Demand and supply are growing, and China films lack high-quality content have a lot of room for growth

"In terms of the form and style of content, the types are not diverse enough. After a film is successful, many people follow suit and imitate it. This has resulted in the prominent phenomenon that certain types of films are highly dense in recent years, which reflects the creativity behind it. lag."

Since last year, the scale of China's film market, which has been growing rapidly for many years, has suddenly slowed down. Some people are criticizing it, and some people are wondering, has the demand in China's film market hit the ceiling? If the answer is no, how can the film market further expand and how can the film industry achieve the next step of upgrading? During the ongoing 20th Shanghai International Film Festival, supply-side reform has become the focus of attention of film practitioners.

Although the growth rate of market size has slowed down, it is still growing.

In 2003, Ren Zhonglun came to the then Shanghai Film Studio to serve as the director and president. That year, the reform of China's film industrialization was officially launched, and the film industry was quite weak-the annual production of films nationwide was less than 100, the box office was 1.01 billion yuan, the audience was more than 7.5 million, and the effective screen was about 3000 yuan. "At that time, many cinemas sold cardigans during the day and showed movies at night. There is no so-called demand side in the market, and there is no corresponding supply side."

In the following years, China's film industry developed rapidly. In 2010, the annual box office exceeded 10 billion yuan; it took three years to go from 10 billion yuan to 20 billion yuan; it took only two years to go from 20 billion yuan to 40 billion yuan... In 2012, the total box office of Chinese films surpassed Japan, becoming the world's second largest film market; at the end of 2016, the total number of screens nationwide reached 41179, and China surpassed the United States to become the country with the largest number of screens; The annual film production averages about 700 films per year, ranking among the top three in the world's annual film production.

"The main driving force for the expansion of the film market comes from the demand side, because some people want to watch movies, and only by rapidly increasing the number of movies and theaters can we meet the needs of the audience, thereby further stimulating demand." Ren Zhonglun said.

Ren Zhonglun

used to grow at an average annual rate of about 30% for several years. Some people used this rate to calculate future box office, but reality did not achieve it. In 2016, the growth rate of the national movie box office dropped significantly. The 60 billion yuan box office that many people longed for did not appear at the end of the year. The figure stayed at 49.283 billion yuan, an increase of only 12% over the previous year. Has China's film market really hit the ceiling? Has demand-side growth stalled?

"Although the growth rate of market size has slowed down, it is still growing positively, which shows that demand is still growing. On the other hand, the output of a single theater is declining. In 2016, there were 85 films with box office exceeding 100 million yuan, and 292 films with box office below 10 million yuan, which means that the average cost per movie will not exceed 4 million yuan. Who can make movies with 4 million yuan now? This tells us that the supply side is growing faster than the demand side, but the effectiveness of supply is declining, and there are irrational and abnormal phenomena on the supply side." Ren Zhonglun said,"Film supply-side reform is a topic that the film industry cannot avoid and a pain point that must be faced."

Regarding how much room there is for growth in China's film market, Yu Xin, general manager of Dadi Cinema Group, analyzed that in terms of per capita movie viewing times, in 2016, China just reached once a year, and in North America it was 3.7; in terms of the number of screens per million people, there are 121 screens in North America, and only 30 screens in China. "Although we cannot use these figures dogmatically to predict, we can at least refer to this general trend. There is still a lot of room for growth in the China film market. With the development of the film market, the audience's taste and appreciation ability have been greatly improved. At this time, there has been a mismatch between the supply side and the demand side, that is, a mismatch between content and the audience's appreciation level. This is the middle of historical development. Node, suppliers that cannot provide high-quality content will be eliminated next, and market adjustments will further optimize its development model."

The increase in the number of films produced requires improvement in quality.

During the Shanghai Film Festival last year, when expectations for the expansion rate of China's film market were at their peak, various film companies released hundreds of films in just a few days. Today, a year later, some of these films have been met with the audience, some have not yet been completed, some have become "unfinished" projects, and some have even completely "aborted"...

Jiang Wei, executive director of Gravity Film and Television Investment Co., Ltd., called those projects that immediately disappeared after the project book was unveiled are called "PPT films".

