The Nth failure of the "Three-Body" IP

It took only half a month for "The Three-Body Problem" animation to go from having over 100 million views in a single day when it was officially launched on December 10 to its current collapse in reputation and a Douban score of less than 6.

As the first film and television work adapted from the Three-Body IP, the "Three-Body" animation brought together top production forces such as Bilibili and Tencent's Yihua Kaitian. It took four years to complete, but failed to prevent the failure of this work.

Of course, in the process of adapting the Three-Body IP, the movie version invested by Youzu Pictures at a cost of hundreds of millions of yuan also suffered a disastrous failure, and the TV series version invested by Tencent Video has also been delayed to date. In fact, many other projects are also difficult to reassure.

Since Liu Cixin first transferred the adaptation rights of "The Three-Body Problem" in 2009, 14 years have passed. Many large companies such as Youzu Interactive, Bilibili, Tencent, Ciwen Media, October Culture, Netflix, etc. have participated in it, but now they have not been able to produce a decent work.

If we randomly pick out a few stories from Liu Cixin’s science fiction IP matrix, they are “The Wandering Earth” and “Crazy Alien”. Why does “The Three-Body Problem”, which is more successful and has a larger fan base, always fail in IP operation?

"If there really is someone to judge the merits and demerits of people throughout the ages, one could be sent now to explain the misunderstandings caused by time" - "The Three-Body Problem".

The Three-Body Anime Starts High but Ends Low

The "Three-Body" animation, which started high and ended low, made the participating parties Bilibili-W (09626.HK), Three-Body Universe and Yihua Kaitian experience a roller coaster ride.

On October 29, at the Bilibili 2022 National Creation Conference, the science fiction animation "The Three-Body Problem" announced that it will be broadcast on Bilibili from December 3, and the fans of the Three-Body Problem cheered. After all, this is the first work adapted from the Three-Body IP.

After the release of 49 new contents including "The Three-Body Problem" animation, the Hong Kong-listed Bilibili immediately started a sharp rise for several days. In just 6 trading days, the cumulative increase was close to 40%.

The producer of this animation, Yihua Kaitian, is no ordinary company. This animation production company was founded in Wuhan in 2015 and launched the well-received work "The Cage of Spirits". Later, Tencent became the largest shareholder. Other investors include Bilibili, 37 Interactive Entertainment, Tiantu Capital, etc.

On December 10, the anime "The Three-Body Problem" was finally released on Bilibili. Within ten minutes of its launch, the number of people who were "watching" the show surged to more than 200,000, with more than 1.4 million likes.

For fans of The Three-Body Problem and those who are familiar with the operation history of the The Three-Body IP, this is "the bright sunshine shining into the dark forest."

However, after entering with the famous scene from the novel "Operation Guzheng", the animation "The Three-Body Problem" was questioned for plot inflation in the following episodes. The stereotyping of key characters and the repeated use of human face modeling were also criticized by many netizens.

The plan was announced in 2019, but it was postponed several times and finally met the audience four years later. With the grand worldview of the original work as the basis, fans all want to ask: Is this all you want to show me?

The latest Douban score of the "Three-Body" animation has fallen below the passing line of 6 points to 5.6 points. Only 15% of people gave it a five-star rating and 24% gave it one star.

After the number of views exceeded 100 million on the first day and the cumulative number of views exceeded 200 million in 12 days, although the fifth episode of this work has been launched, the growth rate of its cumulative number of views has begun to plummet.

It seems that the sci-fi animation "The Three-Body Problem" has not been able to carry the banner of the Three-Body IP adaptation. After a brief period of brightness, the dark forest still overwhelmed the bright world.

In recent days, Bilibili's stock price has started to fall, and the gains since its launch have almost been lost.

The Three-Body IP has a troubled fate

The first part of "The Three-Body Problem" was serialized in "Science Fiction World" from May 2006, and the third part was first published in November 2010.

At that time, the copyrights of Liu Cixin's other works were sold one after another, but his most satisfying work, "The Three-Body Problem", remained unsold.

Therefore, when director Zhang Fanfan discovered this work with his keen eyes, he was able to acquire the adaptation rights at an extremely low price of 100,000 yuan in 2009.

When Zhang Fanfan was looking for investment for the Three-Body Film Project, he met Lin Qi from Youzu Interactive.

