Image source@Visual China
文 | 镜象娱乐，作者丨栗子酒
Since entering the Chinese New Year file, in addition to the new films that have been released one after another, the "split distribution" that has been discussed a lot in the industry recently has also ushered in a testing stage. The so-called split distribution is to distinguish the distribution model of the current film in theaters across the country, and different theaters can screen different films according to the needs of different users.
As early as the end of October this year, at the 24th National Film Promotion Conference and the 1st National Film Market, the producers and distributors of 24 films such as "Reunite" and "No Problem" signed contracts with theaters that had reached cooperation intentions and decided to implement separate distribution. Among them, "Your Wedding" will also be re-screened during the New Year's Eve in the form of a separate release.
Subsequently, 6 New Year's Eve films such as "If You Are Honest Do Not Disturb 3", "Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle Star", "Annual Meeting Can't Stop!", "Goldfinger" and other 6 New Year's Eve films announced that they would try to be released separately, and many large-scale films entered the market, which also brought more attention to this distribution model. However, the new distribution model needs to break the original industry balance, and in the new round of game between the filmmaker and the theater chain, the contradictions brought about by the split distribution have gradually surfaced.
The theater line and the filmmaker play a game, and the sub-line release "thunder is loud, rain is small"
At present, the distribution of the split line is still in the initial stage of attempt, and for the filmmaker, crossing the river by feeling the stones means that the risks cannot be predicted. In the capital market, such an attempt will obviously face greater resistance.
The first to take this step was the already released "Silent Notes", which has produced a total of 1.416 million box office so far, and the income is relatively bleak. Of course, the volume of "Silent Transcript" itself is not large, and the pre-screening popularity is not high, and there are many factors that lead to the box office downturn, and it is difficult to say whether it depends on the impact of the split release.
But what is certain is that the split distribution started unfavorably, and at the same time, "If You Are the Truth, Do Not Disturb 3" and "Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle Star", two films that are expected to win high box office, have two polarized trends.
First of all, let's talk about "If You Are Honest Do Not Disturb 3", the film is one of the popular films in the Chinese New Year, and the producers of the film stand in China Film and Huayi, two leading film companies. Judging from the detailed rules for the sub-distribution of the film leaked out on the Internet, the film not only requires China Film Investment, Hengdian, CGV, Shangying, Wanda, and UME Cinemas to participate, but also gives rigid requirements for the scale of the film schedule, strictly restricts the proportion of theater screenings in the first week of release, and sets a high threshold for cooperation with the rest of the theaters, and cannot be screened without cooperation.
The release rules of "If You Are Honest Do Not Disturb 3" leaked out on the Internet
If this information is true, it can be speculated that "If You Are the Truth, Do Not Disturb 3" is based on the influence of its own film, trying to get a greater right to speak. However, from the perspective of the cinema chain, the original intention of the split distribution is to amplify the theater's own independent management rights, and if the film's hard schedule is accepted, once the film does not meet expectations, the theater chain will not be able to adapt to the situation and give the original share of the film schedule to other films.
And as far as the current market trend is concerned, many films are also adjusted according to consumer demand feedback after their release, such as the first-day film schedule of "Fengshen Part 1" was 17.8%, and after the influence was released, the proportion of single-day film schedules once increased to 28%. Therefore, in the attempt of split distribution, how to balance the discourse power of the filmmaker and the theater line needs to be further explored.
In contrast, the appeal of "Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle Star" in the Chinese New Year file is about to come out. According to the data of Maoyan Professional Edition, as of December 15, the total box office of the film's screening and pre-sale has exceeded 240 million, and even won the box office championship on the first day of pre-sale of domestic films in Chinese film history. As a work that performed well in the early stage, if it is still released separately, it may be able to get a larger film schedule in the theater chain it cooperates with, but it also means giving up part of the market, and the pros and cons need to be weighed in depth.
The current result is that "Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle Star" has been canceled from the split line. In addition, "Goldfinger" and "Annual Meeting Can't Stop!" have also been determined to no longer be issued separately, and under the successive changes, it also means that the applicable threshold for sub-line issuance needs more consideration, and there is no answer to how this model can be better promoted.
