Wang Zhonglei: Movies are a religion in Hollywood, but are quickly becoming a "financial product" in China

Wang Zhonglei said in an interview that everyone is now discussing "Internet + movies". In fact, this "+" is not a plus sign, it is just a chemical, a chemical method. Therefore, Huayi also began to deploy the Internet very early, and there are so many Internet companies that are constantly developing new Internet products that can help movies.

Original title: Interview with Wang Zhonglei: Movies are beliefs in Hollywood, and they are quickly becoming a "financial product" in China

."Almost all of the top 100 literary IPs in China have been named, and Huayi only snatched a few among them." This is the information disclosed by Wang Zhonglei, president of Huayi Brothers, during an interview with the media during the Shanghai Film Festival.

On June 18, Wang Zhonglei had just attended the strategic cooperation ceremony between Huayi Brothers and Xiangshang Pictures. In the future, Huayi and this new company will jointly develop the novel "Death Cycle" by well-known writer The World's Dominator.

In fact, unlike most domestic companies who are keen on "IP conversion", Huayi Brothers 'films come from original IP. Wang Zhonglei said: "Huayi may be the only film company in China that insists on" making original IP." In his view,"The big IP project will be completed soon, so what should we do in the future?"

"Nowadays, China is increasingly focusing on movies as a" financial product ", and the capital of IP is amplified. Hollywood often has a more pious attitude towards movies." Wang Zhonglei said: "We still hope for more powerful films."

Against the background of the strong entry of Internet companies into the film industry, this year's Shanghai Film Festival has almost become an Internet summit forum. Wang Zhonglei said: "Next year's film festival, if everyone doesn't discuss this, maybe the film festival will be more interesting."

The following content is compiled based on Wang Zhonglei's interview.

Huayi has invested in several production companies

Huayi announced the establishment of Shangshang Film at the Shanghai Film Festival. It is a shareholder. Huayi is one of its founding shareholders. This is Huayi Film is a very important company in terms of IP layout. Shangshang Pictures fully bought out Tianxia Ba Sing's second super IP "Cycle of Death" and "Cycle of Death 2 Menling Weird Talks" after "Ghost Blows Out the Light", and announced the launch of the film project. At the same time, the "Upward Ba Sing" studio was established. Tianxia Ba Sing's series of novels have become an important source of IP for Shangshang Pictures.

Xiangshang Pictures currently has 6 IPs that will be launched one after another. It is a highly creative team. Huayi positions it as a bit magical and dreamy, but its cultural foundation is all from China, which is particularly interesting.

In addition to Shangshang Pictures, we have also invested in China Lion Company, a production company that mainly develops film projects suitable for both China and American markets.

Huayi's shareholding in film production companies is to enrich the content of its own film library and also lay out the derivative products of films. If we can get the derivative rights of these films, these can be used to generate value in other parts of Huayi.

Huayi is also doing this because of its sense of responsibility to the industry. These young people have great creativity, but Huayi can help them if they need people who have a special understanding of the system of this industry.

The IPs of the top 100 literary works in China have been divided into

comics, dramas, anime, and literature. These IPs can all be converted into movies. If we look at literary works alone, the top 100 literary works accumulated in the past 10 years have all been "owned".

The top 100 are already in the hands of various film and television companies, producers, or directors. The works after the top 100 are relatively weaker in terms of IP value. I mean the value of attracting attention after the IP is announced, not that it has no literary value. They may be better written than the top 100, but the top 100 IP that everyone is keen to compete for are long gone. About 10 have been photographed so far.

Compared with the competition for popular IPs, the conversion of movie IP is also a very important matter. When converting from a book to a movie, do you really have to create it with your heart, or do you just use your fans?

Huayi was very cautious when choosing, so among the 100 IPs, Huayi actually only competed for a few, and even some did not compete for them.

Especially among these 100 novels, about 90 are pure love novels. These pure love novels have a fan base and are particularly easy to convert IP, but many times, it feels like doing an amplification of capital, not like making a real movie.

"We still like powerful movies."

Huayi may still be the only one among the film companies in China that is capable of doing original IP and insists on doing it.

