Every reporter: Ding Zhouyang Every editor: Wei Guanhong
The Dragon Boat Festival that just passed made film practitioners feel anxious.
Maoyan Professional Edition shows that the box office in mainland China for the 2024 Dragon Boat Festival (June 8-June 10) totaled approximately 380 million yuan, a decrease of more than half from last year's 911 million yuan, making it the third highest box office for the same period in the past ten years. Low.
Data source: Maoyan Professional App, every reporter combed
"I have been making movies all my life, and I love movies very much. Once there is a problem in a movie, I will think about it for a long time." While attending the "Sea Forum" jointly organized by Daily Economic News and Shanghai Film ", the well-known director Huang Jianxin took the initiative to talk about the situation of the Dragon Boat Festival, "Not only the box office is at a low level in recent years, but the attendance rate is also low; and in the past three years, the age of Chinese movie audiences has increased from 21 to 27.5 years old."
Image source: Photo provided by the organizer
This situation is also lingering in the mind of Yu Dong, chairman of Bona Pictures (001330.sz, stock price 6.06 yuan, market value 8.3 billion yuan). In his view, the creative power of Chinese films has matured, the new generation of creators can play the leading role, and the distribution channels are also sound. What is lacking is funds. "The harder it is to integrate financial resources, the less people dare to invest in blockbuster movies. If you only make small and medium-sized films to make a big impact, how can you compete with video platforms for audiences?"
"The summer schedule is one of the most important schedules, (this year) Whether the box office for the whole year can reach last year depends on the summer season. "On June 17, Yu Dong said in an interview with media reporters including the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that as the front stop of the summer season, the Dragon Boat Festival season. The situation is not good, "so the summer season requires all companies to come up with quality films to jointly boost the entire market." Bona Pictures will launch the movies " legend " and " Dream of Red Mansions: The Golden Marriage " in July this year ć. "We need to fight a turnaround!"
"25-year-olds" find it particularly difficult: the audience has become "older" and the industry is short of funds
"25 years ago, Bona Pictures was founded in 1999. At that time, we were still very immature. Distribution company. "On June 17, Bona Pictures held its 25th anniversary press conference. Yu Dong recalled that for him, Bona Pictures had two important periods, the market-oriented reform of Chinese films in 2000, and Bona Pictures' 25th anniversary press conference. The film industry obtained the first distribution license from a private film company; Bona Pictures cooperated with Hong Kong filmmakers and formed a deep relationship in the past ten years.
"In the second decade of Bona Pictures, we have filmed ten major dramas, " Taking the Tiger Mountain by Strategy ", " Operation Red Sea ", " Chinese Captain ", " Changjin Lake "āÆāÆ This has opened a new chapter for the main theme of commercial blockbusters. This is also the best ten years of my life, running wildly without any fetters," Yu Dong said with emotion, "In the past two years, the film industry has been recovering, but why is Bona at the age of 25? Will it be particularly difficult? Because of the changes in todayās movie audiences and the movie market, we have to face a new ecology. "
The movie-watching age has increased from 21 to 27.5 years old, which is a big change in the movie market.
Yu Dong analyzed that the reform of China's film industry that started in 2000 has cultivated a large number of young audiences, especially college student audiences. However, the global epidemic has changed the movie-watching habits of college students, from going to movie theaters to watching dramas and watching short videos online. At that time, this group of viewers who had graduated from college still had the habit of watching movies after working, and became the main force of movie consumption today.
"So now that we are cultivating movie audiences, we need to cultivate more campus audiences. We must pay more attention to the dissemination of campus film culture and bring immersion in film culture to college students. In the future, they will definitely be the main group of film consumers."
In addition to the audience The changes in the film industry and the cooling of capital towards the film industry are also a big problem.
Yu Dong believes that at the creative level, Chinese movies have now reached a good time. "We used to rely on imported films for a long time, and also relied on Hong Kong filmmakers for a long time. Now we have fully realized the continuity of the power of mainland directors and local producers. Our new generation of creators have matured and they can take the lead. , responsible for the theme of boosting the box office market."
