The pre-sale target is 10,2 yuan of "The Wandering Earth 1" cultural and creative products, and the final official authorized model raised 2 million yuan. At the beginning of this year, did you participate in this hundreds of millions of yuan explosive project in the science fiction industry?

The strong out of the circle of "Three-Body Problem" and the explosion of "The Wandering Earth" have made the surrounding area of the sci-fi industry sought after, and other sci-fi IPs are also vying to test the waters, and a "new century money-burning plan" is opening... MOSS Bluetooth speakers that can be hung on the wall, charging treasures in the shape of Internet host keys, morphing universal boxes, and even keyboards, water cups, clothing, etc., these sci-fi movie peripheral products that are not low prices are sought after by many sci-fi fans and are willing to pay.

Is the sci-fi industry really hot? According to the "2023 China Science Fiction Industry Report", in 2022, the total revenue of China's science fiction industry will be 877.5 billion yuan, of which the total revenue of the science fiction derivatives industry will be 48.3 billion yuan, down 20.4% year-on-year. The overall development relies on phenomenal products, and the two-dimensional sci-fi IP of Guochuang is maturing, and the growth momentum is strong.

The 2023 Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention will open on October 10, and science fiction celebrities and science fiction fans from all over the world will gather in Chengdu, and the science fiction industry will become an inescapable topic. In response to the topic of science fiction peripheral products, the reporter interviewed relevant people, they believe that the domestic science fiction industry peripheral products have considerable development, but the overall industry is still in the rising and initial stage.

Domestic sci-fi movie peripheral crowdfunding relies more on fixed IP

Recalling participating in the crowdfunding of "The Wandering Earth 6" peripheral products 2 months ago, Xiaoma still felt incredible, "I repeatedly watched the crowdfunding results, thought it was 1 million, but I didn't expect it to be 2 million yuan, I was shocked by everyone's huge purchasing power. ”

On January 1 this year, Pony placed an order for a "digital life card", thinking that she could catch her daughter's birthday in March as a gift, but unexpectedly, the arrival time was June 28, so that she almost couldn't remember what she had bought. "I bought the peripheral products of "The Wandering Earth 3", purely driven by the popularity of the movie, and bought it in response to the situation. In fact, the so-called digital life card, the technology content is not high, is a U disk, play a concept. Although the novelty has passed, and the digital life card has long been "shelved", Pony feels that "it is good to occasionally turn it out and look at it in the future, and think about the sci-fi movies we have chased." ”

Toy blogger Drarcos is more senior than Pony, and he has participated in the crowdfunding of peripheral products of "The Wandering Earth 1" and "The Wandering Earth 2". In Dracos' view, after 4 years, the peripheral products of "The Wandering Earth 2" have made great progress compared to the co-branded keyboard products of "The Wandering Earth 1", from life peripherals to digital toys, co-branded products emerge endlessly, and even can restore the image that appears in the film 1:1.

However, the two crowdfunding campaigns still made Dracos feel the gap between domestic and foreign peripheral industries. "To take a simple example, Hollywood's film industry peripheral products are relatively mature, such as the peripheral of Transformers, and the product plan is made before the filming, what kind of concept will be made, what kind of image will be made, all in the advance planning plan. When the movie is broadcast, these products will be launched immediately. Dracos said that the output of the more mature film industry has also formed a certain scale and production process around the foreign science fiction industry.

"I personally believe that the enthusiasm for crowdfunding around science fiction movies in China is more dependent on fixed IP, and now the peripheral products of the science fiction industry are inseparable from "The Three-Body Problem" and Liu Cixin. Although we all say that IP and peripheral are a complementary relationship, when the heat of this relatively niche circle gradually dissipates, the peripheral industry in the later period will enter a relatively weak state. Dracos analyzed.

The scope of science fiction derivation is wider, and the surrounding market has great potential

For the current situation of peripheral products of China's science fiction industry, Sun Yue, the big treasurer of Saifan science fiction space and the founder of the Future Science Fiction Master Award, has a set of his own opinions.

