Domestic film and television dramas speed up to go out (new observation of cultural market)

　　core reading

　　In recent years, the overseas performance of domestic film and television dramas has been outstanding.

In terms of content and subject matter, it has changed from the dominance of costume dramas to more diverse forms, especially the realistic works. In terms of sales channels, it has changed from overseas TV stations to overseas streaming media.

In the future, the "going overseas" of domestic film and television dramas will require the joint efforts of all parties to realize the transition from "going out" to "going in".

　　Recently, good news of domestic film and television drama "going to the sea" has been reported frequently.

In 2022, the hit drama "The World" was spotted by Disney as early as the filming stage, and pre-ordered its exclusive overseas distribution rights; "Shan Hai Qing", which focuses on poverty alleviation, is broadcast in more than 50 countries and regions around the world... …The domestic film and television drama "Going to the Sea" has taken on a new look, heading for a broader blue ocean, and the influence of Chinese culture overseas has also been further enhanced.

　　Diversified themes and genres

　　For a long time, the protagonists of domestic film and television dramas "Going to the Sea" have always been costume dramas. From "The Legend of Zhen Huan" and "Langya Bang" to "Twelve Hours in Chang'an", the popularity of Chinese costume dramas in overseas markets has not diminished.

However, this situation is being broken by the overseas performance of a series of excellent reality-themed dramas.

　　Hou Hongliang, chairman of Dongyang Noon Sunshine Film and Television Co., Ltd., recalled that this change began with the "Beautiful Era of Daughter-in-law" broadcast in 2009, which performed well overseas that year.

Since last year, the overseas performances of "Shan Hai Qing" and "Beginning" produced by Noon Sunshine have brought more surprises.

　　"Shan Hai Qing is a typical theme of poverty alleviation and has performed well overseas, indicating that this drama, which reflects the Chinese people's yearning for a better life, shows China's humanistic characteristics and has won the resonance of overseas audiences. Love." Hou Hongliang said: "The narrative mode of "The Beginning" is actually not new to some overseas audiences, but due to its high quality, it has also achieved good sales results overseas."

　　Like Noon Sunshine, Ningmeng Pictures' overseas sales performance has also been outstanding in recent years. Its series such as "Little Farewell", "Little Shede", "Xiao Min's Home", and "Thirty Only" have achieved very good results. overseas market performance.

Su Xiao, chairman of Ningmeng Pictures, said that the sales price of episodes can reflect its popularity overseas from one aspect.

For example, in the past, the average overseas sales price of costume dramas was about US$80,000 per episode, and the contemporary urban themes were only about US$5,000 or US$6,000 per episode, but in recent years, excellent urban dramas can also sell for 50,000 to 80,000 US dollars. $10,000 an episode.

　　Yin Hong, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of Tsinghua University, believes that in recent years, domestic dramas have performed better and better overseas, and the most important reason is that the quality and efficiency of creation and production are improved.

"In the past, the input cost of costume dramas was relatively high, the commerciality was stronger, and the quality was better. But in recent years, the quality of realistic works has improved, which has brought great changes to the market." He also pointed out that from the policy In terms of guidance, in recent years, the competent authorities have encouraged the shooting of TV dramas with realistic themes, especially more and more film and television works adapted from excellent literary works, which has also effectively guaranteed the quality of creation.

　　Su Xiao found that in the past, in the process of "going overseas" for domestic film and television dramas, overseas Chinese audiences accounted for the vast majority.

But in recent years, foreign audiences, especially those in developing countries, have increasingly favored our domestic dramas.

He believes that one of the important reasons is that China's rapid economic and social development has brought about great changes in all aspects of society, which has attracted widespread attention from overseas audiences.

　　From selling broadcasting rights to diversifying cooperation methods

　　In the past, the sale of broadcasting rights was the most important way for domestic film and television dramas to go out. In recent years, the way of cooperation between domestic film and television dramas and overseas market institutions has also been quietly changing.

　　"Thirty Only" has successively landed in more than 100 countries and regions around the world, and launched more than 20 overseas broadcast platforms, becoming the Chinese TV drama with the highest new media on-demand rate in Malaysia in 2020.

At the same time, the play has also been exported overseas, and film and television institutions in South Korea, Vietnam and other countries have purchased the remake rights.

