Small film and television company guarantees the release of the gambling bureau: the source of heavy gold grabs more than "cannon fodder"

The film is satisfied, and the issue is profitable. Numerous success stories have made the guaranteed release a win-win deal for most people. However, with the disclosure of the astronomical figures, the risk of guaranteed issuance is also coming.

Beijing Dianjiao Yinghua Culture Media Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the drama corner painting) is a typical case on the “window”. In the "Scorpion Flower", "The City in Love" and "Master", it was not an ideal bottom-scoring result, which made the drama of the drama in the guarantee release.

As a film and television company that started with film marketing, why does the drama of the corner film participate in the guaranteed gambling? In response, the chairman of the company, Liang Shu, said in an interview with the reporter of "Daily Economic News" on July 14: "If I don't pay for it at the time (the bottom of the book), "The Gardenia" is not available. For the drama at the time, as an independent film distribution company, the film "Scorpion Flower Blossom" is a big IP, also based on the director He teacher, based on Li Yifeng's first starring movie, these factors, the corner As a company with rich marketing experience, it is a reasonable judgment to choose this film to guarantee the bottom. In the end, this movie is also one of the four 2D movies that broke the 100 million in the country on the first day, but for various reasons, the box office did not reach the ideal. degree."

In fact, the drama of the drama is not a case. Like countless private film and television companies that are eager to prove themselves to the market, it is their back-to-back battle to fight for the rights of the movie. In the case of imperfect film production capabilities, the high guaranteed amount determines whether it can get popular movie content resources in the contest with the five major publishing companies. For the current corner of the film, the company is more willing to focus on content production.

For the film, do not hesitate to take the blood

The film was established in June 2009. It started as a social film marketing company and gradually became involved in film and television investment, distribution and cinema operations. The current valuation is 1 billion yuan.

According to ChinaVenture data, in 2013, the actor’s film won the A-round financing of tens of millions of yuan from Tongchuang Weiye; in less than one year, it won the 60-yuan B-round financing of Tianxing Capital and Tongchuang Weiye. In February, it completed tens of millions of C-round financing, led by Aofei Entertainment 002292 (002292, SZ).

Even with the “protection drive” of the above-mentioned institutions, the filming of the drama in the film distribution is still a recruit. It is also a bloody book to be able to win the distribution right of “Zizihuakai”. In the end, the film won a box office of 380 million yuan, becoming a typical film of low-cost high-selling box, but the box office still has not reached the guaranteed amount of about 400 million yuan in the drama.

Liang Shu said that based on the evaluation of the quality of the film, the company signed a guarantee agreement with the film before the film was launched. It hopes to let the market know the drama through the "Zizihuakai". "We can only make this movie." The industry knows the corner, and we are satisfied at the final box office."

According to the report of the entertainment capital, the drama of the drama also suffered different degrees of "trauma" in the two films of "The City in Love" and "Master".

In this regard, Liang Hao specifically clarified to the "Daily Economic News" reporter, the company's real single-chip buyout guarantee is only a movie "Zizihuakai".

According to Liang Shuming, the company and the film party did not guarantee the film's guarantee before the film was released because of the failure to completely dominate the "City in Love". However, due to poor communication, the company and the film party’s lawsuit on the guarantee agreement In the second instance. In addition, the film "Master"'s guarantee work is part of the cooperation between Beijing Film Partner Culture Media Co., Ltd., one of the film production and film production parties. In the future, the two sides will cooperate in the TV drama section.

Liang Shuan said frankly that when the company does not have the ability to make explosive films, it is most straightforward to cut into popular movies in the form of guaranteed distribution.

Small film and television companies become more "cannon fodder"

The reporters found out that most of the players are large film companies or financial capital forces, and there are not many small film and television companies like the film corner.

In the view of senior film and television investor Cao Haitao, the small film and television "poor money" is inevitably reduced to cannon fodder in the "hobby gambling" issued by the guarantee.

According to Yi En Consulting, although a few issuing companies have entered the market with explosive films, the film distribution market is still the world's top five traditional private publishing companies. In 2015, the domestically produced films issued by the traditional five major private publishing companies accounted for 63% of the box office.

Liang Shuming also recognized the risks behind the high stakes gambling bureau and admitted that the company's future business focus is more on film content production, and will no longer guarantee the film. "We have proved ourselves to the market, and then we are talking about the content. Content is the core competitiveness."

Compared with the original intention of small film and television companies to take the right to declare movies, the purpose of financial capital to participate in the guarantee is more direct. Cao Haitao believes that the bottom-up is a shortcut for cross-border capital to cut into the entire film and television industry. Many financial games in the distribution process are favored by capital.

