Wen | Mirror Entertainment, author | Liang Jialie, editor Zhang Fengyi
"In 1995, the" Red Fan District "established the Spring Festival file, and now I have participated in the first Spring Festival file of online movies, which is quite meaningful to my own film life." In an interview, director Tang Jili expressed his special feelings about this year’s online release of new films and his participation in online Spring Festival archives.
This year’s Spring Festival is a bit special.
Today, seven Chinese New Year movies, including Detective Chinatown 3, Hi, Mom and A Writer’s Odyssey, have been launched in major theaters one after another. At 13: 47 this afternoon, Detective Chinatown 3 broke the record of 1.458 billion yuan on the first day of the 2019 Chinese New Year movie, and a new single-day box office record for China movies was set.
At the same time, the diary of making a fortune directed and starring by Song Xiaobao and two new films of The Legend of Shaolin Temple directed by Tang Jili and starring Wang Baoqiang and Dahong Ni have also logged into iQiyi at 10 o’clock this morning.
When recalling the origin of the concept of Spring Festival stalls, Tang Jili mentioned that cinemas were closed during the Spring Festival before 1995. At that time, because "Hongfan District" sold so well, cinemas were opened during the Spring Festival. Because of a small episode, there will be an attractive effect for high-quality filmmakers in the next 20 years.
The first "Spring Festival" in the online movie market came suddenly and pleasantly.
The proposal of "celebrating the New Year on the spot" this year has given many young people who don’t go home for the New Year a chance to get rid of the soul torture of "being urged to marry by all kinds". At the same time, during the seven-day long holiday of the Spring Festival, they also have more disposable entertainment time.
On social platforms, discussions about "what to do at home during the Spring Festival this year" come and go … Apart from exercising, reading, studying and playing games, many people said that they would take this opportunity to clean up their homes and improve the "house quality"; There are still people who want to be exquisite "dry rice people", even if their cooking skills are not enough, they must put together; Among many homebody games, Switch and online werewolf killing are favored; Of course, if you are a migrant worker who has been busy for a year, it may be most desirable to lie quietly on the sofa.
In addition to punching in all the dramas that haven’t been finished yet, this year, many people have chosen to nest on the sofa and open a new online film …
From 2012 to 2021The online schedule has finally "laid hands on" the new film at the cinema level.
In the Spring Festival file where the audience’s demand for watching movies soared, the three major video websites of Aiyouteng jointly launched the online Spring Festival file. In fact, the scheduled operation of video platforms in the film field has a long history.
At the end of 2012, iQiyi launched the concept of "Movie Network New Year File". At that time, the second part of Xú Zhēng’s "Embarrassment" series "Too Embarrassed for People" was launched on the line of iQiyi shortly after it was released in the cinema. However, at that time, the video platform combined the online release of cinema films with important schedules, more for the sake of attracting users’ attention.
Later, the scheduling operation was used more and more skillfully, and the deployment of important movie schedules by video websites basically became the norm. In 2019, both iQiyi and Tencent Video launched "online summer files", among which iQiyi launched cinema movies such as Alita and Munich, and online movies such as Chen Xiang’s 6: 30 Building. At the same time, more than 100 movies including science fiction and main theme were gathered in the "Summer Brush File" area of the station.
A few years ago, there was still a window period between new cinema films released online and cinemas, and there were not many cinema-level films released exclusively online. However, this situation was reversed in 2020.
In February, 2020, the movie "Flying Dragon Crossing the River" starring Donnie Yen was launched in the form of PVOD (single-chip payment). Since then, films such as Spring Tide, Spring River Plumbing, Mr. Monster and Cold-blooded Feast have started the tide of online single-chip payment distribution.
Under the influence of the epidemic, film and television companies have regarded online distribution as one of the key points in the next stage at forums such as the Shanghai Film Festival and the press conferences of major film companies in the past year.
