Text | Zhang Ying
In this year’s Spring Festival, Wang Baoqiang and Haoran Liu appeared together in more than one film, Detective Chinatown 3.
On the first day of New Year’s Day, the film The Legend of Shaolin Temple (hereinafter referred to as "Debao Legend") directed by Tang Jili, starring Wang Baoqiang and performed by actors such as Dahong Ni, Ng Man Tat and Haoran Liu landed on Youku Iqiyi and Tencent Video. This film, together with Song Xiaobao’s new film "diary of making a fortune", has become the most important film in this year’s online movie Spring Festival. byPoisonous eyes(WeChat ID: domoredumou)As of press time, these two films are among the top two in the hit list of iQiyi movies.
Like The Legend of Depot, The Diary of Getting Rich also has a luxurious comedy lineup, with famous actors including Sha Yi, Mary and Zray. The types and contents of film action and comedy family fun are expected to meet the audience’s viewing taste in the Spring Festival.
It is noteworthy that,Both films are distributed on the Internet by single-chip payment, and platform members can only watch them by paying 6 yuan and non-member 12 yuan-the business of selling movie tickets online has made a new attempt on these two online movies.
In terms of "identity", the two films are defined as the category of online movies by the industry, but they are higher than the online movies in the usual sense in terms of production cost, box office potential and so on. The online movie with a first-line star lineup, which is completed according to the cinema standard, and the online single-chip payment is started, which further blurs the boundary between the cinema and the network.
At the same time, the concept of online movies’ Spring Festival stalls was defined for the first time, which is an industry event for online movies. On February 5th, under the guidance of the Network Audiovisual Program Management Department of the State Administration of Radio and Television, the Network Film Working Committee of the China Film Association joined hands with iQiyi, Tencent Video and Youku at the press conference.The concept of online movie Spring Festival file was formally put forward.
Originally, under the influence of the uncertain factors brought by the epidemic, the performance of physical cinemas in the Spring Festival was somewhat uncertain. On the contrary, online Spring Festival stalls and watching movies at home were given a lot of expectations by the industry. However, with the opening of the Spring Festival, the box office on the first day exceeded 1.7 billion, making it the hottest New Year’s Day movie in history.
Compared with the offline excitement, the limelight of the online movie Spring Festival file is slightly bleak. Although the heat in the station is not low, and each film is actively marketing, the word-of-mouth is not satisfactory. As of the press release of Poison Eye, Debao Legend only scored 4.6 points, even lower than some small-scale online movies of the same type. "I spent money, saw such a big coffee, and looked forward to seeing the New Year’s film in the cinema. As a result, I saw a bad film." A movie fan told poison eyes angrily. In the film review area, such voices are not uncommon.
Even though the word-of-mouth has yet to be improved, for the online movie industry, the online Spring Festival file is just in its infancy, and it takes some time to explore and explore.What is important is that after taking this step, the online business of movies has the possibility of being reshaped again.
Why this year?
The concept of online movie Spring Festival stalls began to take shape as early as 2018. At that time, The Hero of Jigong went online on the first day, and finally accumulated more than 20 million box office results. In the Spring Festival of 2019, there were also many online movies testing the stalls, and the industry had the awareness of "Spring Festival stalls", but it did not form a scale.
The real traffic broke out during the epidemic last year. On the first day of the New Year’s Day in 2020, five online movies, including "I’m from Beijing’s Goose Pot Stewed in Iron Pot" and "The Big Canopy", were launched online. During the Spring Festival, nearly 30 online movies were shown online, and the cumulative box office accounts of many movies eventually broke through 10 million.
"Big canopy" will be launched on the first day of New Year’s Day in 2020.
However, even after three years of exploration, the concept of online movie Spring Festival file has never been determined. It was not until a few days ago that the official and the platform jointly issued a clear voice that the online Spring Festival file had a real "name".
In order to do a good job in this "new schedule", all three platforms of Youaiteng have prepared enough rich film reserves.
At the same time, the three platforms launched the diary of making a fortune and the legend of Debao, and in addition, they also made a limited-time free plan for 100 films. Youku’s "hilarious cinema" combination launched comedies, and iQiyi also launched new popular blockbusters in cinemas such as The Reunions, The Rescue and Shock Wave 2. Tencent’s 18 new films and film planning that fit the theme of the Year of the Ox also started steadily-from the perspective of the supply of films during the schedule, the richness and overall quality.
