Zhou Xingchi and Ning Hao ＂descended to earth＂ at Wangda： Conforming to the trend or being forced by the situation？

For many movie fans, it may not have occurred to them that one day they might see the names of Stephen Chow and Ning Hao in the opening credits of an online movie.

At the recent 2021 Tencent Video Film and Television Annual Conference,Tencent Video has officially announced that it has reached an agreement with Xinghui Company to carry out strategic cooperation on self-produced films, and Zhou Xingchi will serve as the producer of some of the works.Zhou Xingchi expressed the hope to bring more good works to the new field of online movies.

A week later,Ning Hao announced the "Star Network Project" and "Bilibili × Bad Monkey 73 to become a young director program" at the 10th anniversary S + launch of Bad Monkey Films. The former focuses on online movies and collaborates with iQIYI.In the next three years, Bad Monkey Pictures will provide five high-quality online movies to iQiyi Cloud Cinema, including "Mars Project" directed by Zhao Dadi and "Last Song with You" directed by Wang Lifan. The latter focuses on original online film short cooperation, and will create 25-30 short films to be screened at Bilibili every year in the future. Previously at the iQIYI World Congress,iQIYI announced the launch of Cloud Cinema and reached an online film strategic cooperation plan with many directors such as Ning Hao, Rao Xiaozhi, and Lu Yang.

In the post-epidemic era, both at home and abroadThe trend of online intensification, the traditional industrial structure is being reshaped, Zhou Xingchi, Ning Hao’s entry will promote more big directors to join the network?

Tide, reality, dilemma:

Collective transformation under the trend of "hospital transfer network"

　　

"Considering that in the new era, we have to face the changes in the film industry, and at the same time prepare for the demand of future films," Yu Xiaofeng, managing director of Bad Monkey Pictures, said when announcing the "Star Network Project".The trend of hospital transfer to online distribution has been going on for some time and will continue.

From abroad, more and more cinema films are released in PVOD mode (advanced video pay-on-demand). Last year, Universal Pictures’ "Magic Hair Genie 2"Its cumulative on-demand revenue has exceeded $100 million, breaking the record for digital distribution.In March, Disney announced that "Black Widow" and "Kuila" would be released in a theatrical + streaming pay-per-view mash-up model, and Pixar animated "Summer Friends Sunny Day" cancelled its theatrical release and went directly to Disney +. Previously, "Hamilton" brought over 500,000 downloads to the Disney + APP. "Greyhound" had the best opening week ever for Apple TV +, bringing about 30% of new registered users to Apple TV +.

From a domestic perspective,iQIYI launched its online cinema brand "Super Cinema" last year, with PVOD-based films as the core, and Tencent Video created a "cloud debut", lists movies as an important category. From "Lost in Russia" to "Spring River Plumbing", "Mr. Monster", "Journey", "Cold-blooded Banquet", the number of direct webcasting cases has increased. "True Three Kingdoms Unparalleled", "Looking for Han" and other theaters will transfer to the Internet soon after they are broadcast.The window period has become shorter or even there is a "zero window period". Small and medium-sized films seek to return their capital and increase their income through multiple channels, and the scale of "hospital transfer network" is expanding day by day.

The track has been broadened, the traditional distribution model has become more diversified, the PVOD model is parallel with the account sharing model, and online movies are ushering in an explosive period, which has triggered more thinking on the development of the PVOD model and the innovation and upgrading of the account sharing system.For example, the platform pricing strategy, the allocated promotion and distribution resources, the transparency of the account sharing ratio, etc., and then explore the deep integration of the Internet and the film industry to find the optimal solution for the distribution channel of each film. According to the "2021 China Network Audiovisual Development Research Report" released recently, as many as 44.7% of users are willing to pay for online movies, and the 2020 online movie feature was effectively played 8.12 billion times, an increase of 69.2% year-on-year, of whichThe effective playback of the main feature films showed an explosive growth of 172.7% year-on-year.

On the other hand,In 2021, the overall performance of domestic online films was lackluster, requiring improvement in quality and reduction in quantity, as well as the stimulation of fresh creative blood.This year, the official joint three major platforms launched the concept of "online movie Spring Festival", but the response was average. According to Yunhe data, there were 264 online movies released in the first half of 2021, of which only 28 had a box office of over 10 million. Last year, there were 79 online movies with a box office of over 10 million. The box office champion "The Hunter’s Legend of Xing’anling", which broke the 40 million in the first half of the year, did not rely on big IPs and well-known actors, but relied on content word-of-mouth to win, which shows the importance of content improvement.

Online movie competition has intensified, production costs have risen, and teams, special effects, and other comprehensive upgrades have been made, from last year’s cost of nearly 40 million "Qiannu Ghost: Human Love" has been on the horizon. This year’s Spring Festival file of "Shaolin Temple’s Treasure Diary" and "Fortune Diary" is a gathering of senior actors and popular stars, the former has Wang Baoqiang, Ni Dahong, Liu Haoran, the latter has Song Xiaobao, Ma Li, Sha Yi.

