Chinanews client, Beijing, August 23 (Ren Siyu) On August 21, "Eight Hundred" was officially released. As of the afternoon of the 22nd, the cumulative box office of the movie has exceeded 500 million. As the first Chinese-language commercial blockbuster after the theater resumed work, it was once regarded as the hope of saving Huayi.
However, in addition to the film, some theaters have questioned Huayi’s way of making money this time. Some theaters have reported that they need to pay a guaranteed payment for the release of the film in advance before they can participate in the regular screening and the official screening; on the evening of the 21st, Huayi responded that the move was to consider potential market risks after the epidemic to prevent box office stealing.
What happened in the middle?
Stills from the movie "Yao Bai".
Must pay a deposit to show?
Before the official release, the movie "Yao Bai" was opened on August 14, but not all theaters have the opportunity to participate.
Cinema investor Mr. Guo revealed that a county-level theater in Henan where he was located could normally be shown on the 17th and 18th, but the theater received a notice on the 18th. If it does not participate in the guaranteed distribution model, it will not be able to receive it on the 19th and 20th. The key to the point map.
The release contact letter received by the theater shows that during the guaranteed sub-account issuance cooperation period, the actual box office generated by the theater that exceeds the guaranteed box office will be settled normally according to the theater's sub-account distribution method. All theaters participating in the guaranteed sub-account distribution model must pay for the guaranteed sub-account distribution before 12:00 on August 19th.
What are the standards of the theaters participating in the guaranteed release and the specific amount of the guaranteed funds are not stated in the release contact letter. Mr. Guo received a notice from the theater that said that movie theaters with an annual box office of less than 2 million yuan must participate in the guaranteed split, and how much to pay needs to consult the theater.
"Our movie studio was the first to pay 44,000. I calculated that it was impossible to return the cost. I planned to give up. Later, the theater told me that the deposit had been lowered. It was enough to pay 28,000, because our next movie studio was going to be released. Gritting his teeth and handing in the deposit."
After paying the 28,000 yuan guarantee fee, in order to recover the cost, Mr. Guo's theater has allocated all the recent golden shows to "Yu Bai", and 10 shows were arranged on the 21st premiere day.
According to his introduction, the county-level theater’s box office revenue last year was 1.58 million, the rent was 530,000 a year, and the average monthly salary of employees was 20,000. It also needed to pay for various expenses such as electricity. It was finally profitable in 2019 after three years of opening. This year's Spring Festival was closed due to the epidemic, and the rent was not low. "I haven't seen money back in three years. If the next film is released on a guaranteed basis like today's "Yu Hundred", then this year will definitely go bankrupt."
According to media reports, the person in charge of two newly opened cinemas in Nanchang City in the second half of 2019 said that the newly opened cinemas can release "Yai Hundred" without paying a 3.5% guarantee deposit. The two person in charge said that the news is The theater was notified through the WeChat group that they did not see the official documents.
Why did the issuer do this?
On the 21st, "Huayi Brothers requires small and medium-sized theaters to pay the guarantee fee in advance" appeared on the hot search. In the evening, the distributor of the movie "Eight Hundred", Huaying World, responded by saying that the distribution model formulated this time aims to protect the normal order of the film market , To crack down on the long-standing "cancer" of the industry.
Huaying Tianxia stated that there are two situations in theaters that have not obtained the "Yabai" screening key: 1. Some theaters that have been publicly handled by the industry association for violations such as omissions and concealment; 2. The release model is not accepted. Theater.
The issuer of "Eight Bai" issued a statement.
It is reported that the issuer of "Eight Hundred" has set up a market monitoring team with 700 people covering more than 500 cities, specifically to monitor various violations during the film screening, and cooperate with the ticketing platform for real-time monitoring and comparison. Correct.
Earlier reports said, “For movie theaters with a box office of less than 2 million yuan, the minimum guarantee amount must be verified at 3.5% of the actual box office of the previous year, and the minimum guarantee fee shall be handed over to the issuer’s account before August 19 before screening "Eight Hundred." According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 4,000 movie theaters nationwide with a gross box office of less than 2 million in 2019." The publisher of "Eight Hundreds" denied this statement, saying that as of the 21st, there have been 9,649 theaters showing "Eight Hundreds" and 9,497 theaters that have obtained the screening key.
Liu Ge, deputy general manager of Huayi Brothers Film Co., Ltd. and managing director of Huaying World Film Distribution Co., Ltd., responded through the media that "2 million yuan, 3.5% guarantee fee, 4200 theaters" are all fabricated, and the distributor is Screen out 11,800 theaters, multi-dimensionally consider whether the theater is standardized and whether the theater is normal or not. Theaters with abnormal data will be re-filed. After reconsideration, it is preferable that theaters operating in good faith adopt a split-account distribution model, so it is not aimed at small theaters. It's not a "one size fits all" for theaters below 2 million.
