China Entertainment King of Science Fiction

"Spang III" is the sequel to "Spang II" and the runner-up at the box office in film history. It not only has a large investment budget, but also has a large number of distribution companies underwriting the film.

Therefore, the production and distribution partners did not dare to take the samples submitted for review of "Spike III" lightly. They paid as much attention to the films directed by Chen Jingxing himself, or even more. Those who came to see the samples were basically the top companies in the company.

A senior executive, or simply a leader.

After all, although the domestic box office record set by "Spike II" has been broken by "Interstellar", there was a three-year gap between 2020 and 2017. The number of screens and the size of the movie market have made great progress. The average ticket price of the movie

The price has also increased a lot.

In terms of the number of movie viewers, "Wolf Fang II" is still the first in film history since reliable data is available.

So in fact, compared to Chen Jingxing's "1951", "Spike III" has a heavier weight in the minds of its partners.

But the result of watching the movie left everyone with mixed feelings.

It is said that there are surprises.

After all, the genre of "Wolf Fang III" has changed a lot compared to its predecessor. It has become a spy suspense action film, with elements of disaster.

As a viewer, the viewing experience of this fairly new action film, which takes place on a giant cruise ship in the ocean, is definitely a surprise.

But as a practitioner in the film and television industry, the thinking logic is naturally different from that of ordinary viewers.

Chen Jingxing has the ability and willingness to make such a decision, not only because he is a major shareholder and has a strong reputation within the company, but also because DreamWorks has sufficient confidence.

Because movies like this are related to whether a company can be profitable throughout the year, or even its rise or fall.

Do you have the ability to create excellent scripts despite changing to a new track?

It is very possible that such a golden hen will be killed directly.

Chen Jingxing "comforted" his old friend.

Of course, I’m not the only one who understands this truth, I just put it into action.”

Audiences will definitely be tired of war action movies. The fact that "Li Yannian" has such a reputation may not be due to the audience's rebellious psychology, because "Li Yannian" is special and different from previous movies of this type.

Of course, with Chen Jingxing's tough attitude and the support of National Film Director Jiang, all the production and distribution partners had nothing to say.

Even if the president says this, he will be overwhelmed by strong opposition.

Because the film and television industry itself, especially the film industry, is an industry where only a few people and a few projects make money, and those who can make big money are even rarer.

Jiangho is not an Internet company, and its capital has no tolerance for losses, even losses for the second consecutive year. That's why it happens that a movie fails to make the money it expected to make, and the stock is cut in half.

Can this sequel continue to reach the audience group that "Spike II" can penetrate? Can it attract audience groups in their fifties and sixties, or even those further away from movie consumption habits, to the theater?

The money DreamWorks made from "Li Yannian" was real corporate profit, at least until DreamWorks made its first loss-making movie.

This is closely related to their interests.

"Red Sea" and "Spike II" are both played well and the results are very good. You suddenly change the track? Who can agree to this?

Zhang Jingyan smiled and nodded, sighing secretly in her heart.

"Looking at how tired you are, why not come to DreamWorks? You don't have to worry about the stock price or losses. You and Lao Xu are old colleagues again."

In the past, cats and dogs, teams and teams that looked unreliable at first glance were able to get investment, and the ecosystem itself was not normal after investing once.

In fact, the target of money trapping is not just the audience. The real target of money trapping is hot money and black money.

It doesn’t matter whether the audience buys it or not, as long as the TV data blows up, even if the movie fails, there will still be a large amount of hot and black money to support these companies, directors, producers, and celebrities who are relying on money to develop more projects.

It can be innovation in story, innovation in presentation, or innovation in concept. This is true for science fiction films, and I also think the same way about war action themes.

After a month of hard work, the box office increased from 1 billion before the release of "Li Yannian" to just over 1.2 billion.

After all the production and distribution partners left with satisfaction, Zhang Jingyan sighed with mixed emotions.

After all, in the past, you could draw as much money as you wanted. Hot and black money was everywhere. Just lay it on the pile of money and let everyone collect money.

Jangho's profit from a certain movie and DreamWorks' profit from a certain movie are not the same concept.

Chen Jingxing nodded: "Don't worry, no problem, '1951' will be released in November, and 'Elysium' will have a better end to the year in December."

Jiang He was already squeezed to the bottom of the top six companies. After the hot money ebbed, the situation worsened. The accumulated debts were also exposed. The movie projects that had been planned before were shelved one after another, and the projects that had been completed were all at a loss.

Jiangho Culture has been in constant decline since the release of "Li Yannian". Its market value dropped from the previous 38 billion to less than 19 billion, nearly halved.

"You are really brave."

In the film market, there is competition between rookies and rivals, but of course the former is the most common.

However, Chen Jingxing naturally could not let Wu Jing bear such doubts. When he noticed this trend, he made a prompt decision and took over the director Wu Jing's words. He set the tone first and said directly that "Spike III" was not right.

