Author: Duan Qing
Editor: Nurhahachi
Recently, focusing on domestic animation and related industries, Lei Bao has successively taken stock of the new online animation in 2023, the new animated films in 2023, and the situation.
Lei Bao also reported on the filing and approval of animated films from Q1 to Q2 in 2023. On January 30, the National Film Administration issued the "Notice on the Filing and Publicity of National Film Scripts (Synopsis) in December 2023". So far, the 2023 film filing project has been announced. Through further sorting and statistics, Lei Bao learned that in the whole year of 2023, a total of 137 animated films have passed the record. Previously, 99 animated films were recorded in 2021, and 53 in 2022, an increase of 158.5% year-on-year in 2023. It can be seen that after the end of the epidemic, the domestic animated film market is entering the fast lane of rapid growth.
In terms of regions, the province with the most animated film filings in 2023 is Guangdong Province, with a total of 32 films, followed by Beijing, Shanghai, and Zhejiang, with 28, 20, and 12 animated films, respectively, and Fujian, Sichuan, and Jiangsu with 9, 8, and 5 respectively. The specific filings and approved projects are as follows:
Film companies have entered the game, who has invested more?
First of all, pay attention to the two companies of "light" and "chasing light".
In 2023, Guangguang's subsidiaries will participate in the filing of 6 works, namely "Go to Your Island", "Shuofeng", "Liaozhai's Rakshasa Sea Market", "Big Fish and Begonia Three", "Liang Zhu" and "Daji". Q4 The new record title is "Daji", which is filed by Chengdu Light Animation, and the synopsis of the script announced by the National Film Administration is: Su Daji, who has an ordinary appearance, traded with the big demon Nine Tails in order to protect his family, obtained extraordinary beauty, and became the fiancée of the prince of the Shang Dynasty. Unexpectedly, all this was a conspiracy of the Shang King. At a critical moment, the Nine-Tails manipulate Daji's physical body to subvert the song, and Daji is determined to start a showdown with him in order to stop the Nine-Tails. From 2023 to the present, in terms of new animated films launched by Guangguang, its main investment and distribution comedy animation film "Tea Ah No. 2 Middle School" has achieved a box office result of 384 million yuan, and the series of films "Tea Ah No. 2 Middle School 2" has entered the pre-planning stage. Although "Heavy Rain" was not filed by Guangguang, Guangguang also participated in and distributed the film. On January 12, 2024, "Heavy Rain" premiered, with a total box office of 16.905 million yuan so far, with a Taopiao score of 8.0 and a Douban score of 6.5. The film was written and directed by Bu Sifan, who had created "The Great Protector", and attracted a certain range of attention before it was launched, but the audience's evaluation was somewhat polarized. is not as eye-catching as the reputation of "The Great Protector", and it is a little unattainable compared to the box office of "The Great Protector" of 91.669 million.
Chasing light's subsidiaries participated in the filing of 3 works, namely "Liao Zhai: Lanruo Temple", "White Snake: Floating Life", and "Three Kingdoms Part I: Fighting for Luoyang". At present, Chasing Light has a total of three series of IPs, namely the "White Snake" series mentioned above, the "New God List" series, including "New God List: Nezha Rebirth" and "New God List: Yang Jian", and the new culture series, whose first work is "Chang'an Thirty Thousand Miles", which won 1.8 billion box office this year. Q4's new record film "Three Kingdoms Part I: Fighting for Luoyang" also belongs to the new culture series and is a work with a historical theme. With "Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang'an" in front of Zhuyu, this work is also worth paying attention to. The synopsis of the story is as follows: At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, crises lurked, eunuchs were in power, and the people were poor. The Yellow Turban Army rose, and heroes of troubled times such as Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Lu Bu, Sun Jian, and Liu Bei began to emerge. All forces are fighting in Luoyang, and in the stormy seas, how do Cao Cao and Yuan Shao respond?
Sequels to well-known animation IPs are also being launched. In 2023, Yongsheng Animation will record one work, which is "New Pig Man Movie: Interstellar Band", and Yongsheng Animation's new animated film in 2023 is "New Pig Man Movie: Super Racing", which will be released on April 29 and achieved a box office of 53.701 million yuan. Huaqiang Fantawild has recorded 1 work, which is "Bear Infested: Reversing Time and Space", which will be released on February 10, 2024. Huaqiang Fantawild will be released on January 22, 2023 with me "Bear Core", which won a high box office of 1.495 billion yuan. Another well-known IP "Happy Superman", the production company Star Creative, will record "Happy Superman: Time and Space Rescue" in 2023, the animation has been officially released on January 20, 2024, and has currently received a box office of 23.521 million yuan. In 2023, Alpha's "Super Wings" IP's first big movie "Super Wings: Radius Acceleration" will be released nationwide on July 8, and the third animated film "Beacon Bear: Mission to Mars" of the "Beacon Bear" IP series will be released on September 28. According to the data of Lighthouse Professional Edition, the box office of these two films was 70.757 million yuan and 81.040 million yuan respectively.
