Ni Yuehong: China's film derivatives industry has not yet reached a critical level, and the film industry has a potential of hundreds of billions

The box office of China's movies reached 44 billion yuan in 2015. Today, capital has stirred the film industry up to a hot spot. What is the current situation of China's film derivatives industry and how should the film industry develop?

China's film market is entering the fast lane of development and will surpass the United States to become the world's largest film market in the foreseeable future. However, the process of transcendence will inevitably have quite many propositions to be solved. Therefore, it is very important to strengthen international and industry integration. We need to understand international advanced production concepts, we need to know how to go global with better products, we need to communicate continuously with international filmmakers, we need to know how to monetize online content, we need to understand how the Internet celebrity economy can solve the problem, and we need to find channels for growth and space for expansion.

The box office of movies in China reached 44 billion yuan in 2015. The film industry has become an attractive cake, attracting capital from all walks of life. Capital pursues profits, and movies have also produced various new ways to play. Judging from the successful experience of Hollywood in the United States, the derivative industry is of great significance to the development of the entire film industry, while China films are still in their infancy in this regard.

Nowadays, capital has stirred the film industry into a hot spot. What is the current situation of China's film derivative industry and how should the film industry develop? Yesterday (April 21), the reporter had an exclusive interview with Ni Yuehong, a guest of the 6th Beijing International Film Festival and vice president of the Beijing Film Academy.

China's film derivatives industry has not yet reached a critical point.

Reporter: This International Film Festival specifically mentioned that the development of the film derivatives industry is a gold mine. Have China films taken any action in this regard?

Ni Yuehong: "Yangtze River No. 7","33 Days of Lovelorn Love","Let the Bullets Fly","Joy and Big Wolf" are all domestic films with derivatives launched. However, their derivative development is sporadic, not a common phenomenon, but individual cases, and has not been systematic. This is not the case in the United States. All six major Hollywood theater companies have their own consumer goods departments. At present, only China Film Corporation has a derivatives industry company in my country, and Huayi Brothers has also established a similar institution. Huayi is the leader in intellectual property (IP) management, and has the Consumer Goods Department below it. Huayi's thinking is very right and more advanced.

Reporter: How to interpret Huayi Brothers 'more advanced ideas on the development of derivative industries?

Ni Yuehong: Huayi Brothers is dominated by IP. Products are derived from movies. Movies are intellectual products. The transfer of intellectual property rights brings a series of derivative things. For example, licensing to publishing companies to generate copyright income, and licensing to audio-visual companies, game makers and derivative companies to generate other aspects of income. This results in a series of value chains dominated by IP, which will create huge market value.

Reporter: China's film market currently has the second largest market in the world. Is the critical point for the explosion of film derivatives in China?

Ni Yuehong: No, there is still some time. The greatest potential of the derivative industry is not a certain product, but a film and television theme park that integrates various elements. This kind of park is large in scale, easy to form economic effects, and accommodates more industrial elements in it. At present, according to our understanding, there are more than 100 theme parks named after films and television in China, some of which are projects with an investment of tens of billions of yuan. In the next 3 to 5 years, with the completion and operation of these projects, China's film industry will have greater development.

At present, 90% of film and television parks in China are "selling dog meat"

Reporter: As far as the film industry is concerned, box office is not the mainstream contribution. What experience can Hollywood draw on in this respect?

Ni Yuehong: Hollywood in the United States has a global revenue of US$180 billion a year, and China's box office in 2015 is 44 billion yuan. The difference is still very large. Of course, the high income of Hollywood in the United States is mainly not the box office or derivative goods, but comes from two major parts: one is the income from TV and online broadcasts; the other is the income from film and television parks all over the world.

American movie theme parks have movie screenings, stage plays and entertainment programs adapted from movies to reproduce scenes in movies; there are various props, special effects equipment, and content forms that are all expressed differently; this is a re-creation of the content of the movie. and processing, the entire scene is richer and more interesting than the movie. Compared with general tourism, such cultural tourism projects are entertaining and deeply integrated with cultural industries and tourism. They are also a new direction for the development of the tourism industry.

Reporter: You also mentioned before that there are many film and television parks in China. Do they also have similar content forms and generate higher profits?

