Zhang Jingchao, reporter of this newspaper, Zhang Jingchao
Editor's note/ Unconsciously, the box office of "Bear Infested: Reversing Time and Space" has reached 1.984 billion yuan, only one step away from the 2 billion yuan mark.
If you turn the clock back to 2012, the results of the "Bear Infested" series today may be hard to predict. In this year, the TV animation "Bear Infested" premiered, mainly telling the story of Xiong Da, Xiong Er and the woodcutter's bald head who were dependent on each other in Dog Bear Ridge.
During the same period, there were also domestic animation IPs such as "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" and "Pig Man" were launched one after another, but at that time, they were labeled as "low-child" by some viewers and industry insiders along with "Bear Infested". And at about the same time, the companies behind these domestic animations chose to adapt these IPs and put them on the big screen. But now, among these domestic animation IPs, only "Bear Infested" still maintains the rhythm of releasing a theatrical movie every year. At the same time, the information given by a number of third-party data agencies shows that at the audience level, "Bear Infested" has achieved a breakthrough from "young children" to adult audiences.
In the competition with live-action films, the "Bear Infested" series of animated films has not been left behind, and its box office over the years has shown an overall upward trend, especially in 2017, after the "Bear Infested" series is bound to the rising Spring Festival stalls, the growth trend is becoming more and more obvious.
From the initial stereotype of "low childhood" to now being able to "wrestle wrists" with "Article 20" directed by Zhang Yimou in the cruelly competitive 2024 Spring Festival, the achievements of the "Bear Infested" series of animated films are remarkable. This domestic original IP does not have the help of gods and demons such as "Monkey King" and "Nezha", but it can fight its way out of the encirclement of animated film powers such as the United States and Japan, and its development history is undoubtedly worthy of research by Chinese animation, film and even the entire cultural industry.
To this end, the reporter of "China Business Daily" interviewed a number of practitioners and analysts in the film and television industry. In their opinion, the success of the "Bear Infested" series of animations is due to the fact that Huaqiang Fantawild (Shenzhen) Animation Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Fantawild Animation") and its parent company Huaqiang Fantawild (834793. NQ) captures and adapts to industry trends, and on the other hand, the series has been producing steady results over the past decade or so, as well as continuous progress in content and technology.
1. Time of day: Bet on the Spring Festival stalls
Precise timing
Nowadays, "Bear Infested" has been regarded by many industry analysts as a yardstick to measure the Spring Festival file, but "Bear Infested" has also launched films on other channels and other time periods before it was deeply bound to the Spring Festival file.
In 2013 and 2014, Fangte Animation produced two big movies, "Bear Infested New Year" and "Bear Infested New Year's Goods", which were broadcast on CCTV Children's Channel, both on the eve of the Spring Festival in these two years.
At the same time, on January 17, 2014, the first theatrical movie in the series, "Bear Infested: Raiders of the Lost Ark", was released, and finally won a box office of 247 million yuan and a Douban score of 8.0.
It is worth noting that also in 2013, "Journey to the West: Descending Demons" was released on the first day of the new year and won a box office of 1.247 billion yuan in one fell swoop, becoming the annual box office champion in Chinese mainland that year, which began to make the film industry realize the potential of the Spring Festival holiday to become a popular movie schedule. On the first day of the Lunar New Year in 2014, "Journey to the West: Havoc in Heaven" was released, and with a box office of 1.044 billion yuan, it became the annual box office champion of domestic films in 2014.
In 2015 and 2016, the "Bear Infested" series launched two theatrical movies, but the release time was still chosen on the eve of the Spring Festival.
2017 was a milestone year for the "Bear Infested" series. In this year, the fourth theatrical film in the series, "Bear Infested: Fantasy Space", was scheduled for the first day of the Lunar New Year and began to be bound to the Spring Festival file, and since then, the series of movies has been set for the first day of the Lunar New Year every year. In the end, the box office of "Bear Infested: Fantasy Space" exceeded the level of 500 million yuan, and by 2019, the box office of the series of movies also showed a trend of increasing by about 100 million yuan per year.
