Rao Shuguang: China films should not just look at beautiful numbers, but must have strategic determination

Although China's film market has huge space and a lot of room for maneuver, it cannot afford to "toss". "Improving quality and efficiency" is simple to say, but it is not easy to actually achieve it.

Original title: China films should not just look at beautiful numbers.

During the National Day holiday of 2016, the box office of the China film market dropped by 16%. During the National Day holiday of 2017, the box office growth rate once again reached nearly 50%, which also led many people to predict that China films will take off again. In fact, the China film market, which is still in its infancy or growth stage, has a strong "holiday effect," and the holiday effect makes many films that earn high box office during the holidays may fail in other schedules. Therefore, stable and ideal movie-watching habits in China's film market need to be carefully cultivated, and the stable movie-watching crowd needs to be continuously expanded."The revolution has not yet been successful, and comrades still need to work hard."

In 2014, the box office of movies in China reached 30 billion yuan, but the data released at that time was 29.6 billion yuan, so many people were very conflicted. At that time, the author thought that it might be a good thing that the box office did not reach 30 billion yuan, which would allow China filmmakers to think more clearly and rationally about the problems under the rapid development of China films-many deep-seated problems have begun to be exposed and highlighted, but they are only obscured by rapid growth and beautiful numbers. The so-called "one handsome person covers a hundred ugliness." The author also clearly proposed to reduce the development speed of China films and improve the development quality of China films. However, the author failed to persist consistently, and to a certain extent, was also carried away by the growth of 48% in 2015.

The growth rate of China films has slowed down since the second quarter of 2016. Until "Wolf Warrior 2", China films were quietly filled with anxiety and even pessimism and disappointment. However, after careful observation and analysis, we find that this anxiety and pessimism come more from the capital level than from the creative level; most people who are devoted to making movies honestly believe that slowing growth and structural adjustments may bring more opportunities and more space to creation, or at least less kidnapping by capital.

The new box office record of "Wolf Warrior 2", the large growth in the summer period, and the good performance in the National Day period have led many people to raise their expectations for the development of China films. Some even believe that China films will soon return to the track of rapid development. In fact, it is not impossible for China films to achieve rapid growth again, but once the development stamina cannot keep up, the possibility of systemic risks will increase, and the consequences and even harm to China films may be serious.

In my opinion, China films should probably have a long-term structural adjustment, by improving the film industry system, filling in various shortcomings, eliminating various policy gaps and loopholes, and upgrading capital entry and financial support to achieve structural optimization and pursue stable, predictable and sustainable growth and development. In fact, rapid growth only provides capital with various operating spaces and opportunities. Stable, predictable and sustainable growth and development are more in line with the overall, fundamental and long-term interests of filmmakers and the film industry.

If China films rush to take off and grow rapidly again when profound and positive structural adjustments are far from fully in place, it is likely to have only a short-term effect and may eventually become an "unbearable weight" for China films. Although China's film market has huge space and a lot of room for maneuver, it cannot afford to "toss". "Improving quality and efficiency" is simple to say, but it is not easy to actually achieve it. For China films, instead of pursuing rapid growth, it is better to pursue quality improvement and efficiency improvement; the speed is slightly slower, but the comprehensive benefits are better, the overall film ecology is more optimized, and ultimately the healthy growth and sustainable development of China films will be achieved. In short, China films should not be confused by the beautiful box office figures in front of them, and should not fall into the quagmire of short-term effects."It is advisable to look at the scenery for a long time." China films should have strategic determination.

The era of pure excessive speculation in pursuit of short-term interests and benefits is gradually becoming a thing of the past and history. Of course, this positive interactive development trend may be just the beginning. Further strengthening, especially consolidation, is destined to be a long-term process. Perhaps the task will be more arduous and arduous. More complex. But no matter what, China films that we have been looking forward to and working hard have seen a new historic opportunity from the golden decade of the industry to the golden decade of creation, creating more good films with muscles, connotations and depth. It is the last word of the film market and a hard task for the majority of film workers. (The author is the Secretary-General of China Film Association)

Editor: Mary