Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 523: Possession and Expansion
In the past two years, high-grossing movies have begun to emerge in large numbers.

At the beginning of the new century, a movie box office of over 10 million was considered very good. At that time, the top ten Chinese-language movies in the domestic box office were all tens of millions of movies, and rarely exceeded 50 million.

Even if there are one or two occasionally, they are almost all mainstream movies, and because of the large-scale theater bookings, their box office data is of little value.

The situation is a little better in this life because of the appearance of Liu Zhou. The box office of his first two films exceeded 50 million, but they were still movies in the tens of millions range.

Chinese-language films really started to gain momentum after Zhang Yimou's "Hero".

The reason why this movie has such a high historical status is generally known and recognized by netizens, that is, "Hero" opened the prelude to the era of domestic commercial films.

Many people may only know this sentence but do not understand what it means.

This is not just the case after "Hero". The box office of subsequent movies began to increase significantly and entered the billion-yuan era, and more importantly, it drove the entire film industry forward.

The scale of film investment, production processes and standards, post-production, etc. are all improving, and domestic theaters have also entered a period of rapid development since "Hero".

Therefore, the box office of subsequent movies got higher and higher, especially the blockbusters. If they did not flop, they could almost break 100 million. Later, the movies began to break 300 million and 400 million. A box office of over 100 million was only the threshold for blockbusters.

Finally, in the past two years, movies with box office revenues exceeding 500 million or 600 million have begun to appear and this is becoming the norm.

In addition, "Avatar" and "Interstellar" brought the domestic film market into the billion-dollar box office era, further promoting the prosperity of the domestic film market.

The past two years have also been a period of rapid development for cinema chains. According to official data released by a certain company, from 2005 to 2009, the number of screens increased relatively steadily each year, reaching as high as five to six hundred.

However, in 2010 alone, the number of screens skyrocketed by nearly , from more than to more than , with an increase of almost five screens every day.

With the successive listings of Huayi, Guangguang and Bona last year, and with various capitals beginning to enter the film and television industry, the number of screens will skyrocket this year.

Among them, Wanda Cinemas has seen the most rapid increase in the number of screens.

Wanda Cinemas is considered to be the earliest private cinema chain, having been established in 2005.

Because it was in 2005 that the country announced a new policy that allowed private capital to enter the cinema industry, and Wanda was the first to obtain a cinema license.

In fact, to be honest, Wanda entered the film market very early, but at that time they only regarded cinemas as a supporting facility for Wanda Mall, and they were still cooperating with Warner.

That is, Wanda builds the cinema and then hands it over to Warner to operate it, so that each party gets what they need.

However, also in 2005, the state introduced relevant policies that also stipulated that the percentage of shares held by foreign capital in cinema companies should not exceed %.

This is unacceptable for Warner. If it cannot control the theater chain, it might as well withdraw directly.

Then Wanda saw that the domestic film market was beginning to rise and became more and more interested in cinema chains. When it saw that Warner was preparing to withdraw from the domestic cinema market,

Then it acquired all the shares of Warner Cinemas, completed its 100% control of the cinema company, and renamed it Wanda Cinemas.

This acquisition can be said to be a great bargain for Wanda, and it has laid a very good foundation for its future rapid development.

Because Wanda not only acquired the cinema chain, but also acquired Warner Cinemas' advanced management model.

At that time, domestic cinema chains were almost all state-owned enterprises, and the cinemas were relatively old. Most importantly, the management model was relatively simple and crude, which was very backward compared to foreign cinema chains.

The cases of stealing box office revenue began to occur frequently during this period. This is not an unspoken rule. Many cinemas do it blatantly. The theater chains are simply unable to control it, and they even collude with the cinemas.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that the domestic cinema chain system has only been implemented for a relatively short time. It was not until 2002 that the relevant documents were issued to implement the cinema chain system.

So even though thirty cinema chains were established at that time, the independence of the cinemas under them was still relatively strong. You have to know that in the past a cinema was an independent unit.

Although several major cinema companies controlled by China Film Group and Shanghai Film Group are actively learning advanced foreign experience, domestic cinema management is still very irregular overall.

