On January 30, the single crowdfunding around "The Wandering Earth 2" exceeded 100 million, in only 8 days. Chinese science fiction fans are crazy about "millet" (derivatives peripherals), allowing the market to see the potential of real money of science fiction IP.
Undervalued wallets for Chinese sci-fi fans?
On January 22, the model peripheral crowdfunding developed according to the official license of the movie "The Wandering Earth 2" sold out as soon as it was launched. Although the crowdfunding goal is only 100,000 yuan, as of January 30, the project has raised hundreds of millions of yuan in just over a week, and it continues to grow rapidly, and there is still nearly a month before the crowdfunding deadline.
Compared with the first official peripheral crowdfunding of "The Wandering Earth", the crowdfunding quota on the first day of launch increased by 10 times, and also broke the record of crowdfunding in China's entertainment category, continuing the myth of attracting money.
The crowdfunding project was authorized by Saifan and designed and manufactured by Transwarp, and three products poked at the fans' hi points: a dumb model of a mechanical dog with high degree of reduction, an artificial intelligence MOSS model, and a U disk of a digital life card nicknamed "Cyber Urn". The first two are available in both assembled and finished options.
Thanks to the word-of-mouth and influence of the "The Wandering Earth 2" film, it has once again boosted peripheral consumption. Up to now, the box office of "The Wandering Earth 2" has exceeded 2.5 billion. According to incomplete statistics, since its release, "The Wandering Earth 2" has appeared on more than 60 Weibo hot searches, and has been played more than 6 billion times on the topic of Douyin #Wandering Earth 2. With the popularity of the movie, #The Wandering Earth 2 peripheral crowdfunding has exceeded 32 million# and other topics fermentation, so that IP peripherals have won more market attention.
"The Wandering Earth 2" is "soft and hard" in licensing, pulling differentiation and product gradients on the hard peripheral of the collection direction, and making enough richness in the soft peripheral. On Aliyu's crowdfunding platform to create new goods, the crowdfunding amount of the universal box stupid machine transformable toy exceeded 4.8 million. In addition, Bruker, Senbao Building Blocks, and ONEBOT have all launched authorized puzzle toys, of which the monthly sales of Senbao Building Blocks Tmall flagship store carrier vehicles exceed 800+.
The stupid Bluetooth remote control AR smart building blocks launched by SenseTime's cultural and creative store "Sheep Big" Tmall flagship store, with monthly sales of more than 1000+. The MOSS collectible robot, mechanical exoskeleton arm, rescue team 1:1 wearable mechanical exoskeleton suit, etc. on the Killerbody Tmall flagship store were sold at a maximum unit price of 130,000 yuan.
Senbao Building Blocks x "The Wandering Earth" co-branded
Back in 2019, according to media reports at the time, there were more than 100 derivative product categories and more than 1,000 SKUs; The market capacity of derivatives exceeds 500 million yuan, and the overall scale is expected to exceed 1 billion yuan. At that time, Zhu Hairong, deputy general manager of the marketing company of China Film Co., Ltd., made a prediction, "If "The Wandering Earth" continues to make the second and third parts, the value of derivative products will reach billions of yuan." ”
Now, although the box office of "The Wandering Earth 2" has not yet surpassed the first part, the popularity of the surrounding market is undoubtedly "higher, faster, stronger".
The domestic sci-fi audience has expanded, and consumer awareness and consumer psychology have changed along with the market.
Blockbusters are hard to find
Screenwriter Wutong once said that "sci-fi IP began to change from pendant to popular, which is Liu Cixin's greatest contribution to Chinese science fiction".
In 2019, "The Wandering Earth" kicked off the first year of Chinese science fiction movies, and more and more people began to pay attention to science fiction. Coupled with the strong Spring Festival file of "The Wandering Earth", public families have poured into theaters, making sci-fi IP constantly break the circle. In a sense, science fiction films have become a kind of "family fun".
A large number of non-sci-fi fans feel the charm of sci-fi IP and are attracted to it. Many people use "watching such and such a film" to highlight their interest and preferences, and "rushing tap water" for Chinese science fiction has become a kind of "correct choice" and "fashionable". Buying merchandise represents both personal feelings and a good work that supports one's favorite works with consumption. Although the starting point seems to be the same, the needs and subconscious of different groups for the product are different.
In 2019, "The Wandering Earth" hit the fire with peripheral sales. Planetary engine model basic night light, luminous flint key chain, ID card power bank and many other products are hot sellers. But then due to the quality overturn, the return problem occurred, and the reputation plummeted. Some netizens complained that "making movies with hearts and making peripherals with feet".
"Buy practical will be disappointed, buy collection will be lost", want to make a collection quality in the lower price band itself has product positioning deviation, not only did not let the hardcore model glue guys "get into the eyes", but also let film and television fans fall behind. Coupled with the change in user psychology caused by the "cooling-off period" of waiting for spots, "the box office belongs to the box office, and it is difficult to say who is really willing to pay for the surrounding ones." According to a review blogger, the wandering earth collectible doll produced by Damtoys took nearly 3 years from authorization to mass production. The surrounding development is still like a "big adventure".
The industry often talks about industrialization thinking, advocates the pre-development of derivatives, controls the whole process, and releases commercial long-tail value through linkage sales; However, it is still difficult to grasp the market and license management in a more practical way.
Last year's film and television winter, four sci-fi movies collectively landed in the summer file. From "Mozart in Outer Space" directed by Chen Sicheng, to "Walking on the Moon Alone" starring Shen Teng Ma Li, "Tomorrow's War" and "Out of the Earth", which are known as super tall productions. Many of these films have put a lot of effort into the development of derivative products. From the affordable tide play blind box to the collection level of co-branded artists, from the rhythm point of view, the seamless connection of linkage publicity has been achieved, and the channel has penetrated into the theater line, but the market feedback has been mediocre.
