Finance Associated Press, February 15 (edited by Lichen) The Spring Festival stalls in 2024 are still fiercely competitive, and there are always dark horses popping up every year, and there are also big-name IPs declining, but the only one that is still standing is the "Bear Infested" series. In the past 10 years, the big movie "Bear Infested" has been consistent, and it came as scheduled during the Spring Festival. "Bear Infested: Reversing Time and Space" is a ten-year appointment between the "Bear Infested" movie series and the audience, and this new story has stepped out of the forest and into the bustling modern city. The protagonist Bald Qiang is no longer a lumberjack or a tour guide in the forest, but a worker in the workplace, and the distant Dog Bear Ridge and the two familiar bears are just a dream scene...... But one day, he finally remembers his past and good memories, and the bear of the past time and space is in danger, he decides to go to save his friends and start a multi-time adventure.
In social media, many netizens jokingly said: "The Spring Festival stalls of flowing water, the iron-clad 'bear infested'". Analysts said that "Bear Infested" has become a golden IP for the Spring Festival. In the past 10 years, the cumulative box office of the entire "Bear Infested" series of animated films has reached nearly 7 billion yuan. According to the data of Lighthouse Professional Edition, as of 21 o'clock today, "Bear Infested: Reversing Time and Space" has broken 7 box office records for animated films during the Spring Festival in Chinese film history.
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As a family-friendly animated film, "Reversal of Time and Space" has secured the third place in this year's Spring Festival schedule since its premiere. Analysts said that this is the only science fiction movie in the Spring Festival in 24, and it is also the one with the largest special effects production in the series of movies. There are nearly 200 scenes in the whole film, a total of more than 1,300 special effects shots, covering more than 1,800 special effects. Analysts said that since the advent of the "Bear Infested" series of animated films, they have been constantly combined with "popular elements" and "science fiction elements". In recent years, films have successively added science fiction elements such as genetic modification and aerospace. After watching the super battleship firing and the mecha battle at the end of the film, some viewers called it "a sci-fi blockbuster hidden in the cartoon".
In addition, one of the keys to breaking through the "sequel curse" is to maintain the growth arc of the protagonist. Analysts also said that if the protagonist of the first work has already completed the growth, the difficulty in creating the subsequent episodes lies in how to continue the growth of the characters. And "Bear 10" puts the protagonist's perspective on "bald and strong". Moreover, adults will be more likely to resonate with the protagonist's identity as a "worker". For children, the film will take them through a life preview and make them think about how to face the adversity of growing up. "Whether it is a growing young fan or an adult friend, you can follow the movie, find beauty, get warmth and healing, think and find your heart's desire, and get some feelings and inspiration. ”
In recent years, the label of "Bear Infested" for young children has gradually faded. According to the professional version of Lighthouse, among the "want to see user portraits" of "Bear Infested: Reverse Time and Space", the largest proportion is "30-34 years old", followed by teenagers. Analysts said: "The earliest "Bear Infested" was a TV cartoon, and the core audience was the parent-child group. But when the "Bear Infested" animated film series was first created in 2014, it focused on family fun. "We have observed that many young people also go to the movies and discussions," the analyst said. "With the growth of the audience and the increase in the public's acceptance of animated films during the Spring Festival, more themes and elements suitable for adult audiences have been added to the "Bear Infested" series of films, extending the audience to all ages.
At the same time, the number of producers of "Bear Infested: Reversing Time and Space" is also the largest among the films in the same schedule, with a total of 27 companies participating. Among them, the main listed companies are Hengdian Film and Television, China Film, and Wanda Film, and the main listed companies are Chinese Films. Industry insiders have combed through domestic animated films in the past 10 years and found that among the movies with more than 100 million yuan, the series of animated films built on mature IP have a relatively high rate on the list, and the box office of classic IPs such as the "Bear Infested" series and the "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" series has exceeded 100 million yuan. Not only that, the listed companies behind "Pleasant Goat" and "Bear Infested", Aofei Entertainment and Huaqiang Fantawild not only earned high box office, but also relied on animation IP to hook up derivatives, theme parks, offline entertainment and cultural education and other children-related businesses.
