster production, which has a lot to do with its global revenue. Even if the Expendables series encounter" heavy Snow "in the North American market, the" four Seasons "in the Chinese market is enough for it to continue to make a sequel.

but domestic blockbusters that do not have overseas markets must be based on the domestic market and find strategies to break through the heavy model.

< strong > 1. The adaptation of IP-level original works is the only way for blockbuster production < / strong >

domestic blockbusters have been in the predicament that good stories are difficult to find for many years, or the original stories can not support the grandeur of blockbusters, or the influence of adapted works is limited. According to a survey conducted by Huayi Brothers Research Institute, respondents believe that the deficiency of domestic blockbusters (a maximum of three items) is that "stories are boring and uninnovative", while "outdated themes (always costume films)" also ranks third among the respondents.

whether it is the continuous blockbuster blockbuster of Journey to the West or the bestseller of" Wisdom Tiger 3D "(a household name red model play), the way of selecting materials for domestic blockbusters and Hollywood blockbusters has begun to keep pace, and IP stories are the best base for the adaptation of blockbuster films.

Disney decided to pay a lot of money to buy Marvel when it was at the bottom of the last round, valuing its inexhaustible source of cartoon stories, which are national IP enough to support Disney's project development in the coming decades.

the original novel "Ghost blowing the Lantern" is also a national-level best-selling novel comparable to "Harry Potter" and "the Lord of the Rings", while "the Legend of the Dragon" has decided to shoot a sequel, the size of its original work and the world's love for the project, it is believed that this series is very likely to become "Harry Potter" in the domestic series.

of course, it is not ignoring the value of original stories, but under the requirements of the two inherent attributes of commercial attributes and industrial chain development, it is inevitable for blockbusters to choose IP-level story adaptation.

< strong > 2. Patience and determination for excellent special effects < / strong >

in the category of blockbusters, high-quality work consists of two parts, one is good special effects production, the other is a good story.

Huayi Brothers Research Institute recently posted a questionnaire on domestic blockbusters (a detailed report will be released soon). Nearly a thousand interviewees are asking and choosing the reasons for their three favorite domestic blockbusters (a maximum of three). The first and second reasons are excellent production and good stories, respectively.

the industrial level of blockbusters bears the brunt of the completion of visual special effects. According to a questionnaire conducted by Huayi Research Institute, "five hairs of Special effects" is the main reason for the shortage of domestic blockbusters in nearly half of the respondents. It must be admitted that Chinese audiences who are familiar with Hollywood blockbusters are inevitably picky about the visual special effects of domestic blockbusters, and the industrialization level of Chinese films is indeed lagging behind that of Hollywood and South Korea. But today, with the globalization of capital and production, not only Chinese capital has been able to hire the world's top talent teams, China's own production team is actually undertaking world-class production, and the special effects teams of "outsmart Tiger Mountain 3D", "Monster Hunt" and "Dragon Formula" are either Chinese and foreign, or Chinese-based. In fact, the key to achieving excellent special effects lies in the dedication and control of product quality by the director and creative team, as well as the investment determination and patience of the production company in good production.

there are nearly 2000 special effects scenes of "outsmart Tiger Mountain 3D", including a two-minute scene of beating a tiger up the mountain. The special effects team of 200 people produced this scene for 270days-all who have seen this film have fresh memories of this scene, and the thrilling stimulation comes from the miraculous nature of the special effects.

Monster Hunt took a year to make a 10-minute test film, built a fake city in three months, containing 2894 buildings, 395 trees and 120 passers-by characters, but showed it in only five seconds. After five years of production from testing to production, the market has given such patience and determination the greatest reward-setting a new record in Chinese film history at the box office.

"the Legend of the Dragon" is the second film made by the director Urshan in five years. It can be said that the slow worker can do fine work. His previous work, "painted skin 2", lasted for two years and two months, while "the Legend of the Dragon" lasted nearly four years. According to Urshan, of the 1800 scenes in the film, 1530 are computer special effects. In addition, at any cost, the Huairou base of China Film can be regarded as the largest photography base in Asia, with a total of 16 studios and 13 for "Dragon Formula" shooting, including the first 5,000 square meter studio in Asia and the second largest 3,000 square meter studio. Every time you finish shooting a scene, you have to tear it down and build a new scene. "this set-up scale has never been achieved in previous Chinese-language films." The special effects production of "the Legend of the Dragon" has been praised by the audience as the new benchmark of China's film industry.

< strong > 3. The creativity of derivative value < / strong >

it is obviously naive to rely solely on the "explosion" at the box office to resist the high risk and heart-wrenching low output-input ratio of domestic blockbusters. Huayi Brothers Research Institute has written about Disney's success with "Frozen", "a princess skirt sold for $400 million", which is the energy embodiment of Disney's ecological territory. As a locomotive, movies drive a complete industrial chain to create more value than the box office.

< strong > < em > this article is published by Eun, authorized by Huayi Brothers Research Institute. The reprint of this article requires the consent of the author. Please click the link below for authorization. < / em > < / strong >

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