"From the "2023 China Science Fiction Industry Report", in fact, we can also see that the scale of the science fiction industry is still considerable, whether in science fiction games, science fiction film and television, science fiction derivatives, there is a considerable development, but the overall industry is still relatively weak. As far as the composition of the entire industry is concerned, it is also in the rising and relatively early stage. Sun Yue believes that as a part of cultural enterprises and cultural industries, the peripheral products of the science fiction industry must be a derivative of the content itself. Broadly speaking, the peripheral products of the science fiction industry cover a very wide range, and the peripheral products are the peripherals of science fiction, "For example, the novel "Three-Body Problem" is derived from the first TV series, and the physical products derived from the TV series are all an industry extended by the text itself, or its content is a product, a product of multiple types of output. ”

"In a narrow sense, peripheral and cultural and creative products have some similarities, which more refer to some consumption formed by entities and fans and audiences. This work and this IP connotation will have some physical products, such as models, figures, T-shirts, which are similar to cultural and creative products in this range. In general, the connotation of science fiction products and cultural and creative products is similar, but the scope of science fiction products extends wider. Sun Yue said.

Sci-fi fans are a special kind of niche cultural group

What is the difference between domestic and foreign science fiction peripheral industries? In Sun Yue's view, it can actually be divided from the fan group, this niche and special group is a part of the sci-fi peripheral industry that cannot be ignored.

Sun Yue said: "China's local science fiction works have their own very unique 'Chinese' science fiction aesthetic, and some products developed will also be different from some IP products of European and American science fiction. From the perspective of science fiction culture alone, a large part of the main consumption force of science fiction conferences held abroad is actually middle-aged people, and we in China are more young people. ”

"So the advantage of age group will determine the development of the surrounding industry market, and these fans, including consumers, will grow with us." The potential of our future market is enormous. Sun Yue said that the most important point is that the physical derivative products of Chinese science fiction are also a communication space for science fiction fans, which can give them a sense of belonging. The fans of science fiction are a niche cultural group and a special existence. When he really likes science fiction, the stickiness will be very high, and he will always pay attention. This is also a process of the growth of sci-fi peripheral groups.

Science fiction is not just a matter of words, it's a system of thinking

"If we still think today that all sci-fi products other than text belong to sci-fi peripherals, that's a stereotype." Ji Shaoting, both a veteran science fiction fan and the founder of the Future Affairs Administration, as a senior participant in the industry, she founded another planet science fiction convention, thulium science fiction airwaves (podcast), space drawer (toys) and other brands, published 7 science fiction books in 54 years, published 1500 million words of original science fiction novels. With the rise of science fiction in China, Future Bureau is working hard for the next era of science fiction in its own way.

Ji Shaoting said that many people in the industry only recognize the value of words in the traditional thinking mode, and regard all sci-fi products other than words as derivatives. "Because in the past, there were more forms of expression in the field of Chinese science fiction, that is, words, which are cheaper and easier to spread. But today, if you stand in the position of the entire field of science fiction, science fiction products already exist in various fields, including movies, dramas, games, toys, etc., and many products are not derived from words. It's time to switch perspectives. Ji Shaoting said that if you look at different industries, such as games, there is a very complex set of production rules from world view construction to gameplay development; From the perspective of toy production, from creativity to drawing to modeling to production, it also has its own complete system and process. Therefore, science fiction is a form of thinking that can be expressed by different carriers, "If we talk about science fiction today and still regard all non-text content products as derivatives, it is actually incomplete and does not conform to the real situation of this era." ”

Speaking of the current sci-fi original design products, Ji Shaoting said: "We make products with great respect for the different rules of each industry. For example, movies, toys, games, etc., all have different logic and production processes, and we will explore how to use science fiction to give products greater value. We've always worked with this way of thinking. ”

For the mention of science fiction works, you can only think of Liu Cixin, will it seem a little one-sided? Ji Shaoting said: "It's not a little one-sided, it's very one-sided. Teacher Liu Cixin is a scarce existence in this era, but he is by no means the only existence of Chinese science fiction, when we look at different cultural carriers, we will find that there are many excellent creators in the field of science fiction. ”