"Chosin Lake No. Pratunam Bridge" press conference. Figure/IC
In the already lively Spring Festival stall, there are big players "airborne".
On January 13, the movie "Chosin Lake No Shui Mun Bridge" (hereinafter referred to as "Shui Mun Bridge") announced that it will be scheduled for the first day of the Chinese New Year. The original team starred, and the first film was as high as 5.7 billion yuan at the box office, just like a "catfish" swimming into the Spring Festival file.
The Spring Festival stall has always been a must for major film companies, and the box office of the Spring Festival slot in 2021 was 7.842 billion yuan, accounting for 16.9% of the box office last year. Zhang Rongdi, an analyst at the Lighthouse Research Institute, said that according to the development trend of the Spring Festival box office in the past five years, it is expected that the Spring Festival box office in 2022 will be between 7 billion and 8 billion yuan, which is not much different from 2021.
The Beijing News Shell financial reporter combed and found that as of now, on the first day of the New Year in 2022, there have been 11 films to grab the Spring Festival file, and there are about 80 companies behind it, including listed companies such as Chinese Films, Wanda Films, Ali Pictures, Light Media, and Huaqiang Fantawild. And "Miracle", "Four Seas" and "Watergate Bridge" are located in the first echelon of the number of people who want to see it, and Bona Pictures has produced two popular films in depth, "Watergate Bridge" and "Four Seas".
Shell financial reporter noted that Huayi Brothers, a Beijing culture and a veteran film and television company that had been "explosive" for two consecutive years, disappeared from the Spring Festival file this year. In the eyes of the outside world, Huayi Brothers, who are in the quagmire of capital shortage and performance loss, have participated in the investment of many popular films in recent years, but they have not gained much, plus some domestic films with the top box office have nothing to do with Huayi, and their momentum in the film and television circle may no longer exist.
Advance and retreat: "Watergate Bridge" airborne, 5 major IPs against the halo to grab food
The New Year's Day file has just closed with a box office of 1.019 billion yuan and the third highest performance in the same period of film history, and the smoke of the Spring Festival file has been filled.
On January 6, Xue Xiaolu's "Cherry Pills: Fantasy Notes" canceled the original release plan scheduled for February 1. A day earlier, the "Happy Twist" movie "Super Powerful Family" announced the withdrawal of the Spring Festival file on the grounds that "the post-production workload is huge and cannot be completed on schedule".
However, the fierce competition did not deter all the films. On January 13, the popular movie "The Watergate Bridge of Chosin Lake" landed, and the professional version of the lighthouse showed that "Watergate Bridge", "Miracle" and "Four Seas" were leading in popularity, and according to the "two eight" law of the Spring Festival file, the three movies were very likely to win 80% of the box office of the Spring Festival file.
"Water Gate Bridge" is the sequel to "Chosin Lake", starring Wu Jing, Yi Qianxi, Zhu Yawen and other original people, as of January 13, the first "Chosin Lake" box office showed 5.774 billion, ranking first in the Chinese mainland film history box office list.
Directed by Wen Muye and starring Yi Qianxi, "Miracle" tells a story of a struggle that takes place in the hot land of southern Shenzhen and reverses life. In the summer of 2018, Director Wen Muye's first film "I Am Not a Medicine God" received both word-of-mouth and box office harvests, with a box office of more than 3.1 billion.
"Four Seas" is the fourth film directed by Han Han, judging from the trailer of the film, Wu Renyao (played by Liu Haoran), a teenager who is good at motorcycle stunts, meets again with his father Wu Renteng (played by Shen Teng), who has not been seen for many years, and when driving a motorcycle, he meets Zhou Huange and Zhou Huansong, orphan brothers and sisters who are not compatible with each other.
Previously, Han Han's three films as screenwriter and director, "After Forever", "Riding the Wind and Waves", and "Flying Life", had a total box office of more than 3.4 billion yuan, of which "Riding the Wind and Waves" and "Flying Life" all entered the Spring Festival file and achieved good results. According to lighthouse data, the total box office of "Riding the Wind and Waves" was 1.046 billion yuan, and the total box office of "Flying Life" was 1.728 billion yuan.
Shell financial reporter combed and saw that the family animation movie occupied half of the Spring Festival file. 5 major IP "Bear Haunting • Return to Earth", "Little Tiger Dun Big Hero", "Pleasant Goat and Gray Wolf Basket Out of the Future", "Jurassic Park", "I am a Tyrannosaurus Rex" compete on the same stage.