This is not a helpless move in a special period. After online movies have cultivated enough market space, many users who know movies have become accustomed to opening video platforms to find a good movie, and many traditional filmmakers have gradually established their trust in online distribution, the epidemic has actually only played a catalytic and accelerated role. Even without the influence of external objective factors, good movies will embrace online on a large scale sooner or later, and it is only a matter of time.
In 2021, the emergence of online Spring Festival files became this turning point. The two films "Diary of Making a Rich" and The Legend of Shaolin Temple are not losing new cinema films, which shows that the industry is optimistic about this new distribution channel. In order to make this historic online Spring Festival file play a greater role, three video platforms made a joint promotion.
In fact, since last year, the simulcast mode of several video platforms has been applied to individual single-chip paid films, such as "Chen Xiang’s Folk Master at 6: 30" which was released in iQiyi and Youku at the same time, and "Mr. Monster" which was released in PVOD mode in three head video platforms at the same time.
The goal of this alliance of the three platforms is to make the concept of online Spring Festival archives truly land, and let online distribution enter a new stage of scheduled, large-scale and systematic output. Behind this is the determination of streaming media to create a new market for film practitioners online.
It can be imagined that after the scheduled operation of video websites has changed, the films released online in the future can choose the featured and differentiated online schedule more freely. This means that many films will no longer have to be delayed because of the scheduling problem, which will affect the return of funds, and small and medium-sized films can also open up differentiated competitive advantages in online distribution.
If the D2C mode (Direct-to-Consumer) is realized, movies may be able to create a "double 11" movie festival on the video platform, just like e-commerce. According to the model of double 11, in recent years, e-commerce platforms have spawned numerous shopping festivals, such as "618", "Good Things Festival" and "New Year Festival", which are almost three days long and five days long. As long as there are more online movies in the future, video websites can create more online schedules and movie festivals like e-commerce platforms.
A new TO C scene that makes more movies "look up"
In 2020, there will be 78 online movies with over 10 million accounts on the three major video platforms, among which only iQiyi owns 42 online movies with over 10 million accounts.
Nowadays, online viewing is more convenient, the scenes are more abundant, and the viewing technology is constantly improving. For example, iQiyi has loaded new technologies such as 4K, Dolby Horizon HDR, Dolby Panoramic Sound, iQiyi HDR and ultra-high frame rate in the "Super Cinema", and these advantages are constantly deepening the potential of the online movie market.
The reason why the streaming media platform can promote online distribution to such a high volume in a year or two is that it meets the needs of the audience, and at the same time, the online distribution channel is essentially needed by the film market.
Nowadays, under the "parallel scene" where online and offline work together, it is most important to let the right film be released in the right scene. For example, Operation Red Sea The Wandering Earth and other heavy industries, big special effects, and large-scale movies, as well as My People，My Country, which are more likely to arouse the "national sentiment", are more suitable for cinema release, while light-weight movies such as Spring Tide and Spring River Plumbing, which are relatively low in cost and more suitable for long-term fermentation, are now more selected for online release.
The strengthening of the head effect in the cinema market has brought a more intense competitive environment. Even though the box office explosions and dark horses are exciting, there are many films below 10 million box office. In this context, the online distribution channel constructed by the video platform undoubtedly provides a new breakthrough opportunity for the middle and tail films.
The maturity of the online distribution business model provides a strong guarantee for the film side to generate income. In 2020, Iqiyi became the first video platform in China to show movies in PVOD mode, which made online distribution in addition to sub-accounts, and added the same TO C mode as offline movie tickets. This new business model is oriented to the movie value itself, and it is also a long-term cultivation of online movie users’ consumption habits.
According to the latest data from Hub Entertainment Research, the PVOD model is being welcomed by young consumers, and more than 60% of the respondents (aged 18-34) said that they might pay for the latest release of movie on demand. This also indicates that the PVOD model will become an important carrier for the film to achieve profitability and feed back the content creation at present and in the future.