The atmosphere of family reunion during the Spring Festival makes hilarious comedies and family fun movies the first choice."Spring Festival online movies should also have particularity in product attributes."Gao Rui, co-founder of Yingmei Media, told Poison Eyes that some types of online movies may not be suitable for the whole family to sit in front of the TV, so it is the most timely comedy type of family fun in this schedule.
The concept of online movie schedule established this year is different from the previous "schedule". In the past, the content side and the platform worked together to create a series of concepts, such as "Youth Spring" and "Monster Season" in summer, but they mostly combined the same type of films to create the concept. This year’s Spring Festival file concept is more in line with the big environment and market development stage, and is an inevitable product driven by the market and environment.
First of all, under the need of epidemic prevention and control, the state calls for celebrating the New Year on the spot. In general, the demand for online movie viewing will increase. The National Radio and Television General Administration also made arrangements for increasing the supply of radio programs and online audio-visual programs during the Spring Festival, and the three platforms jointly launched the film-Institute.In order to clarify the Spring Festival file at this time node, it has occupied the advantage of favorable weather and geographical location.
On the other hand, without enough film reserves, the concept of schedule is out of the question. After seven years of development, online movies are enough to support the concept of schedule in terms of quantity and quality. According to the China Online Movie Industry Report in 2020, among the new online movies in 2020, a total of 79 films broke through 10 million, an increase of 41 films year-on-year; The box office scale of tens of millions of films was 1.39 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 125%.
In the past year, the quality of online movies has been improved and reduced, which has brought confidence to the industry to sprint the Spring Festival file. Together with the help of two head films, Debao Legend and Fortune Diary, it has promoted the real landing of online Spring Festival files."The concept of Spring Festival stalls this year is related to the quality of the project itself."Li Siwen, vice president of Qishu Youyu, told Poison Eye that the network capacity is very large, there are relatively many movie contents for the audience to choose from, and with two blockbusters online, the audience’s viewing needs can basically be met.
The Legend of Debao and the Diary of Getting Rich
After all, from the cast, these two films have a natural audience base. Without this base, it is difficult for ordinary online movies to attract the audience during the Spring Festival, and it is impossible to form a real online viewing scale.
At the audience level, with the development of the habit of watching online content for many years, the awareness of paying for online viewing is gradually being developed. During the epidemic last year, the closing of cinemas also brought a number of incremental audiences to the movie online. The reserve of these audiences gave the possibility of doing more business online during the Spring Festival this year.
Coupled with the exploration of the Spring Festival schedule from 2018, the platform has also had some experience in planning, film storage and marketing.At this point, with the blessing of the right time, the right place and the right people, online movies entered the Spring Festival file this year, which is a logical growth.
The significance of the schedule
After the establishment of the Spring Festival file, the industry has raised expectations for the establishment of more file concepts for online movies: in the future, there may be May Day files, National Day files and even Valentine’s Day files, etc. For online movies, there will be opportunities to form a formal file layout and industrial rules like cinema movies.
The significance of the cinema movie schedule is self-evident. For a movie, the schedule greatly affects the box office revenue. The fundamental reason for the overall breakout of box office results in big schedules such as Spring Festival, summer vacation and National Day is to meet the audience’s entertainment consumption demand in a special period of time. Since Xiaogang Feng’s New Year’s Comedy, a large number of films have been shown every big holiday for more than ten years, which has gradually cultivated the consumption habit of calling friends to the cinema to watch movies during the schedule.
Xiaogang Feng’s New Year’s Comedy
Therefore, in online movies, the gradual definition of the concept of schedule is an important symbol of the progress of online movie industrialization; At the same time, it plays a vital role in cultivating the audience’s online viewing awareness and payment habits.
The real establishment of the concept of schedule means that the film and the platform work together to meet the audience’s viewing needs in a specific period. This is precisely the return to the development essence of online movies "meeting the needs of the audience"."After the whole scale is made, the audience will gradually regard watching online movies on holidays as a way of entertainment in their daily lives."In Li Siwen’s view, this is a good opportunity. "It not only satisfies the audience, but also expands the market."
