Noon Sunshine and Jin Dong, Liu Tao and others entered the 3.0 era to jointly invest and share benefits

Zhengwu Sunshine, the producer behind "Ode to Joy", established three companies with these three stars-Deshe Film and Television, Jinlin Film and Television and Zhejiang Dekong Film and Television. Unlike many "star shareholders", Noon Sunshine did not give star equity at the parent company level, but adopted a more winding approach.

The popular topic drama "Ode to Joy" has been broadcast halfway. In addition to complaints and popularity, the capital relationship between several actors in the drama Wang Kai, Jin Dong, and Liu Tao and the drama's producer, Zhengwu Sunshine, has also been exposed by the media.

The reporter found that earlier this year, Zhengwu Sunshine, the producer behind "Ode to Joy", established three companies with these three stars-Deshe Film and Television, Jinlin Film and Television and Zhejiang Dekong Film and Television. Unlike many "star shareholders", Noon Sunshine did not give star equity at the parent company level, but adopted a more winding approach.

If you think these companies are artist studios, you are wrong. According to our understanding, these three companies are mainly used to invest in film and television projects. In the future, all three companies will have the opportunity to invest in all film and television projects of noon Sunshine;

if you think that noon Sunshine is "firmly binding" the three stars, then you are wrong again. Not all three stars must star in noon Sunshine's film and television series. Even Liu Tao's agent contract is still not in noon Sunshine's hands.

In the current entertainment industry, artist management is becoming more and more complex. In the past, artists such as Huang Xiaoming, Zhou Xun, and Fan Bingbing left Huayi after they matured. Later, Jiang Jinfu, who was rapidly becoming popular, had fierce disputes with the Tang people. Even young meat such as Lu Han, Wu Yifan, and Huang Zitao also left EXO one after another and went to court with SM Company.

After a series of alienation and "tearing", all film and television companies began to re-explore ways to cooperate with stars, and establishing capital connections has become the most popular practice in the industry.

Among them, the 1.0 gameplay is to give stars equity and introduce "star shareholders"; the 2.0 gameplay is to buy stars 'shell companies at high prices and require performance gambling; noon Sunshine's approach may be called "3.0", they establish subsidiaries for stars, jointly invest in film and television projects, and share the income. If the parent company goes public in the future, these subsidiaries may also have the possibility of high-priced income parent companies.

"Financial innovation" between stars and film and television companies has become the "new normal". How to play this game involves "big questions".

Jin Dong, Wang Kai, Liu Tao: From stars to shareholders

at noon Sunshine, the company's main creative team was born in Shanying and has successively launched "Nirvana in Fire","The Pretender","He is Coming, Please Close Your Eyes" and "Ode to Joy". A series of hot dramas have become the focus of attention in the field of domestic TV dramas.

In January this year, Chinese Culture revealed that it had invested in noon Sunshine, accounting for 25% of the shares. After obtaining the investment, Noon Sunshine began some arrangements at the capital level, including forming three companies with three stars Wang Kai, Jin Dong and Liu Tao.

Wang Kai, Jin Dong, and Liu Tao have performed well in "Nirvana in Fire", and the three of them are also featured in the currently popular "Ode to Joy".

It is different from Huayi and Tang De's shell companies that buy stars, and it is also different from directly giving the company's equity to stars. At present, the cooperation method of Noon Sunshine and celebrities to establish a new company has attracted attention and discussion in the industry. Due to the details of the shareholding ratio and nature of the three companies, no further disclosure was made. Some people even think that these three companies are equivalent to artist studios.

When the reporter contacted Hou Hongliang, chairman of Zhengwu Sunshine, and threw him various questions in the industry, he confirmed several key information about this cooperation with Xiaoyu.

1. There is no gambling relationship between the three newly established companies and Noon Sunshine. Considering the possibility of noon Sunshine going public in the future, among these three companies, noon Sunshine is the controlling shareholder, and all three companies can be consolidated with noon Sunshine Finance.

2. These subsidiaries are not in the nature of artist studios. Wang Kai and Jin Dong's agency appointment is still at noon Sunshine, not at the subsidiary they established with noon Sunshine; Liu Tao's agency appointment is at the company she established with Qin Hailu.

3. These three companies are mainly used for investment. In the future, all three companies will have the opportunity to invest in all film and television projects of Noon Sunshine, and even in film and television projects outside Noon Sunshine, the three companies will be able to participate in investment. This allows stars to enjoy an additional portion of the company's investment income in addition to their own remuneration income.

4. Starting a company together does not mean that these three stars can only cooperate with Noon Sunshine, nor does it mean that they must star in all Noon Sunshine's film and television projects, but based on their own needs.

Establishing subsidiaries for stars,"advancing can be attacked, retreating, and defending"

What is curious is that since establishing a new company cannot be bound to stars, and they have not even been able to get brokerage contracts from some stars (Liu Tao), what exactly is the purpose of noon Sunshine doing this?

From the perspective of Entertainment Capital, noon Sunshine's practice is precisely to realize the "new normal" of cooperation between film and television companies and stars. It is not for "deep lock-in", but for mutual benefit and win-win cooperation.

For people who are well versed in the film and television industry, it is not wise to deeply bind artists to a certain film and television company.