The online distribution channels constructed by video platforms such as iQiyi not only bring a new choice and possibility for the diversified content in the film market, but also provide a new exhibition stage for film creators.
Online distribution with multiple loads can bring new channels for new directors to reach the audience. As Tang Jili said: "Many young directors may not be able to get on the cinema, which has a great publicity cost, and with the network platform, it can help train more young filmmakers of a new generation."
"Butterfly Effect" of Brand Operation
Whether it is the continuous increase in the number of new films released on the network of Aiyouteng’s three platforms, or the new scene of TO C created by iQiyi in PVOD mode, or the gradual evolution of online distribution in the whole film industry, it is the driving force for the ecological formation of online distribution.
In this process, the branded operation of online distribution channels is also a sign that the market is moving towards a mature stage. Although online distribution has just started, it may be too early to discuss the brand operation of online cinema, but the forward-looking video platform has consciously launched its own online cinema brand and cinema brand.
After all, for the whole film industry, online distribution is the general trend. In the future, if the video platform wants to gain the core competitiveness in the online distribution market, the brand operation ability is an indispensable link. Therefore, after forming their own barriers in the field of variety and drama, the video platform is now forming an early brand division in the film field.
In 2020, when more than 10 new films such as Spring Tide, Spring River Plumbing, Marriage Story, We Never Give Up and Journey were released, iQiyi emphasized its online cinema brand "Super Cinema".
Ren Xiaoxiao, a producer in The Legend of Shaolin Temple, mentioned in an interview recently that video platforms all want to build a super cinema brand, which actually reflects the service requirements of network users, including but not limited to audio-visual quality. The audience’s appetite is always "sharp", and the video platform needs to meet the requirements of the audience for "pioneer" and innovation through brand operation.
Perhaps, this brand operation is an initial point, which will realize a "butterfly effect" in the dynamic system of the film market.
It can be imagined that when more and more high-quality films break the ceiling of revenue through online cinema brands, the divergence of brand effect will attract more users to choose online viewing, and drive more industry practitioners to re-examine the online value and participate in it.
This will be a process of continuously attracting partners and talents for online distribution. When this magnetic field accommodates more and more high-quality practitioners, it will have a positive impact on the improvement of network content quality and the breakthrough of users and industrial scale.
Just as the cinema market has developed for many years, there have emerged cinema companies such as Wanda Cinema, Dadi Cinema and United Cinema. They have stimulated the movie-watching needs of fans by virtue of brand image building, and also attracted a large number of fixed fans and partners through their own hard power. The growth and scale expansion of these cinema brands have naturally become one of the driving forces for the development of the film industry.
Judging from the current development of online distribution, several video platforms are more similar in business model and brand operation.
In the process of absorbing cinema-level new films, the penetration of each platform into the film industry may be different, but from the perspective of development track, the biggest difference in the future may come from the number and variety of single-chip paid films on the platform.
tag
In the face of the proposal of "celebrating the New Year on the spot", the three platforms quickly launched the online Spring Festival file in 2021. This high-speed coping ability was precipitated in the process of deepening the online film market, and what was revealed behind it was the trust and consensus between online and offline, and the filmmakers in the whole industry.
If the centralized delivery of high-quality new films in the online Spring Festival can make the market see the content cohesion and production capacity of online movie-watching brands and the potential of offline market in PVOD mode, then the online distribution channel is bound to go to more filmmakers.
Nowadays, online distribution has become a new slogan of "the future can be expected" on a global scale. This is inseparable from the accidental factor of epidemic, and also from the continuous efforts of streaming media online movie market and distribution ecology, such as the launch of PVOD model and the branded operation of online cinemas, which are all "building a foundation" for this growing market.
Nowadays, the film market has entered a new stage of the development of cinema and online double-line, which are intertwined in parallel and bring a brand-new chemical reaction to the whole industry in the integration.
Rome was not built in a day, but the online movie market is also accelerating in its own way under the scheduled operation and brand operation.
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