Reporter Xie Ruolin
On the evening of June 13, director Wang Yichun posted on the Weibo platform to report Huanxi Media's "false tax deduction".
She said that after the cooperation with Huanxi Media's new film "Kidnapping Mao Huhu" was unilaterally stopped, the other party cheated on tax deductions.
On June 14, Huanxi Media issued a public statement saying that there were many inaccuracies in the Weibo directed by Wang Yichun.
The cooperation between Huanxi Media and Director Wang Yichun has resulted in a dispute, and the facts and merits have been tried and determined by the people's court.
"On the whole, this is the issue of attribution of responsibility after the filming of a cooperative film was stopped." A producer who did not want to be named said in an interview with a reporter from "Securities Daily" that there have been two recent incidents of this kind. The probability of annual occurrence is not small, mainly because offline movies are under pressure, and upstream companies are in a difficult situation.
"Huanxi Media re-evaluates existing projects and makes adjustments to save money, which is a common practice in the industry. But the company has not done the finishing touches, which is emotionally impersonal."
Binding a number of well-known directors
Xu Zheng and Ning Hao hold shares
The predecessor of Huanxi Media was 21 Holdings.
In 2015, Dong Ping, an industry leader, joined hands with Ning Hao and Xu Zheng to subscribe for the shares of Hong Kong Stock 21 Holdings and completed a backdoor listing.
Subsequently, Huanxi Media built a huge team of contract directors, including Chen Kexin, Wang Jiawei, Zhang Xiaoling (Zhang Yibai), Gu Changwei, Zhang Yimou, Jia Zhangke, etc.
The main reason why Huanxi Media is well known to the outside world is its deep bond with Ning Hao and Xu Zheng. Both directors serve as non-executive directors of the company.
Relying on a strong team of directors, Huanxi Media has continued to make excellent works in recent years. Its representative works include "Win the Championship", "My Mother", "My Hometown and Me", "I'm Not the God of Medicine", "Crazy Alien", and "My Motherland and Me". "Children of Jianghu" and so on.
Huanxi Media's business covers the entire industry chain from investment, filming to screening, and has also created a streaming media "Huanxi Premiere".
Film production is also where the company is good at, and the company has invested in a large number of projects.
According to the Tianyancha App, Huanxi Media established Huanxi Film and Television Investment Co., Ltd. in 2015.
Through this company, Huanxi Media directly or indirectly holds wholly-owned shares in Taizhou Huanxi Culture Investment Co., Ltd., Huanhuaxi (Tianjin) Culture Investment Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Huanhuaxixi"), and Beijing Huanshixi Culture Media Co., Ltd. company.
Among them, Huanhuaxixi is a company that signed a film contract with director Wang Yichun and others. It has filed lawsuits for rights protection for many times due to the infringement of the information network dissemination rights of the works. The films involved include "One Second", "Crazy Alien", "Manslaughter", "Manslaughter" Warm Hugs" etc.
Reported by the real name of the co-director
Trapped in "false tax deduction" Rashomon
Wang Yichun stated that in October 2019, he and Huanxi Media reached a cooperation intention, agreeing to be funded by Huanxi Media and Wang Yichun to come forward to complete his new film "Kidnapping Mao Huhu".
Subsequently, Wang Yichun established Henan Jingshen Film Co., Ltd. ("Jingshen Film" for short), and the two parties signed a production agreement.
"In May 2020, Jingshen Pictures received 40% of the production fee of 5.51 million yuan. In the following June, Huanxi Media stopped the project on the grounds that after the epidemic, the company re-evaluated the current project and finally decided to put the project Pause. This is the status quo faced by many companies'." Wang Yichun said that at that time, Jingshen Films had spent 960,000 yuan due to the preparation of the film.
Disputes arose between the two parties over the amount paid, which eventually went to court.
