At the 29th Shanghai TV Festival, micro-short dramas almost became the hottest topic besides the Magnolia Award nominations. This is also a reflection of the market to a certain extent. On the one hand, there were 635 micro-short dramas in the first half of the year, and on the other hand, there were online movies, with 624 movies registered in the whole year last year. The market has been cold...
Does the market still need online movies?
The new year of online movies
At the "2024 Online Movie Venture Capital Youth Entrepreneurship Plan" event held during the 29th Shanghai TV Festival, Gao Changli, director of the TV Drama Department of the State Administration of Radio and Television, said frankly that "online movies are at a low point." "We have indeed faced some difficulties in the past two years. For example, in 2023, the number of online movies we approved for planning and filing for the whole year was 624, and from January to May this year, the number of online movies approved for planning and filing was 177. This amount is not large, but it is actually in line with the needs of the audience. In terms of sales, there is a big gap between us.”
In addition to the decline in quantity, the box office of online movies is also facing a crisis. According to Guduo Online Film and Television, in 2023, there will be only 34 online movies with a box office revenue exceeding 10 million, a decrease of 17 movies compared with 2022, and a decrease of 31 movies compared with 2021.
The decline of online movies has a certain relationship with the shortening of the window period of theatrical movies and the rise of micro-short dramas. The two together have formed the compression of online movies, but this does not mean that online movies as a content form have been replaced.
Gao Changli said in his speech that online movies still have a great demand as a unique content product. "It is a product that allows the audience to complete the art appreciation process in one go. This demand will always exist, and it has already With a profit model, good market returns can be achieved. "
In Gao Changli's view, 2024 can be regarded as the new first year of online movies. "In fact, online movies have a history of ten years, and ten years ago was the first year. , this year is another first year. We see broad prospects for the development of online movies. It does not mean that the development is very good now, but that we are at a trough and are starting to climb up. It is a good time to buy at the bottom. We have already It has begun to climb towards the peak of and . "
The long video platform is really valuable. Can it recreate the glory of online movies?
Online movies also had their own golden age.
Online movies were born in 2014. In April of that year, an online movie called "The Taoist Priest Comes Out of the Mountain" paid back its money in 2 days with little publicity, and the box office exceeded 3 million yuan in 10 days. The final box office was nearly 50 million yuan, with a small investment. Payback has largely become a label for online movies. But precisely because of this, a large number of small teams and new companies pursuing low investment and short cycles began to seize the market and began to seize the online movie market. The brutal growth of the industry in the early days also left the market with "low style", "shoddy production" and "love-making". The impression of "hot spots" and "imitating and following the trend".
But in fact, "small investment and big return" is only a phased characteristic of the industry. As a content industry, high-quality products are still the trend.
previously invested 150 million yuan in " Tian Long Ba Bu: The Legend of Qiao Feng ", which opened the ceiling for online movies. Through a combination of domestic online distribution and overseas theater distribution, it achieved a global response and has a profound impact on Chinese martial arts culture and movies. Going overseas has played a role in promoting culture.
Zhu Weijie, the producer of the film and chairman of Infinity Media, said that online movies have their own special characteristics and the subject matter is very important. "Everyone has seen some martial arts movies in recent years, but the response in movie theaters is not that good. But this is Online movies are a great opportunity. We can go global by recreating the glory of martial arts movies and distributing them overseas and in the mainland simultaneously. "
If we want to truly push online movies out of the trough, the most important thing is to reshape online movies with high-quality works. image of. Zhu Weijie said: "The most painful problem for many online film practitioners is that they can't find people. I encountered this problem when I was talking about actors. Mr. Zhu, how do I take on other films after I take on the online film? This is a very difficult question. Troublesome question. In my future work, I hope that more suitable actors will join in the creation of online movies, so that more good works will be produced that the audience can watch and applaud."
In order to promote the development of high-quality online movies, video websites, the most important broadcast platform for online movies, are promoting venture capital plans in related fields. It is reported that the three major video platforms iQiyi, Youku, and Tencent Video have made their first investment under the guidance of relevant national departments. Jointly launched the venture capital "incubation" project - "2024 Online Film Venture Capital Youth Entrepreneurship Plan", the platform will provide content creation, filming and production, financial support and other support with the support of
. , can online movies in the trough break out of the fog and create a golden age again
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