CCTV Animation has directly prepared "New Big Head Son and Little Head Dad 6". "Big Head Son and Little Head Dad" is a classic children's IP, and at present, 6 films have been released on this IP, namely "New Big Head Son and Little Head Dad 1" to "New Big Head Son and Little Head Dad 5", and "Marshmallow and Cloud Mom 1", with a cumulative box office of 251 million yuan. The highest-grossing film in the series is "New Big Head Son and Little Head Dad 3: Russian Adventure", which won 158 million yuan at the box office. There are also many "familiar faces" of other film and television companies.
Ruyi Film and Television has filed 4 works, namely "Journey to the West: The True and False Monkey King", "The Legend of Bao Gong - The Case of Quanmei", "The Legend of Bao Gong - The Legend of the Bloody Hat Demon", "The Legend of Bao Gong - Cat and Mouse League", Huaying Planet has filed 2 works, namely "The Biography of Liu Yi" and "The Forgotten Treasure of the Lightning Family", Penguin Film and Television has filed 1 "The Legend of the Floating Life", Huace Film and Television has filed 1 "Sesame Fox Rhapsody: The Quest for Immortals", and Xinshengtang has filed 1 "The Legend of the Golden Boy".
Perfect Kunpeng, a company controlled by Perfect World, will record 1 "Guardians of the Universe: Super Armored Dinosaur Team" in 2023. In addition, Chengdu Film Group has recorded 1 "Champion of Dreams". On March 31, 2023, Chengdu Radio, Film and Television Group was officially established, which is affiliated to Chengdu Radio and Television, and Chengdu Film Group is a wholly state-owned enterprise under Chengdu Radio, Film and Television Group. Among the companies that will record animated films in 2023, there are also Tianfu Pictures under Chengdu Media and Emei Film headquartered in Chengdu, which shows that Chengdu's investment in the animation industry has gradually increased.
"Chinese Strange Tan", "Shaoge" and "Milk Dragon" IP make movies, as well as classical IP adaptations
The "breadth" of IP involved in domestic animated films is increasing.
In Q4 of 2023, Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio (Shangmeiying) and Shanghai Kuanyu Digital Technology (Station B) jointly filed 3 works, namely "Lin Lin", "The Country Bus Took Away the King Child and the Fairy", and "The Summer of Little Monsters". It is reported that these three films are all adapted from an episode of the domestic animated short film collection "Chinese Strange Tan" jointly produced by Shangmei Film and Station B. On September 26, 2023, Station B held the 2023-2024 National Animation Works Conference, at which Station B announced that it would jointly produce "China Strange Tan Season 2" with Shangmei Film and Shangyingyuan, and at the same time, Station B will also cooperate with Shangyingyuan to expand the follow-up story of the popular character "Little Pig Demon" in the first season of "Chinese Strange Tan", and jointly promote the development of the big movie "Little Monster's Summer". Judging from the filing situation, Shangmei Film and Station B are not only focused on "The Summer of Little Monsters", but on the entire "Chinese Strange Tan".
There are also emerging domestic animation IPs making movies, the most notable ones are "Shaoge" and "Milk Dragon". Among them, "Youth Song Xing" was recorded by Ali's Taopiao ticket. The synopsis of the story is similar to the main plot of the "Shaoge" animation: Xiao Chuhe, the sixth prince of Beili, hides incognito in an inn after his martial arts were abolished and expelled from Apocalypse City. After learning of the conspiracy of the Southern Decisive to invade the North and Li, he embarked on the road back to the Apocalypse with Lei Wuji and others. In the end, he understood the meaning of "moving with his heart", defeated Nandu, and saved Beili. Lei Bao pointed out in an article about animated films in 2023 that film companies backed by major Internet companies, represented by Taopiaopiao and Maoyan, have also participated in more and more films in recent years.
Taopiaopiao's creation of the "Shaoge" IP movie, coupled with Maoyan's "Umbrella Girl's Dream Talk" filed in 2023, may be a signal that Internet film companies are having a greater say in the animated film industry. "Milk Dragon" is a short drama IP that has become popular in recent years, and the filing party of the animated film "Milk Dragon: Fish Leaping Dragon Gate" has also created the seventh impression culture of the "Milk Dragon" IP. The film tells the story of Xiao Qi, a teenager who loves invention but is not confident, and meets Lotte's silly milk dragon, and the two challenge the dragon gate under the guidance of their uncle, and finally solve the secret of the dragon gate and foil the shad monster conspiracy.