The owner of a film company will definitely bring his personal color to the film list, but I will be more open because Huayi's film list is relatively large, with almost 18 to 20 China films produced every year.

I quite like powerful movies, such as "Junior Class", which will be released tomorrow. Although it is a youth theme, people think Huayi is also following the trend when filming youth themes. In fact, it is not. It is its core that moved me. It will definitely not be a movie with explosive box office.

Including "The Death of Romantico","Old Cannon","Ghost Blows Out the Lamp", and "Di Renjie III" to be released next year, after watching them, you will think they are movies. This is my taste.

Of course, China films must have a capable blockbuster company. Without blockbuster films, China films are basically dead. There are fewer and fewer films focusing on plot in China, with drama films accounting for only 3%. However, in the U.S. market, the proportion is actually three-thirds of the world, with super IP accounting for one-third, and the other one-third are thrillers and youth growth films. Films, and another is drama films.

I think it doesn't have to be big stunts to be a blockbuster. When your worldview and values are big enough, the film will have power.

Movies are "faith" in Hollywood, but become a kind of "finance" in China.

China's film market is the most interesting place in the world. In other places, content is seeking capital. In China, capital chases content. However, China's film workers have no experience in connecting with businesses, so they will present an asymmetric situation in this rapidly developing market period.

Many people in China regard movies as financial projects, as if they are doing something for capital. On the contrary, Hollywood creators have the temperament of artists, and their attitude towards a movie project is more devoted and pious.

Hollywood's working attitude is unimaginable here. Ordinary domestic screenwriters cannot find jobs, and famous screenwriters are amazing. When we had a meeting in Hollywood, a group of producers were sitting in the office. Each of them (the screenwriter) stood for half an hour and explained. He said how I would write the script and how it would be presented. Everyone gave a speech for half an hour. There were many sparks in the process, and of course there was a union protecting it, so he was not afraid to tell you any ideas.

Compared with Hollywood, domestic filmmakers are not focused enough in their work attitude, and our film industry system is relatively backward, with a wider gap in imagination and R & D capabilities.

Filmmakers like Lucas and others are still scientists themselves. They continue to invent new technologies that can make movies feel more lively, and China has fallen behind in this regard for a long time.

Fortunately, Hollywood's technology industry is open and it wants to serve the world. We can graft Hollywood's technological industry into the story of China and use Hollywood production techniques to tell the story of China. Moreover, the more these companies provide back-office services, the living environment in Hollywood is not good. Their profitability is basically maintained by some large movie series. Once there are no such movies, it will be difficult for such companies to operate.

Many such companies in Hollywood plan to set up their companies in China. For example, the animation part, such as Shanghai DreamWorks, in fact, it basically handles half of its production here. In fact, while we are seeking them, they are also chasing new developments here.

The "Internet + Movies" discussion has reached its peak.

The Internet is a new industrial revolution that has changed our entire way of life. For movies, the Internet is impacting traditional culture and the operating system of the traditional film industry, from IP development to production of movies, to marketing to distribution, and even to derivative copyright.

Nowadays, everyone is talking about "Internet + Movies". In fact, this "+" is not a plus sign. It is just a chemical, a chemical method. Therefore, Huayi also began to deploy the Internet very early, and there are so many Internet companies that are constantly developing new Internet products that can help movies.

The traditional cooperation between film and television companies and Internet giants, including the "working for BAT" mentioned by Yu Dong at the Shanghai Film Festival, I think this cooperation is more of a capital level, because they are after all the most popular on the Internet., it will bring in a large amount of capital, including Tencent, Ali, etc., which have huge market capitalizations, dozens of times higher than the market capitalizations of companies with our culture. So in terms of capital, they will quickly invest in mergers and acquisitions, or integrate the film and television industry. However, I don't quite agree with the term "working for BAT". It can easily become that all the film industry works for BAT. BAT is just a synonym for the Internet, just abbreviated by the three most important companies.

I think the discussion about the Internet and movies may reach a peak this year. It will be interesting if everyone stops discussing it next year, because discussing it again is equivalent to discussing ourselves and becoming a way of life that we already know every day. It is not something new.

Editor: vian