The reporter noticed that whether it was because of "Heart Flower Road" went to the Beijing Culture 000802 at the front and back of the film and television, or because of the "Mermaid" hit and the film industry, the capital forces involved in the guarantee release were simply and violently poured into the film industry. .

The first batch of players, Bona Film CEO Yu Dong, bluntly at this year's Shanghai Film Festival, the result of the capitalization of film products was triggered by the Ponzi scheme.

Wang Changtian, chairman of Light Media 300251, also publicly stated that according to past experience, the vast majority of box office guarantee projects ultimately failed, and the guarantee issuance is more susceptible to economic law, and does not believe that the guarantee is the mainstream.

When finance pulls up the hand of the film, the symbiosis with high return on investment is the increasingly crazy industry chaos. ""Ye Wen 3" has already sounded the alarm." In Cao Haitao's view, the establishment of a film-guarantee system and other healthy ways of participation is an important path for financial and film love.

Industry perspective

Wu Siyuan, Chairman of UME Cinema Management Group: The bottom of the guarantee is equal to the gambling speculation movie sooner or later.

â—ŽEvery time the reporter covers the source

When Tangde Films and Television 300426 announced on July 8 that it would sell the company’s film “Jesus Escape” box office income rights for 1 billion yuan, the guarantee release appeared to be more popular in this summer file. However, the guarantee issuance is more like a “variation” in China, which binds the risk to the box office to gain more revenue.

For this kind of strong intervention in film distribution, people in the film circle are more repulsive. Wu Siyuan, chairman of UME Cinema Management Group, said in an interview with the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that "the bottom of the guarantee is equal to gambling, which will make the film market very abnormal."

Wu Siyuan said that the guarantee is actually very risky. "The bottom of the guarantee must be optimistic about this film, which is considered profitable, but there is never a certain law in film distribution. Moreover, the current guarantee is making the production cost higher and higher. The bottom of the box office is not good, there will be a lawsuit."

Issuance is an important part of the film industry chain. In the past, the issuing company did not guarantee the bottom. Wu Siyuan believes that the issue of the company's rules and regulations is a normal way of operation, but now the distribution process is prone to become tricky. "In order to achieve the guarantee, the box office may be fraudulent. There are also some distribution companies and production, cinemas in a line, in When encountering a rival movie, the cinema may not be ranked or less. These are harmful to the film industry."

According to the reporter's understanding, in the Chinese box office, the production, distribution, cinema, and theater must be shared. If there is no guaranteed release, the proportion of the issue in the total box office account is very low, and with the guaranteed release, the issuer can get more box office income than the guarantee.

In Wu Siyuan's view, the issuing company should do its job well, "but now the bottom-up is to mess things up, use the film as a business, and speculate like a real estate speculator. Now there are 10 companies that produce a movie. There was no such phenomenon before."

Wu Siyuan said that the outside world is talking about how fast the box office growth rate has been in recent years, but it ignores the quality. "In fact, the income of each screen is declining. The movie market is on fire. Thousands of movie companies have been born overnight. Everyone. Flocking to make quick money, it’s like buying and selling stocks."

It seems that the guarantee is a willingness to make a wish, the issuing companies compete with each other, but in Wu Siyuan's view, "the bottom of the guarantee is equivalent to gambling, so that they all go to big movies and big productions. If there are several large blockbusters at the box office If it is not good, there will be a chain reaction, and the market will be chaotic. For example, if the movie theater does not pay the bill, the company can't give the guarantee to the producer, and the producer can't pay the star salary. If you do this, you will have something big sooner or later."

Case reproduction

Summer guarantee release battle: "The Mermaid" guarantees the side to appear "Jesus Escape"

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Fan Bingbing and Jackie Chan's "Jesus Escape" will be released on July 21, and one of the film's producers, Tang De Film and Television (300426, SZ), announced on July 8th, and Hehe Film, Lianrui Pictures, Zhonglian The three companies of Huameng Culture Media signed a guaranteed distribution agreement to sell the company’s box office proceeds of “Jesus Escape” at a price of 1 billion yuan. This means that before the film was released, Tangde Film and Television had received a cash income of 306.7 million yuan.

Guaranteed issuance has become the way to compete for the distribution rights of this summer's summer movie. In addition to "Jesus Escape", Hengye Film is the bottom of "Summer has a arbor and arrogance", and the "To Youth 2" that is being released has a lithography era guarantee.

Tangde has made a net profit of 106.7 million

In the guarantee of the "Jesus Escape", and the film industry and Ruilian film industry eye-catching, they have participated in the current highest box office movie in China, "Mermaid" 1.6 billion to 1.8 billion yuan in the guarantee bureau, and the film industry is The lead person, Ruilian Film is the executive issuer. This movie with Zhou Xingchi's super IP finally harvested 3.39 billion yuan at the box office, so that the bottom of the insurance earned a lot of money.