In this context, it seems that it is only a matter of time before famous movie directors enter the online movie track and "upgrade" the word-of-mouth quality of online movies. In addition,Zhou Xingchi and Ning Hao, two directors who specialize in comedy genres, have considerable commercial appeal, and their own styles are also suitable for online movies.In the early years of the outbreak of Hong Kong films, there were a large number of zombie monsters and other eye-catching B-rated film elements, and a considerable part of online films themselves borrowed from Hong Kong film IPs.

The nonsense comedy that Zhou Xingchi was good at, and the black comedy that Ning Hao was good at, could ensure the popularity and popularity of his online movies, which were in line with the mainstream preferences of online movie audiences. Ning Hao’s contracted new directors could also choose online movies with less risk and cost as "practice" before being tested by the theater chain.

Beyond macro trends,Touching the net is speculated to be due to the director’s personal reasons.Recently, New Culture (300336.SZ) replied to the annual report inquiry letter issued by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The announcement shows that after the failure of the bet, New Culture requires Zhou Xingchi to buy back the shares, with a total of 841 million yuan in principal and interest. In February 2021, Zhou Xingchi countersued New Culture for the transfer of equity and did not pay off. Last year’s Spring Festival "King of New Comedy" box office reputation did not meet expectations.The "king of comedy" desperately needs a transformation and a new outlet.

The trend of "descending to earth" has spread from online dramas to online universities:

The market calls for high-quality original IP.

　　

Looking at the entire online movie market, the problems that can be found are:The scarcity of high-quality original IP, the concentration of types, and the need for innovationIn the first half of the year, among the 28 online movies that had grossed over 10 million at the box office, three were adapted from the IP of "Ghost Blows the Light" and "Tomb Robbery Notes", which were tomb robbing treasure hunting genres. There were also fantasy genres, monster movies, zombie movies, etc. adapted from the White Snake IP. The genres did not change much compared to before. In addition, some online movies still showed the phenomenon of "rubbing IP".

Previously, online movies such as "Donkey on the Tree" and "Anti-Black Hero" explored the main theme genre and injected genre innovation possibilities into them. Stylized comedy genres, suspense reasoning genres, and female-oriented themes may all become the next "explosive point". Can the name import bureau inject more high-quality original IPs into the industry?

Famous directors have entered online movies one after another, which is the same as the trend of famous filmmakers "touching the Internet" one after another in recent years, announcing that they will serve as producers, and even go into directing. Their experience and lessons can also be used for reference.

These include Chen Kaige’s "The Legend of the Strange People in the Early Republic of China", Jackie Chan’s "Fourteen Years of Chenghua", Zhao Wei’s "Everyone Longs to Meet You", Feng Xiaogang served as the producer of "Sword Dynasty", and after a lapse of 25 years, he directed the iQIYI solo drama "Beizhu Nanyuan" for the first time. Recently, Wang Jiawei served as the general director and producer of "Flowering Flowers" released a trailer, which also attracted online attention.

In addition to the "Angry Xiangxi" and "Longling Maze" supervised by Guan Hu, and the "Detective Chinatown" supervised by Chen Sicheng, most of the above online dramas have lower reputation and popularity than expectedThe audience has raised questions about whether the producer is just a name, and how much the director participates in the production process of the online drama.

For directors, the benefits of touching the Internet include gaining profits, balancing risks, and cultivating new talents. For the project and platform, it is beneficial to obtain investment, attract actors, and carry out publicity. However, if the feedback is not good, it may lead to poor return on investment and dilute the negative impact of the IP of well-known directors. This logic also applies to famous directors at Wangda.

In general, the style of the famous directors still carried over to the type of online movies he produced, such as "Snow Mountain Flying Fox" produced by Lu Yang, which is still his martial arts genre. Bad Monkey’s "Mars Project" is a sci-fi comedy, which can be compared to the same type of "Crazy Alien".

The changes of media and the expansion of the influence of online students’ content mean that the entry of well-known filmmakers into online dramas and online universities has become a long-term trend in the future. Online films hope to achieve all-round texture upgrades in photography, art, and setting through well-known directors.However, due to the differences in the allocation of funds, actors, and teams, film directors will definitely face the problem of "acclimatization".

Usually, the shooting cycle of a two-hour movie is about a few months or even a few years. What the Internet University needs is "fast hands". Most online movies may only be shot for more than ten days, and some online movies even have "long videos", and the effect is completely different from the movie. It can be seen that if an online movie wants to achieve the quality of a cinema movie, it needs to upgrade not only the producer, but also the funds, team, shooting cycle and other aspects.

In summary, with the launch of more and more Douban 8-point or even 9-point boutique online dramas, online dramas have long taken off their shoddy hats. However,Domestic online movies have not yet ushered in a true high-quality transformation and breaking the circle.On the other hand, a batch of "online movies" produced by Netflix, such as "Rome", which won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, have fundamentally rewritten the meaning of "online movies".

At present, it may not be necessary to judge the commercial prospects of a certain online movie as the only criterion, and it should not be a gimmick to join a well-known director. Instead, it should be viewed from the perspective of the overall layout and the long-term influence of IP, and how to make the whole cake bigger and accelerate the arrival of the key node of "reducing quantity and improving quality" of online movies.