Gao Hongsen is an entrepreneur at Base Point Pictures and a veteran film distributor in mainland China. From his initial marketing batch of films "Animal Story" in the face of "The Great Cause of Party Building" and "Kung Fu Panda 2", which won more than 63 million box office, to the marketing of "Pen Fairy Horror", "Wraith", "Adventures of the Monkey", "Disc Immortal" have sold out and are well-known in the industry.
He has joined hands with shanghai film companies to market "Heavenly General Xiongshi", "Pleasant Goat and Gray Wolf Year Happy Sheep", "Black Cat Sheriff", he is always not impatient, step by step, looking for the "G point" of each film.
Gao Hongsen is a university is business administration, when he was in college, he was influenced by Ye Maozhong, he felt that the advertisers in the film and television dramas were particularly cool, high salaries, beautiful women, bars, nightlife, after graduation, he plunged into the advertising circle, from interns to all the way to the account director, customer group director, this is 10 years, the beauty is gone, overtime every day!
It has served customers in all walks of life, from TCL to Chinese Life, from 361 Degree Sports brand to Volkswagen, from Sina.com to COFCO Arowana.
However, Gao always felt that his future promotion space in the advertising circle was limited, and their post-80s generation had been greatly influenced by Hong Kong films, so when they chose to create Base Point Interactive in 2011, they entered the field of film marketing without understanding, and had the honor of becoming one of the earliest film marketing companies in China.
The first project received at that time was "Animal Story" issued by Orange Sky Jiahe, which became a dark horse in the summer of 2011.
"Animal Story" is a story about an environmental protection theme, so in conjunction with Beijing Television Station, singers such as Da Zhang Wei were invited to do public welfare activities. Although "The Great Cause of Party Building" and "Kung Fu Panda 2" dominate most of the scenes, this imported animation is not adult animation, focusing on playing the card of family fun. The Spanish team's production standard is good, and it has sold out!
"Animal Story" is a story about an environmental protection theme, so in conjunction with Beijing Television Station, singers such as Da Zhang Wei were invited to do public welfare activities. Originally, the film set a box office target of 30 million, and as a result, it achieved 30 million box office in three days, mainly because the quality of the animation was good, and the pressure on imported films was not so great at that time
Although "The Great Cause of Party Building" and "Kung Fu Panda 2" dominate most of the scenes, this imported animation is not adult animation, focusing on playing the card of family fun. The Spanish team's production standard is good, and it has sold out!
Mr. Gao revealed that the approval of an imported film usually takes five or six months or even longer, and it can only be publicized after the introduction is determined to get the dragon label. Major promotional materials, including major press releases, posters, trailers, etc., must be submitted for review.
After all, Gao always has a lot of experience in advertising, and film promotion is the promotion of film products, when the base point interaction put forward the G-point marketing theory to find the excitement of publicity for each film. In 2014, on the basis of the marketing business, the base point film and television was established, a sound distribution team was established, and it became a professional publicity and distribution company, and in 2015, in the first year of the launch of the distribution business, it ranked 12th among China's private distribution companies (box office ranking provided according to Yien data).
From publicity and distribution, he has experienced the rapid development of the film market in 15 or 16 years, as well as the impact of the tax storm and the epidemic. Even if the cinema film is sung down, even if a large number of small and medium-sized companies are dissolved and transformed, he still does not forget his original intention and insists on doing a good job in film distribution. Gao Hongsen believes that there are thousands of production companies in China, but there are only a few dozen distribution companies, so even if the epidemic losses are serious, the base point has not laid off employees!
At the beginning, Gao Hongsen established the base point interactive and Jiahe established a long-term cooperative relationship. At that time, Orange Tianjiahe was mainly based on imported films, and the two sides cooperated in "Magic Fantasy Show", "Very Small Agent 4", "Thieves also have a way" and so on. Gao Hongsen does an average of six or seven batch films a year, until 2013.
Among them, the director of "Magic Fantasy Show" Terry Gilliam has a more unusual approach, resulting in a less intense plot conflict, so although the posthumous work of "Joker" Heath Ledger, this publicity point is very popular on Weibo, but it still fails to cause the audience to buy tickets.