Even now, the situation has not improved much.

Although most of the domestic cinemas have been modernized by this time, the hardware has improved, but the software has not kept up.

Almost all of those blockbuster movies that can get high box office have hired a lot of people to follow the film copying process to prevent the copy from being leaked and the box office being stolen by the cinema.

To be honest, this is all thanks to Zhang Weiping. When "Hero" was released, it was he who started hiring college students to supervise the copies.

Others followed suit, including Liu Zhou, otherwise there would be no better way.

However, despite such strict defense, the leakage of copies cannot be avoided. You can only prevent it for a week at most. After a week, it will be difficult to prevent it and pirated copies will begin to be sold in large quantities.

But this is already good enough. In the past, pirated copies of movies would appear one or two days after they were released, and even before they were released on the market.

Being able to reap the box office revenue in just one week can be considered that Zhang Weiping's method has achieved significant results.

This is why the first week box office of many domestic blockbusters generally accounts for half of the total box office of the film. After a week, due to the emergence of piracy, the box office of the film will decline significantly.

This situation did not improve significantly until the country began to crack down on piracy. Of course, another important reason was the advancement of movie special effects technology.

The feeling of watching some blockbuster movies in the cinema and on the computer is completely different. Many subsequent blockbusters used special effects, so piracy began to gradually disappear.

However, piracy can be eliminated, but the situation of box office theft is difficult to improve.

Not to mention now, even if ten years later almost everyone buys movie tickets online, theater companies can still steal box office revenue through technical means, but it is not as easy and blatant as before.

Of course, piracy and box office theft are just two typical irregularities in domestic cinema chains, and they are also the two most harmful to production companies.

In fact, even within the legal framework, the management models of many cinema companies are relatively backward.

Don’t think that the management and operation of a cinema chain company is simple. It seems that they just get the film sources from the distribution company, hand them over to its theaters, count the box office and finally share the profits with the distribution company.

This involves a lot of details from all aspects, especially now that almost all cinemas are multi-hall cinemas, and the projection equipment is becoming more and more advanced. Without a set of advanced management experience, it is difficult to manage a cinema company.

After Wanda acquired Warner Cinemas, it acquired a very advanced management model. In Hollywood, the cinema industry is almost a sunset industry, so they have already figured out how to manage and operate cinemas.

As one of the seven major Hollywood studios, Warner knows all of this very well.

Don’t think that Warner, as a production and distribution company, doesn’t understand theaters. Hollywood was the first to start the big studio system.

The so-called big studio system means that a single company can complete all the tasks of a film, from project establishment, production, distribution and screening to actors, photographers, directors and other post-production staff, all of which belong to the big studio.

In the past, Shaw Brothers had a typical big studio system. All the staff of a movie, including the actors, were from Shaw Brothers, and the cinemas were still owned by Shaw Brothers.

Almost all the profits from a movie were eaten up by it.

So in the 1970s, when Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest were competing, even though Golden Harvest first had Bruce Lee, then Hui Kwok-wan, and finally discovered Jackie Chan, the box office champions were almost all won by Golden Harvest.

But when it comes to profits, Shaw Brothers doesn't make as much as it does.

The main reason is Shaw Brothers' large studio system. The cost of making a movie is extremely low, and like an assembly line, a movie can be released almost every week.

Even if a movie only makes a few hundred thousand or a few hundred thousand, Shaw Brothers will still make a profit.

He may not make much money from one movie, but you have to know that he can make dozens of movies a year, and the added profit is considerable, not to mention that Shaw Brothers can sometimes make movies with good box office results.

Although Golden Harvest seemed to be booming, both the number of films produced and the production cost were less and higher, while Shaw Brothers made a fortune in silence.

However, for Golden Harvest, the most important thing in the 1970s was not how much profit it made, but to gain a foothold under the suppression of Shaw Brothers.

It was also officially led by Bruce Lee and Xu Guanwen that made Golden Harvest a well-known film company in Hong Kong, laying a solid foundation for its rapid development in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

Entering the 1980s, the Hong Kong film market began to prosper, and Shaw Brothers' very oppressive large-studio management model began to fail. Excellent talents left in droves, leading to the suspension of Shaw Brothers in 1983.