"Bear Haunting: Return to Earth" is the eighth film in the Spring Festival file of the Bear Haunting series. In 2014, after "Treasure Hunter" landed in the Spring Festival file and received 248 million box office, the series has become a resident guest of the Spring Festival file, and at present, the total box office of the 7 films in the series is 3.266 billion yuan.
"Happy Sheep and Gray Wolf Basket Out of the Future" is set for the Spring Festival, which is also the return of the "Pleasant Goat and Gray Wolf" series of animated films to the Spring Festival file after seven years. In 2013, the Spring Festival released "Happy Sheep and Gray Wolf's Happy Sheep and Sheep Over the Year of the Snake", the cumulative box office reached 124 million yuan.
In addition, this year's Spring Festival file also has "This Killer Is Not Calm" jointly created by Xinli and Happy Twist, "Sniper" co-directed by Zhang Yimou and Zhang Mo's father and daughter, and the winter Olympic film "My Heart Is Flying" starring Xia Yu and Meng Meiqi.
It is worth mentioning that "Lion Boy" extended the key to February 17, which means entering the Spring Festival file. As of January 13, the film had grossed 221 million at the box office.
More than 80 companies bet on the treasure, Bona Pictures or become the biggest winner
"'Watergate Bridge' has a strong audience base, and it is likely to continue the box office myth of "Chosin Lake", and the same war film "Sniper" will be affected." Han Han's box office is very stable, coupled with Shen Teng's box office appeal, the box office of "Four Seas" has a certain guarantee, but Han Han's personal style also has audience restrictions. "Miracle" is a drama film plus a combination of Wen Muye and Yi Yanqianxi, which may run out of the dark horse. Some insiders told Shell financial reporters.
Shell financial reporters incomplete statistics to see that behind the 11 films in the 2022 Spring Festival file involves at least 82 companies, including Listed Companies such as China Film, Wanda Film, Ali Pictures, Light Media, and Huaqiang Fantawild. Among them, Chinese films participated in "Miracle", "Bear Haunting • Return to the Earth", "Four Seas"; Ali Pictures participated in the production of "Miracle" and "Four Seas"; Huaqiang Fantawild and Hengdian Film and Television participated in the production of "Bear Haunting • Return to The Earth"; Guomai Culture invested in "Four Seas"; and Xinli Media, a subsidiary of Reading Group, participated in the production of "This Killer Is Not Calm".
It is worth mentioning that in addition to Bona Pictures, the film and television companies founded by directors and producers of traditional private film and television companies have gradually participated in the Spring Festival file. The main production companies behind the three films "Miracle", "Four Seas" and "My Heart Is Flying" are Ning Hao's Bad Monkey Pictures, Han Han's Tingdong Pictures, and Xu Zheng's Zhenle Dao Culture.
The high box office of the Spring Festival file is still the source of profit for film and television listed companies, and the annual performance will be deeply bound to the Spring Festival file. Shell financial reporter noted that on December 21, 2021, the announcement of Guomai Culture showed that on February 9, the company and Tingdong Pictures signed the "Film Investment Cooperation Agreement" in the company's conference room, investing 13 million yuan to purchase a 5% investment share of the new film. As of now, the film has been filmed and named "Four Seas". Shell financial reporter roughly calculated that the 100% investment share of "Four Seas" is about 260 million yuan.
Jiang Defu, chief executive of Bona Group, once said in an interview that the investment scale of the Chosin Lake series of films reached 200 million US dollars, and according to the general law that the box office is three times the cost of breakeven, the investment in "Chosin Lake" has returned to the cost. As the main production company of "Watergate Bridge", Bona Pictures is also the third largest shareholder of Guomai Culture, and participated in the production of "Four Seas".
This Spring Festival bet on two popular movies, Bona Pictures is once again regarded as a big winner. Looking at the achievements of Bona Pictures in 2021, "Chosin Lake" with a box office of 5.731 billion, "My Father and Me" with a box office of 1.475 billion, "Chinese Doctor" with a box office of 1.328 billion, and "Nezha Reborn" with a box office of 456 million.
Despite this, after the November 2020 meeting, to this day, Bona Pictures has not been able to wait for the csrc's approval.