Those labeled "Spike II" love cooperation but don't cooperate, and those who don't cooperate will be defeated.

Jiangho's revenue last year was 1.14 billion, but it had no profit. Instead, it lost more than 80 million yuan. There is no momentum for improvement this year.

In other words, 80% of the audience will have to shrink.

The summer season is almost over, and the remaining scraps won't get much box office at all.

A heavyweight project like "Spike III" must be created in the direction of being the safest, most able to attract box office, and able to cover as many movie-watching groups as possible. It is impossible to be unconventional, let alone take risks.

Therefore, "King of the Sky" did not achieve the expected box office results. The consequence is that the money earned by Jianghe from this movie is not enough to cover the losses in other projects, and it may suffer losses for the second consecutive fiscal year.

Chen Jingxing smiled and did not continue to persuade.

It is true that Chen Jingxing is not the only one who knows this truth, but I am afraid that only Chen Jingxing has the courage and confidence to make such a choice.

Even if they still watch this type of genre, they are more inclined to, or like, more novel, non-conventional military genre films.

This is the dilemma faced by most film and television companies after the capital wave fades.

In the current domestic film and television drama market, short dramas with more than ten episodes will not get much advertising revenue no matter how good they are.

When we were recruiting for the fourth quarter, we had already written it down, and the news had been released. I also overcame a lot of pressure and adjusted the schedule to make room. If the ticket bounced, I would be under a lot of pressure, and I was thinking about how to deal with it.

The fourth quarter and annual financial report data are pretty good.”

But it doesn’t make sense to just look at the profitability of a single movie.

Just like "Li Yannian" which is still in theaters and has a box office of 1.42 billion.

But when the tide recedes, this continuous relay of money that separates from the audience will no longer be able to continue. It’s really hard to find money next time to continue to give it to you, let alone those empty paintings.

The cake is gone, no one takes it, no one throws money.

I don’t know how many film and television drama production companies, producers, directors, and stars are fawning over Zhang Jingyan’s position.

No matter how bad Huanshi.com is, it is still a domestic streaming media giant, so what if it loses money every year? The money it spends every year is still astronomical.

This has led to funding becoming more and more conservative, and the number of film and television projects has dropped significantly.

Even if the black money is transferred, whether it comes from high-level officials or casinos, there will be a thick layer of grease left after passing through such hands.

The production cost of this movie was only 200 million. Although the final box office forecast was probably around 2 billion, it was quite shocking and made the industry envious.

After "Spike II" had already achieved such results, suddenly a senior executive said that for the next sequel, we will not follow the original model, we will not evacuate overseas Chinese, and we will not play with mercenaries or other KB elements in Africa or Southeast Asia.

It’s time to fight, let’s not have these grand scenes.

There are two different things when a company encounters difficulties in its development and when its executives are unhappy with their lives.

Movies that make money must first consider whether they can fill the holes dug by money-losing projects and alleviate debts.

Even if the size of the film market has not declined, the debts accumulated in the past have been exposed due to the ebb of capital.

Since 2019, when capital in the film and television industry began to ebb, life has been a bit difficult for everyone.

"I guess the audience will be surprised when they see it. It's a very bold attempt."

But "Li Yannian", with its explosive reputation and high attendance rate, has taken the lead, and it is like a glutton rushing to schedule films.

But of course she can't come.

Although it can stimulate an increase in the number of members in the short term, it is very difficult to recover the sky-high purchase costs by relying on this short-term membership conversion. In other words, it can stimulate the stock price, and it can also be considered as an account to shareholders.

Of course, he is also very happy to have Zhang Jingyan in this position, otherwise how could DreamWorks' three dramas have sold one billion? The domestic network copyright alone has recovered the production costs, and Netflix has made a pure profit.

How big is the risk?

The reason is very simple, if Huanshi.com were the developer of the IP "Langya".

Huanshi.com is also the distributor of "King of the Sky". This movie was completely beaten to death by "Li Yannian".

Of course, the logic behind this is not that "King of the Sky" is a loss.

Set the background on a cruise ship and play a spy and counter-espionage game in a confined, limited and complex space and also in a lonely sea.

"Wolf Fang III" is a high-quality project among high-quality projects. Just because of the name of the movie, no one can refuse to participate in this feast.

Then add some disaster elements such as shipwrecks.

Both "Operation Red Sea" and "Spike II" have achieved unprecedented success. People's first instinct must be to continue this model and style, which will feel safer.

It would be even more confusing to quit, and it is better to earn less than nothing.

Fantasy World not only has a production share, but is also an important publisher of "Langya III".

This logic does not even require the participation of the audience.

The return rate is too high, at least three times the return.