After experiencing the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, starting from 2023, the box office of the "Bear Infested" series of movies will also resume growth, and in this year, its box office will exceed 1 billion yuan for the first time, reaching 1.495 billion yuan. This year, "Bear Infested: Reversing Time and Space" launched an attack on the 2 billion yuan box office mark.
In fact, after the "Bear Infested" series achieved a breakthrough in the film market in 2017, the status of the Spring Festival stalls in the film market has been significantly improved. First of all, in 2016, the total box office of the Spring Festival stalls increased by nearly 70% year-on-year, standing at the 3 billion yuan mark, with an average daily box office of more than 400 million yuan, and by 2018, the Spring Festival stall market once again achieved a year-on-year increase of nearly 70%, with the average daily box office rising to about 1 billion yuan, and by 2024, the total box office of the Spring Festival stalls will refresh the historical record, exceeding 8 billion yuan.
Secondly, in terms of the proportion of the Spring Festival box office in the total annual box office of the Chinese mainland film market, it has increased to more than 6% from 2016 to 2017, and further increased to about 10% from 2018 to 2023 (except 2020).
In addition, before 2014, the time of the Chinese New Year was defined as the movie schedule from the end of November of that year to the beginning of March of the following year, spanning multiple festivals such as Christmas, New Year's Day, Spring Festival, and Lantern Festival. Until 2014, the Spring Festival stalls were completely formed, and to a certain extent, they formed a competitive relationship with the previous year's Lunar New Year stalls. For the release time of large-scale and high-investment films, some film production investors will choose between the Lunar New Year stalls of the current year and the Spring Festival stalls of the following year, and the Spring Festival stalls have also begun to carve up the cake of the Lunar New Year stalls, and the box office in 2018 reached 5.77 billion yuan, exceeding the total box office of 5.6 billion yuan in the 2017 Lunar New Year stalls. Since then, the Spring Festival stalls have begun to take the lead in the competition with the Lunar New Year stalls.
"The characteristics of the Spring Festival stalls are that the box office mainly comes from the sinking market, and families watch more movies and buy tickets in other places. Chen Jin, a data analyst at the Lighthouse Research Institute, said, "Judging from the development history of the Spring Festival stalls last year, most of the cities where moviegoers flow out are first- and second-tier cities, and the inflow cities are mainly third- and fourth-tier cities." In the Spring Festival stalls from 2019 to 2023, the box office proportion of fourth-tier cities has increased from 24.5% to 27.2%, especially in the 2023 Spring Festival stalls, the total box office proportion of third-tier cities and fourth-tier cities exceeded 50% for the first time, officially exceeding that of first- and second-tier cities. ”
Chen Jin also told reporters that the portraits of the moviegoers of the "Bear Infested" series of movies are highly similar to the characteristics of the Spring Festival stalls, and most of the audience comes from the sinking market and watches the movies for families, "It can be said that the history of the 'Bear Infested' series of movies is highly overlapping with the rise and development of the Spring Festival stalls." ”
"In fact, in the past ten years, a major trend in the domestic film market is that the schedule is more finely divided, and good movies are no longer 'not afraid of deep alleys', but also need to choose the right schedule. Looking at the annual box office champions of the past decade, they are basically released during the popular schedule. Jin Yan, who is engaged in film production, said, "The Spring Festival and National Day files, which are now known as the three prime periods of the year, have all been formed in the past ten years. ”
As a result, after catching the "SF Express" for the Spring Festival, "Bear Infested" also conformed to the development trend of the Chinese film market in the past ten years, and finally enjoyed the growth dividend of the Spring Festival stalls.
2. Geographical advantage: the revival of Chinese animation
Unique differentiators
Before the release of the "Bear Infested" series of movies, the highest box office record of domestic animated films was only more than 100 million yuan, compared with the popular comedy genres such as "People in Embarrassment in Thailand" and "Journey to the West: Demon Conquering" at that time, domestic animated films were not favored by the industry at that time.