Later, the space for batch film publicity was relatively small. Because everyone only bought the copyright, the publicity and other activities of the landing activities did not have much rights and interests, so from 12 years, Gao Hongsen's main energy turned to domestic films.
After Gao Hongsen's interaction with The Base Point turned to the field of domestic films, the first horror film he began to make was "Pen Fairy Horror", which was released on June 8, 2012. At the Beijing Film Festival, I came into contact with director Guan Er, who was still in charge of the distribution section of Yang Lei, deputy general manager of Jindian Pictures, and the base point was responsible for publicity.
The box office reached more than 23 million, and I did not expect to cause a dispute between true and false pen immortals, and Weibo began to have the word "parasitic marketing". But in fact, although the "Pen Fairy Horror" is set after "Pen Fairy", the schedule is arranged early. Previously, Weibo issued a statement, and other media interviews have only said that the record name of "Pen Immortal Horror" is "Pen Immortal", but the record name of "Pen Immortal" has nothing to do with Pen Immortal.
Through this project, I got to know Yang Lei, took this as a starting point to slowly understand, and finally invited Yang Lei to start a business with us. After that, Guan Er directed a series of horror films that we did, such as "School Flower Strange Incident" and "July And a Half" series.
When Gao Hongsen cooperated with "Wraith", the filmmakers in Hangzhou did not have confidence. Later, everyone found that its card division has the female lead of "Sopranos Talk", so the core publicity point is Sino-Korean cooperation, Japanese and Korean horror films still have a very high status in the hearts of Chinese audiences, and "Sopranos Talk" starred Hong Xiu'er's Chinese big screen debut, resulting in the film now classified as a Korean film in iQiyi video.
The story takes place at a gas station, so the publicity team packaged the 'Top Ten Supernatural Events in Asia', including a mysterious petrol station in China. Including the design of posters and trailer packaging, efforts have also been made, and the box office results are ideal, up to more than 18 million.
The horror film "Wraith Doll" produced by The Film Studio, this project has been shelved for more than a year when Gao Hongsen took over, and the internal evaluation of The Film is very poor, so it is entrusted to a third party for distribution. In order to be released on New Year's Day, Gao Hongsen's team also did a lot of persuasion work with the filmmakers.
The publicity positioning was initially the most abusive movie, but Gao Hongsen pushed down the marketing strategy: "We analyzed the previous horror films, murder, abuse, and box office results were not very good, so we repackaged the 'five powerful ghosts and baby spirits' to make a story of baby spirit revenge." In the end, the box office was much higher than expected, ending up at nearly 26 million. ”
That year, because of the good release of "Wraith Doll", it far exceeded the expected results of the film. Shangying Distribution saw the ground push team and distribution ability of the base point, and took the initiative to invite them to assist in the release of "Pleasant Goat and Gray Wolf" in January, and the "Heavenly General" in the Spring Festival file, which was used to enhance the ground team strength in such a competitive schedule during the Spring Festival.
Among them, "Heavenly General" was introduced into the film and released at the bottom, and the competitive pressure in the Spring Festival file was very large. Gao Hongsen revealed, "They have a 60-person distribution team, and we have 40 people, so our base point is responsible for assisting in the distribution." ”
"Heavenly General" in different provinces and cities to do the division of theaters, divided into more than a dozen provinces, the base point and the film to cooperate with the distribution work. From more than two weeks before the Spring Festival, the ground push work began, not only the scheduling of major theaters to communicate, but also various activities to communicate and prepare in advance.
Including roadshow publicity, "Heaven will Xiongshi" joint liquor, as a promotional gift, to the major theaters across the country Spring Festival to do activities, and finally the basis point pictures successfully completed the distribution task.
Basis Point Film and Television also marketed a horror blockbuster film "Disc Immortal", which became the box office champion of horror films in 2019 and the highest box office of similar themes in the past three or four years. The film is a joint production of China Film, Earth and Infinite Freedom, and has not been released for some reasons.
