Yinrun Media Chen Xiangrong: After dismantling VIE, it will return to the mainland capital market to focus on high-concept film and television projects

As an established film and television company in Shanghai, Yinrun Media's "debut" is really early. Its history can be traced back to the 1999 TV column "China Fashion Report."

That year, Yinrun Media published "China Fashion Report" in Shanghai, and Enlight Media launched "China Entertainment Report" in Beijing, creating the "dominating screen" at that time. Interestingly, the heads of these two companies are both graduates of the Journalism Department of Fudan University and both are journalists.

Therefore, it is not too much to call Yinrun an "old brand". In 1997, Yinrun Media was founded in Shanghai by Chen Xiangrong, who had worked as a journalist for eight years. It is only three years younger than Huayi Brothers and one year older than Enlight Media. Much like Light, Yinrun started out as TV shows, then got involved in TV dramas, and then started working in film production before the explosion of the film industry, and produced well-received and well-received films such as "Detective Hunter Zhang" and "National Witness". works. Today, in the current wave of securitization of film and television companies, Yinrun is also ushering in a new round of development opportunities.

Chen Xiangrong, chairman of Yinrun Media, recently revealed in an exclusive interview that the company had just dismantled the VIE structure last year and its return was also aimed at the domestic capital market. But it also emphasized that as a veteran media company, listing is not the ultimate goal. Yinrun has been operating steadily for so many years, and its goal from beginning to end has been to produce influential film and television works such as "National Witness","Detective Hunter Zhang","Father and Son on the Road", and "Struggle of the Ant Tribe". "Of course, listing is a trend, and Yinrun will also do it. The capital market has an evaluation of us that 'the best is last'."

This veteran film and television company, established nearly 20 years ago, has a deep recognition of Shanghai-style culture. The slogan "The Most Influential Shanghai-style Private Film and Television Media Organization in China" on the company's official website is very eye-catching. Obviously, this Shanghai-style cultural businessman already has the answer in mind for Yinrun's next development.

1. Based on Shanghai culture and controlling the global layout

, it is said that Shanghai's film and television resources are too few compared with Beijing. But Chen Xiangrong bluntly said: Shanghai Film and Television Company has many advantages in Shanghai.

Since its establishment in 1997, Yinrun has always been headquartered in Shanghai, although Yinrun Beijing's team size and office space size have now exceeded Shanghai. "But we believe that in Shanghai, Yinrun can better align with the international market, and Shanghai's innovation capabilities and market adaptability are far stronger than Beijing. Shanghai has what was once the largest old dock in the Far East and has witnessed nearly 150 years of commercial exchanges between China and the West. Shanghai is also the birthplace of China films and the root of Chinese films. The origin of China films is actually similar to that of Hollywood in France and the United States. They have good external borders, accept Western culture, and add local wisdom and innovative spirit to keep pace with the times and be agile and changeable. Therefore, Shanghai's government support, international connections, and business innovation have made us insist on building Yinrun on the basis of Shanghai-style culture."

Such openness, innovation, abandonment, diversity, and commercial Shanghai-style characteristics are reflected in Yinrun's business layout. Yinrun has branches in Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Beijing. Yinrun teamed up with Down Group, Tencent Group, Sequoia Capital, and Huayi Brothers to form a Hollywood Media Resources Company overseas. The team members of this company include senior bankers in the entertainment media field and former film company executives. They have a long history in the entertainment and communication industry. Ten years of trading experience, its business includes working with Hollywood on film lists, strengthening IP development, integrating the resources of Hollywood talents including directors, screenwriters, producers, etc., and providing film completion guarantees. "This is an all-round alliance of technology, capital, market and operation. We hope to use such a platform to establish cooperation between China and Hollywood in film and television co-production, introduction and related film and television extension projects, and actively learn from Western experience while promoting the development of China's film and television itself."

Yinrun's branch in Hong Kong has currently established INMAX Entertainment with well-known Hollywood producers. It has invested heavily in Hollywood films and united first-line creative, innovative, and high-tech entertainment companies at home and abroad to establish an international benchmark of excellent content products. Build INMAX Entertainment into a global film and television production platform.

