Xinyue Film and Television, whose animated films have emerged, is determined to build its own animation kingdom

"The box office is only 100 million yuan, and the company cuts 50% of its staff." Sun Yue, founder of Xinyue Film and Television, said: "If you don't have the determination to 'put it to death and then live', why do you have to break out of the encirclement? For a small company, a project determines life and death, and I have to pass on this pressure to the team..."

Recently, the New Third Board announced the list of innovation-level enterprises in 2017. Select 1393 companies from 11244 listed companies on the New Third Board to enter. Among them, only 32 film and television companies were selected this year, and Xinyue Film and Television is one of the upstart film and television companies entering the innovation level.

Xinyue Film and Television started by distributing thrillers. In just four years since its establishment, it has participated in the promotion and distribution of dozens of films. Its famous work was the 2015 box office dark horse "Closed Door". In 2015 and 2016, the company's revenue was 11.5125 million yuan and 77.9913 million yuan respectively, with a compound growth rate of 176.98% in the past two years. Xinyue Film and Television realized the ceiling of thriller films limited by subject matter, and began to adjust its direction in 2016 to enter the field of animated films.

From making thrillers that are "not suitable for children" to making cartoons that are "suitable for all ages", Xinyue Pictures has made a "big cross-border".

Although it is still a "recruit egg" in the animated film industry, Xinyue Film and Television has released animation works such as "McDull Rice Treasure" and "David Bacon's Hapless Agent Bear" since 2016, with a cumulative box office of nearly 200 million yuan. In just one year, it ranked third in the animated film industry, chasing the colorful room of light.

At present, Xinyue Film and Television is preparing for a new round of fixed growth, and plans to deploy the entire industry chain such as project incubation, production, promotion, distribution, and even online content adaptation to occupy market share and seek greater breakthroughs.

In the domestic animation field, more companies have been working on content creation for ten years, trying to create a hit IP, but they often become cannon fodder. Xinyue Film and Television starts with publicity and distribution, and uses a way to ensure continuous cash flow to slot in the market. It is a good way to find a new path.

Tudou's No. 1 employee in Beijing entered the film and television industry with "small and broad"

Sun Yue, chairman of Xinyue Film and Television

, took "thriller" as a breakthrough and rushed into the New Third Board in three years. Xinyue Film and Television's development path is rare in the industry.

Sun Yuexiao, chairman of Xinyue Film and Television, said,"Our company looks quite weird in the industry." The so-called "weird" lies in two aspects: the founder does not come from the traditional film and television industry, but from the Internet industry; after the company was established, It started with the distribution of thrillers, but relying on its focus on genre films, it has achieved good results in years and successfully listed on the New Third Board.

In 2006, Sun Yue, founder of Xinyue Film and Television, joined Tudou as Tudou Beijing No. 1 employee because he was optimistic about the development of the online video industry, and eventually became the director of Tudou's content cooperation department. He was responsible for external cooperation on all Tudou channels, including film and television copyright purchase and film and television investment. In 2011, he served as the general manager of PPTV's film and television business department. In addition to being responsible for purchasing and investing film and television copyright, he also prepared a self-made center and prepared "PP produced" online content.

In 2013, Sun Yue decided to officially leave and start a business. This time he chose the film industry, which was about to develop rapidly. To be precise, he started from the distribution side of the film industry.

After determining the direction, the company began the process of "learning while doing". The entire team of the company started from movie theaters to slowly increase revenue to tens of millions. "Closed Doors" released in 2015 is the company's flagship work, and it became the box office champion among the thriller films that year.

"Closed Doors" was fully launched in mainland theaters on March 13, 2015. It opened at the box office of nearly 4 million yuan on its first day. It formed a unique phenomenon during the Spring Festival, making a high-profile crackdown on traditional parent-child, family fun, animation and other genres. The pattern of films has a high attendance rate, with the attendance rate in third-tier cities reaching 86%, and the box office easily exceeded 10 million in the first weekend.

Behind this are Xinyue Film and Television's many unique publicity strategies. The most noteworthy one is that it has launched nearly a hundred haunted houses with the theme of "Closing the Door" in key theaters in dozens of key cities across the country. Audiences can experience the condensed version of the movie on the spot-"The No. 1 Ghost Village in China." In addition, during the press conference, we also airlifted a thousand-year-old coffin from Fengmen Village, Henan Province to show everyone the true terrorist elements of the film.

Marked by "Closed Doors", Xinyue Film and Television's film distribution business has developed quite mature and can bring stable revenue to the company every year. However, at this time, Xinyue Film and Television chose to retreat bravely. After all, the development of thriller films was difficult to sustain. Due to subject matter limitations, the ceiling was obvious.

Xinyue Film and Television began to seek a transformation direction and finally chose the new blue ocean market of "animated films".

Ranked third in the industry in one year. He once said that "Unlucky Bear" would lay off 50%

of the domestic animated film market for only 100 million yuan. There is still a large iceberg hidden under the blue ocean.

Recently,"China Animated Film Development Report (2016)" was released. Data shows that in 2016, a total of 62 Chinese and foreign animated films appeared on my country's big screen. Although there were only 5 more films than in 2015, animated films accounted for 15.3% of the total box office of films with a box office of 7.005 billion yuan, an increase of 58.9%. In comparison, China's overall box office growth rate in 2016 was only 3.6%. In addition, with a market share of 15.3%, there is still much room for growth compared with the proportion of animated films accounting for 30%-50% of the total box office in the U.S. and Japanese markets.

