Author/Zhu Ting
When it comes to online movies, the public’s impression is always somewhat different.
Born in 2014, it became famous in 2015, flying in 2016, and began to "collect" in the second half of 2017. In 2018 and 2020, it ushered in a turning point in development. This emerging Internet product has now reached its eighth year.
Entertainment industry editorial department (ID：yulechanye)This paper sorts out the online movie accounts from 2014 to September 2021: the number of movies that break 10 million is increasing day by day, and at the same time, the 28 th law of the industry is becoming more and more obvious. On this basis, Entertainment sir further collated and concluded that in eight years, the number of sub-accounts broke 30 million or more, with a cumulative sub-account of 708 million. Among them, there were 4 movies with 50 million yuan and above, 4 movies with 40 million yuan and above, and the box office top1 "The Secret Collection of Xiangxi with Ghost Blowing Lights" was 56.827 million.
OK, welcome to the online movie 30 million box office club!
These 18 films
Why do you share the 708 million of Ai Youteng?
18 online movies broke 30 million yuan. In other words, it is equivalent to 18 cinema movies breaking 100 million yuan at the box office.
In terms of concretization:
1. In terms of theme types, action, fantasy and adventure still dominate, accounting for 18%, 14% and 11% respectively.
Among them, the film "Blood Without a Name" belongs to the historical and war types, with an account of 32.26 million yuan. To some extent, it can be regarded as the representative of the breakthrough of the theme of online movies.
It is also worth mentioning that, under the advocacy of policies and platforms, realistic and theme-based online movies, including Tough Gun God, China Flash, and Climbing the Tree with Donkeys, have received good market response. "Tough Gun God" is still in the accounting period, and it is expected to rush to nearly 30 million troops.
In entertainment sir’s view, on the one hand, the constancy of theme also verifies that online movies have indeed retained a considerable number of fixed users on various platforms in recent years; On the other hand, online movies need more new users, and the theme breaks through or directions. Of course, this requires the platform, the film, and the creators to work together to break through, and the users will give strength.
2. IP series movies are still the main force of accounting.
IP movies such as Ghost Blowing Lights, Di Renjie, Restart, Ghost Story and Soul Ferry account for almost 90% of the 30 million clubs.
IP strives for stability, but if you want to break through, you still have to rely on new tracks and originality. The Legend of the Hunter in Xing ‘an Mountains, with a score of 44.356 million yuan and a douban score of 6, is a good example. Screenwriter Cui Zouzhao, an online writer, whose representative works include My Years as Mr. Yin and Yang, My Years as a Birdman, Jumping God and Tripitake Tales, has been rated as an underestimated online god by netizens and has a fixed audience in the online circle.
In addition to The Legend of Hunters in Xing ‘an Mountains, Cui Zouzhao’s previous online movie "The Demon and White Fish Town 1, 2" has a douban score of 6.1 and 5.9. In the horizontal comparison of the industry, it can also be regarded as a work with the highest comprehensive ability of word of mouth and box office. In a word, online movies need more "Cui Zouzhao".
3. The average score of 4.8 points from watercress is another progress of online movies.
Of the 30 million box office clubs of online movies, 4 passed, and 6 scored 5 points or above; Up to now, there are nearly 40 online movies with Douban scores above the passing line (incomplete statistics).
At this point, it suddenly occurred to me that before, Entertainment sir had also counted more than 5,000 online movies, and 26 douban movies scored 6. How long will it take for online movies to "qualitatively change"? At that time, the discussion point inside and outside the industry was: Is Douban score important for online movies?
From the creator’s point of view, there should be no creator who doesn’t want his work to gain more praise and get a good reputation. Based on the marketing level, many staff engaged in the online movie announcement told Entertainment sir that at this stage, Douban score has gradually become a kind of marketing, but if it is still a film with a regular theme, Douban score is almost not considered. The implication is that the breakthrough of the theme and the douban score are more important.
Anyway, word of mouth has been paid more and more attention, and it is also a manifestation of industry progress.
If you look carefully, the biggest commonality of these 18 online movies that have exceeded the 30 million mark is that they all have certain user advantages in subject matter.
"The Secret Collection of Xiangxi with Ghost Blowing Lights", which ranks in the TOP1 of the sub-account, exceeded 4.5 million at the box office on the first day of Tencent’s video launch. At that time, it broke the box office record of online movies on the first day. As a foreign online movie, its reputation is second only to daoist magic 2020, the 1982 film. Up to now, it is still considered as "The Ferry of the Soul" with excellent box office and word of mouth in the online movie industry, and "fantasy" is their main theme.
In addition, there are films with irreplaceable advantages in theme and content. For example: the unique short video IP is a big internet-"Chen Xiang’s steel-toed invincible at 6: 30", comedy, action. At that time, Iqiyi’s 8-hour online membership effectively watched more than 960,000 movies, an increase of 200% compared with the first film "Chen Xiang’s 6: 30 Nonsense"; For another example, the original film "The Legend of Hunter in Xing ‘an Mountains" mentioned above, and the historical war theme "Bloody Unknown River" and so on.
No film can easily reap high box office, but at the same time, it is necessary to be wary that no film can always reap high box office.
Are the head production/publicity companies still in a stable position?
What new companies have successfully entered the market?
The film and television industry, almost every year in a rapidly changing drama. If there are masterpieces, money and reputation, the company will have industry status.