Regarding the guarantee amount, he said, "The actual guarantee fund is actually an amount that guarantees the basic interests of the film party. How much the guarantee fund is paid, through the theater communication, everyone can study and discuss. The communication cost of this process is actually very high. Fortunately, we have made some detailed plans. The theater is also managed by the theater chain, which can be negotiated and communicated through the theater chain."
Complex key
In addition to the controversy caused by the distribution method, the way in which the key is issued during the screening of "Yu Bai" has also made some studio workers feel anxious.
During the screening period of "Yaobai", the key of the film is issued every two days, and the studio needs to go to the website to download it by itself. However, due to the different time points, a large number of staff waited on the website and refreshed frequently, which caused the website to be paralyzed. There was a screening accident just because there was no good key or too late to debug the equipment.
A movie theater investor in Shandong, Mr. Li, said that one of his movie theaters should have started screening at 19:00, but the theater did not receive the key to the movie until 18:50; the other movie theater could not play directly and the time was delayed. After half an hour, in the end, the studio delivered drinks at its own expense to soothe the audience, "every day is a lot of psychological pressure."
Source: Weibo screenshot.
The movie studio investor said that refunding tickets is not as easy as imagined because it also involves third-party platforms. If similar incidents occur again, the theater may be included in the abnormal list due to a large amount of refund data, and be consumed by refunds and screening accidents. The patient audience may not watch the movie again.
Mr. Li said that he has been in the industry for many years, and no film can make people in the industry "collapse" like this. Although affirming the quality of the film, he admits that he was a little disappointed because of the various incidents in the release and screening.
After the release, the key distribution method of "Yai Bai" was optimized. Regarding the arrangement of the key, Liu Ge said, “The intermittent key plays a certain role in preventing piracy. The pirates cannot secretly record and record at night, but it is very tiring technically to achieve. The distribution process is also very complicated, so not only the issuer, but also the key producer and the theater are all working together to protect intellectual property rights, busy for "Eight Hundred", painful and happy."
Can the release of "Eight Bai" save Huayi?
According to Maoyan Professional Edition, "Yubai" was officially released for two days, and the proportions of films were 57.1% and 58.6%. As the first domestic commercial blockbuster to ushered in after the theater resumed work, the box office of "Eight Hundred Hundred Hundred" screens exceeded 200 million. On the day of its premiere on August 21, the box office exceeded 130 million. This is also a national single day since the theater resumed work on July 20. The box office broke 100 million for the first time.
Source: Maoyan Professional Edition.
The battle of "Eight Hundreds" is not only closely linked to the recovery of the film industry, but also has important significance to the current Huayi. Huayi Brothers' first quarterly report for 2020 showed that the company's revenue was 229 million yuan, down 61.38% year-on-year, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 143 million yuan, down 52.64% year-on-year. In the past two years, Huayi Brothers' net profit losses were 1.09 billion yuan and 3.96 billion yuan.
During the period, the topics surrounding Huayi, Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei were often selling paintings, selling houses, pledged assets, etc. Wang Zhongjun once said in an interview that for 2020, "the goal of our efforts is to improve the company's liquidity, and the most important thing to live is. To avoid risks, make efforts to adjust the films that have been finished and have not been released for release this year, and at the same time continue to shoot another film." Wang Zhonglei revealed that, from August to the end of the year, Huayi has prepared movies that have market appeal at every time slot.
On August 20th, the share price of Huayi Brothers rose by the limit. On the 21st day of the premiere of "Yu Hundred", the stock price soared by more than 8%. However, this movie costs a lot, and it was chosen to be released when the theaters have not fully resumed. The crisis depends on the final box office.
Statement on market surveillance of the film "Yabai".
For Huayi, adopting special distribution methods is to avoid box office stealing and to protect its own interests. In recent years, box office stealing has indeed existed in many theaters. The Film Bureau has repeatedly rectified chaos in the industry. The China Film Distribution and Projection Association has also published a list of some of the theaters that violate the rules.
But on the other hand, it is still doubtful whether this operation has "injured" the normal operation of small theaters. For example, after the film distributor responded, some netizens questioned that the number of theaters that had already screened the film mentioned in the response was related to The number of resumed cinemas displayed on other platforms does not match. The disparity between film companies and small theaters may require further explanation and communication. (Finish)