"Ten years of research, once landed!" At the 24th National Film Promotion Conference, the "sub-line distribution" officially debuted. Recently, 24 films that have been distributed separately, including "Reunion Again", "No Problem" and "Porco Rosso", have been signed at the first National Film Trade Fair in Hengdian, Zhejiang. This represents a major reform of the mainland's film distribution industry.
From unification to division, what has changed from the change of issuance
First of all, it must be made clear that the market-oriented development of the film exhibition industry in the first 20 years is based on "unified distribution and screening", which is not a "mistake", but a scientific method of "dislocation development".
The disadvantage of unified distribution is that "the content of different theaters is the same, and all screens are the same", which is not conducive to the competition between theaters. However, in the early stage of the development of the domestic cinema industry, the market was mainly incremental, and the main enterprise task was to expand social coverage as the core. The method of unified distribution protects the relatively weak cinema chain and the relatively weak commercial film production system.
That is, through the institutional withdrawal of some market competition links, the weak and development stage of "industry competition, reduce internal friction and involution". The unified distribution has indelible historical significance and merit for the mainland to rapidly improve the level of industrial film production and improve the service scale of the cinema market.
However, this is not to say that "unified distribution" is a good thing for all generations. In fact, with the development of the local cinema market and the improvement of film production capabilities, the unified distribution method has at least produced the following problems: first, the lack of competition, especially when the cinema market coverage is broad enough, after the transition from the incremental to the stock era, the service content of the cinema lacks differentiation, and the competition logic of the cinema line mainly revolves around the "regional geographical location", which is not conducive to the high-quality competition of the cinema stock market.
Second, from the perspective of film production, unified distribution often leads to "head films occupying a large number of golden screen resources, and small and medium-sized productions, niche films, and film scheduling often lack resources". That is, the "winner-takes-all" of unified distribution is not conducive to the hierarchical and sub-type competition in the content production industry. This is certainly a protection when the content production industry is weak, but after it grows, it is a "hindrance".
Third, from the perspective of the consumer market, the scale base of the movie-going masses continues to expand, and the differences in age, region, culture and demand are becoming increasingly obvious. This also urgently requires the supply side, whether it is the theater chain or the producer, to be able to provide a supply pattern that is "beyond the difference in time and space" and truly based on the difference in content.
The "10 years of discussion and research" issued by the branch is to solve the above major problems. Through the division of lines, different content is introduced in different theaters and in the same time and space to meet more competition space on the supply side and differentiated viewing needs on the demand side.
Zheng Zhihao, CEO of Maoyan Entertainment, believes that the split line distribution will allow more works, especially small and medium-cost works and art films, to no longer be limited by large schedules and short cycles, and have more marketization opportunities. Li Jie, president of Alibaba Pictures, believes that the distribution will "greatly improve the efficiency of resource allocation, and thus meet the audience's increasingly rich viewing needs." Zhi Feina, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Arts, pointed out that the reason for the reform of split distribution is that "our market is sufficient to support a more diverse market, and our number of screens, theaters, and (film content) output are already large enough." But at the same time, we also see that differentiated management is lacking." According to Beacon data, as of October 30, China had 12,500 theaters and 76,435 screens, making it the world's largest screening market.
It can be said that "from unification to division" has been fully prepared, including material, ideological and consensus preparations, and has a sufficient "implementation foundation" in the entire industry. With this round of sub-line distribution reform, the competition in the cinema market will also be "renewed".
The new era of cinema competition is conducive to accelerating the implementation of new technologies
Split line distribution, the biggest change will be the cinema line. In the traditional unified distribution, the content of different cinemas and different cinemas is "basically the same", and the only reason for consumers to choose cinemas is "convenient transportation or not".
After the distribution of the split line, the cinema chain needs more than just scheduling and settlement, "We need strong content selection, content judgment and content marketing capabilities, and we need to have the spirit of continuous innovation," said Dai Yun, general manager of Shanghai Film. That is, the distribution is separated, and the cinema must provide "different content" and "different viewing experience" for itself to "advertise". The latter will be a huge driver for the development of emerging projection technologies.
According to statistics, up to now, nearly 30 LED movie projection screens from nearly 10 brand enterprises, including Unilumin Technology, AET Altai, Nanjing Luopu, QSTECH Qingsong Optoelectronics, etc., have passed DCI certification and obtained the "license" for global market access.
For example, as the first company in China to win the DCI certification, Unilumin Technology's UCINE series LED film projection system products include 5m (coming soon), 8m, 10m, 14m, 16m and other specifications to meet the "market demand for screens of different sizes" in addition to giant screen halls. At the same time, industry insiders said that the advantage of LED technology is that there is no "technical pressure" to meet the future 8K projection standards. At present, the main market hurdles for LED projection systems are concentrated in high costs and limited enthusiasm for cinema chains.
From the perspective of cost, on the one hand, as an emerging technology, LED projection system is still in the "cost reduction cycle", and the product price still includes high R&D costs and market size limiting factors. On the other hand, affected by the epidemic in the past three years, the industry market has continued to be cautious about purchasing new equipment, and the market price sensitivity is also at a high point.
From the perspective of cinema competition, the traditional "unified distribution" is a typical big pot rice plan. Although it is the main body of the market that can protect the early stage of the development of young industries, it has also caused the competitive logic of "getting a good regional position and everything is fine". The cinema chain has limited enthusiasm for providing innovative and differentiated moviegoing experiences. More cinemas choose to invest resources in "grabbing location, grabbing land", rather than "equipment, publicity, and service".
"With the end of the new crown epidemic, the movie-watching market tends to normal, and the disappearance of the 'location blank' market, the saturation of the supply side of the cinema chain, the beginning of the differentiated supply reform of the distribution line, and other industry changes, the 'cinema subjective factors' that limit the development of emerging projection equipment such as LED will be eliminated." Industry insiders pointed out that in the future sub-line distribution market, theaters need to conduct self-marketing: this includes two aspects, one is that the theaters get those films and content; The second is what are the characteristics of cinema equipment experience and service experience!
"Unified distribution is like the channel of a TV station, and the coverage and content direction of each are dead; Split distribution is more similar to the competition of online video service providers, and exclusive content, buyout content, and bandwidth speed are all competitive pressures. "In this context, the LED film projection system does not need room space, can achieve higher 3D viewing brightness, can hold annual meetings or other gathering activities in the same space, the viewing effect is less affected by ambient light, and the core performance such as full-life brightness is highly stable... The advantages of "performance, deployment, and operation" of LED screens are easier to play.
From a certain point of view, the distribution of separate lines is a reshaping of the competition pattern of cinemas, an all-round benefit to the differentiation of content creation and the upgrading of equipment supply, and a strong support for the upgrading of film consumption from "have-not" and "achieving full coverage" to "improving service quality and quality".
"Nearly 80,000 screens, less than 100 LED screens!" Such a historical situation is entering a new era of "rapid change". Industry experts estimate that the LED cinema screen market is eager to usher in tenfold growth in 2024 under the reform of split line distribution. A more adequate and diversified competitive market for cinema chains will inevitably further activate the "new vitality" of the quality-oriented development of the whole chain of the mainland film industry.