This opportunity will also feed back online film production. In cinema movies, many films are planned in the project planning stage, and it is necessary to sprint a specific schedule. Now this method is almost applicable to online movies. "In the future, everyone may be more consciously planning what kind of film to make, what kind of audience to show, and what schedule is suitable." Gao Rui said.
In order to meet the audience’s viewing needs during the schedule, higher and more specific requirements will be put forward for the content of online movies. For example, the content of "Ghosts and Ghosts" may not be suitable for online viewing during Valentine’s Day, and scary online movies are not suitable for the happy atmosphere of the whole family during the Spring Festival.Under the guidance of the specific schedule, the production level of online movies will also have a clearer goal. Once a suitable method can be explored, the industry will also create new explosions during the schedule.
In addition to upgrading the production and supply dimensions of online movies, the schedule also puts forward higher requirements for marketing and platform services.
In cinema movies, there will be fierce marketing wars in every popular schedule. Although it is impossible to directly equate the final box office performance of the film with the success or failure of marketing, good marketing can often play a great role in boosting the box office and audience. In order to occupy the advantage of online movies, marketing efforts are essential.
In the past year or so, the publicity resources of online movies have been transferred to short video platforms. Some media reported that 70% to 80% of the 4 million marketing expenses of The Monster, which was launched in 2019, were put on platforms such as Tik Tok and Aauto Quicker.For online movies, short video marketing has a natural advantage. After reading the materials such as the pull-tab explanation, it directly jumps to the platform for search, and the path is short and the transformation is strong, which is an advantage that many cinema movies online marketing do not have.
Therefore, the importance of short video marketing should be paid more attention to by the industry if online movies are to be scheduled in a big schedule. How to play well in this marketing position, attract more audiences, and adjust the targeted and accurate play style is far from enough, so it is a test of the ability of online movie marketers.
In terms of platforms, in the past, during the launch of key films, each platform would give support to key resources, promote them in the station and link them outside the station. The schedule requirement also pushes the "service" of the platform to a higher level.
From what was broadcast in the past, to now, each family has taken the initiative to schedule and plan, and the platform will also usher in a new service upgrade in online movies.Once upgraded, the platform will make progress in making movie brands, which is not only a great opportunity for attracting new members, but also for cultivating old members’ awareness of paying. In the long run, the layout of the film on the platform will be more clear.
Generally speaking, the real establishment of the concept of schedule has promoted all aspects of the online film industry to enter a new turning point. However, the efforts of the cinema under the Spring Festival this year have made online business a little uncertain. I want to compete with cinema movies for audiences and put forward greater requirements for online movies.Under the shell of the schedule, the industry still needs to really upgrade the content to adapt to the viewing needs of the schedule.
Tracing back to the source, if the market of online movies wants to be really big, the essence is still the ten words of the old industry: do a good job in content and meet the needs of the audience.
Single-chip payment, boosting content upgrade?
Behind the Spring Festival file of online movies, the most striking thing is the single-chip payment mode adopted by Debao Legend and Fortune Diary. Many practitioners of online movies believe that it is of experimental and pioneering significance for the two films to make such a choice.
"For film creators, I am optimistic about the direction of single-chip payment." Tang Jili, director of The Legend of Shaolin Temple, said that its development has a process of cultivation, because the transparency of the platform and the way of accounting division are good, and the producers can get money."If single-chip payment can drive people’s consumption habits, I think it will be very helpful for the future development of China movies."
The Legend of Shaolin Temple stills (Source: Douban)
Although the accounting mode of online movies has been adjusted several times, it basically ranks the movies according to the platform, and divides the accounts according to different ratings and by calculating the effective number of on-demand members. A number of heads of online movie content companies have said to Poison Eye that under this mode, in order to attract new users, the platform will subsidize the box office of online movies to a certain extent, and everyone’s income is also largely from the platform’s subsidies.
"The three platforms are basically supporting this industry with their own content investment, which is very difficult to achieve profitability, and such a business model is not healthy and long-lasting." Li Jie, vice president of Alibaba Group and head of Alibaba’s entertainment film business, once said this in the activities in 2019. At that time, Poisonous Eyes had suggested that for the content production companies of online movies,Once the bonus period of each platform ends, subsidies stop, or the current billing mode of paid member platforms is completely replaced by single-chip payment in the future, its income will also be greatly affected.