"South Korea itself is a country with strong TV production capabilities, and there are relatively few cases of purchasing remakes from abroad, but now there are more such cooperation methods with China." Su Xiao said.

　　The introduction of a series of policies has further promoted the going out of domestic film and television dramas.

It is understood that the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has encouraged the translation and dubbing of domestic dramas in recent years, and has implemented a series of supporting projects to support it, such as the "Silk Road Audio-visual Project", "Chinese Contemporary Works Translation Project", "China-Africa Film and Television Cooperation Innovation and Improvement Project", etc. , and actively carry out overseas localization translation and distribution promotion.

　　At the same time, overseas sales channels for domestic film and television dramas are expanding.

The "China Joint Booth" online platform led by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has been launched in the past two years, boosting the appearance of many popular domestic dramas overseas, such as "Together" and "Glory and Dreams" at the 17th Tokyo International Film and Television Festival Exhibition In the key promotion above, "Shan Hai Qing" will participate in the online promotion activities of the Cannes TV Festival in the spring of 2021.

Film and television institutions actively expand overseas communication channels and build more overseas communication platforms for domestic film and television dramas.

　　Some mature companies have also established relatively mature sales channels, and some have established specialized international business departments.

"In the past, we generally outsourced to a middleman, who was responsible for sales. But in recent years, we have established a special department to open up channels in various countries and sell according to different market characteristics." Su Xiao said.

　　Sales objects have also undergone major changes.

In the past, domestic film and television dramas were mainly sold to TV stations in other countries, and the different broadcasting mechanisms of TV stations in various countries affected overseas sales to a large extent.

"But in recent years, the main sales target of domestic film and television dramas has shifted from TV stations to streaming media, and more and more overseas streaming media have shown great interest. The broadcasting mechanism of streaming media is more flexible and the content broadcasted is more diverse. , which also provides a better opportunity for domestic film and television dramas to 'go out'." Yin Hong said.

　　Su Xiao also pointed out that with the emergence of this series of changes, overseas buyers have also advanced the time to purchase domestic film and television dramas.

"In the past, overseas buyers had to wait until a drama was broadcast in China to see the effect of the broadcast, and then overseas buyers would have purchase intentions. Now their purchase intentions are getting more advanced, generally understanding the theme type of the drama, the main creative lineup, and the production company. Later, it will intervene in advance and lock in the episodes that you want to buy earlier."

　　Further improve the quality of episodes and strive to "go in"

　　Although the performance of domestic film and television dramas "going overseas" has made great progress compared with the past, industry insiders also pointed out that domestic film and television dramas still have not produced real explosions in international communication, which has attracted widespread attention around the world.

In addition, although domestic film and television dramas have been exposed on many overseas media and streaming media platforms, the audience is still mainly overseas Chinese.

Hou Hongliang believes that, strictly speaking, the “going overseas” of domestic film and television dramas is still in the stage of market cultivation, and facing objective difficulties, it is not an easy thing to achieve from “going out” to “going in”.

　　People in the industry generally believe that if domestic film and television dramas are to go further, they must first make great efforts to improve the quality of the dramas.

"If we don't like to watch it ourselves, how can we hope that overseas audiences will like to watch it?" Hou Hongliang said.

At the same time, many practitioners said that in the process of creation, the acceptance of overseas audiences should be properly considered, and the concept of creation should not be based on the local market and sold by the way, but the reaction of the international market should be considered in advance.

"The World" director Li Lu mentioned in an interview before that Disney's pre-order is a new pressure and motivation for the crew to create, "We hope that every shot, every line, every scene The play must have an international perspective, and think about how foreign audiences will see it.”

　　Su Xiao said that the "going overseas" of domestic film and television dramas still requires the joint efforts of all parties.

He believes that not every company currently has the ability to sell independently, so it is necessary for everyone in the industry to build a platform to coordinate these affairs.

　　"The focus of the next step may be to study the markets in which 'going out' works will have more users, and what kind of users will have more users," Yin Hong said. User research has not kept up. Where the audience is distributed, who is watching, and what kind of cultural background, analysis and research are needed in order to be more targeted in future creation and promotion.”

　　"Although there are no hits yet, we believe that with the improvement of the quality of the works, overseas audiences' awareness of China's real life will increase, and our domestic film and television dramas can also become part of their daily spiritual and cultural life." Hou Hongliang said.

　　Drawing of this edition: Zhang Danfeng