A number of projects recently launched by Yinrun have gradually begun to extend to Hollywood. "Nezha: The Land of the Gentians" will cooperate with Hollywood filmmakers. The film director has nominated Hollywood for best visual effects four times; the producer of the "Trak Kunlun Ruins" project, which is the world's dominant singer, is also a heavyweight film producer in Hollywood. He was once the chief producer of the "Marco Polo" project.

"" Nezha: The Land of Gentian "will create an international Nezha. We are also very curious about how the international creative team will create traditional China classic mythological figures. The strong spread of American culture around the world. Judging from Hollywood movies alone, it not only reflects the colorful American culture, but also expresses the universal and contemporary values of the United States. The vast majority of people in China are still dominated by local values. How to promote China brands to Americans and British people for the whole world to see, you must have a commanding height. China films should become an artistic force. Together with all "national films" in Asia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and America, they should form a more realistic, more humane, more caring, and richer world-wide diverse film trend that is different from Hollywood films. Provide a diversified rather than a unified pattern for globalization and inject new vitality into the development of international film and television and culture. Yinrun's pattern this time is to realize this concept." Chen Xiangrong said.

"The integration of these high-quality Hollywood resources is relatively easy for Yinrun, because it has such forward-looking international layout and development in Yinrun's steady development strategy." Chen Xiangrong said.

According to Chen Xiangrong, the projects currently under way also include some projects to apply for co-production qualifications. However, in Yinrun's view, whether it is released as a co-production is actually not important."The important thing is to recommend China culture to the world. Now the important thing is not to introduce overseas culture and allow global audiences to accept China culture. This is actually a big project. Relying on the openness, innovation and diversity of its profound Shanghai-style cultural heritage, Yinrun naturally attaches great importance to exchanges at home and abroad, overseas project cooperation, and recommending China culture to the international community."

2. Starting the HUAN era, the high-concept film and television projects

Chen Xiangrong mentioned above,"The Land of Nezha's Gantian" and "The Lost Kunlun Ruins" are just one of Yinrun Media's heavyweight film and television projects.

In March this year, Yinrun Media presented four high-quality film and television projects at the Hong Kong Film Festival, featuring cool fantasy technology "European Raiders", science fiction adventure "Trailed Kunlun Ruins", psychedelic myth "Nezha The Land of the Gentians", and fantasy The Orient The IP quartet represented by "Wilderness" took the lead in advancing Yinrun Media into the "HUAN" era.

Although there are not many projects released this time, they are few but excellent. Chen Xiangrong said that refinement has been our development strategy since last year. To create high-concept and influential film and television masterpieces, we must have the highest requirements in terms of production. At present, the total investment in promoting high-quality projects has exceeded 1.6 billion yuan, not including "The Lost Kunlun Ruins" The film and game development is enough for Yinrun to carefully craft for a long time in the future, so why should we plan more projects?

Chen Xiangrong said that the reason why Yinrun launched the "HUAN" era has two meanings:

First,"HUAN" in Chinese is a "fantasy" of science fiction. The current China film market is an era when it can compete with American films. There are many aspects that we must learn from the relatively advanced experience and practices of the United States, rather than stick to the small pattern of our original domestic films. Especially when the box office in China is on the same level as imported films and domestic films, domestic films are very threatened. Hollywood blockbusters occupy the domestic film market, and each one is a blockbuster that often invests hundreds of millions of dollars. Are you still trying to compete with 10 million small films? That definitely won't work. In the film and television industry, capital accumulation is actually strong enough to produce China blockbusters. Therefore, Yinrun's high-quality concept of "international blockbuster temperament" is related to "HUAN".

Second,"HUAN" is fantasy. The film and television market is a market with guiding cultural values. Through the "mirror" of movies, we can "reflect" the variation of the soul and the strangeness of the appearance of the world, so as to share suffering, confusion, joy and desire with different people of the same era. Just like "National Witness", we try to express the real experience of China during the transition period by displaying the destiny of ordinary China civilians, and express people's desire, will, wisdom and hope for survival from the bottom of their hearts, so as to capture the "audience". Only then can films with core values be spread farther, wider, and more guiding value.

"" Trak Kunlun Ruins "is the first science fiction work in the world. I hope that Yinrun's sophisticated production team will create a future science fiction world with unlimited imagination to attract everyone's attention, keep everyone's appetite, and arouse fans. The heated discussion and pursuit of people, so as to pay attention to future film and television works with science fiction themes, has given guidance." Chen Xiangrong said.