Ni Yuehong: The important thing in film and television parks is how to design film scenes and the consistency between form and content. Nowadays, what we sell in most of our film and television theme parks are things picked up from small commodity markets and local specialties, and have nothing to do with movies. This is very regrettable. Our current movie park is still far from Hollywood. Of course, there are also good ones, such as the movie theme park built by Wanda Group in Wuhan. Now Huayi Brothers and Enlight Media also have such plans. This will have a positive impact on the film industry, set off new consumption hotspots in cultural tourism, and is also a hot spot in the film derivative industry.

Reporter: Why do my country's film and television theme parks have such a dilemma?

Ni Yuehong: Because there are no professionals to carry out overall planning, investors focus on the construction of the park's hardware environment, and lack systematic and overall consideration of future operations and the design and planning of the park's business content; on the other hand, some investors have not organically combined the development of the film and television theme park with the film industry, and these two parts have not formed effective collaboration; moreover, there is a lack of professional talents in this area.

There is no shortage of talented people. What is lacking is consciousness.

Reporter: You mentioned professionals just now, which reminds me of the cultivation of film talents in this field. What is the current situation of talent cultivation in the film derivative industry?

Ni Yuehong: The film derivative industry has just begun. At present, our college (Beijing Film Academy) has newly established a design discipline. We have recruited 4 graduate students in this area, mainly in two directions, one is product design; the other is film and television scene design. At present, the undergraduate project of product design has just been approved.

Reporter: The Beijing Film Academy has established China's first film derivative industry research institute. What is the main research institute doing at present? What's the situation?

Ni Yuehong: The research institute was only established last year and has already carried out some project cooperation with China Film Corporation and Huayi Brothers. The next step is to design film-derivative products for our new campus, targeting manhole covers on campus. Each one has a movie story on it, and the movie story is used to correspond to the function of the manhole cover. For example, the manhole cover of the communication network has the theme of the movie "The Eternal Radio Wave"; the fire shaft uses "Fire King".

Reporter: In terms of the development of derivative industries, design is very important. You are a design expert who graduated from Tsinghua University. Are there any talents in China who can design Hollywood lifelike images?

Ni Yuehong: In fact, there is no shortage of talents in China in this regard, including animated films. Not long ago, I saw a very good animated film. It is very good in painting level and production technology, but the story is not very good. It was not awarded. In terms of the development of the film industry, we were not fully understood before, but once we realize this, we have a market. I believe that China's film industry will flourish in a few years.

The future of China's film industry should be hundreds of billions.

Reporter: In 2015, the box office of China's films increased by 48.7% compared with 2014. In fact, the revenue of the film industry mainly depends on box office contributions. So if the derivative industry develops, what scale do you expect the revenue of China's film industry to reach in the future?

Ni Yuehong: We have calculated the revenue of China's film industry in 2014. The box office was 29.6 billion yuan. In addition, there are also overseas copyright, advertising, TV broadcasts and some derivatives income, all of which add up to 42.9 billion yuan. The box office revenue of movies in 2015 was 44 billion yuan, so the overall revenue of the film industry should exceed 60 billion yuan. According to Hollywood standards, the derivative industry should account for 70%. If this area develops well, the revenue of China's film industry should be hundreds of billions in a few years.

Reporter: Capital is now keen on film and television media, and investing in this industry is very popular. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Ni Yuehong: This is definitely a good thing. The film industry needs funds to promote development, but it also needs positive guidance and choose good projects. Of course, some of them just join in the fun and watch that the movie market is very popular, but in fact, there are very few people who make money investing in movies, and 70% to 80% lose money. The situation of a movie destroying a company is not an isolated case. Some companies spent 100 million to 200 million yuan on investing in movies. The movie lost money and the company collapsed. In addition, the movie market is not easy to predict. Sometimes, if you put a lot of effort into it, the box office may still be poor.

Reporter: Some time ago, Tang De Film and Television acquired Fan Bingbing's company Aimei. Aimei was established with a half-year valuation of 700 million yuan. The high premium has attracted widespread market attention. Is there a bubble?

Ni Yuehong: Stars have fan bases, which will create a fan effect. Take a very simple example. If a certain product is involved with stars as the source, money may be made quickly. Stars do have resource value. Nowadays, many film and television stars have invested in companies, and the company's valuation has doubled, or the stars 'own companies have been acquired at high prices, but this does not rule out the creation of bubbles.

Editor: Tsai