The showbiz disrupted by crazy capital
Reporter investigates the chaos in the capital market in the entertainment industry and investment scams
● At present, there are three common film and television investment scams: under the banner of famous film and television companies, directors, popular stars, or important agencies, claiming cooperation and defrauding investment; packaging film and television works into a high-yield financial product, using high yield Bait to attract investors into the game; transfer investment shares to the outside and sell them at a premium in the form of crowdfunding
● In recent years, some listed film and television companies have increased their leverage and made small gains through "star securitization—the target company's “empty shell”—guaranteed issuance, box office fraud to drive up the stock price—buy for self-purchase, reduce holdings and pledge crazy cash out. Capital operation routines have hollowed out many small and medium investors
● It is recommended to conduct a policy-based split to separate the distribution and projection business of the production company. Production companies cannot be theater chains, and brokerage companies cannot do production.
In this way, the agent will protect the rights of the artist, and the production company will negotiate with the brokerage company to reduce the cost of the artist. Only in this way will a benign business format be formed.
□ Our reporter Wen Lijuan
Li Xuezheng was irritated again. This year, in the project introduction of the 47-episode TV series "Iron Army" planned to be operated by a company, the co-producer was marked as "Golden Shield Film and Television Center of the Logistics Support Department of the Central Military Commission."
In fact, this project with a budget of 60 million yuan has nothing to do with the Golden Shield Film and Television Center.
At the same time, he was very helpless-as the director and producer of the Golden Shield Film and Television Center, Li Xuezheng has become accustomed to such film and television investment scams that pretend to be produced by his film and television center or promote financing in his own name.
On August 10, he posted a "solemn statement" in the WeChat Moments, hoping that relevant parties would pay attention to this chaos.
"I feel like I'm fighting fakes every day." On September 3, at the Golden Shield Film and Television Center, I talked to a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily about false projects and investment scams in the entertainment industry. Li Xuezheng frowned and said, "This chaos should be properly rectified. It's a moment."
In recent years, as the market size of the film and television industry continues to grow, more and more capital has poured in. While promoting the development of the industry, there have also been some frauds and investment scams.
For example, in order to attract investment and earn returns, incidents of fraudulent ratings, fraudulent box office fraud, fraudulent Weibo data, and fraudulent rankings have emerged one after another. It is impossible to guard against fraudulent investments by embezzling company names, falsely claiming to be directed by well-known directors or starring stars.
The reporter's investigation found that some bad capital operations in the current film and television industry have spawned many black and gray areas. In addition to hidden legal risks, it is also very easy to cause bad money to drive out good money in the industry, causing serious damage to the industry's ecology.
Film and television project financing celebrities
Investors are recruited because of multiple routines
Li Xuezheng encounters at least four or five cases of "being supervised" and "co-produced" every month. In his opinion, these scams that have been discovered may only account for one-fifth of the total.
In 2017, after the TV series "In the Name of the People" went viral, Li Xuezheng, the director system and chief distributor of the show, entered the public eye.
Since then, fraudulent use of his personal name or the name of his organization to promote financing has occurred from time to time, until it has become a disaster.
On July 4, 2019, Li Xuezheng named the crew of the TV series "Shuangyuan Fengyun" through WeChat Moments, claiming that the other party faked the Golden Shield Film and Television Center to deceive investors and cast and crew.
In the investment preparatory documents of "Shuangyuan Fengyun", the name of Golden Shield Film and Television Center appeared in the column of the producer, and was also listed as the distributor of the play, and Li Xuezheng was listed as one of the director systems of the play.
Three days later, another film and television company used Li Xuezheng's resume without authorization in the planning case. After being discovered, the other party issued an apology letter.
Last year, there was also an "Oolong Incident." Director Ning Hao sent a letter to Li Xuezheng because someone issued a project book under the banner of "Director System Li Xuezheng" and "Famous Director Ning Hao" for financing.
Ning Hao didn't know that Li Xuezheng was also used fraudulently.
Li Xuezheng couldn't laugh or cry about this, "We two real Li Kui, we were scammed by Li Gui as a sign."
Liu Jingcheng, a lawyer from Beijing Tianping (Changsha) Law Firm, has accepted several film investment fraud cases. In his view, Golden Shield Film and Television Center and Li Xuezheng are symbols of authority and professionalism in the film and television industry. Some production companies use this "fake relationship". "Publishing a "fake project" can attract a lot of potential cooperation, and eventually it may be able to successfully raise funds, but this action has damaged the rights and interests of the Golden Shield Film and Television Center and Li Xuezheng's signature right.
Because of being repeatedly "touched porcelain", Li Xuezheng was troubled.
He bluntly said that scams with little influence can only pretend to be invisible, because it is difficult to investigate them all.
At the beginning of the "Itinerant Inspection Team" project in 2019, a film and television company only accounted for 5% of the investment in the project, but claimed that its investment accounted for 50% of the total investment in the show, and released these shares through crowdfunding across the country Go out and release the target is an unspecified person, causing hundreds of people to be deceived.
