At the beginning of 2020, the original Spring Festival archives were disrupted due to the sudden epidemic situation, and all the scheduled movies were eventually withdrawn. The subsequent Valentine's Day schedules and even the subsequent movie market were severely affected.

The theater was closed, the crew was shut down, and the audience was isolated at home, but the demand for viewing remained. While physical industries such as theaters are facing many crises, online movies have ushered in a moment of high light. According to Yunhe data, during the Spring Festival of 2020, a total of 30 online movies were launched on the video platform, an increase of 10 from last year. During the 2020 Spring Festival under the influence of the epidemic, the effective playback volume of the entire network of long videos increased significantly, and the average daily effective playback of movies increased by 32% compared to 2019.

Turned into the stills of the online film "Aunt", "Fat Dragon Crossing the River".

In January 2020, a total of 64 online movies were launched on the entire network, 12 of which broke the box office of 10 million. In the first six months of 2019, a total of 15 works exceeded 10 million. In addition, the Spring Festival film "Aunt" and "Fat Dragon Crossing the River" have been screened online. "Aunt" was sold to Byte Beat for RMB 630 million, and "Fat Dragon Crossing" was paid as a single film in Aiqi. Broadcasted on internet platforms such as Arts and Tencent, it topped the list of Spring Festival archives of online movies with a cumulative total of about 120 million effective net play times. "Fat Dragon Crossing the River" starring Yen Zidan wrote in his personal Weibo: "In the current development of the Internet, the mobile Internet content of movies is also an inevitable trend."

According to Youkufang data, the average daily effective broadcast of Youku Movie Channel has increased by 32% compared with 2019, and five movies with a box office volume of over ten million have reached five, of which the box office of "Snake 2" exceeded 30 million, becoming the first network in the opening year. The movie has been popular, and Youku has always ranked first in the monthly box office of Youku since it was released for two months.

The Beijing News interviewed Lu Yang, the general manager of Youku Online Film Center. He believed that during the epidemic, online movies received more attention and user demand increased. At the same time, more quality requirements were put forward to the content team. In the future, online movies will also be linked to theaters. Contents complement each other.

The temporary suspension of theaters brings opportunities for online entertainment

Wangda usher in a wave of small blowouts

During the 2020 Chinese New Year holiday, Youku Day ’s active users and user duration reached a new high since the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The total number of movies played has increased by about two times than usual. The number of online movie plays and the number of theater films released on schedule have exceeded expectations. Among them, "Snake 2" which was released in January of this year exceeded 30 million during the Spring Festival.

Stills from Serpent 2.

In terms of genres, Youku launched a total of 164 exclusive online movies in 2019, involving multiple genres, including comedy, action, biological disaster, love, costume fantasy, martial arts, youth campus, and so on. Among them, comedy, action, urban love, costume fantasy, martial arts and other major types have the largest number, while monster films represented by biological disasters perform strongly, meanwhile, science fiction comedy-themed movies such as "Alien Events" and "Beijing Women's Book" etc. The theme of urban women is also loved by users.

Source: White Paper on Internet Movies

Regarding the blowout boom of the online movie that everyone discussed, Lu Yang believes that this is a normal development in the industry's accumulation process, but it has received more attention than usual because of the special stage of the epidemic. "The audience ’s enthusiasm for watching movies online and users' minds have greatly improved, which has also increased the industry's confidence in online movies."

Source: White Paper on Internet Movies

"Aunt" phenomenon will not be the last

Online movies and theaters should be complementary

In the 2020 Spring Festival, the new model of "Aunt" and "Fat Dragon Crossing the River" from the cinema to the Internet will affect the entire industry. The Beijing News reporter learned that many directors said that if the epidemic continues to affect this model. A director said frankly that the epidemic affected the crew's downtime, and related work was postponed. It may also face difficulties in screening afterwards. "I think online screening is also an attempt. It is one of the paths that non-famous directors can choose. Creators should also adapt to change. Although I feel that it is a pity not to screen on the big screen, I do n’t insist on it. , And my first work has worked with an online platform. I think it ’s most important for me to meet my audience. "

Lu Yang believes that the mode of changing "Aunt" from theater movie to network broadcast is not the first. There have been previous attempts at films such as "The Vanishing Bullet", so it is not innovative in terms of business model. The free-to-play mode is bound to be recognized and praised by users, which is also determined by the popularity of the movie and the attributes of the blockbuster Spring Festival. "More high-quality movies are willing to choose to play online, which is the value trend of online distribution. The user payment model and the platform's profit model are urgent problems that the industry needs to solve at the moment, and promote the user's payment habits for high-quality content. Broadcasting will be a negative impact on the industry. "

In Lu Yang's view, online movies and cinema films are complementary concepts, providing different content and different ways of watching movies. Youku's online movies and classic old movies have met the viewing needs of different users and cultivated the audience's viewing habits. The cinema's new film meets the user's immersive movie viewing experience, as well as social, leisure and other needs. The significance of going to the cinema to watch a movie is far more than just "watching a movie" itself.

For users, the time cost of watching movies online is lower, and there is no need to go out, which is more convenient. At the same time, barrage and commentary can also bring a unique interactive experience to movie viewing. Compared with the cinema movie, online movie viewing does not need to rely on the schedule of the theater, and it is not so dependent on the schedule. The online time is relatively flexible.

"In the future, there will be more high-quality online movie options available on Youku. During the epidemic, the mentality of users watching movies online was strengthened, and the traditional film and television industry also realized the importance of online. In the long run, it will be beneficial to the development of online movies. "

【dialogue】

Online movies are still in the search for a business model

Beijing News: What series of movie activities did Youku launch during the epidemic?

Lu Yang: Youku's basic content content was determined before the epidemic, so it has little to do with the epidemic. However, as the epidemic became more serious, we temporarily added some movies to meet the needs of more people watching movies at home, and launched a series of movie activities. These include special feature film recommendations for different types of films, hundreds of classic film screenings, the 88th anniversary of Oscar and Truff ’s birthday, and other online guessing activities on Valentine's Day.

At the same time, during the fight against the epidemic, Youku Movies also launched a hero-themed movie "Emergency Rescue Plan for Overcoming Difficulties-Tribute to Brave Retrogrades", including blockbusters such as "Heroes of Fire", "Captain China" and "Wandering Earth" This transfers positive energy.

Beijing News: Why did the rate increase during the outbreak?

Lu Yang: Youku launched the monthly settlement function in September last year, and now it can also play a role in alleviating the financial difficulties of the industry. In addition, we also linked the group's entertainment treasure business to provide advance payment services for filmmakers, as well as online movie distribution insurance services. These are the preferential measures we have always had, not because of the epidemic situation. In the near future, we will also launch more specific and industry-friendly measures to improve the infrastructure service capabilities in response to the epidemic.

Beijing News: After the epidemic, will online movies still develop rapidly?

Lu Yang: During the epidemic, more attention was paid to online movies. Not only did users have stronger demand, but also confidence in the industry's film and television content companies. More and more mature teams wanted to actively try online movies. At the same time, due to objective reasons during the epidemic, they could not be turned on in time. The creators had more time to polish the script and settle down for making fine content. This is also the necessary path for online movies.

At the same time, online movie marketing will be more refined, precise, and cycle-oriented, which is also a standard action that has been required.

The content of online movies also has problems of homogeneous types, uneven quality, etc. It needs to be enriched and more innovative genres appear. At the same time, online movies are still in the early development stage of optimizing business models, both in content and business models. There is still a lot of potential and room for improvement.

Beijing News reporter Li Yan