According to the plan, the basic rhythm of "European Strategies","Trailed Kunlun Ruins","Nezha's Land of Gentians" and "Wilderness" will be released in the next year. Moreover, since Yinrun has the capabilities of films, TV dramas, online dramas, film and television product marketing, and overseas film and television development in the industry, these projects are all controlled by Yinrun in the production and distribution of them.

Chen Xiangrong is very confident about the film's future box office returns."Yinrun produces and distributes both TV and movies, and has a TV, video and film distribution team. Therefore, the reason why the works we produce have been very good for so many years is that Yinrun has mastered distribution. Good social influence and popularity are closely related to Yinrun's mastery of distribution. The distribution market will in turn infer the investment in film projects and give investors the best return."

Throughout the interview process, Chen Xiangrong, who emphasized "influential works", said that he has so far focused on creation in the company's operations. On the day of the interview, he said that he had just watched "Big Short" last night because Yinrun was going to do "Aunt China.""Aunt China" is now in the seventh draft script. This project has been discovered by Yinrun and will cooperate with China Film Industry Corporation."

According to reports, the value of popular IP stored by Yinrun exceeds half a billion. In Chen Xiangrong's view, this is what large film and television group companies should do. "Many small production companies have completed two projects this year and don't know what to do next year. It's very speculative. Yinrun has 13 studios, and each studio stores more than 10 projects. This is a guarantee for the steady and long-term development of the established film and television group."

3. Capitalization is not too late. I believe that "the best comes at last"

For such an established private film and television company, listing is naturally an unavoidable issue.

Yinrun, which just dismantled its VIE structure last year, is returning to the domestic capital market. "Preparations are currently underway and there is always a direction." Chen Xiangrong said, but did not disclose which sector he would choose to land in. In the past few years, thanks to the great popularity of capital for film and television companies, money has never been a problem for good film and television companies.

Chen Xiangrong said that compared with assets, talent construction is an aspect that Yinrun attaches more importance to."We have 13 producer studios, all of which are experienced and high-end talents in the industry. We are also constantly attracting more outstanding talents in film and television production, entertainment communication, financial industry and other fields. The company has a very good cooperative relationship with Director Teng Huatao, Director Ma Chucheng, as well as some other well-known film and television production teams and creators in the industry. Therefore, high-quality talents are Yinrun's core resource advantage."

Compared with Huayi Brothers and Enlight Media, which were founded during the same period, Yinrun's listing time was indeed much later. In this regard, Chen Xiangrong does not think that a "missed opportunity" is still very optimistic about his judgment on the China film market. In his view, first of all, China's overall economy is taking off, and China's film and television industry has just begun to develop. Don't think that our box office is close to that of the United States, but in terms of population, it is much worse than the average American. There is still room for box office growth in the future. Secondly, China's film derivative market is almost zero compared with the United States. The China government has begun to pay attention to the cultural industry as a pillar industry, and all laws and regulations related to the derivative development of film and television will be gradually established.

"Yinrun has been doing top-notch IP design, including Yinrun's original IP, just to control the future derivative market, so Yinrun is in no hurry at all. I don't think that any opportunities have been missed at all. The film and television industry market still has a long future." Chen Xiangrong said.

Chen Xiangrong believes that although the concentration of the film and television industry is a trend, eight major patterns similar to Hollywood will not form in China:

First, the film and television industry is a creative industry. Many years ago, a 3 million yuan production of "Crazy Stone" killed many people, and suddenly various film and television producers grew up. The creative industry will never be monopolized, and the Hollywood Big Six will always be threatened by these studios behind it. Hollywood is now the Sixth National Congress. It used to be the Eighth National Congress. It may expand back to become the Tenth National Congress. It is hard to say;

Second, the scope of China's market is too broad. With so many provinces, populations, and so many film and television industry parks, one province now has at least 10 parks. There will be no monopoly in China, and there is no need to worry at all in China.

"Of course, in this industry, there are not many people with this endurance. We are an established company that has been operating stably for too many years. We just want to produce good works. If you produce a lot of works and no one knows about it, will you feel aggrieved? So it's still the same saying, believe that the best comes in the end." Chen Xiangrong said.

Editor: yvonne