The Internet + Movie has been called for for so long, but has there been any changes in the film industry?

At last year's Shanghai Film Festival, Bona Film Group President Yu Dong's remarks sparked heated discussions in the film industry, saying that "all future film companies will work for BAT." Soon after Bona Film Group announced its privatization, Alibaba Pictures and Tencent joined the consortium. Bona Film Group also became the last of the three traditional private film companies to be acquired by an Internet giant, following Guangguang Film Group and Huayi Brothers.

The privatization has just been finalized, and at this year's Shanghai Film Festival, Yu Dong said, "If it was me who met Jack Ma, it would be Huayi Brothers that went to Nasdaq."

The continuous statements made in just one year and the changes that Bona has encountered may reflect the anxiety and panic of traditional film companies in the face of the impact of the Internet.

On the one hand, anxious capital is boosting the valuations of film companies, while on the other hand, there is fear that Internet companies will impact the past foundations of film companies.

We cannot deny that Yu Dong has a natural sense of worry as a businessman. At the same time, we should look calmly at the current situation of Internet + movies and see whether the Internet has played a key role besides capital and box office.

Can capital build a film industry chain?

For a long time, Internet + movies were more of a "skimpy" collaboration, including advertising placement, promotion cooperation, etc. However, with the high-profile announcement by Alibaba and Tencent to set up film and television groups last year, there was a surge in Internet companies making movies, such as Blueport Pictures under Blueport Interactive, Giant Pictures established by Giant, the film and television company under 58 Group, and Maoyan Movies under Meituan, etc.

A large number of game companies and video websites have joined the film industry. It can be seen that video websites with similar content platforms and game companies with IP products are no longer willing to play supporting roles. In the eyes of people in the film industry, this is just "wading into muddy waters." Of course, there are precedents of success, such as Disney and Blizzard. But as far as China's film industry is concerned, Internet companies have rushed in. At present, only the growing box office data of the film market is a rare contrast to the current lively scene.

According to data released by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, the total box office of films nationwide in 2015 was 44.069 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 48.7%.

At the same time, Wind statistics show that since 2015, Chinese companies have completed a total of 125 mergers and acquisitions in the film and television industry, with a total merger and acquisition amount of 92.7 billion yuan, making it one of the most active areas of investment and mergers and acquisitions in the domestic capital market.

The growth of box office and the frequent capital operations have made the development of the film market more and more like the early days of the Internet. However, from the perspective of the entire industry, the film industry is far from being as popular as imagined. To put it another way, the box office hits only stimulate the achievements of the category and are far from affecting the maturity of the entire film industry.

Perhaps the famous director Huang Jianxin's words can be used as a reference: "Now some investors who don't understand movies are entering this field with the purpose of making quick money. This violates the rules of the film industry and will damage the quality of the film itself."

Zeng Maojun, president of Wanda Cinema Line, also believes that overheated capital may bring impetuousness to the film industry. The mentality of investors and creators has changed, and the attention to content has decreased, resulting in a decline in film quality and audience aesthetic fatigue, which will affect the long-term development of the film industry. "Some complex film financial products may even cause losses to investors."

The concerns of film practitioners are not unfounded. Relevant data show that there are currently about 700 domestic films produced each year, with an average investment of 20-30 million yuan per film, which means that the production of domestic films requires 15-20 billion yuan of funds each year.

This huge amount of money relies on new companies, new platforms and similar film financial products to provide funding sources. At the same time, a large amount of blind capital has accelerated the production and distribution of movies, but it has also brought adverse effects. The previously exposed investor of the movie "Ip Man 2" created false box office by swiping tickets to offset similar income generated by the sale of Internet financial products.

In the eyes of film industry insiders, in addition to the above capital methods that may have adverse reactions, the Internet is accelerating the transformation of the film industry, and the large number of ticket subsidies through Internet ticket sales platforms are also accelerating the box office blowout. But how long can the ticket subsidies last? Once they stop, can the movie box office still maintain the current growth rate? Perhaps no one can give an answer.

Not long ago, Guangxian invested in Maoyan, Taobao Movies received financing, and Weipiao received investments from Tencent and Wanda. The three major online ticketing platforms have all won the favor of traditional film companies. Anxious Chinese film industry practitioners are wondering, are they also going to be caught up in the Internet competition?

Is the ticketing platform the best connector?

Capital has both advantages and disadvantages for the film industry, and even in a certain sense, it is a love-hate relationship. In reality, capital still has a strong investment nature. Traditional film companies such as Wanda, Guangxian, and Huayi Brothers are all paying attention to online ticketing platforms. Relevant data shows that the online purchase rate of Chinese movie box office has reached as high as 80%, which is largely due to subsidies.

However, judging from the development trend in the second half of 2015, the subsidy war for movie tickets may have slowly cooled down. When traditional profitable film companies invest in ticketing platforms through capital means, ticketing platforms that used to be Internet companies may find it difficult to obtain greater subsidy capital.

Industry insiders told NetEase Technology that it is hard to believe that traditional film companies like Guangguang and Wanda would use the profits from film production to subsidize ticketing platforms to gain a temporary lead in market share. Their investment is more for the purpose of supplementing the publicity and promotion system of their own industrial chain.

"In the past few years, major Internet companies have changed the way most moviegoers buy tickets through apps and ticket subsidies. The data generated by online ticket sales can help Internet companies understand users, influence film publicity and distribution strategies, and even extend further to content research and development and production," said Zhang Qiang, CEO of Alibaba Pictures.

On the one hand, film companies only regard the ticketing platform as part of the publicity and promotion system. On the other hand, judging from Alibaba Pictures’ practice over the past year, the actual effect of this link on the upstream production of the entire industry is not obvious.

In addition, judging from the RMB 8.3 billion valuation of Maoyan when it received investment from Guangxian, as the largest online platform, it is actually less valuable than the second-largest Wepiao, which has a valuation of nearly RMB 10 billion, and the third-largest Tao Piaopiao (formerly known as Taobao Movies), which has a valuation of RMB 13.7 billion. It can be seen that the capital market's valuation reference for ticketing platforms based on simple market share and sales scale is decreasing.

In fact, looking back at an earlier period, traditional film companies like Huayi Brothers and Guangxian have already made some gains in investing in ticketing platforms. Guangxian's investment in Wangti.com and Huayi's investment in Maizo.com have achieved little results so far, and some platforms are almost disappearing.

The impact of changes in ticket sales behavior on the production and production of films is not obvious. Outsiders look at the box office, while insiders look at the production and production. For the establishment of China's film industry, we still have to go back to the most basic links.

A series of capital actions and the clamor for high box office are all capital behaviors, but what actually produces real results for the industry may still be content production, talent training,

The statement by the famous Chinese director Ang Lee may have sounded the alarm for many people who are too excited and eager to make a profit. "I think in terms of China's current film industry, everyone knows that the market is rising and there is a lot of money here. But I think the most important thing is that everyone has a dream of making movies."

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.