" What the industry lacks at this stage is funds. "Yu Dong said, "The film industry has suffered from too much shortage in the past three years due to the epidemic. More than 100 billion yuan in box office has evaporated in three years, and we have lost nearly 3 billion moviegoers. "
The main creator of " Operation Dragon " appeared on the red carpet of the Shanghai International Film Festival. Photo source: Photo by reporter Cong Sen.
The recovery of the industry requires blockbusters, and now film companies are in a stage of financial constraints. "Take Bona as an example, This year, our main funds were used to shoot "Operation Dragon". Fortunately, it has now been 'finished' and has entered into intense post-production. In the second half of this year, Bona will also invest in the blockbuster film "Kashmir Princess", which will also require a lot of funds. The output of leading blockbusters determines whether film companies can continue to make profits in the future, so financial capital now needs strong support for the film industry. " Yu Dong said.
established an AI studio and used AI to shoot short plays... Traditional film and television companies rely on technology to "turn over"
The summer season is the ballast stone for the Chinese film market's annual box office, from June 1 to 8, 2023 On March 31, in 90 days, it achieved a box office of 20.62 billion yuan.
"20.6 billion yuan means an average of 220 million yuan in box office revenue every day. So far, it is quite difficult to reach this figure. "Yu Dong said frankly, "The best day of the Dragon Boat Festival (box office) is only 170 million yuan. "This year's summer season will also be an important battle for Bona. "We have to fight a turnaround!"
For Bona Pictures, which has returned to A-shares from the US stock market after several twists and turns, it is indeed in urgent need of a turnaround. According to Bo According to the financial report of Bona Pictures, the company suffered a loss of 75.51 million yuan in 2022 and a loss of 553 million yuan in 2023. At the investor exchange meeting in May this year, the issue of how to turn around losses was also mentioned. Bona Pictures responded, Last year, in the face of the rapid changes in the Chinese film market, the company's management, after careful consideration and careful summary, suspended some projects that were no longer suitable, continued to explore projects that the company was good at, and also started some new projects this summer. 's sequel "Legend" and "A Dream of Red Mansions" will be released. The large-scale drama " Shangganling " will also meet the audience through the video platform this year.
The creator of "A Dream of Red Mansions: A Good Marriage". : Photo by reporter Cong Sen
It is worth mentioning that "Legend" used AI technology to shape the 27-year-old Jackie Chan, thereby establishing Jackie Chan's digital assets. "After this image is completed, we can let the 'young Jackie Chan' go. Filmed many movies, such as the sequel to "ēŗ¢åŗ". When we make movies now, we use flashbacks of many scenes from that year. Now that we have digital assets, we can solve many problems. "
At the 25th anniversary press conference of Bona Pictures, Yu Dong also had a conversation with himself, the AI āādigital person "Yu Xiaodong" who had just graduated from college. "Everyone has a digital asset, which is your identity. license number, your intellectual property rights. How to combine it with the broad film performance in the future will give us a lot of room for imagination. "
Yu Dong talks to digital person Yu Xiaodong. Picture source: Photo by reporter Cong Sen.
Bona Pictures established its own AI studio this year, starting with the accumulation of digital image assets. "This accumulation is crucial to the film company. Importantly, if you look for old negatives, materials, etc. now, you will find that only one copy of many things remains. I think AI is an important tool for rich expression, but it is also a digital asset that will remain in the film company's library forever. "Yu Dong said.
At the same time, short video platforms are "rolling" AI, and AI short dramas have become a must-have for Douyin and Kuaishou. Kuaishou is about to launch its first AIGC micro-short drama "The Strange Mirror of Mountains and Seas: Cutting the Waves". Yu Dong said that Bona Pictures will cooperate with Douyin and ByteDanceās AI creation tool āJi Mengā to produce and produce the first season of the AI āāgenerative continuous narrative science fiction short series āSanxingdui: Future Apocalypseā, which will be released on Broadcast in the summer.
""Sanxingdui: Apocalypse of the Future" is a science fiction short drama that connects ancient civilization with future technology. This drama does not require real-person filming or virtual filming. It is entirely a video generated by AI." Yu Dong further explained to reporters, "I want to let everyone see through this cooperation that AI will not replace film industry practitioners, but will instead support the rapid formation of more creative ideas and support more young film and television talents. ā
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