Wang Zhonglei, vice chairman of Huayi Brothers Media Co., Ltd., believes that for a country's films, two indicators are very important: first, the proportion or number of good films per year, which is one of the criteria for measuring whether a country is a film power. One; the second is the quality and quantity of films with realistic themes. "I think there are two types of movies, one is dream-making and the other is reality. Dreams rely on creativity, sound effects, and special effects, but if the part that truly reflects real life is missing, it cannot be called a movie power. Whether it is the performance of individual films or the allocation of market share, from a numerical perspective, our ability to continue to produce high-quality films is still far behind that of the United States."

Wang Zhonglei, vice chairman of Huayi Brothers Media Co., Ltd.

,"We lack works that can move people's hearts and resonate with everyone." Ren Zhonglun said,"In terms of the form and style of content, the types are not diverse enough. After a film is successful, many people follow suit and imitate it. This has resulted in a prominent phenomenon that certain types of films are highly dense in recent years. What is reflected behind it is the lag of creativity."

Jiang Wei believes: "It is a good thing for capital to enter the China film market because there is more sufficient funds to make films, but the capital may be a little anxious, or the investors are a little anxious. Summarizing the past year, the number of our films produced has increased far faster than the improvement in quality, which is the biggest problem."

In the past two years, big data was popular, and the film industry was no exception. For many non-industry capital that has just come into contact with the film industry, using data as a reference for investment seems to be the most direct way to enter. For a time, a large number of big data analysis and marketing companies appeared in the film industry, and selling data and analytical reports became a new business in the film industry. "Traffic" has become a buzzword. The number of fans, box office and "traffic" an actor can bring is the decisive criterion for some investors to choose or not. But at this year's Shanghai International Film Festival, practitioners began to reflect on this phenomenon.

"Big data is a tool, and how to use it depends on subjective will." Jiang Wei said,"Many people analyzed the data and came to the conclusion that the majority of movie audiences are young people aged 17-23. They are too lazy to think. This kind of analysis has guided a considerable number of our films in this direction in recent years, ignoring other possible effects of the film."

The level of audience appreciation has improved, and the trend of diversification has become increasingly obvious

that the supply side and the demand side do not match. Film production is high, the overall profitability of the industry is not high, and the phenomenon of relative overcapacity is prominent. How to adjust industrial structural contradictions? What is the most lacking aspect of China films facing upgrades?

"From the annual production of more than 80 films to 80 to 90 to 100 films, our productivity reserves are not enough, and the ability to produce works at the core of productivity is not enough," Ren Zhonglun said."The market's requirements for production capabilities are far greater. Greater than creative ability, it is difficult to realize creativity through production."

Demand in the China film market is still growing. Economic development, social leisure growth, increased urbanization rate, and demographic dividend growth have all provided an objective and realistic foundation for the development of the film industry. Therefore, although China's film industry has entered a stage of stable development from a period of rapid growth, practitioners are still relatively firm in their favorable judgments on the development trend of the industry. Especially during the annual Shanghai International Film Festival and Beijing International Film Festival, fans have a strong demand for films to be screened, and pre-sale tickets for some films are sold out as soon as they go on sale. This fundamentally reflects the needs of the film market. As well as the enthusiasm of the more mature audience for high-quality films, the trend of diversification in the China film market is becoming more and more obvious.

"In the past, people thought that art films were too niche, but now we see that niche groups are getting bigger. If art films can be distributed well, to a certain extent, it can also show that the film market is gradually moving towards a better ecological development." Yu Xin said.

The Indian film "Wrestling!" whose box office has exceeded 1.2 billion yuan "Dad" is a good example. Yu Xin said that at the beginning of the film's release, the theater did not expect that this Indian film would have a good response among young audiences, but the high-performance films and high box office driven by good reputation showed that the audience's appreciation of the film has indeed improved.

"In the past many years, the production, publicity and screening of films in China have been very extensive, which has caused some high-quality films with small and medium-cost costs to lose the opportunity to meet with the audience. However, with the emergence of market diversification, the opportunity to turn this situation is just around." Wang Zhonglei said that the competition between domestic small-budget films and American blockbusters in the publicity and screening environment is not on the same starting line. There is no separate screening method when released, and there will be no room for survival. New actors and new directors will also lose opportunities for development."Now everyone has begun to realize this problem. Improvement cannot rely on feelings, but more on the support of the film industry system."

Editor: Mary