This director needs to apologize

Chapter 127 Anxious Reflection

As the saying goes, separate lines are like mountains apart. In fact, most of the upstream and downstream people in the same line barely understand each other.

Although Chen Yiming has turned on the memory card, he has been wandering in the TV drama industry in his previous life, and his knowledge of the development and evolution of the film industry is limited to hearsay, and he is not actually very proficient.

What he clearly grasps is the general trend of the Internet's "invasion" of the entertainment industry.

What he inadvertently ignored was that every link in the film industry chain was actually bearing the huge impact of social changes.

In the previous life, in 2009, China's movie box office revenue was 62 billion. A year later, in 2010, this number soared to 102 billion, an increase of 70%.

Such an exaggerated increase obviously cannot be driven by the movie itself, because the same people in China make and act in movies, and there are no new human beings with genetic mutations.

The reasons can only be found outside the film production chain, that is, theaters, theater chains, distribution and audiences.

When Chen Yiming traveled through time in his previous life, he had already made a very thorough analysis of the Chinese film market. Let’s briefly summarize the reasons at three levels.

The direct reason is somewhat nonsensical, that is, the price of movie tickets has increased significantly, from an average of NT$2009 in 30 to an average of NT$2010 in 35.

An increase of 5 yuan is equivalent to directly increasing the total box office by 15%. After excluding the puffiness caused by the price increase, wouldn't the 55% increase be less conspicuous?
间接原因是观影人次的暴增，从2009年的2亿涨到2010年的3亿，增长率高达50%。

The final reason stems from the global financial crisis in 2008. World hegemons cut their wool all over the world, and all countries invariably launched quantitative easing in order to save themselves.

The influx of massive money has led to a new round of construction in China, especially the construction of commercial real estate.

Super large complexes are blooming in major cities in China, allowing high-end cinemas to grow rapidly in China, with the number of theaters, seats, and screens increasing simultaneously.

The deeper the foundation is, the higher the building will naturally be.

Just looking at the box office figures that have been exaggerated by the media, the film industry is indeed in a good financial situation. However, only those in the industry know that life for film practitioners is not as easy as imagined.

One word to describe it in the film industry is anxiety.

The producers were the first to become anxious and the first to fall into numbness.

The 1997 film "Titanic" was worn on the heads of Chinese filmmakers like a cuckold for 12 years.

Starting with "Hero" and ending with "Red Cliff", a series of domestic blockbusters came one after another, but in the end they all fell short.

What finally ended the Hollywood movie box office championship was the next Hollywood movie, namely "2009" in 2012 and "Avatar" in 2010.

It was not until 2015 that a domestic film regained the historical box office championship. At that time, the number of screens in China had reached the 3 mark, which was a full five times that of when "Avatar" was released.

In a sense, Chinese filmmakers are free riders on the trend of the times. They first lay down and then won. There is really nothing to be proud of.

Looking at the 2009 box office list, there were a total of 16 movies with over 9 million yuan, including 1 domestic movies. On average, there was less than one movie in a month.

Chen Yiming has previously concluded that the red line for breakeven for medium-produced theater movies is a box office of over [-] million. Those below this figure are basically just making a name for themselves.

There are 500 movies in the whole year, and the return rate can only beat inflation by 2%. Anyone who makes this kind of investment is crazy.

Of course, it is also possible that he is a top smart person who understands everything, but Chen Yiming doesn't understand it anyway.

When investment risks remain high, capital will concentrate in safer places out of a risk aversion instinct.

In the film industry, the high value is naturally the small group of directors and actors at the top.

Just for the period before and after 2010, this small group consisted of the National Preceptor, Gangpao, the Poet, Uncle Ge plus half of the Jiang Ma bandits, as well as the veteran directors and stars in Hong Kong City.

This is the embarrassing situation faced by theater chains in the middle reaches of the industry.

Penetrating upstream, the head production resources are too concentrated, and they cannot catch up.

Expanding downstream, capital giants led by Wanda are expanding wildly, but they can't stand it.

The only way out is to involuntarily involute, let its own expansion speed exceed the average growth rate of the entire industry, and let the more victims behind it, the better.

However, this strategy soon suffered a blow. Inter-provincial administrative barriers were erected. Wanda, which built houses all over the country, was helpless. The industry concentration rate was back and forth at around [-]%, and it could no longer advance.

As we all know, the result was that the Internet giants rushed in and the entire film industry became their workers.

Producers have relatively independent productivity, which cannot be completely replaced by big data and AI at this stage, so they can still survive and earn hard-earned money.

Theater chains and movie theaters have completely become the tears of the times. They are surrounded by Internet resources and ticket booking apps from both sides, and they are in a state of ecstasy.The film industry in China in this time and space is actually more difficult than in previous lives.

Without analyzing the deep-seated reasons, just look at last year's industry data.

The final box office of "Holiday in Magic City" was 1.6 million, ranking eighth on the list and fifth domestically.