The court ruled that it was confirmed that the "Kidnapping Maohuhu Contract" signed by Huanhuaxixi and Jingshen Pictures was terminated; Jingshen Pictures returned Huanhuanxi's investment funds and compensated for economic losses and liquidated damages, totaling about 5.77 million yuan.
In this regard, Jingshen Pictures filed an appeal, but the appeal was dismissed by the court of second instance.
Wang Yichun said that before this, Jingshen Media had issued a value-added tax invoice of 5.51 million yuan to Huanxi Media.
However, when Jingshen Media returned the relevant funds, the staff of Huanxi Media repeatedly shied away from the refund/redemption, resulting in Jingshen Films needing to pay an additional enterprise income tax of nearly one million yuan.
"I worked for Huanxi Media for a year, and I didn't get a cent of the screenwriter's fee, the director's fee, and the production fee. I even found them more than 1 million yuan." Wang Yichun said.
However, Huanxi Media responded, “Many points of Weibo articles by Director Wang Yichun are inconsistent with the facts. After the cooperation between Huanxi Media and Director Wang Yichun was terminated, the contract between the two parties has been terminated, and the copyright of the relevant script has been returned. Huanxi Media has always complied with tax laws and regulations and is legal Handle the tax matters involved in the above disputes.”
Film market downturn
Investors reduce the number of projects
Affected by the repeated epidemics, the film industry is currently in a difficult time, and the situation of Huanxi Media is no exception.
The financial report shows that in 2020 and 2021, Huanxi Media’s performance has continued to lose money, with a cumulative loss of HK$472 million in two years.
Mainly due to the delayed release of the cinema films invested by the Group and the decrease in box office revenue, coupled with the decrease in government subsidies, and the increase in copyright amortization expenses due to the continuous optimization of the content of the online video platform "Huanxi Premiere", the days of Huanxi Media were somewhat sad. .
Taking 2021 as an example, Huanxi Media’s share of box office revenue was HK$2.158 million, a year-on-year decrease of 95.76%; film and TV drama copyright revenue was HK$32.548 million, a year-on-year decrease of 93.76%.
Even so, Huanxi Media has increased its investment in the project.
According to the financial report, in 2021, Huanxi Media's film and TV drama copyright prepayments (including film directors' prepayments) will be approximately HK$883 million, a year-on-year increase of 40.58%, accounting for 39% of total assets.
Wu Daiqi, CEO of Shenzhen Siqisheng Company, told the "Securities Daily" reporter that cinema movies have been greatly affected by the epidemic, while online movies and TV dramas have been relatively less affected.
But the key influence still lies in the quality of the repertoire and the film.
High-quality plays will still be sought after by audiences; content with creative content and average production quality will not be able to obtain good ratings or box office returns.
It is worth mentioning that the suspended project "Kidnapping Mao Huhu" won the most valuable investment project of the 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival Film Project Venture Capital, and was shortlisted for the Berlin Film Festival Venture Capital Unit as the only Chinese-language project. .
The aforementioned producer believes, "If the market environment is good and the investor has a strong risk tolerance, they are willing to try some new projects and tap new people. But the market environment is not good, and the investment strategy of film and television companies tends to be stable, and it is normal for new projects to be cut off. ."
The financial report shows that Huanxi Media has a very rich project reserve.
Among them, the film "Learning Dad", written and directed by Su Liang and starring Huang Bo, has been set for July 8.
In addition, "Mr. Red Carpet" directed by Ning Hao and starring Andy Lau, "On the Stage" directed by Chen Kexin, "Man Jiang Hong" directed by Zhang Yimou, "Hedgehog" directed by Gu Changwei and starring Ge You, "Nothing" directed by Chen Daming and starring Zhang Hanyu "The Fear", "The Stage" directed by Chen Peisi, "Dawning Clouds and Twilight Rain" directed and written by Zhang Guoli and starring Zhou Dongyu, etc., have all entered the stage of planning, production or completion.
(Securities Daily)