This time, the guarantee contract of "Jesus Escape" details the box-type income structure of the box office outside the guarantee: if the mainland box office is between 1 billion and 1.2 billion yuan, the excess part of the Tangde film of more than 1 billion yuan accounts for 70%. Fang accounted for 30%; box office was between 1.2 billion and 1.4 billion yuan, Tangde and Baodi were divided into 50%; box office was over 1.4 billion yuan, more than 1.4 billion yuan, Tangde film accounted for 30%, and the guarantee party 70 %; at the box office of 1.4 billion to 1.9 billion yuan, the guaranteed party agreed to withdraw 10% of the excess portion as a publicity award.

It is understood that "Jesus Escape" is a global sub-account film, the cost of the declaration is not less than 50 million yuan, all undertaken by Tang De Film and Television. Tangde’s film investment in this total cost of 50 million US dollars accounted for 45%, or 22.5 million US dollars (about 150 million yuan). According to the current guarantee agreement, Tang De Film and Television, one of the investors, has actually recovered the investment cost. According to the 50 million yuan declaration fee, it has made a net profit of 106.7 million yuan.

The bottom-up issue transfers the investment risk of the film to the issuance process, which makes the investor's return period greatly shortened, and it is naturally not welcomed by investors. The guarantor side has bound the more risks to the expected box office through the agreement on gambling, and has its own plot.

According to the Chinese box office sub-accounting system, the issuer's split ratio to the box office is 2% to 6%. After the guarantee is issued, the issuer can share more box office receipts once the box office exceeds the guaranteed amount.

The game between capital and film is at the box office

However, the guarantee issuance allows the issuer to take on more risks, but since the movie box office is difficult to predict, the success rate of the guarantee is not high. According to the incomplete statistics of entertainment capital theory, from 2013 to the present, in the typical case of domestic film guarantees, the success rate of guarantee is only 50%.

In order to reduce investment risks, the guarantee is also evolving. The identity of the guarantee party tends to be diversified, the listed company buys out the box office revenue right, and the box office topic affects the company's stock price in the secondary market; many capital party group funds guarantee the bottom, and even the traditional issuing company that does not want to guarantee the bottom is wrapped in it. .

According to the reporter's understanding, Feng Xiaogang's new film "I am not Pan Jinlian", which is expected to be released in the second half of this year, also has a more special form of guarantee. The Yaolai film with 15% investment right in the film paid 2 before the film was filmed. 100 million yuan guaranteed.

The guarantee is basically a game of capital and film, which is basically at the box office. The completion of the international film market guarantees, the guarantee of the sub-account, the insurance is not a box office.

In the eyes of professionals in the film circle, the guarantee issuance is more like a capital-driven gambling. The pros and cons of the guarantee is basically that the guarantee is really at the box office, or "the meaning of drunkenness is not in the wine."

Expert interpretation

Zhou Tiedong: The bottom of the guarantee is only a capital-driven gamble, ten gambling and nine losses or even gambling will lose.

â—ŽEvery time the reporter covers the source

Capital is involved in the film, making the new gameplay of the guaranteed release more and more popular. However, in the past, the distribution of traditional movies did not have the practice of guaranteeing the issuance. Is the film circle popular or exclusive to the new gameplay?

In this regard, "Daily Economic News" reporter interviewed Zhou Tiedong, a senior film industry veteran who has been a senior executive of film companies such as China Film and New Film Association, and who is very familiar with Hollywood and Chinese movies.

The “emerging concept” of the Chinese film market

Zhou Tiedong said that the three major aspects of the film revenue process, production, distribution and screening, are three different sub-industries in which the film industry complements each other and have a symbiotic relationship. The producers found the publisher, who relied on the exhibitor's retail outlets to deliver the movie to the audience and then give back to the producer. At the production stage, the “Finishing Guarantee” mechanism, which has just entered the Chinese people’s field of vision, attempts to tie together the production, distribution and screening to achieve a symbiotic relationship.

The completion guarantee involves the producer, the capital party, the guarantee company and the issuer. It is the guarantee company's investigation, identification and judgment of various professions that can be put together to make this kind of completion guarantee structure possible. This type of security is limited to high-cost independent production projects, and large Hollywood companies generally do not use this arrangement to ensure that their projects are “completed on time and within budget”.

In the completion guarantee structure, the issuer who enters in advance must promise the guarantee company a minimum issuance margin, which will be paid to the producer after the film is produced, and the producer can hold this under the operation of the guarantee company. The share guarantee contract is required to borrow money from the bank or other capital party in advance to produce the film.