This result was obtained in the previous life, ranking ninth in the entire list and sixth domestically in the same year.

This shows that the quality and achievements of the two first time and space movies are actually not very different.

However, looking at the full-year box office data, there are only 52 billion in this time and space, a full 10 billion less.

Excluding the 5 yuan increase in ticket prices, the gap between the two is actually very close, but don't forget that China's theater construction in this time and space is much more intense, and the number of theaters and screens are much higher than in the previous life. cut.

There is only one conclusion when the two offset each other. The performance of domestic films is too poor, which has dragged down the development of theaters and theater chains.

The performance of domestic films in the first half of this year seems to confirm this judgment.

Model worker Sun Wangquan has been working on blockbusters for several years, but finally couldn't work anymore. This year, he studied "Holiday in the City" and made a fresh period romance film. Naturally, the box office myth could not continue and stopped at 1.3 million.

Another mainstay, Xiao Wang, has still not given up on making blockbusters and is working on a disaster blockbuster in retreat. It is said that the production cycle will take two years. He has nothing to do this whole year.

Wu Kesen's "Three Kingdoms - Red Cliff" just finished production in May. The success of "Guandu" made him so confident that he decisively rejected the domestic screenwriter Lu Yiwei and chose to do it himself. The result was that public opinion was generally negative, and box office expectations were significantly lowered. .

Wu Lianjing's sword is not old, and he continues to release movies at a rate of one a year. This time he is not a furniture city god of war, but a costume war. He also roped in movie stars from Bangguo and Xiaoliang to create an "Asian epic masterpiece", and a "Legend" box office will climb to 1.5 million.

As soon as "Legend" was released at the end of May, the theater managers almost went into riot.

In the entire first half of the year, there were only two domestic films with a box office of over [-] million, and only five imported films. In the second half of the year, Hollywood blockbusters have been postponed indefinitely. If this continues, everyone will starve to death.

All the domestic films released in June were lukewarm, and none of them had a box office of over [-] million in their first week, which also means that they all have no hope of breaking [-] million.

Looking at the film schedule for July, it seems that only two Hong Kong movies are interesting. However, as Chen Yiming said, the upper limit for Hong Kong movies is there, and it is almost impossible to cross the 2 million threshold.

Calculating this, Chen Yiming's "1951" is already the hope of the whole village. Not only the theater managers, but also the theater managers and even the film bureau have to place high expectations on it.

Listening to the various complaints from theater managers, it was still difficult for Chen Yiming to sympathize with their anxieties.

And even if he knew, there was nothing he could do. The movie was already completed, and the outcome could only be left to God.

Perhaps it is for this reason that Mr. Ma only drew a "bottom line" for Chen Yiming and did not put higher demands on him. He must not have wanted to put too much pressure on him.

In fact, if you do some math, you will know that if you want to keep the annual box office of 52 billion, "1951" alone is definitely not enough, not even "The Founding of the People's Republic of China".

Last year, 20 imported Hollywood movies produced a total of 40% of the annual box office, which is 20 billion. Such a large gap is not easy to fill.

Thinking about it this way, Zhang Lili's poker face can be forgiven. He is an anomaly among theater managers. He speaks directly and rarely politely. Chen Yiming quite likes his style.

With the heavy performance pressure on his shoulders, the straight-faced Lao Zhang has nothing but Qi Qing on his face.

Fortunately, there are two actors, Gong Yifan and Wei Jinfang, who keep bringing the topic back to Chen Yiming. Otherwise, today's movie viewing party might turn into a criticism meeting of Chinese directors.

After bidding farewell to the theater managers who still had unfinished business, Chen Yiming tried his best to suppress his irritability and cheered up the crew members who were invited to watch the finished film.

He approached Duan Yining first, "Old Duan, how do you feel? Are you so handsome and cool?"

Duan Yining didn't look very excited, but replied quite seriously, "After watching the whole film, I have some new ideas. I really want to play it again and release the Qin Zhiliang I built in my heart. "

Chen Yiming was stunned and didn't dare to say anything. Looking at Duan Yining's lost expression, he didn't seem to be expecting his answer at all.

So he turned to Shi Lei, smiled and praised, "Teacher Shi, watching your pre-war mobilization on the big screen, I couldn't help but want to stand up and rush forward."

Unexpectedly, Shi Lei also looked upright, and replied thoughtfully, "This is the first time I watched the film, and I feel that the lack of heels affected my emotional expression, but I can accept this regret."

Okay, we can’t talk anymore. What’s wrong with this? Why do we always like to reflect on each other?

Chen Yiming lost all his interest. Fortunately, Hou Yong was away filming and didn't have time to come over. Otherwise, he would have to receive another education.

After a few brief exchanges with Zhang Yu and Maodou, he simply went to find someone outside the circle and went straight to Liu Dongjun's family of three.

(End of this chapter)