Take 2018 as a watershed for online movies. At that time, based on the online movie data launched in 2017, Entertainment sir subdivided the number of films produced, the average broadcast volume and the commercial value of the production companies, and found that 25 production companies stood out from the crowd under the weighting of three dimensions.
In the article "93 main producers launched 33 films with tens of millions of works, and the online movie" The Battle of Lian Heng "started", it was mentioned that in 2020, there were 12 online movies produced by Taomeng. Qishu has produced a total of 9 films, of which "daoist magic" became the ceiling of online movies in the first half of 2020; The owners of the new studios have produced a total of 7 films, and "The Secret Collection of Xiangxi with Ghost Blowing Lights" has become an online movie, with the highest box office share so far.
There are 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, and 2 parts of Xiang Brothers Film, Zhonglele Film and Television, Yingmei Media, Naifei Rabbit Cave, Jiji Upward and Wudao Nanlai, respectively, which have broken millions of works; My two works "Ghost Story: Human Love" and "Luo Cha, the Flying Head of Di Renjie" produced by Wudao Nanlai earned 80 million+box office; The four serial online movies of Liaozhai produced by the traditional film and television company, Oriental Feiyun, all exceeded 10 million, with a cumulative share of 92 million+box office.
Time has come to 2021. As of June 30th this year, a total of 33 films broke 10 million. Among them, Yingmei Media’s main products accounted for 4, and nearly 70 million total accounts ranked first; Qishu has 3 fish owners and 2 rabbit cave cultures, followed by the total account; Taomeng produced 3 films, 2 films from Wudao South and 1 film studio.
Later, the owner of Mihe Huaying produced 2 films; The cinema company has brought the film industry closer to the online student market, with the main production of 3 films, with a good result of over 36 million accounts; Similarly, Zhisheng United has produced 2 main products, exceeding 10 million yuan and over 30 million yuan; In addition, frequent online movie investors Jingying Media, Zhongguang Natural Selection, Skyworth cool open, and Xinhua Entertainment also won 3, 3, 2, and 2 pieces of broken works respectively.
Let’s look at the players in the 30 million clubs. In terms of distribution, the new studio film industry leads with 4, while Taomeng, Qishu, Zhongle and Shengshi Entertainment are all tied with 3, followed by 2 from Wudao Nanlai.
On the whole, the changes of head companies in the online movie industry are relatively stable. The works of Taomeng, Qishu, New Studio Film and Yingmei still occupy a large part of the market, but they may need to be changed according to the order of annual accounting amount; Frankly speaking, it is not unexpected that the flying rabbit hole, the old wine in a new bottle, the rice and flowers ran out; At present, it seems that Wanda Film and Television, Shengshi Mutual Entertainment, etc., which come from cinemas and TV dramas, are still forming in-depth cooperative relations with new studios, Taomeng and Qishu.
It is worth mentioning that companies with creative and production capabilities, such as Xiang Brothers Film and Zhongle Film and Television, obviously have a long-term competitive advantage. First, there is no denying that they have become the industry’s favorite, and both the head company and the new entrants hope to establish in-depth cooperation with them; Secondly, they also have the ability to invest and produce their own products, coupled with more mature production teams, experience and resources, which have obvious advantages.
At the same time, the online movie team that cooperates in groups or tends to be fixed has a certain box office guarantee, but in the long run, the development of the industry needs new collisions and new integration. At present, it is a good thing that more and more young filmmakers from the cinema are entering online movies, but how to make them stay after entering the market may be a new topic in the industry.
Redefining movies, has online movies done it?
Low-cost, short cycle and fast capital flow, online video platform is the broadcast medium, which is the attribute of online movies from its birth, and it is very Internet.
In recent years, the development of online movies has always been closely related to the business layout of iQiyi, Youku Video and Tencent Video.
Eight years ago, iQiyi took the lead in putting forward the concept of online movies, and later introduced/upgraded the accounting rules and made online movies public, which made it a leader in the industry. In 2018, Youku launched an online movie, and "The Serpent" became the new sub-account TOP1, and the platform launched the concept of "Monster Universe". In 2020, Tencent video came to an end, and two S+ films, daoist magic 2020 (co-broadcast with iQiyi) and Ghost Story: Human Love, were successively released, which made a good start.
At this point, the platform is further clear to the three-legged situation of online movies. Figuratively, among the 30 million online movie clubs, iQiyi takes the lead in 43%, Youku in 29% and Tencent in 28%, with little difference.
Along the way, the online film industry has become increasingly standardized, progressing and changing, which is obvious. 30 million films are concentrated in 2018 (5 films), 2020 (6 films), September 2021 (6 films) and 2019 (1 film). The saying that "online movies are also movies" has also been put forward in public, but it is obvious that there is still a long way to go before it can be truly recognized.
The core lies in the content value of online movies, which is far lower than commercial from the beginning. Let’s just say that soft pornography, rubbing IP, scratching the ball, etc. can really make a new industry quickly attract attention, but if you want to develop in the long run, obviously none of these ways will work.
At present, the industry has gone through strict policy norms, and the platform also realizes that it is not a good policy to spread money widely. After the phased dividend wave fades, it will take practitioners a long time to bear the price that the quality of content was subordinate to commerce. Back to Xiaobao, the concept of online movies has gone deep into the industry and become a part of China movies. What sir Entertainment wants to say is that as long as the camera doesn’t stop, everything is still moving forward.