The basis point is to win the project, followed up for a year or two, "After all, in the scope of review, from the art, the photographic story, the integrity, this film is the best in the horror films we have released!" ”
Gao Hongsen revealed, "At that time, the director and the actors were very cooperative, and the director also sent a long Weibo publicity. We also deliberately did a dish wrestling activity close to "Disc Fairy", that is, to find some small dishes, so that guests and the media can drop dishes at the premiere site, and achieved good marketing results by doing some theater activities. ”
When "Disc Immortal" was released, Huang Yi and Fan Yichen were very cooperative with the publicity, from the premiere to the new media publicity, these two stars did a lot of work. At that time, Huang Yi did not have a big screen blockbuster for a long time, because "Disc Immortal" sold more than 56 million at the box office, which also provided more opportunities for her later acting career.
From 12 years to 14 years, domestic horror films ushered in a situation of competition for supremacy, with more than a dozen films a year, each with a one-month release time, and it was fixed at midnight.
Some works even have a higher attendance rate than ordinary commercial blockbusters, Yang Mi starred in "Far Cry" exceeded 90 million, Lin Xinru, Wu Zhenyu, Yang Youning starred in "Beijing 81" broke through the 400 million box office, so that many investors saw that there is good commercial potential in horror films.
If you look back at the data, the horror films at that time could occupy the mainstream film position, and every box office was good. The daily film ranking is also stable in the top ten, unlike every horror film now ranked low.
Because the number of domestic horror films later increased to dozens, but the quality was not improved, coupled with strict censorship, now it is basically extinct! Previously, some of them could not be reviewed, and now it is difficult to set up a thriller project, resulting in the new producers have shot very little.
The horror films that can be released now are all backlogs of inventory from previous years, because they have not been released for various reasons! But even if it is released, the quality is not as good as expected, and the box office is far lower than the previous grandeur.
Just like "Girlfriend Heart", although the heroine Jin Chen is now very popular, the various theaters are more supportive, and the scheduling has reached more than 10,000 on the first day, but because there are fewer horror film shots in the movie, the overall attendance rate is relatively low.
The Huayi brothers imported "Puppet Contract" from Hito Entertainment, and Boehner's "Dark Labyrinth" was not as expected. Due to the relatively small number of domestic horror films, there is still a certain market for imported thrillers. Including the biased disaster "Giant Crocodile Storm" and "Shark Beach" series, all of which are thrilling and desperate survival themes, and the box office performance is OK!
"Escape from the Chamber of Secrets", which includes the theme of escape from the secret room, has sold 200 million yuan in China, and there are rumors that a second part will be introduced. The "Resident Evil" series has set off a zombie culture, which is very expressive in the Chinese market, and the last one has a box office of more than one billion, and the Chinese horror film market is actually relatively large, but it needs good quality works to detonate.
At that time, Niu Chaoyang's April Days, Gao Hongsen's base point, Chen Hui's Hengye, and Sun Yue's Xinyue were known as the four major teams of mainland horror films. Later, Hengye first began to transform, in "Girlfriend", "Wolf Warrior", "Manslaughter" and other commercial blockbusters, Xinyue also transformed and basically withdrew from the film distribution field.
Aprilday also does thrillers, but the market is very small, Gao Hongsen revealed: "We are also doing transformation! Now Taiwanese romance films are more popular, "When Men Fall in Love" sold 200 million, "Stay with You for a Long time" bought 90 million, Taiwanese filmmakers are better at doing small clarity, we also made an introduction, and European animation is also making choices! ”
In the past, the batch film market was very large, some films could exceed 100 million at the box office, and European and American filmmakers were asking for money on the spot, and now there are obviously fewer Chinese buyers in the international market, and Gao zong believes that there is still hope for gold in the sand.
Before the pandemic, The Base Point released ten to fifteen films a year, and now it's only five or six a year. During the epidemic, the pressure on various issuing companies is great! Compared with Huayi, Guangguang, Bona, Wanda and other companies, Gao Hongsen laughed at himself and believed that his base point film industry belonged to the eighteen-line company.
