The attack of National Entertainment: the way of Film and Television crowdfunding to make a profit and loss

If you take stock of the biggest innovation in the entertainment industry in 2014, the crown must be film and television crowdfunding this year. As Alibaba took the lead in launching Entertainment Bao, other Internet companies and financial institutions chose to follow quickly.

if you take stock of the biggest innovation in the entertainment industry in 2014, it must be film and television crowdfunding this year.

on the last day of March 2014, Alibaba launched a new product project, Entertainment Bao, saying, "Entertainment for all, you are also a producer!" With a clear-cut slogan, Yulebao sold 73 million yuan online from March 31 to April 3, with more than 300000 subscribers. All the money raised will be invested in four films "tiny Times 3", "tiny Times 4", "Wolf Totem" and "illegal Operation", as well as an online social game "Mofan Academy".

for a long time before, the financing limitations of the film and television industry have always been a problem. A boss of Zhejiang Film and Television Company once complained to the reporter: "it is very difficult for the company to ask the bank for money because bank loans need fixed assets as collateral, but film and television companies are light asset companies. Many even directors, actors and equipment are hired temporarily or leased, and the financing channels of traditional enterprises are not applicable to the film and television industry at all."

in fact, apart from powerful listed companies, many small and medium-sized film and television companies can only borrow from the private sector or attract private investors such as Shanxi coal bosses and real estate developers to act as early-stage equity investors. Although hot money is coming, the subsequent "side effect" is a sudden decline in the quality of the film. It is often reported in the industry that a coal boss wants his girlfriend to play the leading role and attend the opening ceremony of foreign film festivals, otherwise the investment will be recovered.

but this situation almost disappeared in 2014. As Alibaba took the lead in launching Entertainment Bao, other Internet companies and financial institutions chose to follow quickly. Baidu launched its film crowdfunding plan in August, and then Pudong Development Bank launched the Xiaopu Entertainment platform on December 1 to invest in Xu Zheng's new film "lost in Hong Kong" with virtual assets.

< strong > Ali pioneered crowdfunding < / strong >

from the first issue of Yulebao on March 31 to the launch of the fourth issue of Yulebao on December 9, 2014, Alibaba launched four publicly funded film and television crowdfunding products within a year, which has obviously tasted something sweet.

starting from the first phase of Yulebao, Alibaba said that as long as he invests 100 yuan, he can invest in popular movies and TV dramas and become the producer of movies or TV programs. Yulebao also has an expected return of 7% compared with general financial products on the market.

in terms of specific operation, Alibaba cooperated with Guohua Life Insurance and invested in the joint insurance "Guohua Huarui No. 1 Life Insurance A" to carry out specific capital operation. Gu Jianbing, director of public relations of Alibaba, once told the 21st Century Economic report that the first phase of Yulebao is an investment product led by Alibaba and designed jointly with Guohua Life Insurance. The two sides have been brewing for about half a year. The expected return of 7% is also the figure given by the actuary.

judging from the current results, there is no doubt that the investment in the first phase of Yulebao has been very successful. Of the four films it invested, tiny Times 3 was released in July 2014 and finally grossed about 520 million yuan at the box office. It successfully ranked seventh among the top 10 domestic films this year.

another famous novel adaptation, Wolf Totem, which Entertainment Bao invested 24 million yuan, will be released in February 2015, which is directed by French director Jean. Jacques. Directed by Arnold, starring Feng Shaofeng and Dou Kui, the magnificent film produced by China Film Co., Ltd. and jointly filmed by China and France has made the outside world full of expectations.

two months after the first issue was sold out, the second issue of Yulebao came out quickly. The second phase raised 92 million yuan to invest in five films, including "Dew Beauty", "desperate Escape", "Edge Line", "the Old Boy Raptor Crossing the River" and "Kuiba Ⅲ". Among them, "the Old Boy" was released in July this year, and in addition to earning 210 million yuan at the box office, the film's theme song "Little Apple" became a hit and won the 42nd AMA American Music Awards International Song and International Artist of the year awards.

on September 15, the third issue of Yulebao was released again. Alibaba announced that the third phase of Yulebao will be tied to the second season of Oriental Satellite TV's "Voice of Chinese Dream", which will raise 100m yuan for the latter. This is the first cooperation with a TV program since the launch of the Yulebao platform in March this year, and it is also the first TV variety show with national investment and participation in the history of Chinese television.

on December 9, the fourth phase of Yulebao began to raise a total of 40 million yuan, including the movie "Dad's Holiday", which was born out of the variety show "where is Dad going?" and Xu Jinglei's new film, "there's a place only we know."

in terms of effect, the emergence of Yulebao not only meets the financing needs of the film and television industry, but also reintegrates resources with the film and television industry through the massive customer resources that Alibaba has after working on the Internet for many years, and big data has reintegrated resources with the film and television industry, thus stimulating huge new energy.

< strong > Baidu's Golden Age < / strong >

just four months after Ali knocked on the movie door with entertainment treasure, in August 2014, Baidu, CITIC Trust and China Film Group have reached a strategic cooperation on the financial crowdfunding platform for film and television culture industry. The first products of this crowdfunding platform are aimed at the film "Golden Age" starring Tang Wei and Feng Shaofeng. And films such as "to our sudden Love" starring Zhao Wei.

Zhang Zhenghua, general manager of Baidu Baidubao, said Baidu will build an Internet crowdfunding platform and will make efforts from film and television crowdfunding projects. As a popular product, the film has a low threshold for user participation and is easy to resonate. At the same time, the most important thing is that the film's user base covers a wide range of users and is highly coincident with Baidu's user group.

another reason why Baidu chose to launch film and television crowdfunding is that these crowdfunding users, who are also users of the final consumer film products, are an important guarantee for the film box office; in the creative stage, you can join users to participate in the joint design of content. The creation of the script, the selection of actors, the design of the scene, can be through netizens to participate in decision-making; in the marketing stage, through a variety of service items, detonate users' continuous attention and consumption enthusiasm.

similar to Ali, Baidu is also betting on well-known artists and producers. At that time, the film "the Golden Age" was jointly created by China Film Group and Xingmei Group, and starred by the hot film goddess Tang Wei and popular Xiao Sheng Feng Shaofeng.

Baifa also said with deep pockets that six months after users bought this product, according to the box office situation of the "Golden Age" movie, it will be less than 200 million yuan, 300 million yuan, 400 million yuan, 500 million yuan, 600 million yuan, and more than 600 million yuan, corresponding to 8%, 9%, 10%, 11%, 12% and 16% annualized expected equity returns, respectively.

but to the surprise of the market and all investors, literary blockbusters with complex artistic techniques such as "the Golden Age" were not accepted by the cinema market. This masterpiece, which was built at a cost of 70 million yuan, eventually grossed only 52 million yuan at the box office.

of course, Baifa has a chance to make a beautiful comeback through Zhao Wei's "to our sudden Love". After all, the previous "to Youth" had a huge reputation and box office success when it was released in 2013.

but even so, a hundred successful cases are enough to sound the alarm for all investors who enter into film and television financing. No matter how changeable the form of financing is, the high risk of film and television investment has never changed.