Cultural observation
How to develop Chinese musicals in the post-epidemic era
"2021 China Musical Theatre Industry Summit Forum" was held in Beijing Tianqiao Art Center.
More than 20 leading figures in musical theater content institutions, theaters, platforms, technology and other fields gathered with more than 400 musical theater practitioners to discuss "the development path of Chinese musical theater in the post-epidemic era".
China's musical theatre market is in full swing
According to the content released by the "2021 Chinese Musical Guide", before the epidemic, the Chinese musical performance market was developing very well. Since 2016, the number of performances, audience numbers, and income have been increasing, and a total of 2,655 performances will be performed in 2019. A year-on-year increase of 5.4%; the number of viewers reached 2.13 million, an increase of 29.5% year-on-year; box office revenue exceeded 600 million yuan, an increase of 37.1% year-on-year, reaching the industry's highest peak in recent years.
However, since the beginning of the new crown epidemic in January 2020, performances across the country have been cancelled or postponed on a large scale. From January to March, nearly 20,000 performances have been cancelled or postponed nationwide, with a direct box office loss of more than 2 billion yuan.
With the effective control of the epidemic, the performance market has gradually recovered from June. A total of 997 musicals will be performed in 2020, which is 37.6% of the number of performances in 2019. The number of audiences is 610,000, and the box office revenue exceeds 100 million yuan.
Through data comparison, we can see the changes and recovery of the musical theatre performance market before and after the epidemic.
At present, as the international epidemic situation is still severe, the introduction of foreign musicals that occupy the main box office has been greatly affected; but at the same time, China's original musicals have also ushered in great development opportunities.
Damai Mailive is a platform dedicated to investing in and producing high-quality content under Damai; "Of course there are dramas" is Damai Mailive's drama label launched in March this year.
Li Jing, the manager and producer of the Barley Mailive "Of course there are dramas" label, said that musicals have always been a market-oriented and commercialized product. We cannot talk about musicals in isolation from the audience and the market. In recent years, musical audiences have also undergone certain changes. .
During the epidemic, we conducted a survey of musical audiences. From the data, musical audiences showed a younger, more disparity in gender ratio, and more frequent high consumption.
The proportion of young female audiences has increased. The younger, highly active post-95s and post-00s audiences are not only very prominent in the first-tier cities, but also reach 40% of the second-tier cities. They generally show high education, high stickiness and High purchasing power, and very willing to share.
Chinese musicals enter the era of the entire industry chain
Introduced "Mamma Mia!
》The Shanghai Media Group, which is engaged in musicals such as “Cats” and “Rock School”, established the Shanghai Musical Theater Art Center at the end of 2019, aiming to create musical dramas in all aspects of content, theater, and brokerage through a platform-based operation model. For the entire industry chain, Dai Xiaoying, general manager of the Musical Theater Art Center of Shanghai Wenguang Performing Arts Group, introduced that the development of Chinese musicals has gone through several stages: from 2002 to 2010, it belongs to the "Chinese Musical 1.0 Original Era", mainly the original introduction of foreign classics Musical dramas, including works such as "The Phantom of the Theater" and "The Lion King".
Until 2011, the first Chinese version of the world musical "Mamma Mia!
"Sowed the seeds for the Chinese version of the musical, and also opened the "Chinese Version of Chinese Musical 2.0 Era".
From 2012 to 2018, the Chinese version of musicals gradually took root, and more high-quality foreign products were produced locally and staged in China. The Chinese musical industry gradually ushered in the "3.0 entire industry chain era".
Chinese musicals not only focus on production and operation, but also consider the structure of the entire industry chain, including talent training, production content, art management, theater management, IP development, artist brokerage, and other fields to carry out an all-round layout and build a full industry chain platform business mechanism .
Liao Fanlong, deputy dean of the Daolue Academy of Performing Arts, shared the five trends in the development of the musical theater industry: First, all Internet giants have entered the musical theater industry, paying attention to and investing in related companies, and are very optimistic about the prospects of the musical theater market.
Secondly, many celebrities enter the field of musicals and bring a large number of fans into the musical theater market. In the future, more and more film and television stars will enter the musical theater circle.
Third, the market for family musicals and parent-child musicals is growing.