Nowadays, it is difficult for small and medium-sized companies in Chinese distribution companies to survive, and often head blockbusters dominate 90% of the market box office, and the tail and waist projects have room to survive. The box office of small films used to exceed tens of millions, but now it is often hundreds of thousands of box office, and it is necessary to change the way of thinking!
Nowadays, the rapid rise of online movies has made the cinema small films lose their living space. The big investment of S-class network is 60 to 10 million, the pace is fast and the goal is clear, just like tomb robbery, demon hunting, thriller, military action, monsters and other themes, all of which cater to many young people's movie ideas now!
These films coincide with the cinema films, everyone might as well watch the Network, and gradually give up the viewing of cinema films.
Gao zong revealed that at present, the basis point film and television is still promoting the core business of theatrical films, and the network university is also trying to do "We also participated in two network universities during the epidemic period." One is the costume action film "Thor Li Yuanba", and the other is "Mountain Fish" based on "Shan Hai Jing", both of which have completed post-production and will not be screened until they have been reviewed.
Hengye invested in "Manslaughter" at the box office of up to 1.3 billion, and such remakes may be born in large quantities in the future. After all, China lacks good stories, especially original good stories, and everyone knows that developing a script, from concept to full version, takes a long time, which will make the producer invest a lot of money and energy.
Hengye tasted the cake of remakes, and they got the remake rights of Japanese films such as "The Blade of Imitation" and "Door Lock", so that at least one publicly recognized story base is much easier to make!
In addition to doing horror films, Basis has also done a low-budget blockbuster animation "Frog Story". A Taiwanese film, we fully imported Chinese mainland and took the co-production route. It was released on May 1 that year, and bought more than 12 million box office, which was still profitable.
"Frog Story" is more to do poster packaging, after all, before the Taiwanese side to the poster material is not very satisfied, and finally a cute big frog occupied the main body of the poster, highlighting the selling point, so this poster is very eye-catching on the ticketing platform, including with many advertisements on the shelves to do ticket replacement joint promotion, improving the attendance rate.
However, today's low-age animation, if there is no strong IP, just like "Bear Haunting", "Pig Man", "Purcell" and the market, other original animations, the box office is relatively bleak! Even "Submarine Story", which was filmed to the ninth episode, only grossed more than 10 million.
After all, after adult animations such as "Nezha's Demon Child Descending" and "White Snake: Origins" have sold out, the market focus has shifted. "Nezha" and "White Snake" are all adult movies, but the form of expression is animation, and they are marketed according to the logic of commercial blockbusters, just like "Nezha" refines a spirit of "my life is up to me", which was a very loud slogan of the year at that time, very appealing.
Basis Point Film and Television has also done a successful case is "Amazon Monkey Adventure", the French director team's seven years of grinding a sword masterpiece, the English name is "Amazon".
The Beijing Tv Documentary Channel was introduced through the North Film Festival, but it has not dared to go to the theater. After all, at that time, "Wild Africa" was known as the largest documentary in Europe, and it only grossed more than eight million.
The base point team watched the whole film and decided to reposition the packaging, distilling the main line of the little monkey falling into the Amazon jungle to survive, and renaming it "The Adventures of the Amazon Monkey". Although the whole film does not have a single line, from the poster design to the promotional materials, it is deliberate to avoid the documentary route, and the market packaging positions the family film instead of the original documentary.
This publicity strategy has been recognized by major theaters across the country, and the schedule is based on animation, not documentary. For competitors, "Monkey" can't spell the golden field, so it spells the afternoon session. Basis point also invited French directors in the Blue Harbor, including the embassy in France to send people to support, as well as promotional items around the film.
September 3 of the same year was the anniversary of the anti-fascist, with a three-day holiday, the package was scheduled for the first day, and the release was only allowed on the second day of the holiday. In the theater distribution attendance is good, Gao Hongsen frankly said; "I clearly remember the Beijing area, Wanda reflected that the attendance rate is very good, the next day it added the number of times, it is a small dark horse!" ”
Gao Hongsen once had a "precision marketing" concept that is the same as the name of the base point company, to find a certain film to connect with the audience G-spot, just like "The Adventures of the Monkey" After all, the adventures of the little monkeys are the same as the growth of children.