The "Research on the Genre of Animated Films" (hereinafter referred to as the "Research") previously released by the third-party research institute Yien divides the development of China's animated film market into five stages: the first stage is before 1995, in this stage, domestic animated films have made brilliant achievements, inherited the national creative style, and gave birth to excellent works such as "Nezha in the Sea" and "Havoc in Heaven"; The third stage is 2009-2014, based on the big IP, domestic animation has been put on the big screen one after another, and domestic animation has made phased achievements, such as "Bear Infested" and "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" are the representative works of domestic animation at this stage.
However, the "Research" also pointed out that in the third stage, domestic animated films were also criticized for being "low" and "inferior".
"At that time, on the one hand, in terms of plot content, the audience of domestic animation was mainly teenagers and children, and a good work was often able to be watched often, and even crossed age, regional, language and cultural differences; Kim Yan said.
"Research" believes that 2015-2018 and 2018 to the present are the fourth and fifth stages of the development of domestic animation, in these two stages, with the success of "Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage" and "Nezha's Demon Boy Descends", the box office ceiling of domestic animated films has broken through to 1 billion yuan and 5 billion yuan respectively, which has enhanced the audience's confidence in domestic animation and driven the upsurge of domestic animation investment and shooting. This also means that domestic animation has achieved a breakthrough in technology and content.
It was also in the fourth and fifth stages that the box office of the "Bear Infested" series of movies broke through the level of 500 million yuan and 1 billion yuan respectively. It can be said that the ten years of the "Bear Infested" series of movies also happened to be the stage of the revival and rise of domestic animated films.
The reporter learned that in 2017, Fangte Animation formed a team parallel operation mode, that is, two to three teams created at the same time, covering the planning center, screenwriting center, art center, script center required in the early stage of creation, and the dubbing department, audio department, and video department required in the later stage. Fangte Animation has established a complete animation production industry chain.
In addition, Fangte Animation guarantees that each work has a two-and-a-half-to-three-year creation cycle to meet the audience's gradually improving aesthetic taste. On this basis, the team-based creation method can ensure that the quality of the work is above the excellent line to the greatest extent.
In addition to the regular domestic box office revenue, the revenue of the "Bear Infested" series of films began to diversify, including new media broadcasting, derivatives sales and IP licensing.
In other words, the 'Bear Infested' series has gradually established a set of process systems for film and television industrialization. Industrialization has been one of the biggest advances in China's film and television industry in the past decade. Jin Yan said, "On the basis of industrialization, first, it can ensure the speed and quality of the film's output, not every film is a hit, but it can ensure that a certain proportion of the works are above the passing line, which can meet the entertainment needs of most audiences; ”
Maoyan Professional Edition shows that since 2017, Fangte Animation has been the main producer of the "Bear Infested" series of movies. At the same time, Huaqiang Fantawild 's financial reports over the years also show that from 2017 to 2019, Fantawild Animation's revenue and net profit are both growing. In 2020-2022, which was seriously affected by the epidemic (Huaqiang Fantawild did not disclose the 2020 annual report), its revenue in 2021 and 2022 was 301 million yuan and 321 million yuan respectively, and the net profit in the corresponding years was 199 million yuan and 221 million yuan respectively, with a net profit margin of about 60%.
"Personally, I think one of the reasons why the Bear Infested series has continued to improve is because of the advancement of technology. If you have watched the 'Bear Infested' series of movies in the past ten years, you can find that the picture quality and models have been significantly improved. "This may have something to do with the fact that the 'Bear Infested' series has been animated in 3D from the very beginning. One of the major advantages of 3D animation is that the model can be reused many times, and with the advancement of technology, the model will be iterated and upgraded, which can effectively reduce costs, and the commonality between 3D animation and game screen is strong, and some talents in the game industry can flow to 3D animation production. In contrast, other domestic animation IPs in the same period, some of them still use 2D, which is very dependent on the drawing of artists, and the cost reduction space is small, and the sensitivity to technological progress is weaker than that of 3D. ”
At the technical level, the reporter noted that since 2016, Huaqiang Fantawild has been investing about 200 million yuan in R&D, accounting for 3%-6% of the company's operating income, except for 2021 and 2022 to join the research and development of high-tech large-scale theme equipment, creative design, digital animation, and special films are areas that will be invested every year.
