Xiong Zhenyu, Chairman of Star Times: Become the first echelon of film investment in the next 3-5 years

In recent years, China's entertainment industry has undergone a series of changes, and the Internet film and television ecosystem has gradually taken shape. Various pan-entertainment fields such as VR, live broadcast, games, tourism, music, video, and movies have gradually broken through boundaries and integrated with each other. The era of big entertainment has arrived. As a new film investment management brand, how does Beijing Star Times enter this field?

Lead:In recent years, China's entertainment industry has undergone a series of changes. The Internet film and television ecosystem has gradually taken shape. Various pan-entertainment fields such as VR, live broadcast, games, tourism, music, video, and movies have gradually broken through boundaries and integrated with each other. The era of big entertainment is coming. How do the leaders of various cultural and entertainment companies in the midst of the tide of change assess the situation, strategize, and lead the company forward. As the leader of China's pan-entertainment big data platform, Yi En once again launched a series of "Dialogue with CEO" interviews, hoping to create a platform for the exchange and collision of ideas and gather wisdom for the development of China's entertainment industry.

According to monitoring data from Yien think tank, there were more than 270 cinema investment management companies nationwide in the first half of 2016, roughly showing a pattern of "one super and many strong". Judging from the annual net increase in cinemas, China is still in a rising period of cinema construction and development. In the first half of 2016, 658 new cinemas were added across the country, with an average of 4 new cinemas and 3583 new screens, with an average of 20 new screens per day. Among them, there is a new entrant-Beijing Star Times. Under the Star Times brand, there are Beijing Star Times Digital Cinema Line Co., Ltd., Beijing Star Times Cinema Management Co., Ltd., and Beijing Star Times Cinema Investment Co., Ltd., which is like the entire industrial chain. As a new film management brand, how to enter this field? What is its positioning and business model construction? What are the future expansion plans? In order to answer these questions of concern to the industry, Yi En interviewed Mr. Xiong Zhenyu, chairman of Beijing Star Times Cinema Management Co., Ltd.

The entry point of the Star Era industry: Mr. Xiong Zhenyu, who is mainly engaged in theaters and extends to surrounding businesses

, is the former chairman of Beijing Culture and the current chairman of Star Era. He is familiar with the film and television industry from the upstream to the downstream of the terminal. The chairman believes that the film and television industry is currently developing in two directions. One is to integrate the upstream and downstream of the film and television industry itself to build a full industry chain model; the other is to focus on the film and television industry and extend to surrounding businesses.

Yi En: As a senior expert in the cultural industry, how does the chairman view the new development characteristics and trends of the film and television industry? How to cut in and develop the star era in industrial development?

Xiong Zhenyu: At present, the layout of the entire industrial chain of domestic film and television companies is obvious. Whether it is Wanda or Huayi, they have formed a layout of the entire upstream and downstream industrial chain from production to distribution, theaters, cinemas, etc. Although the Star Era started late, it is expanding in an orderly manner with Beijing culture as a resource platform, Beijing Star Era Film Digital Theater as the basis, and Star Era Cinema as the terminal, and gradually building the entire film industry chain. Another development direction of the film and television industry is to extend to surrounding areas with the film and television industry as its main business, such as the theme parks and real-life entertainment developed by Wanda and Huayi relying on film and television. It can be said that film and television + tourism, film and television + games, film and television + entertainment, etc. are all important directions for the current and future development of the film and television industry. By developing cultural peripheries outside the upstream and downstream of film and television, we can achieve a cascading coverage effect and smooth corporate performance.

Yi En: Focusing on the theater field, what do you think of the future development trend?

Xiong Zhenyu: I think there are three aspects to the development of cinemas. First, the technology of China's cinemas is constantly updated and iterated, and theater development is the main line in the future. On the one hand, China has a huge population base and the number of theaters continues to expand. With the continuous improvement of movie-viewing conditions, people's movie-viewing consumption habits are gradually developing, and cinemas have become a rigid demand. The audio-visual feast brought by the renewal and iteration of technology is the core competitiveness of theaters. New acoustic and optoelectronic technologies in theaters, such as 7.1 channel, Dolby surround sound, laser giant screen, 3D effects and other high-tech technologies bring audio-visual effects that cannot be replaced elsewhere; second, the impact of e-commerce has caused changes in traditional business formats. Just as department stores have been hit by e-commerce, the traditional theater opening model in the Internet era will change. Large commercial complexes such as supermarkets, restaurants, and cinemas have been built; third, cinema construction will gradually sink to fourth and fifth tier cities and expand to the grassroots. As the urbanization process accelerates, cinema construction will develop into counties and large towns around the county. The model adopted in the Star Era mainly involves cultural going to the countryside, introducing real estate developers, transforming old theaters, and creating an entertainment complex integrating movies, performing halls, video game cities, KTV, catering, and film product sales. Constructed by developers, county-level film companies cooperated with Star Era and then quickly replicated and expanded.

