A wolf warrior cannot hide the dilemma of a domestic film, and the five major private film companies have performed poorly
"quality content", "boost the introduction of the film", "to be small and big", who can withstand the cold in the Ice Age at the box office?
in the Chinese film market in September, the 5.63 billion gunpowder smoke of "Wolf Warriors 2" has not gone away, and the worst National Day holiday in history is just around the corner.nearly 10 films with great topics and highlights, including "the Battle of England", "the Shameful Iron fist", "Fanghua", "the Light of the City of Psychological Crime" and "the Sewing Machine Band", have entered the National Day holiday, which indicates that a fight for every inch of land is about to be staged. National Day can be said to be the most important battle for China's major private film distribution companies, which is directly related to their annual box office ranking.
throughout the film market performance so far in 2017, Boehner temporarily ranked first among the top five private distributors with 2.54 billion; Huaying World, owned by Huayi Brothers, with "Wrestling!" Dark horse films such as "Dad" ranked second, while the light that handed over transcripts such as "the dedication of suspect X" and "Chun Jiao Jiao Zhiming" ranked third.
however, the Chinese film market is still in the Ice Age, and even the shot in the arm of" Wolf Warriors 2 "cannot resist the cruelty of reality. From January to August 2017, domestic films accounted for only 53% of the box office, down 5 percentage points from the same period last year.
as of September 4, the cumulative box office in 2017 was 40 billion, up 19% from 2016, and the market is expected to be 53.5 billion in 2017, up 18% from 2016, while the box office without service charge was 50 billion, up only 10% from the same period last year.
how do private film companies such as Light, Huayi, Wanda, Boehner, Letv, etc., seek new vitality in the box office bottleneck, and how can they take the lead in the key war of the National Day, its splendor is no less than a film itself.
strong > domestic box office dropped 5% year-on-year. Five major private film companies encounter bottlenecks / strong >
in September. Imported blockbusters such as Dunkirk and Spider-Man: the return of Heroes have been released one after another, but Wolf Warriors 2 is still as existential as it is. For the first time, Wolf Warriors 2 grossed more than $10 million in a single day on its 45th day of release on Saturday. This undoubtedly highlights the strong vitality of Wolf Warriors 2, but on the other hand, it also reflects the extreme lack of high-quality content in the current film market.
despite the endorsement of Wolf Warriors 2, which grossed more than 5.6 billion yuan at the box office, domestic films accounted for only 53 percent of the box office from January to August 2017, down 5 percentage points from the same period last year. Moreover, this is an achievement made by domestic films with an advantage that the number of domestic films shown is nearly five times that of imported films. It can be seen that this year's Chinese film market has fallen into a more severe inflection point, especially domestic films.
so far, seven TOP10 films have been imported at the box office in 2017. Of the only three domestic films, Wolf Warriors 2 is in the summer season, and Kung Fu Yoga and Journey to the West are Spring Festival films, benefiting to some extent from the so-called" domestic Protection month ".
after the Spring Festival, extreme Secret Service has been released since February 10, starting the rolling mode of imported films. In the 152 days since then, the domestic film has won only seven days at the box office. Until the release of "Legend of Wukong" on July 13 and entering "domestic Protection month", domestic films finally returned to the top spot at the single-day box office.
however, behind the explosion of "Wolf Warriors 2", there is also "one general success and ten thousand bones withered". Behind the dominance of a single film is the massive loss of other cannon fodder films. Under the premise of a bad environment, the five major private film companies (Wanda Film, Huayi Brothers, Light Media, Boehner Pictures, Letv Pictures) have all appeared bottlenecks. None of the big five TOP10 films at the box office in 2017 were controlled by major investors, and none of them were major investors in Wolf Warriors 2 this past summer.
on the whole, Wanda Film, Huayi Brothers, Light Media, Boehner Pictures and Letv Pictures have not yet produced absolutely beautiful reports on the high-quality content controlled by the main investment.
strong > there are different ways to keep warm in the cold winter, and diversified distribution may become a way to break through / strong >
in sharp contrast to the weakness of domestic films. This year's imported films blossomed in many places. In addition to heavyweight Hollywood imported blockbusters such as Fast and Furious 8 and Transformers 5, the unexpected popularity of many batches of films is even more eye-catching. Especially "Wrestling", which currently ranks sixth at the box office in 2017. "Dad" not only won 1.3 billion yuan at the box office to become the box office champion in Chinese film history, but also the only non-Hollywood imported film that exceeded 1 billion.
in addition, "extreme agents: the Ultimate return" grossed $1.125 billion at the domestic box office, "biochemical Evil: the final Chapter" 1.1 billion, "the Mission of a Dog" 600 million, "La La City" 247 million, "Assassin's Creed" 160 million. The performance of these batches in the mainland exceeded expectations.
what is worth paying attention to is that many Chinese private film distribution companies have been added to the domestic market of many imported films, which has become a case worth exploring in this year's box office market. As we all know, only China Film and Huaxia are qualified for the distribution of imported films in China. However, with the declining box office of domestic films, more and more private companies are looking for vitality in the cooperation of imported films. Many private distribution companies participate in the marketing cooperation of imported films to share the box office benefits of imported high-quality films.