Another example is the selling point of "Wraith" is Sino-Korean cooperation, and the selling point of "Wraith Doll" is the concept of "Five Legends of Powerful Ghosts" and "Rebirth of Wraith", and the base point must refine these selling points to be able to break through in the market.
Although he has been in the film distribution industry for ten years and has done a large number of successful theatrical films, Gao Hongsen is still very cautious. Just like "Liberation: Endgame Rescue", "Entering The Capital", "Zhonglie Yang Jiajian", "Ten Thousand Arrows Through the Heart" and other good works that did not sell well as expected, there are rumors outside that if these films are marketed to the base point, the box office will not be like this, Gao Zong said modestly: "You can't say so." ”
Just like the love movie "Love Panic Disorder", it was the marketing that Basis Did when the company was first established, and the introduction and distribution done by Tang De at that time. Li Yifeng, Ariel Lin, Chen Bailin are now on fire, and now, this project has long been bought by people for 100 million!
But at that time, the fame of several actors was far less so big, and the marketing and publicity costs were very small, and it was difficult to sell. Therefore, Mr. Gao sighed: "The success of the film needs time, location, people and people!" ”
The cinema film market is very attractive, any miracle can happen, just like "A Hundred Birds and Phoenix", "Twenty-two", "Kailash" and other niche literary and art films have sold out, so that many people feel that the spring of low-cost literary and artistic films has come. However, even if the same team operates the same type of film, it is difficult to sell in the back, which shows that the marketing team is very important, and it is also in line with the audience's ticket purchase G-spot!
When it comes to the box office of a movie depending on the time, location, and people, Gao Hongsen believes that it also depends on who your competitors are. Just like the 2021 National Day file, "Chosin Lake" and "My Father and I" have a cat's eye score of around 9.4 and 9.5, and "Five Splashing Teenagers" despite the rating of 9.0, under the squeeze of the two big productions, the box office is not as good as expected.
If "Five Splashing Teenagers" is still scheduled to be released in August, without the postponement of the epidemic, your reputation can reach 9.0, and your opponents at that time are more than 8 points, and the box office probability will be better than now
A normal Chinese blockbuster, the cost of the Spring Festival file is very high, if it is "Anger Case", at least 50 or 60 million marketing is needed. But Gao Hongsen revealed, "This aspect is not very clear, we do a relatively small volume, basically two or three million to six or seven million." Unlike the logic of blockbuster publicity, the larger the investment, the greater the marketing fee of the film! ”
The smaller the film, the greater the distribution ratio, the basic materials, the cost of cinema cooperation is fixed, when your investment volume reaches a certain amount, more money is to do the market heat. Maoyan Professional Edition has a Douyin version, and the theater is very concerned about the amount of new media topics on Douyin and the data feedback of various ticketing websites, so the expenditure of marketing expenses needs to be very large!
Film companies do not have a clear off-peak season, there are projects on the peak season, no projects on the talk of various resource cooperation, the work will be very complicated when distributing films, overtime is also a common thing, and even sometimes Yang Will live in the company, at any time to deal with all kinds of unexpected work!
For people who are new to the film and television circle, Gao always believes that to find their own positioning, a basic premise is hobbies, after all, many industries make money than the film industry, nothing to play live anchors to make money faster, you must have a clear plan and goals for yourself, "You need to give yourself a clear positioning, do producers to follow up on different projects, to learn professional, but also with the publicity company to communicate." If you are a director or an actor, you should learn something more professional! ”
Finally, Gao Hongsen is very grateful to every film party who cooperates with the base point, thank you for your trust in yourself, and the things he promises will be done well! After all, people give a film to you for distribution, you must have a serious and responsible working attitude for each film, and help the filmmakers to do every job well! The basis point should be worthy of the director and creator of each film, and worthy of the hard work of each film! ”