Jia Zhangke's company Wenxin completed a financing valuation of 300 million yuan, and 5 investors competed for it

Yesterday (April 23), Jia Zhangke's commercial film company, Warm Stream Culture, officially announced the completion of this round of financing, with a valuation of 300 million yuan. The five capital companies are: Microfilm Times, CMB International, Jinglin Capital, and The No. 1 and Tianjin Dreamers, who will hold a 10% stake in Warm Stream.

Yesterday (April 23), Jia Zhangke's commercial film company, Warm Stream Culture, officially announced the completion of this round of financing, with a valuation of 300 million yuan. The five capital companies are: Microfilm Times, CMB International, Jinglin Capital, and The No. 1 and Tianjin Dreamers, who will hold a 10% stake in Warm Stream.

Last night, we met Jia Zhangke again in a courtyard house in Nanluogu Lane, Beijing.

For movies, Jia Zhangke is very pure and seems to have his original intention; for business, Jia Zhangke also has comprehensive and meticulous planning.

What the public does not understand is that over the years, Jia Zhangke has been both a director and a businessman. Today, his commercial landscape includes Warm Current Culture, two film companies in Xihe Xinghui, an art fund, and an art center under construction. In two months, Jia Zhangke's restaurant will open, and then a movie theater will open in October...

"I am an entrepreneur, not just a creator." Jia Zhangke said: "You see, I have been eating in this small courtyard for three months. I see friends from various business districts here every day." Jia Zhangke pointed around and said to Entertainment Capital: "The four of us (Wang Hong, Wu Xiaobo, Cao Guoxiong) together are invincible."

. Two months ago, Entertainment Capital once exclusively reported on Jia Zhangke's private roadshow in Hangzhou. This is also the only road show for Warm Current Culture.

At that time, Jia Zhangke took off his sunglasses and sat at the conference table to introduce his new company, Warm Stream Culture, to investors. Warm Current Culture aims to shoot commercial films and educate film professionals. Jia Zhangke is the majority shareholder of this company. He also hired film critic Wang Hong, financial writer Wu Xiaobo, and investor Cao Guoxiong as partners.

After the roadshow, major capital parties came to them one after another. "It's a completely buyer's market. It only took less than a week from contact to confirmation." Wang Hong, CEO of Warm Stream Culture, said: "Basically, during the first meeting, they made a decision on the spot (to invest)."

(Wang Hong, CEO of Warm Stream Culture)

Entertainment Capital exclusively confirmed that Warm Stream's final financing amount is 30 million yuan. "In fact, employers all want to invest more, but Warm Stream doesn't want to release so much equity. This 30 million is almost equally divided among these five companies." Wang Hong said.

Among many investors, Warm Stream's selection focuses on resource compatibility. Among the five investors, Microfilm Times has its own ticketing platform; the No. 1 Fund is a fund co-sponsored by Wu Xiaobo and Cao Guoxiong, and all of their Hangzhou Datou Investment Management Co., Ltd. are also original investors in Warm Current Culture; China Merchants Bank International is China Merchants Bank's overseas investment platform, and China Merchants Bank has very rich investment experience in the film, television and entertainment field; As a private equity fund, Jinglin Capital has also invested in many secondary and sub-cultural projects... These can become resources needed for future development.

During the interview, Entertainment Capital found that Jia Zhangke was not familiar with some capital gameplay and financial innovations in the current film and television market. "I have heard a little about this, but I can't talk about it more. Sometimes it's not a good thing to do it yourself. We need to let professional people do professional things."

Jia Zhangke did not worry too much about this round of warm current financing, but entrusted warm current CEOs Wang Hong, Wu Xiaobo and Cao Guoxiong with full authority to handle it. Before the investment contract was signed, he had not even met the investors."They know China's economy and capital very well, and I believe them."

For some fans who are "obsessed with capital cleanliness", the popularity of movie capital always makes people suspicious. Does Jia Zhangke also want to make a quick buck through this?

"I don't need money. It's what I do that needs money." Jia Zhangke explained,"My attitude towards capital is that we first think about what I am willing to do. If these things require capital, they should be combined with capital. Capital should promote my ideals. Making money is of course important, but it is not the most important thing."

During the interview, Entertainment Capital felt that Jia Zhangke was very confused and even resisted by most media outlets who were surprised by his "transformation from art to business" and worried that he "as a director of artistic films cannot see the film commercial market" and even "influenced by capital.""My understanding of commercial films must be advanced, otherwise why would people give me money to start this company?"

Art and business have never been separated in Jia Zhangke. For example, his work "Tale of Twenty-Four Cities" is actually a super advertisement shot by a real estate investment; another example is the character interview "Yu Lu", which is actually invested by alcohol products.

Jia Zhangke once forwarded Entertainment Capital's article on Warm Current Culture in his circle of friends, and commented that "it is not a personal creative transformation, but my second venture."

In fact, Jia Zhangke has been concurrently a director and businessman for a long time. Currently, he owns Warm Stream Culture, Xihe Star Collection, an art fund, and an art center under construction, mainly conducting exhibitions and activities of contemporary art projects. In two months, Jia Zhangke's restaurant will open, and then a movie theater will open in October.

"In fact, the public doesn't know me very well. I make a lot of investments that are not consistent with my main business. These actually have nothing to do with the warm current,"Jia Zhangke paused for a moment." In fact, they do have something to do with me. I am the major shareholder, and these resources can be shared by then."

"In fact, commercial movies are simply an input-output ratio that ensures profit recovery. Warm Stream won't make embarrassing movies that are commercial or artistic or artistic." Jia Zhangke said.

Warm current does not take unnecessary risks commercially for the sake of the director's expression. In the near future, the films with warm current cooperation will rely on mature directors who have excellent performance in the market to complete, and when they are on the right track, warm current will gradually consider giving young directors some opportunities.

Although Jia Zhangke said that warm current should do film production, film education and film ecological development, but at present the focus is still on film production, in contrast, this plate cost-effective, small investment, fast return.

Jia Zhangke and Wang Hong plan to use almost all of the 30 million yuan they have raised in the company's operations and maintenance, copyright purchase and preliminary development of the project."Now there are about 15 people in Warm Current, and colleagues in Beijing are reading scripts every day for several months." Jia Zhangke said,"It is estimated that two films will be available during the Spring Festival and Summer Festival in 2017. Currently, the scripts of these two films are still in the polishing stage."

For Jia Zhangke, IP is not a bad thing."The core of film production is the story. This is the origin of the film company's survival. It is a very good thing that everyone attaches importance to this." Although Warm Stream has only been established for a few months, it has negotiated and purchased four or five IPs and independently developed six or seven projects. In addition to looking for excellent works in Japan, South Korea and Asian markets, Warm Current will also explore social mentalities, social events and even character forms from news events.

"Science fiction themes, women's themes, and some themes that focus on economic and social life are all the directions we are currently looking for. We are more concerned about the innovation that warm currents can bring to commercial film genres." said Wang Hong, CEO of Warm Stream.

"We don't have the so-called big and small projects. For me, there is only accurate investment. If I think this project needs 500 million 1 billion, it's not too big." In today's era of hot capital, what Jia Zhangke is least worried about is money. "Now it is a complete buyer's market. To put it bluntly, we don't lack money."

Editor: queenie