Promotional posters. Figure/IC
The pre-sale exceeded 100 million, but "Four Seas" ran not far in anticipation.
As of February 9, the total box office of "Four Seas" was 497 million, ranking fifth in the box office list of Spring Festival movies. From the second day of release to the decline in the box office for six consecutive days, the speed at which "Four Seas" was abandoned by the audience is visible to the naked eye.
Speaking of this movie, people who have seen it have all kinds of bad reviews, but it boils down to nothing more than expensive ticket prices and ugly. The Beijing News shell financial reporter combed and saw that during the Spring Festival from January 31 to February 6, 2022, the average ticket price reached 52.8 yuan, setting a new high in the calendar year, the highest of which was "Four Seas" at 54.7 yuan.
A number of theater managers told Shell financial reporters that "Four Seas" has been ranked third in the first two days of the Spring Festival, and it was not gradually reduced until after the third day of the first year. As for its highest ticket price in the Spring Festival movies, it lies in the high distribution price of the "Four Seas" movie, which leads to a rise in cinema ticket prices.
"Han Han + Shen Teng + Liu Haoran" itself means box office appeal, but in the end it failed, and the low "tenancy content" became another big slot. Shell financial reporter combed and saw that since 2015's "Charlotte Troubles", the amount of "content" seems to directly determine the level of comedy, and Shen Teng has become a weather vane for many moviegoers. However, in the following 7 years, Shen Teng participated in 17 movies, such as "Li Cha's Aunt", "Warm Hug", "Shy Iron Fist" and other movies in which Shen Teng starred for less than ten minutes, and was also placed in posters and promotional copywriting. There is also "The Sun Never Sets on the Hotel", Shen Teng only appeared as a humanoid standing card, but appeared in the poster in the name of special appearance.
Cinema scheduling "out of favor"
"The ticket price is still sold for more than a hundred, and the leeks also have brains that you don't want to cut." In the evaluation of netizens, aesthetic fatigue, the voice of spending money to charge IQ tax is not uncommon.
The manager of Jinan Yi Cinema said in an interview with Shell Financial Reporter that the early publicity of "Four Seas" was good, and the configuration of "Han Han + Shen Teng + Liu Haoran" had box office appeal, so the number of films on the first day of the Spring Festival was large. However, in the later period, due to the decline in word-of-mouth, the number of films was correspondingly reduced.
"Four Seas" is high hopes, before the release, the film pre-sales exceeded 100 million, the first day of the box office over 200 million yuan, ranking only after "Chosin Lake Watergate Bridge". On the second day of release, although the box office exceeded 100 million, the ranking began to fall. In the second year of the first year, the Douban score of the Spring Festival file was all opened, "Four Seas" ranked at the bottom with 5.6 points, and the score of other live-action films was above 7.0. Correspondingly, the box office of "Four Seas" fell off a cliff, and the box office performance of the second grade was only half of the first grade, and it has continued to decline since then.
A number of theater managers told Shell financial reporters that the early stage of theater scheduling usually looks at the pre-sales of major platforms. According to the data of the professional version of the lighthouse, the proportion of "Four Seas" in the Spring Festival stall has been ranked third in the first two days, and it has not gradually decreased until the third day of the junior high school.
"The first two days of the "Four Seas" schedule is actually quite a lot, because Shen Teng said that it is a comedy, and everyone's expectations for it are relatively large. However, the post-reputation is not good, the attendance rate has also become low, on the other hand, the attendance rate of "This Killer Is Not Too Calm" has increased, so after the third year of junior high school, the "Four Seas" schedule has been slowly reduced. A theater manager told Shell financial reporters.
"Theaters are very realistic, and the high attendance rate is naturally much better." Cinema data analytics blogger Winter said.
The most unexpected "overturning" of the Spring Festival stall was turned over in the hands of the director who can drive the most racing cars, which has also become a paragraph of the Spring Festival stall. "Four Seas" is Han Han's fourth work after "After Forever" (629 million yuan), "Riding the Wind and Waves" (1.049 billion yuan) and "Flying Life" (1.728 billion yuan).
"I observed that some post-80s audiences still like "Four Seas", screenwriter Wang Hailin told Shell Financial Reporter, Han Han has a strong author attribute, the film will have its own personal style, and most of its films show a superposition of literary and artistic youth and small-town youth. Previously, the audience could accept this emotion expressed in the film, but after five or six years, the audience's interest may have changed a lot, and Han Han has not changed. In addition, the circle of audiences of Han Han's films has not expanded, or even has a tendency to shrink.
Wang Hailin said that "Four Seas" is more twisted in the play, not completely in accordance with the formula of genre films, and not the narrative of commercial film genre films.