Today, two online movies have entered the single-chip payment business model, which is a new change. On February 5th, Song Jia, vice president of iQiyi and general manager of the Film Center, said in the above-mentioned forum that single-chip payment makes the film return to its product essence. "Because watching the movie itself is to pay separately, everyone will buy tickets when watching the movie. (Single-chip payment) is of great significance for the film product to return to its essence."
In essence, online movies, as a content product, are directly oriented to the audience, and the business model will eventually move towards 2C, which is almost the consensus of all practitioners.If the 2B+2C mode that relied on platform subsidies in the past is really replaced by the 2C mode of single-chip payment in the future, online movies will enter a new stage: returning to the essence of selling and becoming a real movie business.
As a result, the boundary between online movies and cinema movies will be further blurred.
To realize this business model, the core upgrade point is the content quality level. After all, users have already spent money to buy members and have to pay for a movie online, which especially tests the quality of online movies."Single-chip payment requires users’ strong willingness to buy, and the film must be a product worthy of the audience’s money."Gao Rui said.
It can be said that single-chip payment will guide the content creators to upgrade in stories, actors, service and visual effects, and reach a level that is really worth spending money.
More than that, online movies worth spending money should be supplied on a large scale rather than sporadically. Only relying on one or two films is not enough to support single-chip payment to open the online movie market.Online movies need the ability to continuously produce and supply high-quality movies.However, at present, the industry as a whole has not reached this ability. Many senior practitioners told Poison Eye that the pressure is still great. "To ensure single-chip and continuous payment, there must be continuous production of high-quality content. Now the high-quality content reserve of online movies is far from enough."
Source: Lighthouse Professional Edition
Chang Bin, vice president of Tencent Penguin Film and Television, also said at the forum,While recognizing the breakthrough significance and benefits of the single-chip payment model, we should treat this matter positively but cautiously.
In his view, in order to realize the single-chip payment of Internet movies, there are several prerequisites: the first film should be suitable for the type of Internet, the second one should have a strong card company to join, and the third one should invest a large amount of publicity. "For the platform, we will actively and unswervingly try, and we will also find the project that is most suitable for single-chip payment. We will not do everything very aggressively, which will ruin the market." Chang Bin said.
It can be seen that single-chip payment still needs to be upgraded and explored if it wants to become the future trend of online movies.
Fortunately, at present, the platform has invested a lot of money in the single-chip payment of online movies, and the higher authorities have also recognized this model, hoping that there will be good works to cultivate this market, and the producers of online movies are also actively trying to create online movies that are "worthy" of the audience’s requirements for single-chip payment movies. With the joint efforts of the three parties, the feasibility of single-chip payment of online movies may be verified in the near future.
"It still takes a cycle." Li Siwen believes that if we start filming now and go online next year, it will take several rounds of creative cycles to continuously optimize, improve and develop healthily, so as to cultivate the habit of paying for a single film."I think it will take about three to five years."
Whether it is the Spring Festival file or the single-chip payment, the big events that happened in online movies in early 2021 will put forward a new test for this industry that has been born and developed for seven years. In this process, there are more and more explosive films, the box office billing of online slots has exploded, and the single-chip payment model has been widely recognized and paid by the audience, which is also a beautiful blueprint for everyone’s imagination.
At present, although the online Spring Festival in 2021 is far from being comparable to the offline market, the data of the two films on various platforms are also conveying more possibilities to the industry. For example, The Diary of Making a Rich got a score of 6.2 in Douban, which is higher than the average level of online movies. Its score has been given by 115,000 people on the iQiyi platform, and its popularity in Youku is more than 8,000. Many netizens in Douban comment area also said that Song Xiaobao, as a director, handed over this work beyond their expectations.
Stills of "Make a fortune Diary" (Source: Douban)
In the near future, movies born on the Internet may release more energy from production, cast and marketing, including continuous innovation in business model. Today, with the global film online and offline relationship being reshaped, the domestic market also has the opportunity to seize this trend, achieve new opportunities for China’s film industry, and become the most important film market.
At that time, the boundary between online movies and cinema movies may be completely erased, and the movie business will also show more possibilities.