In the United States, the laws are more sound. The big studio system violates the Antitrust Law, and production companies are not allowed to have the ability to produce, distribute and screen films at the same time.

This is the famous "Paramount Decree" in Hollywood. For the Big Seven in Hollywood, they will definitely give up on screening the film.

So during that period, the seven major Hollywood companies sold their cinema chains and made cuts.

In addition, production companies can no longer sign contracts with artists and behind-the-scenes staff such as directors, photographers, and lighting personnel.

This last clause has been retained, but the Paramount Decree was actually repealed in the 1990s.

By now, almost all of the Big Seven Hollywood studios have invested in cinema chains or independently operate a small or medium-sized cinema chain.

It’s just that now, cinema chains are at the lower end of the industry in Hollywood and have become a sunset industry, so the Big Seven in Hollywood are not operating them with all their heart.

Warner not only operates cinema chains in North America, but also builds cinemas overseas, especially in Asia, which is the focus of their expansion.

Other regions are developing well, but the mainland has to give up and withdraw due to policy reasons.

Originally, Warner attached great importance to and had very high expectations for the mainland. Although the mainland film market was still small at that time, the population was there. Warner estimated that the mainland film market would be incredibly large in the future.

Therefore, Warner was very attentive when building cinemas, and the locations were almost all in the four first-tier cities, and they were all luxury cinemas.

Then the management team was also specially trained by them. It can be said that Warner Cinemas was the most professional and luxurious cinema company in the country at that time.

But with the introduction of relevant policies, all this has become cheaper for Wanda.

Wanda Cinemas was based on Warner Cinemas and instantly became a professional cinema company without any transition or exploration.

Then, based on this, taking advantage of the Wanda Group, it began a high-speed expansion model. And because of the management team and advanced management model left by Warner, it could take big steps without any setbacks.

Since 2005, Wanda Cinemas has opened across the country with Wanda Plazas, and in 2009 it officially surpassed China Film Star Cinemas to become the largest cinema chain in the country.

By the end of 2010, Wanda Cinema Chain already owned more than cinemas and nearly screens, accounting for nearly % of the total number of screens in the country.

Wanda Cinemas not only has a large number of screens, but also has very advanced facilities and professional management. Among the top ten cinemas in China, two are located in Wanda Cinemas.

Wanda Cinemas has 3D screens and IMAX screens, and they are the most among domestic cinema companies.

Therefore, Wanda Cinemas has been ranked first in movie box office for two consecutive years.

As Wanda Group began to fully enter the film and television industry, Wanda Films became an industry giant relying solely on Wanda Cinemas, and most people did not dare to offend them.

For example, in history, Feng Kuzi became a little arrogant and publicly criticized Wanda for not scheduling a film for him, but Wanda just ignored him, leaving Feng Kuzi with no way out and only helpless rage.

Wanda Film will be even stronger in this life. Obviously, after seeing the market value of Golden Harvest, it also saw the potential of the film and television industry, so the investment in this area will be much greater.

Not only did it spend billions of dollars to acquire MGM Studios, it also invested more money and energy in establishing Wanda Films in China.

Last year was a year for Wanda to integrate its team. This year, Wanda Films may launch films in both mainland China and Hollywood at the same time.

If Wanda Cinemas is the largest cinema chain, then China Film Group Corporation is the one that controls the most cinema chains.

In the past, half of the domestic cinema chains belonged to China Film Group, and the number of its screens accounted for more than 40% of the total number of screens.

Therefore, China Film Group is the biggest boss in the cinema industry, and this is also the fundamental reason why domestic film and television companies want to curry favor with China Film Group.

If China Film Corporation does not schedule screenings for you, no matter how good your movie is, the box office may not be satisfactory, not to mention that China Film Corporation has many other powers.

As for Golden Harvest, as the industry leader and a film and television company with a market value of nearly 100 billion yuan, its cinema market share is only 3%, which is seriously inconsistent with its status.

However, starting this year, Golden Harvest Cinemas will also enter a period of rapid expansion.

(End of this chapter)