Fourth, the in-residence form of musicals began to appear.
Fifth, although the epidemic has caused severe damage to many performance institutions, the recovery of the musical theater market is better than expected.
"With all the imported musicals unable to enter, the entire market has recovered 50% to 60%, which is much better than the tourism market and general performances. That is to say, China’s original musicals have many good performances, which have won the market. Recognition is attracting more consumers to enter."
Yang Shucong, deputy general manager of Beijing Tianqiao Art Center Management Co., Ltd., introduced: As of the end of 2020, in the past 5 and a half years, Tianqiao Art Center has performed 88 projects, 644 performances, 630,000 audiences, and 270 million box office of musicals. .
Tianqiao Art Center has many musical projects, creating a customer-centric industrial system, focusing on consumer groups, cooperating, selecting products, and developing and creating corresponding cultural creations by itself. It also held a musical theater producer training class and launched the stage. The sharing plan hopes that more consumers will enter the Tianqiao Art Center to learn about and love musicals.
How to break through the original Chinese musical
In the post-epidemic era, the Chinese musical theatre industry has begun to explore more possibilities.
Focusing on the topic of "seizing the opportunity after the epidemic, the road to a breakthrough for China's original musicals", many people in the industry have shared their thoughts and experiences.
Among the many excellent musicals currently being staged, IP-based dramas account for a considerable proportion.
High-quality IP dramas can play the role of incubation in the industry chain, and it is more likely to open up market space.
Some institutions have developed a relatively mature experience.
For example, the musical "Onmyoji" developed based on the Internet celebrity game IP, the Chinese musical "White Night Walk" developed based on the best-selling suspense novel by Keigo Higashino, and the musical "When Love is a Past" developed based on the songs of famous singers Li Zongsheng and Jay Chou "Secrets That Cannot Be Said", the musical "Eternal Life of Soul Ferry" based on popular film and television dramas, etc., are all successful cases in the market.
In the past two years, the content and production of Chinese original musicals have continued to innovate and make breakthroughs, creating a richer drama-watching experience for the audience.
The development of the Internet and the impact of the epidemic have made "cloud performances" gradually enter the audience's vision, and the addition of the musical variety show "Sound into the Heart" has also brought more traffic to musicals.
However, the lack of musical talents has become a bottleneck restricting the development of China's musical theater industry.
How to break through the talent dilemma and speed up the pace of progress in musicals is an urgent problem in the industry.
Li Jing, the manager and producer of the Damai Mailive "Of course there are dramas" label, said that they have initiated a musical incubation program with the Shanghai Grand Theater since March this year, and invited an international team with more than 20 years of experience in scripting tutoring, and 6 domestic Foreign masters, referring to the growth chain of commercial drama, from writing training courses to one-on-one script counseling, to workshop testing stages and audiences, to commercial investment and production of works with relatively mature market value. Currently, 15 creatives have been created. The person incubates 6 scripts.
On May 24, the premiere of the musical "Rock Faust" was launched at the Shanghai Grand Theater.
Li Fenghua, deputy general manager of Beijing Happy Twist Product Center, reviewed the development of Happy Twist in musicals.
Since 2009, Happy Twice has done 19 musicals, with a total of more than 1,500 performances.
In addition to Beijing, the South China Headquarters Base of Happy Twist was built in Shenzhen, mainly for musicals.
"This base has its own independent theater, production base, office area, several rehearsal halls and multi-functional halls with good conditions, which provide directors and actors with creative space. This year, Happy Mahua has also established Shenzhen so far. The largest musical season with the most diverse forms and the richest repertoire-Shenzhen’s first "Deep Love Musical Season", from April 2 to May 25, a total of 9 rounds and 6 plays were performed in 5 theaters, totaling 33 A musical. The original musical "Moira", produced by Happy Twist South China Headquarters and directed by Zhu Feng, the chief director of CCTV "National Treasure", is adapted from real events and tells the story of the anti-epidemic. A total of 9 shows were performed in three rounds. Well received. In addition, Happy Twice’s first suspenseful musical "The Winner After Drunk" is also very popular, bringing a wide range of musical experiences to the audience. Shenzhen is also becoming the most famous musical after Beijing and Shanghai. Market development soil city.
Our reporter Wang Run