Author | Weinika Li Chunhui
The most high-profile event in the film industry in 2023 is none other than the acquisition of Wanda Film by China Confucianism. With the completion of the last equity transfer on December 6, 2023, Wanda Film officially changed hands to China Ruyi. At that time, the latter's name may still be quite unfamiliar to many outsiders. Even for insiders, Ruyi only became famous after leading the promotion of "Hello, Li Huanying" in 2021, and became an upstart in the industry.
Just as the outside world is speculating on how Ruyi will operate Wanda Film, on January 29, Chen Zhixi (Chen Xi), executive president of Ruyi China and a leading producer , (Chen Xi), became the chairman of Wanda Film to manage its film companies. , theaters, distribution, derivatives and other business sectors, officially becoming the new head of Wanda Film. By actually controlling the Hong Kong-listed company China Ruyi and the A-share listed company Wanda Film, Ke Liming, chairman of China Ruyi, has taken the helm of a film and television aircraft carrier with a market value of nearly 50 billion.
This scene is hard not to bring back memories of ten years ago. This is a dream that many people have had, and have even traveled to Hollywood. Since 2013, with the rapid development of the domestic film market, external capital such as the Internet, real estate, and finance have entered the market, and leading film companies have entered the capital fast lane. Financing, listing, mergers and acquisitions, rapidly rising star companies, dazzling financial operations, and even going to Hollywood to buy and buy, until the film and television winter of 2018 comes.
In the past ten years, the "big five" private film companies that were chatting and laughing at the opening forum of the Shanghai International Film Festival have changed from Wanda, Bona, Enlight, Huayi, and LeTV. , the "new four" pattern composed of Confucianism, Guangguang, Maoyan and Ali has once again taken shape.
This was a decade in which Chinese films dared to dream, paid a huge price for their dreams, and left important results. Some people caught the wave of capital, but lost the opportunity to make movies; some people created a new paradigm, but lost to the gambling luck of capital. As non-professional capital such as the Internet and real estate has withdrawn from the market, professional capital represented by Confucianism has made a comeback. Will this time be different? Where will this female director born in the 1980s lead Wanda Films, and how will she change the landscape of Chinese films?
The three most important things for the new official to take office are Chen Zhixi showing off his "circle of friends"
Judging from the production information of the 2024 Spring Festival movies, the top films are "Article 20", "Flying Life 2", "Bear Infested: Reverse Time and Space" and " Behind "Hot and Hot", there are Confucianism figures. Taking into account various data such as the number of people who want to watch, Internet popularity, etc., there is a high probability that these companies will not be the first, second or third place during the Spring Festival this year.
has secured all the investments in the four first Spring Festival movies, which is equivalent to Ruyi locking in profits in advance. To use a popular saying in the early years, it was called "buying the track."
It is worth noting that behind every film invested by Ruyi, there is a joint distribution company of Wuzhou under Wanda Film. This is obviously a luxurious meeting gift from Chen Zhixi to Wanda Films, and it is also the first time to test the upstream and downstream linkage of "Confucianism + Wanda".
can predict that after Chen Zhixi takes over, Wanda Film has already completed its upstream operation capabilities and will definitely aim to open up upstream and downstream links to form a full industry chain layout from content production and investment to theaters and distribution resources.
Currently, no one on the market has truly passed through the entire film industry chain. In the years when Wanda Movies was still spending a lot of money to make movies, only the " Chinatown Detective " IP was successful. The original producer of this IP was Chen Zhixi.
Just looking at this Spring Festival release, Chen Zhixi’s operational capabilities on the upstream side are also clear at a glance. Except for Ruyi, no other company can win the investment share of each company evenly during the fierce competition during the Spring Festival.
, in particular, rarely releases its shares to the outside world. It has always liked to control its shares and make money silently. However, this year it made an exception for the first time and cooperated with Ruyi on "Article 20".
Of course, Chen Zhixi and Guang Guang are also old friends. In 2012, when Xu Zheng's film "A Journey to Thailand" hit a wall, it was Chen Zhixi who brokered Guangguang's investment.In 2018, Han Yan's "Animal World", which was invested and produced by Chen Zhixi, was considered a pioneering work in domestic film industrial production, and also had investment from Enlight.