According to the forecast of the Toubao Research Institute, the market size of China's animation production industry will reach 640.87 billion yuan by 2025. The broad prospects of the Guoman market have attracted many players to enter the game。 Among the listed companies in the film and television category, four companies of Aofei Entertainment, Guangguang Media, Xinghui Entertainment and Meisheng Culture have landed on the main board of A-shares, and the remaining more than 20 companies are listed on the New Third Board. As a leading private film company, Guangguang Media has made extensive layouts in the animation market in recent years, not only investing in more than 20 animation companies, but also establishing Color Bar House Pictures, which focuses on the animation business sector. Color Bar House has many animated films such as "Big Fish and Begonia" (573 million), "Nezha's Demon Boy Descends" and "Jiang Ziya".
In addition, Alpha Entertainment's main business is the production, dissemination and operation of animation IP content, as well as toy sales, baby products and other businesses. In terms of specific business, animation IP is the company's core business, and with several popular animation IPs such as "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf", "Balala Little Demon Fairy" and "Super Wings", Alpha Entertainment has opened up the market and popularity among young age groups. However, judging from the financial report data of the past two years, Alpha Entertainment's animation film and television business is facing sluggish growth.
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However, while "Reversal of Time and Space" is rising at the box office, the future of the series is not a smooth road. The challenges for the creators are still not small. Analysts said that in essence, the "Bear Infested" series of movies has been alienated from the animated series, and it is a "fan" movie that only retains the appearance of the characters and some of their personality attributes. The "Bear Infested" series of films can certainly get rid of the narrative framework of animated series and start over with a new plot. However, the interactive relationship of the "iron triangle" is inevitably gradually diluted by the new roles that are constantly being introduced. The marginalization tendency of Xiong Da and Xiong Er in the plot scenes in "Reversing Time and Space" has been revealed in the previous "Bear Infested" movies. This series began to develop more and more towards "bald Qiang and his friends". How to better play the narrative potential of the role of Xiong Da Xiong II will test the film's overall control of the "bear infested" universe in the future.
It is reported that Huaqiang Fantawild is the parent company behind "Bear Infested" as a leading domestic cultural tourism enterprise, which not only holds the well-known animation IP of "Bear Infested", but also the well-known Fantawild theme park, and at the same time realizes the integration of innovation, research, production and marketing, and enters the ranks of the top five theme parks in the world, which is known as "China's version of Disney" by the industry. Huaqiang Fangte, which has made great achievements in big movies, is also trying to develop its own offline live entertainment. Analysts said that on February 11 this year, Taizhou Linhai Bear Infested Happy Harbor was officially opened, which is the first amusement park based on bear infested IP built by Huaqiang Fantawild and is also the first time that Huaqiang Fantawild has integrated an open commercial block into the park. Previously, most of the parks under Huaqiang Fantawild were closed parks, and the model of this open park is similar to that of Shanghai Disney Resort.
From this point of view, Huaqiang Fantawild is approaching its goal of "China Disney". But on the other hand, the emergence of "Disney-style park" does not mean that Huaqiang Fantawild has changed from "quantitative change" to "qualitative change", the key to Disney's success lies in the massive IP reserve and continuous content innovation ability, but Huaqiang Fantawild can only be called IP "bear infested". In addition, although the content of the "Bear Infested" series of big movies has been more recognized, it is still far from the top international animation IPs.
Tracing back to the birth of the IP of "Bear Infested", it was Huaqiang Fantawild in order to "attract money" for its offline theme park. Analysts pointed out that judging from the financial report, the "Bear Infested" series of movies is undoubtedly "gold-absorbing" - as high as more than 80% of the gross profit margin, making steady profits without losing money. However, the "Bear Infested" series of films and cartoons accounted for only 7.1% of revenue in 2022 and 12.9% in the first half of 2023. (Because of factors such as film account sharing and input costs, a box office of 1.5 billion does not mean that the revenue can also reach 1.5 billion). Analysts said that the money earned from the "Bear Infested" movie was used by the parent company Huaqiang Fantawild to build a theme park. Although the latter accounted for the majority of revenue, the company as a whole has not achieved profitability until the first half of 2023, when it turned a profit. Industry insiders also said that the company has not yet disclosed its 2023 annual report, however, judging from the positive trend, it excludes the possibility of turning around losses throughout the year.
This article is from the Financial Associated Press Lichen