Blockbuster failure? Huayi Brothers and Beijing Culture are absent from the Spring Festival stalls
According to data released by the National Film Administration on January 1, the total box office of Chinese films in 2021 reached 47.258 billion yuan, the box office of Chinese films in China was 39.927 billion yuan, accounting for 84.49% of the total box office, and the Box Office of the Spring Festival was 7.842 billion yuan, accounting for 16.9% of the box office of last year.
And this nugget track, there are also companies "lost". In the Spring Festival file in 2022, Wanda Film only participated in the production of "Miracle", Light Pictures only had one "Sniper", and Huayi Brothers and Beijing Culture were directly absent.
The box office champion of the Spring Festival in 2018 was the war film "Red Sea Action", with a final box office of 3.652 billion yuan; the box office champion in 2019 was the science fiction film "The Wandering Earth", with a final box office of 4.686 billion yuan; the box office champion of the 2021 Spring Festival was the comedy film "Hello, Li Huanying", with a final box office of 5.413 billion yuan.
In the film market industry, Beijing culture has always been known as the "explosive film engine", and has attracted market attention because of the "champion" in 2019 and 2021. On the first trading day after the Spring Festival, Beijing Culture's stock rose sharply for many consecutive days with the help of "The Wandering Earth" and "Hello, Li Huanying".
In August 2020, Beijing Culture issued an announcement that the company's operating income from the movie "The Wandering Earth" was about 600 million yuan to 650 million yuan; the revenue from the film was about 240 million yuan to 280 million yuan (the final box office billing of the film shall prevail). The Beijing News Shell financial reporter calculated that the revenue was equivalent to 73.62%-85.90% of Beijing Culture's net profit (326 million) in 2018.
However, in 2021, Beijing Culture sold the distribution rights of "Hello, Li Huanying" in a guaranteed manner and the sub-account income was not high, and the third quarterly report of Beijing Culture in 2021 showed that the total operating income of films such as "Hello, Li Huanying" and "The King of Bathing" was 159 million.
Judging from the three quarterly reports of Beijing Culture, the company's net profit loss in the first three quarters of 2021 was 27.7231 million yuan. Also in this year, Beijing culture is still in trouble, the Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau disclosed the results of the investigation of the case of Beijing cultural information disclosure violations, and issued a warning and a fine of 600,000 yuan for Beijing culture, while taking a three-year ban on the securities market for Lou Xiaoxi, then vice chairman of Beijing Culture.
And Huayi Brothers also bet on the explosion, failing to save the decline in performance.
In 2020, Huayi Brothers became the highest box office among film and television companies that year with the high box office of "Eight Hundred" (3 billion) and "King Kong Chuan" (1.1 billion). In fact, although it has received such a high box office, the performance of Huayi Brothers in 2020 has not improved, and the financial report shows that Huayi Brothers' net profit loss in 2020 is nearly 1.1 billion.
In 2021, Huayi Brothers released a total of 13 movies, which is the largest content output company among the head film companies, and the total box office of the films involved in the investment in the first three quarters has exceeded 8.5 billion yuan. However, its main control projects such as "Samurai Shodown", "Beyond", "Sunshine Robber" and other word-of-mouth box offices are not as good as expected.
Huayi Brothers' third quarter report of 2021 shows that in the first three quarters, the company achieved revenue of 956 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 13.70%, and the net profit attributable to the shareholders of the listed company increased by 278.87% to 583 million yuan; the deduction of non-net profit decreased by 103.29% year-on-year, which was a loss of 345 million yuan. According to the financial report, the company's non-recurring profit and loss in the first three quarters mainly includes long-term equity investment and profit and loss on the disposal of financial assets, as well as gains and losses on changes in the fair value of financial assets caused by stock price changes.
On January 13, Huayi Brothers announced that the film "Embracing You Through the Cold Winter", in which Huayi Brothers Film Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, participated in the investment, as of January 12, 2022, the company's operating income from the film ranged from about RMB1.3 million to RMB1.55 million (the final settlement data may be incorrect).
And "Embracing You Through the Cold Winter" is the Box Office Champion on New Year's Day, and Huayi Brothers has obviously missed a wave of harvesting opportunities again.
Beijing News shell financial reporter Zhao Fangyuan intern Xiong Ke Editor Wang Jinyu Proofreader Yang Xuli