The investment in technology has also made the picture presentation of the "Bear Infested" series continue to upgrade. The reporter learned that "Bear Infested: Reversing Time and Space" released during the Spring Festival this year is the most difficult one in the series of special effects production, with more than 200 scenes in the whole film, and 70% of the shots involve more than 1,300 special effects, covering more than 1,800 special effects. Among them, only Xiong Da and Xiong Er incarnate more than 30 layers of special effects, in order to achieve the smoke effect composed of the final explosion particles, the number of special effect particles used is nearly 200 million, and the loading time of the single particle cache takes 2 hours.
3. Harmony: Accompany growth
User experience is paramount
Born almost at the same time as "Bear Infested", there are also domestic animation IPs such as "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" and "Pig Man", which are also competitors that are often compared with "Bear Infested" by analysts inside and outside the industry. However, at present, the only one that can break the circle in the film market, theme parks, derivatives and other aspects is "bear infested".
In this regard, Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Consulting, believes that the reason why "Bear Infested" can break through is its stability, which is first of all the stability of the frequency of content updates, in addition to TV animation, in terms of cinemas, it can ensure the output of one per year, and the theme content of each movie is closely related to the current social hot spots, for example, 2018 coincides with the Chinese Aerospace Year, and "Bear Infested: Return to Earth" corresponds to the frequent occurrence of earth disasters and extreme weather problems, and promotes the concept of earth environmental protection. In line with the boom of artificial intelligence in the field of science and technology, in 2023, "Bear Infested: Stay with Me "Bear Core" also has the setting of the bald head Qiang taking Xiong Da and Xiong Er to Zhenxing Island to visit the Robotics Research Institute.
This kind of update that fits the hot spots of different times will also play a role in accompanying the growth of the audience. This down-to-earth content strategy will also bring in a steady audience. Zhang Yi said.
"From the ticket purchase portraits of the past five 'bear infested' animated films, it can be seen that the number of viewers aged 25-29 is decreasing, while the number of young viewers and viewers over 35 years old is increasing. At the same time, the proportion of movies in this series should be more than eighty percent, which is highly related to the characteristics of the Spring Festival file. It can be said that 'Bear Infested' has witnessed the growth of the audience, some of whom have entered the campus of kindergarten and elementary school to the campus of middle school and even university, and some have even entered the workplace from campus. Chen Jin said, "The core audience of the 'Bear Infested' animated film series is the parent-child group, and the series has focused on family fun since it was first created in 2014. We have observed that many young people also go to movies and discussions. With the growth of the audience and the increase in the public's acceptance of animated films during the Spring Festival, the 'Bear Infested' series of films has added more themes and elements suitable for adult audiences, extending the audience to all ages. ”
Shang Linlin, the producer of the "Bear Infested" series, also admitted frankly in an interview with the media that the audience watching the "Bear Infested" series of movies is essentially an arc of character growth.
In contrast, "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" once produced an animated theatrical movie combined with the zodiac every year during the 2009-2015 period, and in the following seven years, the "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" series appeared for six years "window period", and it was not until 2022 that "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: The Basket Out of the Future" was launched.