At that time, Lin Qi had accumulated a lot of wealth because of Youzu Interactive's successful backdoor listing and its huge performance growth. At that time, the concept of film-game linkage and IP operation was also at its peak in the gaming industry. Lin Qi founded Youzu Pictures, hired writer Kong Ergou as CEO, and invested in the movie version of "The Three-Body Problem".

However, Zhang Fanfan’s request was that he must be the director of the film and his wife Song Chunyu must be the screenwriter.

Previously, Zhang Fanfan and Song Chunyu’s main works were "The Secret of the Secret Room" and "The Untouchable Landing of the Secret Room", which were definitely terrible movies.

However, he holds the Three-Body IP and is considered the person in charge of the project, so Youzu Pictures had to agree.

It was officially announced at the end of 2014, and not long after the filming of "The Three-Body Problem" started in 2015, Zhang Fanfan and Lin Qi both felt that they had hit the jackpot.

In August of that year, "The Three-Body Problem" won the Hugo Award for Best Novel at the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention, marking the first time an Asian work has won the award.

This milestone work of Chinese science fiction quickly became famous around the world. Its commercial value also increased significantly, and it was later selected as the annual national IP, becoming one of the most promising science fiction IPs in the world.

Despite high expectations, the "Three-Body" movie has been repeatedly delayed. It was originally scheduled to be released in 2016, but there is still no sign of it until now.

Even so, Lin Qi continued to increase his investment. He poached Xu Yao, assistant to the president and legal adviser of Fosun Group, and in 2018 spent 120 million yuan to acquire the Three-Body IP that Zhang Fanfan had acquired at a cost of 100,000 yuan, and established the Three-Body Universe Company, which is specifically responsible for the operation of the Three-Body IP.

During those years, Lin Qi continued to sell off shares of Youzu Interactive and also took away hundreds of millions of yuan of funds from the listed company. In addition to his own divorce, house purchase and other expenses, a considerable portion of it should have been invested in the Three-Body Universe.

“Next to this golden belief, I will hold up a light for them.” Lynch is the one who holds up the lighthouse for the Three-Body IP.

Adaptation failed repeatedly

Xu Yao, who has a legal background, is an expert in IP copyright management. However, IP operations involve many fields. Can he become an excellent "sword wielder"?

After the great success of "The Wandering Earth" and "Crazy Alien", adaptations of Liu Cixin's works in 2019, the operation of the Three-Body IP has been accelerated and various Three-Body IP adaptations have begun to be launched.

In addition to the movie version of Youzu Pictures, the animation version of Bilibili and Yihua Kaitian, the more influential ones include at least the movie version of October Culture, the American drama version of Netflix, the TV drama version of Tencent Video, and the game version of Youzu Interactive.

After the bad ending of Youzu Pictures' film version of "The Three-Body Problem", plans for a new version of the film were put on the agenda early on.

In June 2020, the official Weibo account of "The Monkey King: Hero is Back" announced that Tian Xiaopeng, the director of "The Monkey King: Hero is Back", will be the director of "The Three-Body Problem". Yi Qiao, the founder of Color Strip Pictures, an animation production company under Enlight Media, and Han Yunyun, the chief producer, joined October Culture, the production company of "The Monkey King: Hero is Back" and "Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World", and became the producer of "The Three-Body Problem".

However, the market's doubts are the same: Zhang Fanfan and Song Chunyu, who specialize in making bad suspense films, couldn't make a good science fiction film like "The Three-Body Problem". Can October Culture, which specializes in making Chinese animated films, make a good one?

Netflix's American TV series "The Three-Body Problem" also started in 2020. In September this year, the show released its first trailer, revealing the style, characters and scenes for the first time.

The fact that this drama was directed by Chinese director Zeng Guoxiang, whose major works include "Soulmate" and "Better Days", is still a cause for concern.

Those who make suspense films, Chinese cartoons, and youth films all come to direct "The Three-Body Problem". Is it really true that there are no directors who can choose from when it comes to science fiction films?

In August 2020, Tencent Video officially announced the cast and concept posters of the TV series "The Three-Body Problem", starring Zhang Luyi, Yu Hewei, Wang Ziwen, and Lin Yongjian, and produced by Linghe Film and Television, a joint venture between Tencent, Alibaba, Ciwen Media, and iQiyi.