Chen Zhixi’s layout of the upstream and downstream industrial chains took more than a day. Light Chaser Animation, a leader in domestic animation, also broke her investment "friend circle" for the first time. This year, Zhuiguang announced that it will join hands with Ruyi to jointly produce the third installment of the "White Snake" series, "White Snake: The Floating Life", and will hand over control of the announcement to Ruyi.
While everyone is still hesitating about the Spring Festival release, Ruyi has taken the lead in completing the layout of the 2024 summer release, announcing that "White Snake: The Floating Life" will be released in the 2024 summer release, becoming the first commercial release in 2024. Blockbusters.
You must know that Chaiguang is proud of its "30,000 Miles from Chang'an" in the summer of 2023, winning the highest box office of 1.8 billion in the history of Chasing Animation, and has become a cooperation target for capital grabs. Ruyi's ability to win Chasing Light's blockbuster new work shows its appeal to upstream in-depth content producers.
Lighting and Light Chasing are veteran craftsmen who have been deeply involved in the film and animation industry for many years. They have always shown a steady and cautious style. Now they have broken the convention and accepted the olive branch of Confucian-Italian cooperation, which fully shows that the industry is optimistic about the "Confucian-Italian + Wanda" combination. Wanda Films under the leadership of Chen Zhixi may regain the lost five years at the speed of light and restructure the relationship and pattern of Chinese films.
Bold and careful, Chen Zhixi’s production methodology
Chen Zhixi’s new Wanda Films series of actions comes from years of accumulation. In fact, long before she became the content helmsman of Ruyi, she had fully proven her acumen and ability to operate the mainland film market.
Chen Zhixi, who was born in 1982, graduated from the Performance Department of the Central Academy of Drama in 2000 and has appeared in TV series such as "Out of the Blue Water River". In 2010, he switched to the field of production and soon became famous in the industry for "Journey to Thailand".
This movie can be described as a phenomenon-level dark horse in the film industry in 2012. It is the first domestic film in film history to have a box office of over 1 billion. It has a box office of 1.27 billion with a cost of less than 30 million, and it has started another comedy in the Lunar New Year movies. era (it was released at the same time as "1942", "A Feast for the King" and "Life of Pi". It is not difficult to see the popular fashion at that time).
In addition to his brilliant record, "囧囧" can clearly see Chen Zhixi's attitude towards content: he pays attention to unpopular and new genres that were not mainstream on the market at that time, pays attention to emerging directors, pays attention to small cuts and small characters, and is good at using small things to make a big difference.
After Chen Zhixi joined Ruyi in 2015, he continued to practice this content methodology. When Ruyi went on the market in 2020, it delivered two blockbuster hits - the New Year's Day box office champion "A Little Red Flower for You" and the Spring Festival box office champion "Hello, Li Huanying".
It can be seen that in terms of content, Chen Zhixi pays more attention to the topic selection effect and pays attention to realistic themes. Whether it is a hot product in 2020 or " to keep you safe " and "Hot" in 2023, they all focus on social issues and grasp public emotions. When the film market environment was not good in the past three years, there was a trend of tear-jerking films with small and broad-based films, and Ruyi was an important leader.
In fact, Chen Zhixi and Wanda Film also have a deep connection. In 2015, Wuzhou Film Distribution, a subsidiary of Wanda Film, reached its peak moment. The box office of its distributed films reached 6.7 billion yuan, accounting for a quarter of the domestic film market share that year. Behind this is Chen Zhixi's credit. Her "Chinatown Detective" and " Pancake Man " produced 823 million and 1.16 billion respectively, which contributed 30% of the movie box office to the Wuzhou distribution that year. Since then, Tangtan IP has become a cash cow for Wanda Films that has benefited for many years.
Looking back at Chen Zhixi's past production works, you will find that Chen Zhixi has appeared in almost every major release. In 2022, due to the epidemic environment, the market was cold, and before the summer holiday was approaching, Chen Zhixi made a decisive decision to win the movie "Walking Alone on the Moon" with Alibaba Pictures at a guaranteed price, becoming a major producer. In the end, "Walking on the Moon" won the 2022 summer championship with a box office of 3.103 billion.