"IP" may be a reasonable explanation, but even a super IP like "The Wandering Earth" is difficult to perfectly predict the product explosion.
For example, most developers bet on the stupid role of the "star military dog" in "The Wandering Earth 2", and in the social media comment area, many people called for the development of "door frame robot" characters; On the e-commerce platform, the sales volume of some co-branded peripherals has not broken zero.
It can be seen that it is necessary to be sensitive to the IP core and grasp the user's psychology, and at the same time establish differentiation in the numerous authorized products, in order to reasonably transform consumer enthusiasm and create a hot selling road.
Under the popular node where the copyright owner authorized the "big net" and the product concentration was surging, it was not easy to create explosive models. Wang Yin, senior product director of 52TOYS, pointed out, "After (products) are stacked, it depends on the product characteristics of each company. ”
As the saying goes, "the blue ocean of hundreds of billions of derivatives of nuggets", this is the magical reality in the hearts of many people in the industry.
As of August 2022, Star Wars' derivative revenue reached US$42.2 billion (about RMB 286.3 billion), while the box office revenue of movies was US$10.3 billion, and derivative revenue was 4 times that of the box office.
If you compare the overall scale trend of China's science fiction industry, the science fiction peripheral market is relatively lagging. According to the "China Science Fiction Development Yearbook 2021", the output value of China's science fiction industry will reach 55.109 billion yuan in 2021 and 36.292 billion yuan in the first half of 2022, which is expected to exceed the previous year; the output value of science fiction peripheral industries will reach 2.12 billion yuan and 1.02 billion yuan in 2021 and the first half of 2020, respectively, accounting for 3.8% to 2.8%.
When we talk about the promising peripheral consumption "bonanza", it is inseparable from the background of long-term precipitation of IP works and the prosperity of the industry.
Chinese science fiction, roll up like crazy
Over the years, the commercial atmosphere of sci-fi IP has gradually strengthened, and more and more new works have begun to break the small circle of "sci-fi fans" and embrace the public group. From the creative level, the concentration of "science fiction" has been diluted, and "soft science fiction" has become the mainstream.
For example, the representative "Walking on the Moon Alone" uses comedy to pry science fiction, and "Mozart in Outer Space" uses dramatization to establish a narrative mode. Many works get rid of the shackles of serious scientific theories and challenges at the production level, and instead put forward the examination and expression of philosophy, psychology, humanities and society in terms of plot and theme, and seek commercial success by "leveraging power".
Including "The Wandering Earth 2" has also changed. In the film, Liu Peiqiang can not only fight, but also shake terriers, play humor, and spread dog food; The plot adds his teacher-student comrade-in-arms line with Zhang Peng, and his love line with Han Duoduo. Compared with the first pure "hard science fiction", the second part can be said to be based on science fiction texts, which not only requires the shock of high-level industrial production blockbusters, but also caters to the family fun of the festive atmosphere. The personification setting of the robot character also pre-buries empathy with the audience in addition to the needs of the plot.
It is worth mentioning that another popular film "Manjiang Red" in this year's Spring Festival file, one version of its script creation also uses the end of a science fiction story. If this version is not rejected, it may be a "science fiction+" super experiment.
Chinese science fiction big IP is often full of high concentration of home and country feelings, and at the same time with Eastern philosophy thinking and value output, presented with unique stylization.
In recent years, sci-fi animation, sci-fi web novels, and game works have blossomed more, and they have made breakthroughs in word of mouth. For example, in the B station support project "Capsule Plan", short films such as "World", "Confused Homecoming" and "Ultimate Experience" are quite experimental, full of oriental elements and cultural sensory impact. Netizens labeled it as "China's love death".
Science fiction writer Liu Yukun first proposed the concept of "silk punk Silk Punk", giving a science fiction world concept of oriental traditional culture and Chinese aesthetics. The integration of "scientific and technological hard power" and "cultural soft power" allows Chinese science fiction stories to be self-consistent and present a unique aesthetic. The label of "silk punk" is also expected to be a new pillar of sci-fi IP in addition to cyberpunk and steampunk.
Chinese audiences have not yet formed the consumption experience of science fiction, everyone likes science fiction, but they may not really "read". For example, "Transformers", "Dune", "Marvel Series" and even earlier "Men in Black", many Hollywood sci-fi films are largely regarded as popcorn movies, visual effects, cool movies are the key to applause. Chinese science fiction also needs to embrace the public in the short term and lay a user base.
A big Liu pry can't move Chinese science fiction, and a few explosive models can't support the blue ocean of surrounding consumption.
If you open Baidu and search for "Chinese science fiction movies", the answer will show "Chinese science fiction still has a lot of room for improvement"
In 2020, the National Film Administration and the China Association for Science and Technology issued Several Opinions on Promoting the Development of Science Fiction Films, proposing to build science fiction films into an important growth point and new momentum for the high-quality development of films. Many science fiction industry development funds have been carried out across the country, creating science fiction industry agglomeration areas, and supporting the development of science fiction industry.
In December 2021, "Chengdu Shen Fantasy Success", the 81st World Science Fiction Convention is scheduled for Chengdu, China in 2023, indicating that Chinese science fiction has opened the door to the world. Coupled with the launch of many works such as the "Three-Body Problem" TV series and the movie sci-fi comedy "Space Exploration Editorial Department", 2023 may still be a Chinese science fiction year worth looking forward to. As fans of the "Little Broken Ball" Guzi say it is possible to "get another hundred million points".
Produced by: Play Generation Studio
The image in this article comes from Play Generation