Contrast the film guarantee, Zhou Tiedong pointed out: "At present, the popular film-issuing distribution in the Chinese film market lacks the crucial guarantee company link. It is this lack of the doorkeeper of this profession that makes the guarantee-issuance issue a capital-driven bet. So that ten gambling and nine losses will be lost even if they are gambling."

The bottom-up is the “emerging concept” that emerged after capital favored the Chinese film market. Zhou Tiedong said that capital is abundant, which is the inevitable choice for capital profitability. However, even in the United States, where the film industry is developed, there is no guarantee. The most common way is to have international guarantees in the international film market. The bottom of the guarantee, but the guarantee here is based on copyright, not for the box office. For example, a film, the film's expected copyright fee is 5 million US dollars, but the issuer is not very confident, not willing to buy out once, it will be with the production The party agreed to a minimum margin, such as 500,000 US dollars, and the rest will be divided according to the agreed proportion. If both parties are full of confidence in the project, then this minimum margin is not required, but the insurance is not fully funded. The release of Hollywood blockbusters in China is no guarantee. ."

Zhou Tiedong said that the above-mentioned internationally accepted bottom-up accounts have nothing to do with the film box office. The box office of the movie is "cannot be guaranteed." "The charm and risk of the film is also the uncertainty of its box office. It is this that gives the capital a ride. machine."

From Zhou Xingchi's film "Journey to the West" to let the outside world know about the release of the guarantee, the recent release of the guarantee has not only intensified, but also the identity of the guaranteed issuer is diversified. The guarantee release of "Xiyou Devil's Piece" and "Spirit of Hearts" is a traditional film and television company with experience in film distribution. However, after the pure capital party began to intervene in the guarantee release, some companies have the background of fund companies, and are good at capital operation. The fund-issuing cases have been capitalized, and the guarantee is issued with a small and big color.

Guaranteed release is easy to produce water injection box office

On the surface, the guarantee is a competitive means for the issuer to seize the right to distribute high-quality films. In the context that large film companies may monopolize large-scale distribution rights, some companies want to compete for the distribution rights of good films, and will propose a guaranteed release to the producers.

Zhou Tiedong said that if the normal guarantee is intended to be at the box office and tends to be rational, there is no problem in itself, but the fear is that "the meaning of drunkenness is not in the wine." "The hot money investment film always needs channels, must be hyped, and the guarantee is issued. A obviously high price, such as 2 billion yuan, is more like an advertisement in my opinion. At this time, the bottom of the guarantee is more likely to use the topic of the bottom of the box to achieve other purposes, the bottom of the guarantee may be lost, but the investment in the guarantee can be In other places, I earned it by other means. This is 'the wool is on the dog and the pig pays the bill'. In addition, the high-end box office is more likely to produce box office water injection."

Although the movie box office is uncertain, it is not without experience to predict the box office based on the film investment cost and film quality. This is the basis for the completion of the film guarantee.

In Zhou Tiedong's view, the amount of guaranteed margin issuance should be in line with the general cognitive rules of the industry. "According to the situation in Hollywood, a small production film, the general box office must be three times the cost of production and declaration to be profitable. A blockbuster will take 4-6 times to make a profit. A cinema movie, a film costing 100 million yuan, if the film quality, creation lineup and other aspects are no problem, there is no doubt that the guarantee is 300 million to 500 million yuan. If it exceeds a few It’s a bit abnormal, it really needs industry common sense, and now the bottom-up issue is a common sense. Sometimes the film will involve the cost of falsehood, and if it is guaranteed, it will be even higher.”

According to international practice, the issuance has different forms according to the terms of the contract, and one is the issuance of the cost, that is, the issuance fee. Zhou Tiedong said: "The ratio of issuance fees is determined according to the issuing capacity and platform. Large companies may take 25%, which is equivalent to issuing labor costs."

The other is to issue the proportion of participation in the sub-account, the production cost is 50 million yuan, and the additional investment is 50 million yuan. When the box office is divided, the issue is 50%, and the issuer must also receive the issue fee. "This is also a game, it is a matter of business negotiation. There is nothing wrong with it." Zhou Tiedong said, what form can be talked about, but the guarantee must be observed and its effect. "If you use the high-end box office to tell the story, you can reach the story." The purpose of making money, then the box office of the movie has deviated from the industry itself, and has become a hype tool."

Biography

Zhou Tiedong, former general manager of Beijing New Film Co., Ltd., China Film Group Corporation, and visiting professors and visiting researchers at many domestic and foreign universities and research institutions.

Since 1984, Zhou Tiedong has conducted comprehensive research on the domestic and international film industry, and worked in Hollywood for ten years from 1995 to 2005. For more than 30 years, Zhou Tiedong has written more than 600 long and short articles for domestic and foreign film newspapers and periodicals, and published 15 translations and writings. The total number of translated and written texts is about 8 million words.

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