Ali Zhang Qiang talks with media giants: the game between entertainment investment and contemporary film

If we talk about the potential of today's film consumption market, we can get a glimpse of it from the average annual growth rate of 48.7% in the film market last year. China's film market has achieved rapid growth in box office for many consecutive years. In 2015, the box office reached 44.069 billion yuan, and the number of screens exceeded 31,000, ranking second in the world. Some institutions predict that in 2018, China will surpass the United States to become the world's largest film box office market. If we look at this annual growth rate, it won't be long before China becomes the king of the global box office.

Under this wave of movie consumption, it attracted various types of social capital to enter the film industry. Along with the rapid growth of the market, financial risks also increased. While the capital injection created prosperity, it also gave rise to bubbles.

Alibaba Pictures CEO Zhang Qiang is full of expectations for the Chinese film market

On June 12, at the "Film and Capital - Love, Not Kill" seminar in Shanghai, Zhang Qiang, CEO of Alibaba Pictures, said that Chinese film capital is currently in an extremely active stage, which is both fresh and unstable. Its activity has also attracted the attention of a large number of domestic and foreign film production teams, especially some excellent production teams in Hollywood. In such an environment, the new model of entertainment capital may gradually take shape in the future with the fluctuations of the market.

At the same time, the promotion of film creation by capital has also spawned many small entrepreneurial teams. These teams are growing like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. With the improvement of the new business model of Chinese films in the future, these small entrepreneurial companies will gradually grow and may become the backbone of excellent domestic original works in the future.

The five years when Bona disappeared

In addition to the enthusiasm of film and television producers, Bona Film Group, as a film distribution company, also expressed its own views in this environment. Yu Dong, founder, chairman and CEO of Bona Film Group, believes that now is the best time for Chinese films. Generally speaking, you need capital to make the film stronger and bigger. At the same time, he also emphasized that every film should be made with awe, and it takes time to make each film. " You can buy excellent IP, but you may not be able to own it completely. Listen to the opinions of professionals and cooperate with multiple parties. The era of fighting alone is no longer there. "

Yu Dong was full of emotion when talking about the five years when Bona disappeared in China. He believed that many companies that were not optimistic about five years ago flourished during the years when Bona went to the United States to develop, and when they returned to China, the situation had changed dramatically.

Looking back at the company's development in recent years, from Bona Film Group's departure from the US stock market to its announcement last year that it would return to the A-share market, in the blink of an eye, the Chinese film market has undergone earth-shaking changes in the past five years. "We went to the United States in the past five years, and when we came back, we found that China's capital market had undergone earth-shaking changes." Bona Film Group founder and CEO Yu Dong smiled helplessly and said, "Bona missed five years of capital support." At this seminar, Yu Dong announced Bona Film Group's plan to privatize. With Bona Film Group's announcement of such news, the future film capital market will be lively again.

IP

In recent years, the "IP fever" has intensified in the Chinese film industry. This IP fever has been hot since last year and is still going strong. Some people can't help but ask whether IP is really that valuable?

Ye Ning, CEO of Huayi Brothers Pictures, believes that the IP that people usually talk about is not the same as that IP . Conventional IP refers to IP content adapted from literary works, online novels, animation, etc. Movie IP is a super IP chain, which is mature IP content such as the Lao Paoer series. Such resources with all the conditions are indeed very scarce for large companies.

They prefer people who understand movies to invest and adapt IP. There is a huge difference between film practitioners who invest in movie IP and non-practitioners. Movies require industrialized concepts and require people with professional perspectives, who know how to balance movie budgets, and who understand movie shooting techniques to invest and cooperate. This is a natural difference from non-professional movie investors.

As Ye Ning's former employer, Wanda Films, and president of Wanda Cinema Line, Zeng Maojun believes that in terms of film production and investment, the results of investing and operating films by experts and non-experts are completely different.
Huang Jianxin, a well-known director and editor, agrees with this statement. As someone who has experience in film production and shooting, he prefers to cooperate with investors who understand movies. The film industry needs rules to maintain the circle of film creation.

China needs to establish a film union system

Comparing the Chinese and American film markets, the United States has a film union system. What is the film union system? Take the United States as an example. In the early days, this kind of union was established to protect the basic welfare benefits, working hours and working conditions of actors. Its purpose is to help film practitioners safeguard their rights and guarantee their working conditions and income. If you are a member of the actors' union, when you are hired, the employer needs to pay the actor a certain salary according to the minimum wage standard stipulated by the union. Once a dispute arises, the union will also negotiate and resolve it for the members. Invisibly protect the rules of the film industry. Whether it is actors, screenwriters, directors or other film practitioners, they implement the rules according to such standards to form a benign and orderly industry cycle.

The current problem with domestic film production is that big movies and low-cost art films dominate, while medium-cost films are gradually disappearing.

This trend is caused by, on the one hand, investment and return rate. Investors hope to earn box office dividends in a short period of time, so they put a lot of money into big-budget, big-production super movies, while ignoring medium-cost conventional movies. On the other hand, it is also caused by the current lack of film industrialization and process standardization. In the future, with the continuous attention of major film companies or relevant government departments, this imperfect system will gradually be improved.

There is a love-hate conflict between capital and film creation itself. Whether to give in to capital to make movies, or to return to the production of movies themselves, is the ultimate question for investors and film creators.

In the future, film investment will require keen strategic insight. Capital power plus sharp insight will drive film capital to invest in the right projects at the right time. Chinese learning as the basis and Western learning as the application, whether it is vision or determination, this is a test for both film investors and film creators.

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.