With the withdrawal of large-scale films one after another, most of the films with relatively large influence left behind are works that have already been released such as "Your Wedding" and "Life Events". Among them, "Your Wedding" will be re-screened in the mode of reservation screening, and relevant people from China Film have previously said that "reservation screening" is actually exploring for sub-line distribution.
Reform is imperative and seeks a higher cap on the broader market
Although at present, the process of promoting the distribution of separate lines is not smooth, everything is difficult at the beginning, and the advantages of this model cannot be directly denied when encountering difficulties for a while. On the whole, the original intention of the split distribution is to optimize the utilization efficiency of theater resources, meet the differentiated market demand, and seek greater revenue space for the filmmaker, which can be said to be a win-win situation.
At the 24th National Film Promotion Conference, Zhang Pimin, chairman of the China Film Foundation, also said: "Separate distribution is the embodiment of the further refinement of the film market, which will help the film market achieve differentiated competition, so that all kinds of films can get market survival space, and at the same time enhance the audience's demand for films and box office contributions." ”
And, from the perspective of industry development, the current film market really needs to find new growth space. You must know that in the past ten years, in order to seek a higher ceiling for the market, in addition to improving the quality of films from the content level, the film market has mainly started from two aspects, one is to continuously promote the accurate docking of films and the market from the dimension of publicity and distribution, and the ideas, products and systems of Internet publicity and distribution are becoming more and more perfect.
On the other hand, the industry is also trying to strengthen the influence of the schedule, in addition to the early influence of the New Year, Spring Festival files, from the summer file, National Day file, to Valentine's Day, Dragon Boat Festival and other small and medium-sized schedules The potential has been released, all of which are in recent years. With this process, the box office ceiling of the annual movie market has indeed been continuously broken, but at the same time, it should be noted that the box office growth rate brought by this breakthrough is slowing down.
Specifically, aside from the unconventional fluctuations brought about by the epidemic, whether it is the box office trend of the annual market or the box office trend of important schedules, its growth rate has shown a significant slowdown trend. In such a development trend, the industry needs to open up new growth space. Compared with the increasingly saturated core schedule, how to make use of non-scheduled cinema resources is more important.
Yu Dong, chairman of Bona Films, also mentioned at the 24th National Film Promotion Conference: "The number of screens in China has jumped to 80,000, and the number of cinemas has reached 11,000. ”
An important contradiction lies in the fact that although there are many domestic theater resources, they have not been fully utilized, most films are concentrated in important schedules, and the content carrying capacity of theaters has not really been released. The intuitive performance is that in 2019, when the industry was developing steadily, a total of 551 films were released in China, while in the same period, the number of films released in the United States was 903 and that in Japan was 1,278. At the same time, the scale of domestic films produced every year has been more than 1,000, Yu Dong believes that "to avoid the crowding of large schedules in the market now, and the formation of long-term gaps in ordinary times, the film side does not dare to invest, dare not screen (the phenomenon)", split distribution is a good idea.
And from the actual development of the current industry, the differentiation of films in different regions and different theaters has been reflected. According to the data of Maoyan Professional Edition, in "The Myth of Love" released in 2021, due to its distinctive Shanghai characteristics, the core area of its contribution to the box office is also concentrated in Shanghai, and the total box office of the film is 260 million yuan, and the box office output in Shanghai alone has reached 108 million yuan, accounting for more than 40%.
In this year's summer file, the box office performance of "Tea Ah No. 2 Middle School" also shows distinct regional characteristics, and the data of the "2023 Summer Movie Data Insight Report" released by Maoyan Research Institute and Douyin shows that the box office performance of the film in North China and Northeast China is significantly better than the average of the schedule market, among them, Changchun, Shenyang and other cities with higher correlation are also more enthusiastic about the consumption of the film.
From this point of view, the market demand drives the direction of the industry, and the industry has developed so far, and has the ability to support the gradual implementation of sub-line issuance. Although there is still a long way to go in this process, one step will lead to a second step.
Previously, the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Chinese Films" has clearly stated that in order to build a high-level film market, it is necessary to achieve sub-line distribution, focus distribution and regional distribution. Obviously, whether it is seeking a higher upper limit of the market, or changing the asymmetry between the distribution of films and market demand, and promoting the refined development of the film market, it is imperative to reform around the distribution of separate lines.