"Through this kind of operation, the cost can be recovered quickly and the risk is left to the investors below. This kind of operation method is relatively hidden, defrauding the money of unspecified persons, and it is very harmful to the society." Li Xuezheng said.
This is a typical vicious fraud incident, and finally the company was filed for investigation by the public security organs.
According to Li Xuezheng, there are currently three common film and television investment scams: under the banner of famous film and television companies, directors, popular stars, or important agencies, claiming cooperation and defrauding investment; packaging film and television works into a high-yield financial product with high utilization The rate of return is bait, attracting investors to enter the game; foreign investment shares are sold at a premium in the form of crowdfunding.
In addition, according to public reports, there are people who use attractive concepts to attract investment, such as the box office performance of films in theaters as the standard for dividends.
Someone previously claimed on the Internet that the movie "Fox Trailer" has issued 140,000 "print tickets", each of which is 1,000 yuan, and the sum accounts for 50% of the movie's box office dividends, and the box office is expected to be more than 2 billion yuan.
The film once claimed to be released on the prime time in October 2018, and will not be released until 2020.
When the investor went to consult, the other party argued that the "printed ticket" was just a ticket with collection value and ticket function issued by the company.
In Li Xuezheng’s view, some companies that use well-known directors and actors to participate in project promotion are due to lack of funds but are eager to make film and television projects. After using this method to raise money, they will go to those directors and actors who have been faked to cooperate. "But in many cases, good actors and directors have no schedule, and the film crew can only change to shoot. If the contract signed by the investor does not stipulate the main creative personnel, it will be difficult to defend their rights after being scammed."
To make matters worse, some project parties have cheated the money and embezzled it from other places, or even ran away with the money.
"To deal with this kind of thing, we usually make a statement and can't stop it, and few people can see it. If we sue the infringing party, it will not only take a long time, but the other party is mostly a leather bag company and won't get any compensation." Li Xuezheng Said that the cost of breaking the law is too low.
Celebrities staged to promote the stock market myth
Inside the sky-high pay
Why are fake projects and investments so rampant in the entertainment industry?
Li Xuezheng believes that this has something to do with the influx of capital in recent years. "Everyone thinks that the performing arts industry is very profitable, and the industry has swarmed into the industry. Some people have ghosts and use fake projects and fake investment to trap money."
However, the capital market has never been so simple.
So far, people have deep memories of the crazy operation of a star company in 2016 that tried to use 60 million yuan to leverage more than 3 billion yuan.
That year, Long Wei Media, founded by actor Zhao Wei and husband Huang Youlong, tried to acquire the listed company Wanjia Culture for a high price of 3.06 billion yuan.
The registered capital of Longwei Media, which was established only one month ago, has not yet been paid in place, and only 60 million yuan is its own acquisition funds, and the leverage ratio is as high as 51 times.
This move caused a lot of shock in the A-share market.
In the end, the transaction was suspended.
Also in 2016, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange issued a question to LeTV about why celebrities bought shares at a low price. LeTV intends to issue shares and pay cash to 44 shareholders of LeTV Pictures, including a number of big-name movie stars. The Shenzhen Stock Exchange requires the disclosure of LeTV Pictures reports. Detailed financial data for the period.
Baofeng Group intends to acquire 60% of Straw Bear Pictures for a consideration of 1.08 billion yuan. The company's main star shareholders are Wu Qilong and Liu Shishi, with a premium rate of nearly 40 times. The purchase plan was quickly rejected by the Securities Regulatory Commission.
At that time, stimulated by the enthusiasm for film and television companies to go public, many first-line artists gathered to become their bosses and set off a whirlwind of "star shareholders" in the film and television industry. Celebrity IP reached a hot stage of looting in the capital field, and the outside world valued star shell companies. There are doubts.
There are also investors who believe that there is a suspicion that the huge profits of film and television stars will be transferred and the small and medium shareholders will pay for it.
Securities regulatory authorities have frequently issued warnings that star securitization "has a significant impact on the operations and financial statements of listed companies, and is likely to mislead investors."
In 2016, with the miscarriage of some celebrity acquisitions, the "myth of celebrities promoting the stock market" came to an abrupt end.
Although there is no clear regulatory policy introduced, since 2016, no star film and television company has been able to list A shares.
However, some bad film and television capital destroys the ecology of the industry, and the pace of quick gains has never stopped.
The reporter combed and found that in recent years, some listed film and television companies have enlarged their leverage and made small gains. They have adopted "star securitization-the target company's "shell"-guaranteed issuance, box office fraud to drive up the stock price-self-buying and selling, reducing holdings and pledges crazy The capital operation routine of cashing out has hollowed out many small and medium investors.
Li Xuezheng revealed that some listed film and television companies even deliberately package loss-making companies to "cut leeks" to make money from shareholders.
"The real income of some film and television companies is not in their main business, but in the capital market behind them." Screenwriter Guo Mingliang had studied film and television investment, and he found that the stock market had once become a "cash machine" for the capital side.