Chen Zhixi is also an important promoter of new directors and film industrialization. Dapeng, who was recognized for both his acting and directing abilities in 2023, was first selected by Chen Zhixi.As early as 2015, Chen Zhixi produced Dapeng's first directorial work "Pancake Man". In 2017, they collaborated with Dapeng under the name of Ruyi Pictures and produced "Sewing Machine Band".
Even when Dapeng encountered a low public reputation, Confucianism still persisted, just like Chen Zhixi's generous support for Pan Yueming, which helped him get out of the low point in his life. Dapeng's "Keep You Safe" and "Hot" directed this year grossed 700 million and 900 million box office respectively, both of which were invested and controlled by the owners of Ruyi Film. Dapeng, who started out as a grassroots comedy on the Internet, finally proved his directorial ability to the market, and Chen Zhixi once again proved his vision for directors.
Chen Zhixi discovered that new directors have unique vision, which is also reflected in boldly giving directors opportunities to try new genres. In 2018, the owner of Ruyi Film invested in Han Yan's "Animal World". Its mobilization of international resources, film style and audio-visual effects are nothing short of cutting-edge.
html Where will the film and television aircraft carrier with a market value of 550 billion go?
As Chen Zhixi joins Wanda Film and initiates comprehensive integration work, the fact before us is: China Ruyi, the film and television leader in the Hong Kong stock market, and Wanda, the leader of private film companies in the A-share market, have officially merged to become China's largest film and television entertainment company.
has both the strategic capital organization and the production capabilities to frequently produce hits, allowing Ruyi to quickly become a dazzling new star in the film industry. However, it will become a "giant aircraft carrier" for the entire industry chain of film and television that integrates production, distribution, theaters, streaming media, derivatives, and games. How it will operate is a major concern for all walks of life. Judging from today's leading companies, Confucianism after owning Wanda Movies is almost a new species - Enlight and Bona have no streaming media, and Alibaba and Tencent have no theaters. This will inevitably bring new opportunities and challenges.
Regardless of the final outcome, at this stage, Confucianism is Wanda’s best choice. In the past few years, Wanda has been struggling to survive with a broken arm. It delisted in September 2016, and submitted a statement again in October 2021 in an attempt to return to the Hong Kong stock market. From a financial perspective, Wanda has continued to "downsize" in the past five years, selling off assets and reducing liabilities.
Although Wanda Film’s performance recovered last year, it did not help the Wanda Group to get out of trouble. Moreover, since "Detective Chinatown 3" and "Manslaughter 2" in 2021, Wanda Films has not delivered a substantial main control work for a long time.
The arrival of Chen Zhixi can at least help Wanda quickly break through on the upstream side. Judging from the filing information, Ruyi has sufficient food and grass and only lacks the east wind. The latest film registrations released by the National Film Administration show that Ruyi has registered three films in the "Bao Gong's Case" series, and one "Journey to the West: The True and False Monkey King" has entered the critical production period.
At the same time, Ruyi, which has outstanding production and distribution capabilities, will be even more powerful with Wanda's theater chain, ensuring the distribution efficiency of high-quality works at the downstream end. At the same time, Ruyi can also copy the streaming media giant’s playstyle and flex its muscles in the derivatives and game business fields. Confucian streaming media + Wanda Film's theater resources have formed an imaginative traffic pool, with both online and offline traffic entrances available.
This kind of whole-industry chain service capability is bound to have great appeal to creators in the film and television industry, further enhancing Confucianism’s content moat and increasing the chance of hits.
In any case, this "Wall Street + Hollywood" story that reminds people of ten years ago means that funds and confidence have been injected into the industry again. With the topical effect of "Feng Shen" and the Chinese Confucian Journey to the West and Bao Gong series are ready to go, there may be a new wave of visual effects blockbusters and a craze for Chinese stories to go overseas. This is something that hard candy fans look forward to every day. On.
has experienced ten years of rapid development and bubble setbacks. Will the golden age that seemed within reach and passed by last time reappear in another form?