In 2023, the trend of animated films "returning to tradition" is intensifying. There are 30 "traditional culture" films from Q1 to Q3, and by Q4, 11 new films related to "mythology", "legend" and "history" have been added to the list of films that have been approved for filing, and there will be as many as 41 animated films with the theme of "traditional culture" throughout 2023. In addition, although many films are set in modern times, they are also works that are recreated based on traditional cultural relics and historical allusions.
Lei Bao found in the 2023Q1-Q3 statistics that the "Zhiwei" wind that arose in the Guoman market also blew into animated movies. Among the films recorded and produced this year, there are 7 "Liao Zhai" themes, including "Liao Zhai: Lanruo Temple", "Fox Says Painted Skin", "Xiao Qian: Fantasy", "Liao Zhai's Rakshasa Sea City", "Rakshasa Sea Market Mirage", "Young Pu Songling's Fox Dream". can almost catch up with the mythological "top-stream" theme "Journey to the West". The film company also set its sights on "The Rise of the Jingwei of Mountains and Seas", "Qixi Queqiao", "Liu Yi's Biography", "Yugong Moves Mountains", "Liang Zhu", "Thorn Dong", "Huo Quai", "Young Chiyou" and other recreations based on non-popular myths, legends and historical stories. In addition to this, some companies have taken action against animated films adapted from classical IP. Foshan's film and television company Hongshu Film and Television has filed "The Emperor's Flower" and "The Emperor's Flower". It is reported that the animated film is adapted from the classic Cantonese opera "Imperial Flower", which is produced by Liu Shiyou, the founder of the listed Hong Kong Cargo Services Group, with a huge amount of money, and the chief director and director is Hu Shengzhong, who has a high reputation in the field of film special effects and animation production, and his representative works include "Silk" and "Sword Rain".
Ruyi Pictures has filed 3 adaptations of animation works based on ancient classic novels and film and television drama IP images "Bao Gong", namely "The Legend of Bao Gong - The Case of Quanmei", "The Legend of Bao Gong - The Legend of the Bloody Hat Demon" and "The Legend of Bao Gong - Cat and Mouse Alliance" It is worth noting that the latest news in December 2023 shows that Wanda Film issued an announcement that Wanda and other related parties are ready to transfer 51% of their Wanda investment shares to China Ruyi. After the completion of this transaction, Wanda will completely lose control of Wanda Films, and China Ruyi will take over Wanda Films in its entirety. Previously, the three core businesses of China Ruyi were Pumpkin Films, Ruyi Pictures and Jingxiu Games. Coupled with the acquisition of Wanda Films, China's Confucian Films will have a stronger strength in the field, and will have the opportunity to become the largest film and television group, and at the same time, it will also extend its tentacles to offline theaters. In the past ten years, starting from the "Big Five" private film companies Wanda, Bona, Guangguang, Huayi, and LeTV at the opening forum of the Shanghai Film Festival, the situation in China's film industry has changed, and related companies have withdrawn, fallen behind, and exploded one after another...... Until today, Confucianism, light, cat's eye, and Ali have faintly constituted a new pattern. And these "prime" film companies have set their sights on the animated film market. After all, how profitable is the IP of well-done animated films, there are "Disney" and "Universal" overseas, and "Nezha's Demon Boy Descends" and "Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang'an" at home, and everyone wants to "get a piece of the pie".
But the good news is that judging from the filing projects in 2023, although domestic animated films are still dominated by "fairy fights" with images such as Nezha, Yang Jian, and Dasheng, they have also begun to expand the boundaries of themes and IP. More and more strange legends, unpopular legends, and historical themes are entering the public eye, and some companies are remaking the IP of ancient classic film and television dramas. On the other hand, Lei Bao once mentioned that so many animated films are launched every year, and what can really make a big splash in the film market is basically the works launched by the two "chasing light" and "light", which means that the high-quality animation team and project resources of the real head of the animated film market are relatively concentrated, and there is a more continuous industry differentiation. However, among the projects filed in Q4 of 2023, the cooperation between Station B and Shangmei Film seems to have brought the possibility of "breaking the ice" to this situation.
To a certain extent, the potential of domestic films is limitless, and animated filmmakers are also trying to tell stories that will dazzle the market. In the future, we need to look forward to whether there are other animated film labels like light-chasing animation and light animation that can stand the test of the market.