Xinyue Film and Television predicted this trend in 2015, so it resolutely moved from a thriller genre with low ceilings to the animation market.

The first step in transformation is to reorganize the animation publicity team.

In terms of distribution business, Xinyue Film and Television invited Li Guorui, former vice president of the distribution department of Zhujiang Pictures, who once led the distribution of "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf","Bear Infested" and "Pig Man". In terms of publicity, Guo Xinnian, former vice president of the film publicity department of Alibaba Pictures, was invited, who once led the promotion and marketing of "Little Gate God" and "Song of the Ocean".

The team was initially established. After testing the water of the first project,"McDull·Rice Treasure", in the second project,"David Bacon's Hapless Agent Bear", the film won 126 million yuan in box office by virtue of the advantage of "integrated publicity and publicity".

In fact, it is not easy for this film to break 100 million at the box office. This is an old South Korean IP that has been re-appeared on the big screen after more than a decade. The industry is unanimously skeptical. Surprisingly, it outstripped Hollywood animation giant "The Legend of the Magic String" with its number one attendance. It also competed with "Space Traveler","Star Wars Prequel: Rogue One","Love" and other powerful enemies. It was a miracle during the winter vacation and finally entered the domestic animated film 100 million yuan club with a box office score of 126 million yuan.

Sun Yue, founder of Xinyue Film and Television, said with a smile,"This is an achievement that I sacrificed my life for." He recalled that Xin Yue successfully bid with producer Aofei Pictures, and it took less than 60 days from receiving the launch of the project to its release. However, Sun Yue issued a dead order: "The box office is only 100 million yuan, and the company will lay off 50% of its employees." "If you don't have the determination to 'put it to death and then live', why do you have to break out of the encirclement? For a small company, a project determines life and death, and I have to pass on this pressure to the team..."Sun Yue recalled.

Under the ultra-high pressure KPI, the team decided

to fight back through the accurate positioning of "small hands holding big hands" and "family fun", and through the rolling broadcast during prime time on major TV stations and children's channels, the "Bear Playing Spring" long scroll on social media and other content such as viral marketing and other promotional strategies, as well as the cooperation of more than 400 joint marketing merchants and brands, early education institutions, supermarkets, children's parks, toy stores, children's clothing chains and other local promotion channels, Finally, the movie achieved the expected results.

The battle of "Unlucky Bear" allowed Xinyue Film and Television to gain a firm foothold in the industry.

Since 2016, in addition to the release of "Big Fish Begonia" and "Your Name", and LeTV Pictures, which released "Bear Infested", Xinyue Film and Television has climbed to third place in the industry. This year and next year, its goal has become to "protect the three and compete for the two."

Propaganda cuts in, incubation and production strength are used as reserves, but "there is no rush to make hot movies"

Xinyue Film and Television has always targeted light colored strips.

On October 25, 2015, Enlight Pictures announced the establishment of the "Color Bar House Pictures" animation group, and invested in 13 animation companies including October Culture, Bianyantian, and Blue Arc Culture in one go, and had "Big Fish Begonia". Successful operation cases of animated films such as "Begonia" and "Your Name".

Xinyue Film and Television believes that it is similar to the logic of Light Color Bar House. It occupies the market from the publicity process, rather than doing its own project incubation and content development to create a hit IP. Xinyue Film and Television is not in a hurry to make the next "Return of the Great Sage" for the time being, but it wants to be the publicity service provider for the next "Return of the Great Sage".

In contrast to the light, Xinyue Film and Television still has the opportunity to break through differently. Light plays more with the plate of big chips and firmly grasps the head item. Competing with giants, Xinyue Film and Television can serve producers through more flexible operations and more refined operations. Moreover, the gameplay of "being big with small things" and "winning with cleverness" was originally the way they won when releasing thrillers.

Of course, Xinyue Film and Television did not give up accumulating its own creative power, and also began to lay out in the content incubation and production processes.

On June 2, Xinyue Film and Television issued two consecutive announcements, announcing the investment and holding of two companies-Horgos Star and Horgos Star One (both companies have tentative names).

Sun Yue revealed that Taylor will focus on the pre-development and mid-to-late production of animation. The core team members have worked for EA Tiburon, EA Los Angeles, DreamWorks Studios, etc. Taiyi Company is mainly engaged in online film and television content business, and invited Sun Lei, former PPTV film and television investment project director who has been responsible for projects such as "Obsession" and "The Story of Concubine", and his team to join. The establishment of Taiyi Company can prepare for future high-quality animations for online film and television adaptations.

Since then, Xinyue Film and Television has officially established a complete industrial chain layout, covering project incubation, production, publicity, and subsequent online content adaptation. This is also the company's major change this year.

In Sun Yue's view, content creation requires time, talent and cost, so this matter cannot be rushed. Therefore, his idea is to start a business with stable cash flow first so that the company can maintain good profits, and at the same time, he has deep contact with market demand on the issuing side to accumulate insight for content research and development.

I have to say that this is a good idea to explore a different path. In the animation field, betting on IP companies may become cannon fodder if they fail to bet. However, companies like Xinyue Films and Television, which can ensure stable profits, gain considerable market share in the industry, and have a path to rise, are also worth looking forward to.

Editor: Mary