When faced with Zhang Jingyan's lament, Chen Jingxing showed no signs of nervousness and looked at ease: "If you can distinguish between what is long-term benefit and what is long-term success, you will make a decision similar to mine.

In this case, the difference in ranking from first place to third to fourth place is not big. The first place may have 25%, and the fourth place may have 15%.

That is to say, the profit of "King of the Sky" did not meet expectations, which means that Jangho Culture is likely to continue to lose money this year.

Thinking of this, Zhang Jingyan couldn't help but feel a bit sad: "Hey, you are so high-spirited here, but we, Mr. Ren, are worried to death. Previously, the stock price rose by less than 11% based on "Suspect Tracking III", but it was beaten down by "King of the Sky" again.

Already.

In this case, DreamWorks' value is even higher.

Zhang Jingyan waved her hand: "I just worry about hard work. Besides, I was his superior when I was at Donghai Satellite TV. When I got to your DreamWorks, could Xu Wenshen give up his position as president to me? I don't want to work under him.

."

Just looking at it, the return rate is higher than the most dazzling star of the summer movie "Aquila Warrior".

Even if we know that this set cannot be played forever and the audience will be tired of it, which series can last for a long time? Who can care about the long-term strategic development of IP?

The current box office of "King of the Sky" is basically 3 to 5 million on weekdays, and will reach 10 million on weekends.

Zhang Jingyan wisely changed the subject: "Don't talk about these annoying things, can "Elysium" be completed on time in December?

Although Huanshi.com is in trouble, Huanshi.com's executives are among the best in the industry. Zhang Jingyan's existing resources, power and income, including black income, can definitely beat Xu Wenshen, the president of DreamWorks.

The actual production cost of this aerial combat movie, which is known as the Chinese version of "Top Gun", is similar to that of "Li Yannian", and the current box office of 1.2 billion can be considered a huge profit.

I don’t want to keep using this routine, maybe it will earn money for one or two movies, but in the end, it will only make the vitality of this IP wither early.

"Li Yannian" is like this, my "1951" is like this, and "Spike III" is like this. We need to make something different from other similar movies, not repeat the past, and try to provide the audience with a sense of freshness. This in itself is

Methods to maintain IP and maintain reputation.

Story creation is very malleable and malleable, and it would be a waste of its value to fix it on story models such as "Spike II" and "Red Sea".

It is precisely with a reference group like Jiang He that DreamWorks is even more valuable.

Although "Wolf Fang" is different from the Korean War tribute war movie and has a different era background, it is actually the same subject. There will be many war movies and similar action movies in the next few years.

That is, the style and type have undergone such a big change, and the market prospects will definitely become more unstable.

Capital is too sensitive to Huanshi.com, and its bearish sentiment is too strong, and any bad news will be reflected in the market."

Without "Li Yannian", the box office of "King of the Sky" would have been at least five or six billion more than it is now.

Prudence and conservatism of capital are the normal state of the film industry. This is based on the fact that on average, only one out of every ten theatrical films can be a high-risk business that can recover its costs.

Let's do a spy war.

But the continuation of the style does not mean that the results will continue. Secondly, if you don't make changes now, you will suffer losses when "Spike IV" or a further sequel is released.

Zhang Jingyan snorted: "Thank you, it did make me feel a little comforted."

Whether you buy it or not, I can continue filming. Even if I invest ten times, I can still find money to invest in my project and continue filming.

Even for a film industry like Hollywood, which has a global market and mature peripheral development, can even one-tenth of the hundreds of films produced a year be profitable?

There are almost no domestic offline audio and video distributions, and it is not a highland of English culture. It is difficult to widely export, and there are even fewer films that can recover the cost.

"The King of the Sky" is one of the few gift films that Jangho has undertaken, and it has high hopes. The money earned from "The King of the Sky" can help it ease its debts and cover its loss-making projects.

Shareholders will not accept it, and partners will not accept it either.

In fact, inviting Zhang Jingyan was just a courtesy on his part. Of course, if Zhang Jingyan really came, there would be a place for her in DreamWorks.

"If you think about it, you are at least much better than Jianghe. Jianghe has set a record of falling to the limit for six consecutive days."

It was movies like "Li Yannian" that gave Chen Jingxing the capital to gamble.

"Wolf Fang" has a very malleable and plastic background. The Wolf Fang team is not one person, but a group of people. There are many teams below, such as the Lone Wolf Special Commando Team, the Red Blood Cell Special Operations Team and other teams.

"In such a hurry? You broke the pot before the National Day release? I thought you wanted to wait for the Spring Festival release."

Zhang Jingyan was a little surprised, but of course also excited, that Fantasy World would be involved in the release of "1951".

It seems that I can get some blood back from "King of the Sky".

Chen Jingxing pointedly said: "It's just before the end of the year, so there is hope for the Spring Festival."

Zhang Jingyan was a little confused, forgetting that "1951" was divided into two parts.