In the opinion of a senior agent, stars follow the script, and it is very rare to create a script tailored for a certain star. Once an exclusive or exclusive agreement is signed, or some scripts are performed in pursuit of popularity, it will be harmful to the future of stars and film and television works. Therefore, stars are more suitable for open cooperation methods, and they can cooperate with any company that has good projects.

On the other hand, more and more changes have begun to take place in the cooperation between stars and artist agencies.

1. For artists like Fan Bingbing, it has become a trend to establish independent studios after becoming popular;

2. For other big-name artists who have not yet become independent, the agency companies have also begun to change their strategies. Sometimes they do not charge any agency fees, only to use the influence of the artist to allow the agency to gain an investment share in high-quality film and television projects, or use big-name artists to lead their young artists.

3. In order to obtain long-term brokerage contracts, some companies began to invest in the purchase of artists '"shell companies."

The most typical case is: Huayi spent 756 million yuan to acquire a 70% stake in Dongyang Haohan. Li Chen, Feng Shaofeng, Angelababy, Zheng Kai, Du Chun and Chen He are the major shareholders of Dongyang Haohan. After Huayi's acquisition, Dongyang Haohan made performance commitments to Huayi.

Of course, in the above case, the agency contracts of the six stars are still at Huayi Brothers Agency. Huayi locked in the agency contracts by making a large advance payment, and asked the stars to use their potential and find every means to make more money for the company., it is a kill with one stone.

Another case is that Tang De Film and Television acquired Fan Bingbing's Aimei God. The acquisition has not yet been implemented, and market rumors have reached a valuation of 800 to 1.4 billion yuan.

The background of this acquisition is that Fan Bingbing's TV series brokerage contract was originally signed with Tang De, but now this contract is about to expire. Tang De will not only obtain Fan Bingbing's brokerage contract by acquiring Fan Bingbing's company at a high price, but may also obtain Fan Bingbing's full contract. This is similar to cashing in the star's income in advance.

However, in the eyes of some industry insiders, especially those in the secondary market, this kind of acquisition of shell companies will more or less give people the impression that listed companies are transferring benefits to stars, and may even be evaluated as "looking ugly."

In addition, large companies use performance gambling to force stars to produce profits. In order to achieve profits, stars often increase their own pay, and other stars will compare with each other to increase their pay, which ultimately leads to the irrational development of the entire artist market.

In contrast, noon Sunshine's practice of setting up subsidiaries for stars is more elegant than the above-mentioned method of first acquiring shell companies and then filling assets, and can advance and retreat as well as defend.

On the one hand, the company participated in the investment of film and television works in the early stage, and by the time the parent company acquired it, it had a certain performance foundation; on the other hand, for these newly established companies, there was no pressure on stars to gamble on performance. In this case, the investment income earned through the new company will be accumulated in this company. Once the company is acquired or consolidated by the parent company, the star's profit can double at the secondary market P/E ratio.

Noon Sunshine's "deep binding" with film and television producers

is different from its relatively loose relationship with stars. Noon Sunshine has deep equity relationships with several major producers.

Inquiring company information, we found that before noon Sunshine introduced Chinese culture, Chairman Hou Hongliang held 31% of the shares, and well-known director Kong Sheng held 25% of the shares.(He has directed "Entering the East","Fighting Changsha","Nirvana in Fire" and "Ode to Joy"), Li Xue holds 18% of the shares (he has directed "The Pretender" and "Surgical Storm", forming an "Iron Triangle" with Hou Hongliang and Kong Sheng), Sun Molong holds 15% of the shares (he has directed "Wenzhou Family"), and the other three core employees of Zhengwu Sunshine, Leng Jing, Lu Wei, and Li Huabing also hold 3%, 3%, and 5% of the shares respectively.

The word "deep binding" may be more suitable for creative groups such as screenwriters or directors. Noon Sunshine was born with a stable and high-quality creative team. For those companies that have newly entered the film and television industry, they can only spend a lot of money to buy it.

For example, LeTV once purchased 100% equity of director Zheng Xiaolong Huaer Films for 900 million yuan, with 30% of the transaction consideration paid in cash (a total of 270 million yuan) and 70% paid in stock issuance; Huaer Films and Zheng Xiaolong signed an "exclusive cooperation agreement". Huaer Films will produce 60-100 episodes of high-quality dramas every year from 2014 to 2017. Among them, Zheng Xiaolong promised to shoot 5 TV series within the six-year cooperation period, including "Red Sorghum" and "Legend of Mi Yue".

Not long ago, in order to bind Hai Yan and Lu Haojiji, Zhonghui Film and Television announced the establishment of Zhongsheng Chunqiu when it announced its landing on the New Third Board, with Zhonghui Film and Television accounting for 51% and Lu Haiyan (Haiyan) accounting for 49%. This practice is somewhat similar to the relationship between noon sunshine and stars.

A quite special case is: star director Feng Xiaogang's agent is dating from Huayi Brothers, who also holds a certain proportion of Huayi Brothers 'shares. Moreover, at the end of last year, Huayi Brothers also acquired Dongyang Meila and signed an agreement with Feng Xiaogang to create five works.

This kind of "binding" seems deep enough, but in the end, Feng Xiaogang still appeared on the list of shareholders of Wentou Holdings, a listed company in which Yaolai participated.

It can only be said that in this era of exaggerated capital, absolute binding has long passed. Facing reality, mutual benefit and win-win results are the correct way for companies to get along with stars (including directors).

Editor: yvonne