In this regard, Yin Hong, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of Tsinghua University and vice chairman of the China Filmmakers Association, told Shell Financial Reporter that word of mouth determines the box office, and Han Han's films are not very commercial must-see.
Han Han and the "big guy" of the capital
Before "Four Seas", Han Han's films have never disappointed investors.
In July 2014, Han Han's first film "After the End" was released. At that time, Han Han did not have his own film and television company. The producers behind the film are producer Fang Li's Beijing Laurel Pictures and Lu Jinbo's Guomai Culture. One is a well-known producer in the industry, and the other is a publisher who has worked with Han Han for 12 years. Prior to this, most of the films that Fang Li served as a producer in the past were literary and art films, such as "Blind Mountain", "Apple", "Guanyin Mountain", "Hundred Birds and Phoenix" and so on.
By the time the film reached three-quarters of the time, they brought in the last producer, Yu Dong, president of Bona Film Group. In addition, Youku, Hainan Haishi Tourism Satellite TV Media, and Jingwei Investment have also become co-production companies of the film.
"After Forever" became a dark horse in the summer program that year, and eventually won 629 million yuan at the box office, and the investors divided 238 million yuan. In 2014, Fang Li revealed in an interview with the media that Han Han could earn tens of millions of yuan on "After Forever".
The success of "After Forever" at the box office also ushered in the second cooperation between the two sides. In 2017, Han Han's second film "Riding the Wind and Waves" was released, and the number of production companies behind it increased to 6, and the number of joint production companies reached 8. In addition to the previously cooperated companies, Tingdong Pictures, Tianjin Orange Image, and Wanhe Tianyi invested by Han Han have also been added.
"Ride the Wind and Waves" eventually earned 1.049 billion at the box office. At this point, Han Han's Tingdong Pictures and Guomai Culture and Bona Pictures have formed a community of interests. In 2017, Bona Pictures introduced strategic investors, and Han Han "raided" into the shares, and finally held 0.06% of the shares.
Maoyan began to establish a relationship with Han Han from Han Han's third film, and in 2019, Maoyan became the third largest producer and the largest distributor of "Flying Life", and Hengdian Pictures also invested in Han Han's two films from "Flying Life".
Maoyan Professional Edition shows that there are 20 companies involved behind "Four Seas", including 7 production companies, and the figures of Bona Pictures, Tingdong Pictures, Guomai Culture and Hengdian Pictures have appeared again. In addition, there are 10 co-production companies, including Shanghai Film, Douyin Culture, Weibo and so on.
The high box office of the Spring Festival file is 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 reporters separately checked the prospectus of Bona Pictures and Guomai Culture and found that before, investing in Han Han's films had become a steady business.
According to the prospectus of Bona Pictures, in 2014, the company's final box office score of investing in the film "After The End of time" became 225 million yuan, while the production cost of the film was 130 million yuan and the gross profit was 95.4084 million yuan, surpassing the "Wise Tiger Mountain" and "Macau Storm" of that year. In 2017, the company invested in "Riding the Wind and Waves", with an input cost of 16.65 million, a film revenue of 135 million yuan, and a gross profit margin of 87.73%.
According to the prospectus of Guomai Culture, in recent years, Guomai Culture has participated in the investment of Han Han's films "Riding the Wind and Waves" and "Flying Life", and the cumulative investment amount of the two films is 17.2 million yuan and 28 million yuan respectively. During the reporting period, the company's film investment income was 13.9472 million yuan and 8.1787 million yuan respectively, accounting for 26.20% and 13.69% of the total profit in the same period, respectively.
In November 2021, the low-budget film "Yang Ming Liwan", produced by Han Han and produced by Tingdong Pictures as one of the producers, won 927 million yuan at the box office, and the film side divided 330 million yuan.
Lighthouse Professional Edition shows that there are currently 30 film and television works related to Han Han, and the commercial territory is also expanding. In 2015, Han Han established Tingdong Pictures, and as of now, Tingdong Pictures has received four rounds of financing, including PwC Capital, Bona Pictures, Alibaba Pictures, Huachuang Capital, etc. In 2017, Bona Pictures invested 250 million yuan in Tingdong through the transfer of old shares and capital increase, and held 12.5% of the equity, according to which Tingdong Pictures was valued at 2 billion yuan.
In August 2021, Guomai Culture was listed on the A-share market, and Han Han's mother Zhou Qiaorong ranked as the second natural person shareholder with a shareholding ratio of 3.4%. In addition, because Han Han owns a 0.06% stake in Bona Pictures, he has also become an indirect shareholder of Guomai Culture.
According to the enterprise investigation data, Han Han actually controls a total of 13 enterprises, of which 8 are Han Han's legal representatives, and 5 have an indirect shareholding ratio of more than 50%, and the companies under his name are concentrated in leasing and business services, culture, sports and entertainment, and accommodation and catering.