Yi En: What do you think are the advantages of the celebrity era?

Xiong Zhenyu: The Star Era is a new company composed of old teams. The biggest advantage is that it has "no advantage". Simply put, the so-called "no advantage" means that the star era is a new company. It has no historical accumulation and fixed thinking. It does not need to break traditional concepts. It has established the latest concept since its establishment and uses the latest equipment on the market. Therefore, there is no concern about eliminating old equipment and reforming old concepts. The new company means that there is no historical burden and achieves rapid and orderly expansion through eclectic, inclusive integration.

Positioning and business model: Providing users with the ultimate leisure experience and building a six-in-one lifestyle complex

Beijing Star Times Cinema Management Co., Ltd. is a new film investment management brand led by Houde Qianhai Fund, based on Beijing Star Times Digital Cinema Line Co., Ltd.(formerly Beijing Shimao Film Line Co., Ltd., which was later acquired by Star Times and renamed), we will create the third-generation interactive film cultural studio, aiming to build a six-in-one lifestyle complex.

Yi En: When it comes to the celebrity era, many people will associate it with Beijing culture. Please briefly introduce the relationship between Beijing culture and the celebrity era.

Xiong Zhenyu: Star Era has no equity relationship with Beijing Culture. There will be some connections and resource cooperation. The celebrity era requires the star resources of Beijing culture, and some movie promotion activities in theaters require stars to come to the platform. Beijing culture also needs cinema arranging resources from the star era as a screening terminal for Beijing cultural films.

Yi En: What are the positioning and differences of theaters in the celebrity era?

Xiong Zhenyu: The development positioning of theaters in the celebrity era is to establish a six-in-one lifestyle complex, that is, integrate theater sales supermarkets, movie after-product supermarkets, movie speed play bars, VR movie zones, movie culture supermarkets, movie children's parks and other formats into the theater. Simply put, the so-called six-in-one means realizing a leisure experience for consumers to eat, drink, and take a look. Cinema is not just a place to watch movies, but a complex of comprehensive leisure experiences. In the future, cinemas will not only be used to show movies, but can also introduce 3D live broadcasts, such as the European Cup, Spring Festival Gala, etc., and can also use afternoon time to introduce concert performances.

Yi En: What is the construction of the cinema business model in the era of stars?

Xiong Zhenyu: Speaking of the business model of the theater, it is actually very simple. The theater is similar to the second landlord. The film management company rented a venue to build a theater to show movies to the audience, and sold them at different times according to the seat. Movies are an additional product in this process. Of course, in addition to selling movie tickets and services, the core of the studio lies in whether it can provide the audience with a comfortable movie-watching environment and ultimate leisure enjoyment. Whether it can stay after watching the movie, eat, drink, and have fun. The six-in-one lifestyle complex built in the Star Era is to achieve this goal and improve the audience's user experience.

Expansion plan: Build 200 studios in the next 3-5 years and rank among the first echelon.

Beijing Star Times Cinema Management Co., Ltd. was established in 2015 and currently has 6 open theaters. Through three models of new construction, acquisition and equity participation, Star Times plans to join the first echelon of film investment management companies in the next 3-5 years.

Yi En: What is the future plan scale and expansion pace of Star Times Studios, and what are the expansion or construction models?

Xiong Zhenyu: The plan for the Star Era is to develop gradually, first laying out key areas. Although the competition between Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen is fierce, the celebrity era will also be deployed in these key areas. There is already one in Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou have both signed one. Shanghai plans to open five before the end of the year, and the first one will open in October. At present, 2 companies have been completed and opened in Star Era and 4 have been acquired, bringing a total of 6 companies to open. It is expected that 20 companies will open for construction and acquisitions will open by the end of the year, and about 40 companies have signed contracts. We strive to build 200 studios in the next 3-5 years, reach a certain box office scale and rank among the first echelon. It is mainly expanding simultaneously through three models: new construction, acquisition, and equity participation.

Yi En: What is the cooperation method for expansion in the movie star era? Or how to attract more and better collaborators to participate?

Xiong Zhenyu: There are two main ways to expand cooperation in the celebrity era. One is to cooperate with existing Xiaoying Investment Company and collaborate through equity acquisition. Another way is to cooperate with developers and integrate resources to form a cultural and entertainment complex.

Editor: vian