The filming of this work was completed in December 2020, the first official trailer was released in November 2021, and a new trailer was released in June 2022. It was originally planned to be broadcast in September 2022. It could have become the first film and television adaptation of "The Three-Body Problem", but there is still no definite broadcast information.

There are a lot of film and television materials about "The Three-Body Problem" on the Internet, including posters, videos, etc. Half of them are from the Youzu Network movie version starring Feng Shaofeng and Zhang Jingchu, and the other half are from the TV series version starring Zhang Luyi and Yu Hewei.

The most unpredictable thing is the game version of Youzu Interactive.

As a veteran in IP hype, Youzu Interactive once developed a game version of Game of Thrones, which was launched at the peak of the hit series and boosted its stock price. However, after the game product was released, it did not make any splash.

Do you believe that this company will develop the Three-Body IP into a game product in a reasonable form? In other words, do you believe that the Three-Body IP can be developed into a game?

It has been 14 years since Zhang Fanfan acquired the Three-Body IP. With so many companies involved, there is still only one animated version of the Three-Body IP adaptation that has been fully launched.

After a series of failures in these projects, the biggest dilemma facing the Three-Body IP is that even fans of the novel no longer have hope for the Three-Body IP adaptation. They even imitated the tone of the Three-Body IP and said: Don’t start filming, don’t start filming, don’t start filming.

Where will the great IP go?

Why are Liu Cixin's other IPs able to achieve outstanding success in film and television adaptations, such as China's most successful science fiction film "The Wandering Earth", but the Three-Body IP adaptations, which have a greater influence and a wider audience base, have failed repeatedly?

The root of all problems is human beings. As the book The Three-Body Problem says, “weakness and ignorance are not obstacles to survival, but arrogance is.”

Zhang Fanfan took advantage of the opportunity to get the Three-Body IP, but overestimated his own capabilities and wanted to adapt this grand story on his own, which delayed the best time for film adaptation.

Kong Ergou, CEO of Youzu Pictures, was even more "high-spirited" in the early days: "A great science fiction work like The Three-Body Problem must be made by the Chinese, and it must be ruined in the hands of the Chinese." Unexpectedly, his words came true.

Lin Qi's success at Youzu Network is a product of the era of imitation in China's online gaming industry. He thought that if he invested a lot of money, he would be able to reap the rewards. Unexpectedly, he was stabbed in the back by an insider named Xu Yao. The man who "held up the lighthouse for the Three-Body IP" died in disgrace.

Among those who participated in the operation of the Three-Body IP, some died young, some were thrown into prison, and the rest disappeared from the world. Almost no one escaped unscathed.

This also shows that the IP operation in China's pan-entertainment market still has a long way to go. "Thinking that you have experienced many vicissitudes of life, in fact, you have just taken your first steps; thinking that you have understood the secret of survival competition, in fact, you are far from being qualified to compete."

They all pursued commercial success too much and ignored the essence of The Three-Body Problem as an IP. They also misinterpreted Liu Cixin's warning in The Three-Body Problem, giving reality science fiction instead of giving science fiction reality.

Now that Lynch has passed away, the Three-Body Universe has fallen into the awkward situation of being leaderless, with a great IP but no one to lead and operate it.

Lin Qi's main company Youzu Interactive has been in losses for many years due to weak products. The once leading A-share gaming company has now become a "backswimmer" waiting to be sold at a high price.

The company's current manager, Lin Qi's ex-wife Xu Fenfen, has almost the only plan to sell Youzu Interactive and Three-Body Universe.

Bilibili is one of the shareholders of The Three-Body Universe. The two parties have extensive business cooperation around the Three-Body IP. At the same time, Chinese comics and games are also the two core focus areas of this company. Therefore, Bilibili was once considered the most ideal successor to Youzu Interactive and The Three-Body Universe.

However, Bilibili has been suffering from long-term huge losses and has recently been reported to have laid off employees. How could it have the energy to acquire this super IP that has both value and risks?

Other potential buyers of the assets, such as Tencent and ByteDance, all have their own problems. Therefore, two years after Lin Qi's death, Youzu Interactive and Three-Body Universe have been sinking deeper and deeper into the quagmire of business, and have never been able to wait for the power of the wilderness to help them.

This is probably the ending that Liu Cixin and Lynch least want to see.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.