"Tenknance" = box office appeal?
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". Roughly calculated, the 100% investment share of "Four Seas" is about 260 million yuan.
According to the general law that the box office is three times the cost to break even, the box office of "Four Seas" needs to reach more than 800 million yuan to truly return the cost.
Maiguo Culture's 2021 performance forecast shows that the company's net profit in 2021 is 55 million yuan - 60 million yuan.
On the afternoon of February 8, Shell financial reporters called the Maiguo Culture Securities Department to ask whether the dismal box office of "Four Seas" had an impact on the company's performance, and the staff said that specific information could not be disclosed at present, and needed to wait for the later announcement.
However, the performance of the capital market is perhaps the most direct embodiment, with Guomai Culture closing at 33.69 yuan / share on the last trading day before the Spring Festival (January 28), while the closing price on February 8 was 31.70 yuan / share, down 5.9%.
"Take Shen Teng fraud again" "Shen Teng is a little drama, playing all shen teng's name", this is the content of the Douban short review of "Four Seas", "containing teng" has become a big slot point in this film.
According to the data of lighthouse professional version, Shen Teng has become the first 20 billion box office film emperor in the history of Chinese film in only 9 years, which has a number of high-quality films and a number of help, 9 years of 25 movies, frequent participation of Shen Teng, is the appeal still the same?
Judging from the box office on the first day of the Spring Festival in recent years, the box office and proportion of the films in which Shen Teng participated showed a downward trend. In the 2019 Spring Festival file, Shen Teng, as the first and second stars of the two films "Flying Life" and "Crazy Alien", got 320 million and 410 million box offices on the first day, accounting for 22.1% and 28.1% of the Spring Festival slots, respectively. In 2021, as the first male protagonist, he participated in the Spring Festival file "Hello Li Huanying", although he finally got a box office of 5.4 billion, but it was more of a counterattack after the fermentation of word of mouth, with a box office of only 290 million on the first day, accounting for 17.2% of the Spring Festival file. This year's "Four Seas" continued to drop to 15.6% on the first day of the box office, at 220 million.
In fact, this is not the first cooperation between Shen Teng and Han Han, Han Han's last Spring Festival file "Flying Life" also has shen Teng's participation, when Shen Teng was the first starring, the corresponding "tenteng" is also relatively high, and this film has also become the highest box office of Han Han.
Since 2015's "Charlotte Troubles", Shen Teng has become the signature figure of comedy films, and the box office appeal has also increased day by day. The term "content" should also come into being from time to time, corresponding to Wu Jing's "content of Beijing", the amount of "content of tenity" seems to directly determine the level of comedy, Shen Teng has become a weather vane for many moviegoers.
Therefore, many movies will invite Shen Teng as a special appearance. According to the incomplete statistics of shell financial reporters, after "Charlotte Troubles", shen teng participated in 17 movies in 7 years, and Shen Teng starred in movies such as "Li Cha's Aunt", "Warm Hug", "Shy Iron Fist" and other movies for less than ten minutes, but it was also placed in posters and promotional copywriting.
What's more, the movie "The Sun Never Sets on the Hotel", in which Shen Teng only appears as a humanoid standing card, but also appears in the poster under the name of special appearance. Many netizens said that they saw Shen Teng "brainless to buy", but did not expect to be just a "paper person".
With the fermentation of public opinion, it has affected the reputation of Shen Teng and Happy Twist. The director sent an apology letter to explain that the film party had nothing to do with Happy Twist, and Shen Teng also starred in a friendly cameo.
Whether the "amount of content" is really linked to the box office and word of mouth is still difficult to determine, but the continuous "false containment" has made many netizens begin to question the film with Shen Teng as the selling point, and during the promotion of "Hello Li Huanying", it is rumored that Shen Teng's whole film has only 8 minutes of scenes.
In this regard, "Hello Li Huanying" came out to refute rumors that "the news is untrue, Shen Teng is the male protagonist of the film." ”
Judging from this year's "Four Seas", Shen Teng still has a strong appeal at the box office, and even some people suggest that the film be marked with "containing teng". When Shen Teng will be repulsed by the low "tengteng content", the first hot comment is, "The key is to see Shen Teng's own main works, if the starring works have quality, everyone will endure it." ”
In the face of these doubts, Shen Teng also responded positively in the interview: "In fact, sometimes I am very sorry for the audience. I can't tweet about how many minutes I've been in this movie. I am also very uncomfortable, and I will pay more attention in the future. ”
Beijing News Shell Financial Reporter Zhao Fangyuan Song Meilu Intern Xiong Ke Editor Wang Jinyu Proofreading Chen Diyan