for example, the biggest imported movie this year, the dark horse, "Wrestling!" "Dad" is backed by Huayi Brothers Pictures' Huaying World Distribution Company, while the French director Luc has just been released. Besson's sci-fi giant "Star Agent: the City of a Thousand Stars" is also promoted by Huayingworld in the Chinese mainland region.
in addition, Lion and Mouse Pictures behind biochemical Evil: the final Chapter, Ali Pictures of one Dog and Zhuoran Pictures of the La La City project, all play a key role in the Chinese mainland box office market of these films, and naturally get a lot of box office revenue.
looking for high-quality projects in domestic films and obtaining stable profits in imported films, this idea of diversified distribution cooperation seems to be playing particularly well in the newly established private distribution companies. For example, it won the release of Wolf Warriors 2, and also participated in Hacksaw Ridge at the end of last year. Among the top five private film companies, although Light had "your name" in 2016. The success of Boehner will also be Ang Lee's Billy. Lynn's halftime War has been brought to China, but so far in 2017, only Wanda / Wuzhou and Huayi / Huaying have made gains in imported film cooperation.
Wanda's five continents mainly participate in the cooperation of" male Lion "in the domestic market, while the Huaying World Distribution Company, which has just been established for less than a year, relies on" Wrestling! " Dad "and" Star agents: the City of a thousand stars "domestic market cooperation, so that their market share has leapt to the second of China's top five private distribution companies. Obviously, when China's domestic film market is weak, the diversified distribution of cooperative high-quality imported films is a way to break through, which can not only achieve good revenue, but also enhance the market share of film distribution. strengthen the competitiveness and influence of the industry.
strong > the annual ranking is in this war, and the National Day schedule has triggered a battle of heroes / strong >
this year's National Day. The degree of crowding has never been seen before, and it can be said to be a key battle related to the annual ranking of major private companies. According to the list of the most powerful box office competitors in the National Day, there are various private distribution companies behind each film.
recently, the happy twist comedy "Iron fist of Shame" has the full operation of Maoyan Pictures, which has been transformed from the ticketing platform, which is also a rare fully controlled project of Cat Eye Pictures. The basis of the 2015 Super Dark Horse comedy, "Charlotte annoyance," also gave the Shameful Iron fist a big head start.
Hong Kong film theme has always been a strong point of Bona Film Industry. Although guaranteed by the lineup of two top stars, Donnie yen and Andy Lau, Wang Jing's "chasing the Dragon" was announced at the last minute at the end of August, making it a little strange to the audience. Up to now, with many powerful films, such as "riding the Wind and waves", "greedy Wolf" and "bomb disposal expert", Boehner, who firmly topped the box office of the five major private distributors in 2017 with a box office of 2.54 billion yuan, has a good chance of winning the year-end ranking with blockbuster works such as "Operation Red Sea" in 2017.
as a strong private film company, Huayi Brothers Pictures, after nearly two years of adjustment, integrated Shanghai Film, Earth, Weiying and other resources in 2017 and announced the joint establishment of Huaying World Distribution Company. And then win wrestling all the way! The box office performance of projects such as Dad, "Star Agent" and "fantastic Master" has improved significantly, and now ranks second among the five major private companies.
during the National Day period, what Huaying produced was Feng Xiaogang's emotional masterpiece "Fang Hua". Because of the focus on the youth and war of the Art Troupe era, the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam will be put on the screen, and the competitiveness of box office and word-of-mouth should not be underestimated. In the 2017 project previously announced by Huayi Brothers, there are also a number of high-market films such as "ex 3" and "detonator", and the overall box office ranking for the whole year is expected to rise again.
as a new force among the five major private companies, Ray Media has outstanding strength in recent years. The "Sewing Machine Band" launched on National Day can not be ignored. With the halo of "Pancake Man" at the box office of 1.1 billion yuan, Dapeng's second film, the Sewing Machine Band, has become the killer's mace in 2017. It is expected how much the combination of music and comedy and Dapeng plus Qiaoshan can cut down at the National Day stalls.
it is worth noting that among the major projects released so far in 2017 by Wanda Pictures, which has emerged as a new force in 2015, only "Masters of memory" and "100,000 Cold jokes 2" stand out at the box office. In Wanda's report card this year, "Legend of Wukong" and "Psychological Crime" are projects that participate in the distribution, and the idea of "participating in the distribution" also seems to be fully magnified in the National Day file: Yolai Pictures'"British showdown" and Light Pictures'"Sewing Machine Band" are all supported by Wanda Pictures.
the box office of "Wolf Warriors 2" is amazing, which makes the film industry more aware that Chinese films have entered a golden era of quality speech. Under the cruel competition, how to create the "head product", how to optimize the investment "to expand with the small", and even how to increase the box office sources with the help of the diversification of high-quality imported films have become a new topic for the major private film companies.
in the ever-changing market, business opportunities are fleeting. Who can hold on to the position of king and attract more high-quality creative resources by occupying a higher market share in the five private companies of Light, Huayi, Wanda, Bona and Letv? to achieve a virtuous market circle, the battle is going on in the box office output every day.
Edit: mary