In the past ten years, although "Pig Man" has also released many animated movies, most of them are scheduled in the summer. "Compared with the summer file, the Spring Festival file emphasizes more family carnival, and the characteristics of family viewing are more prominent. Comparing the data of the Chinese film market in 2019 and 2023, it can be found that the proportion of young audiences under the age of 25 has decreased significantly, but the proportion of audiences over the age of 32 is increasing. "In contrast, North America is the world's largest and most mature film market, and the audience is mostly families, which may also be the trend that will occur in the process of becoming more mature." ”
In addition, Jin Yan believes that the stability of "Bear Infested" is also reflected in the stability of the main creative team and the producer.
The reporter noticed that Lin Huida, the director of "Bear Infested: Reversing Time and Space", had previously directed "Bear Infested: Metamorphosis", "Bear Infested: Primitive Era", and "Bear Infested: Return to Earth", and was very familiar with the style of the series. At the same time, Tan Xiao, Zhang Bingjun, and Zhang Wei, who dubbed Bald Qiang, Xiong Da and Xiong Er, have been vocal for ten consecutive years. In addition, in the list of directors of the "Bear Infested" series of animated films over the years, in addition to Lin Huida, the names of Ding Liang, Lin Yongchang, Shao Helin and others also appear many times.
As a comparison, the animation IP of the "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" series changed hands twice in 2011 and 2013, and the main creative team has changed many times compared to it.
"In the main creative team of 'Bear Infested', Huaqiang Fantawild has a large proportion of veteran employees, who are familiar with the company's strategic goals and the characteristics of specific products, so the content background and theme of each film may be changing, but the original core of the IP can be maintained in the general direction. Kim Yan said.
observe
The stones of other mountains, can they attack jade
"Bear Infested" is an IP under Huaqiang Fantawild Group, and the two cannot be completely separated for separate research.
Looking at Huaqiang Fantawild research report, people can see that many brokerages and market research institutions have compared the company with Disney.
In 2007, Huaqiang Fantawild opened its first theme park, Wuhu Fantawild Happy World. Later, Ding Liang, who single-handedly created a number of "Bear Infested" series of movies, was the content planner and chief director of Wuhu Fangte Happy World at that time. In 2008, Huaqiang Fantawild officially established Huaqiang Digital Animation Company, specializing in the research and development of film and television animation IP. With the blessing of the popular IP of "Bear Infested", the construction of Fangte Park has also been accelerating, not only implanting various "bear infested" elements in decoration and amusement projects, but also opening a series of themed tours and bear infested hotels.
From the perspective of Disney's development history, the early animation products have also completed the age breakthrough from children to adult audiences, and the success of the content has laid the foundation for development; after the 60s of the last century, the rise of theme parks and derivative product sales is also around the construction and development of early content IP.
However, there is great uncertainty about the popularity of content products, even Disney, which once owned IPs such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Disney's development stalled in the 80s with the death of Walt Disney and Roy Disney. Then, when Disney rose again, it chose to make acquisitions. Disney's cable network and many studios under the entertainment business were acquired. These acquisitions have also underpinned Disney's growth from the '90s to the present. This also means that Disney's original content studios, with content launched over the past three decades, have not performed well in the market.
In terms of Huaqiang Fangte, the IP that can be called a hit is only "bear infested", and as the audience gradually grows up, it will also face risks such as audience loss and freshness. Although the company is also cultivating "City of Figurines" and "Legend of the Zodiac", and introducing IPs such as "Little Tiger Detective" and "Ladybug", it has not yet found a second growth curve that can take over the baton of "Bear Infested" and support performance.
According to the strategy that each "Bear Infested" series of animated films is seeking to fit social hotspots, this not only requires the main creative team to maintain the stability of the output as always, but also needs to continue to deepen the empathy with the audience, and the ability to observe and understand the development and changes of society. As Shang Linlin said in an interview with the media: "In the future, the production difficulty will be greater than the other." ”
In the past ten years, Huaqiang Fantawild has become a signboard on the road to the revival and rise of Chinese animation by virtue of its clear market positioning, the improvement of its own technical strength, and accurate timing. In addition to the cliché of maintaining the creative vitality of content and expanding the IP library, it is also possible to improve technical strength and make full use of the capital market to serve business development.