In 2021, the "first stock of film and television backdoors" in the A-share market, Great Wall Films, was terminated from listing. Zhao Ruiyong, the actual controller of the company, obtained a large amount of highly leveraged funds through backdoors, self-purchasing, self-sales, high holdings, and equity pledges. This was questioned by public opinion. Empty glove white wolf.
Wang Hailin, vice president of the Chinese Film and Literature Society, was a screenwriter of films such as "Legend of Chu and Han Dynasty" and "Iron Teeth Bronze Teeth Ji Xiaolan".
He told reporters that with the crazy blessing of capital games, there are many tricks in the buying and selling links of the film and television industry.
Wang Hailin said that in my country, there is a monopoly in the film and television industry, that is, the production company and the broadcasting platform are one, and the production company and the brokerage company are also one.
"Make it by yourself, then sell it to yourself, and generate profit in the middle. Actually, the agency should raise the cost, and the production company should reduce the cost, but they are the same. If the boss asks the agency to increase the artist’s price, then the artist’s price is Controllable, the return is stable. Once controllable, high profits can be achieved, and the financial flow will be very good. Therefore, film and television companies are particularly keen to sign artists and brokerage companies. As long as artists play, they will be rewarded. The return on the project is relatively uncontrollable."
Why do capitalists favor traffic stars?
Wang Hailin explained that because the capital side can make sky-high remuneration through traffic stars, push up costs, and then make super-long dramas, make super-high unit prices, get a lot of profits, and quickly complete the bet.
He revealed that there is a very broad black and gray zone in the middle, and after making an inflated cost and an inflated price, the price difference can be obtained from it.
For example, through the above-mentioned series of operations, the cost of a play is inflated to 500 million yuan, and then sold for 700 million yuan, even if it is a "guarantee" of 500 million yuan, they can get a huge price difference from it.
Driven by this model, benefits are at your fingertips, and some unhealthy capitalists and the convenience of production do everything they want, which eventually leads to the phenomenon that bad money drives out good money.
"In the sales, the rebates given are many, even if the work is not good, you can sell it at a high price, but the good work can't be sold. They will come up with some convincing arguments for the boss or the platform, and traffic is one of them. Why is this celebrity worth so much money? Why does it need to spend so much money to buy it, because he has traffic.” Wang Hailin said, so the capitalist and the producer will try their best to increase the celebrity’s traffic data.
The flow of celebrities has become a talisman for the capital and the producers.
"From the perspective of the broadcast effect, if the ratings are high, it means that they have chosen the right one; if it is not high, the responsibility can be shifted to the traffic star." Wang Hailin said.
Reshape the evaluation system of film and television works
Calling for China's "Paramount Act"
"Hot money comes quickly, giving birth to a lot of speculators entering the game, falsely reporting sky-high investment amounts, falsely reporting strong personal connections, speculators mingling in the film and television circles, objectively disrupting the industry." Guo Mingliang said.
How to eradicate the chaos in the capital market in the performing arts circle, Wang Hailin believes that efforts need to be made from two aspects, one is to manage the platform, and the other is to solve the monopoly problem.
"Currently there are horizontal monopoly and vertical monopoly." Wang Hailin explained that with regard to horizontal monopoly, several online film and television platforms currently exercise a high degree of control over content and prices; with regard to vertical monopoly, it starts from the so-called IP of literary websites to production, Artist brokerage, broadcasting, publicity, and even data are all controlled by the capital side, forming a closed loop, and this closed loop is opaque and prone to corruption.
He suggested a policy split to separate the distribution and screening business of the production company.
"Call for China's Paramount Act (a bill introduced in the United States in May 1948, which ruled that the vertical monopoly of large studios is illegal). Production companies cannot do theater chains, and brokerage companies cannot do productions. Such a Then, the broker will protect the rights and interests of the artist, and the production company will negotiate with the brokerage company to reduce the cost of the artist. Only in this way will a benign business format be formed." Wang Hailin said.
In his view, the current state has implemented multi-faceted control over the flow-first phenomenon, which will curb the flow of economic growth in the short term, but it is still necessary to speed up the establishment of a new quality assessment system and risk assessment system.
At the same time, establish a new buying and selling mechanism and a play-centered system as soon as possible, use stories to determine projects and prices, and use actual broadcast effects to determine revenue.
"Although the source of some data has been cut off, the capital side can still find ways to find new data and implement new flow algorithms, because now some network platforms only use flow algorithms for project evaluation and trading." Wang Hailin Said, "So we need to change the flow algorithm, so that data assets must be nationalized, publicized, and socialized, and cannot be controlled and used by private capital."
In Li Xuezheng's view, in the performing arts circle, no matter which part of the literary and art workers, they must have the ideological consciousness to condense the power of the masses to create an advanced culture.
Only in this way can we create high-level, structured, warm, and valuable film and television works.
Comics/Gao Yue