Huayu 05, our science fiction movie universe

Chapter 607 2017 Company Business Review (Part 2)
In 2017, the domestic film and television market maintained a rapid growth trend, and was in a stage of consolidation and climbing, reaching a high point.

The total box office revenue in China reached 613.72 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.61% compared to 2016.

Domestic films grossed 411.04 billion yuan, accounting for 66.98% of the total box office.

There were 92 films that grossed over 100 million yuan at the box office, of which 51 were domestic films.

星河集团电影票房过亿电影共有6部，总票房206.27亿，占国产电影票房的50.18%，其中《唐人街探案3》于《三体1》分别登顶国产电影票房排行榜1、2名，《三体1》更是凭借超70亿票房的成绩断崖式领先。

In terms of film production, in 2017, China produced 798 feature films, 32 animated films, 68 science and education films, 44 documentary films, and 28 special films, totaling 970 films.

Among them, Xinghe Pictures completed the production of 7 films, released 6 films, and invested in 11 feature films.

Regarding cinema screens, 9597 new screens were added nationwide in 2017, bringing the total number of screens to 50776. Xinghe Group's cinema chains own 2713 screens, accounting for 5.34% of the total number of screens nationwide, indicating room for further improvement.

In 2017, the domestic TV drama industry as a whole showed a trend of multi-dimensional viewership and intensified competition.

全年通过备案公示的剧目共有1175部、46685集，相较于2016年，数量分别小幅下降2.73%和2.34%。

制作完成并获得发行许可证的电视剧共有314部、13470集，相较2016年分别下降5.99%和9.67%。

In addition, 583 dubbed films and 14785 episodes were imported throughout the year. The main sources of the films and TV series were Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia, followed by Europe and the United States.

Among them, Xinghe Group's TV drama division participated in the production of 15 TV dramas, totaling 443 episodes, of which 11 were broadcast on satellite TV. Among them, "Eternal Love" and "Rattan" became hits across the internet. In addition, 27 Japanese and Korean TV dramas, totaling 781 episodes, were imported, as well as European and American TV dramas...

Compared to 2016, investment in TV drama production increased significantly in 2017, reaching 242.26 billion yuan, an increase of 113.73 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year growth of 88.49%, accounting for 56.81% of the total investment in TV program production, demonstrating the high favor that capital has for the TV drama industry.

Meanwhile, national TV drama sales also experienced explosive growth, reaching 265.41 billion yuan, an increase of 117.45 billion yuan compared to 2016, representing a year-on-year growth of 79.38%, and accounting for 73.65% of the total annual TV program sales...

In 2017, domestic TV variety shows generally showed signs of aesthetic fatigue, and the public showed a greater preference for program innovation.

The total production time for variety shows throughout the year was 47.43 hours, a decrease of 0.98 hours compared to 2016, representing a year-on-year decline of 2.02%...

Galaxy Group's music variety show "The Voice of China", parent-child interactive program "Where Are We Going, Dad?", celebrity detective reality show "Who's the Murderer", indoor competitive reality show "Ace vs Ace"...

In 2017, the domestic online film industry produced a large number of films, facing the dual trends of industrial upgrading and internal reshuffling.

Some online movies have begun to try inviting well-known actors to participate. It's also important to note that online movies often skirt the edges of legality; this year, our company's legal department has filed numerous lawsuits against infringing online movies…

[The online drama industry in 2017...]

Wang Hao continued reviewing company documents until 3 p.m., spending the longest time on the 2017 work report summary for the [Film and Television Production Business Group].

It is evident that Galaxy Group's film and television production business group was on the rise and expanding in 2017, with its business scope mainly involving the production of movies, TV series, variety shows, online movies, and web series.

The achievements they have made are extremely impressive, and at least among the domestic film and television companies, they can be considered to be "far ahead".

Whether it's movies, TV series, variety shows, online movies, or web series, Galaxy Group's Film and Television Production Business Group consistently produces blockbuster hits.

Based on these results, the production department of the [Film and Television Production Business Group] will definitely receive a substantial performance bonus this year, enough to make employees in other departments envious.

However, in addition to the production of movies, TV series and variety shows, the Film and Television Production Business Group also includes Starlight Fantasy Special Effects Company, Star Dou Culture Brokerage Company and Good Production Network.

Of course, GoodProduction.com has now become independent and has established deeper ties with domestic film associations, directors' associations, screenwriters' associations, cinematographers' associations, actors' associations, and some film and television art colleges, becoming a semi-official company with technical services provided by Xinghe Group.

Whether the existence of such enterprises is good or bad is hard to judge at the moment, but in recent years, the working environment of the lower-level practitioners in the film and television industry has undoubtedly been much better.

With the joint supervision of Good Production Network and various associations, there has been significant progress compared to the past in both timely wage payments and safety guarantees while working on set.

Therefore, nowadays, millions of users of Haozhipian.com have begun to spontaneously protect the interests of the website.

The entire software platform and the ecosystem built by users are operating harmoniously and in an orderly manner.

The separation of Haozhipian.com has made Xingdou Culture, a talent agency closely tied to it, seem somewhat strange.

On the one hand, many members of Haozhipian.com are contracted employees of Xingdou Culture; on the other hand, Xingdou Culture has little control and influence over most of these contracted employees.

Xingdou Culture is more like a service organization that provides assistance, charging management fees to the lower-level behind-the-scenes staff and group members, and providing assistance to well-known artists and directors at the top to set up studios.

Therefore, the report did not contain much information about these two companies. The main content, besides Xinghe Pictures and Xinghe Films, was about Xingguang Huancai.

This company is currently one of the core departments of Galaxy Group, serving as the company's technological backbone and an important cornerstone of its film industrialization system.

Wu Qian, the current head of the company, is considered a veteran of the group. He previously worked at Hualong Digital, one of the earliest special effects companies in China. He recruited Wang Hao when Wang Hao had just graduated and was making movies. Over the years, he has worked diligently, assisting Wang Hao's old classmate Zhang Yang in managing Xingdou Culture.

Later, Zhang Yang switched careers to become a director, and Wu Qian took over the position of general manager of Xingdou Culture, managing thousands of people under its umbrella.

Don't think that several thousand people is too many. As a high-quality, labor-intensive industry, special effects technology has developed to the point where its technical content is no longer as high-end as it used to seem.

Compared to the technology, the most important thing is the enormous workload of rendering various special effects, which requires technicians to spend a lot of time doing it bit by bit and refining it step by step.

Xinghe Group undertakes numerous projects each year, including not only special effects segments for blockbuster films, but also TV series, commercials, online movies, games, and more, all of which require Xingdou Culture's participation and technical support.

According to the data in the report, these Star Culture initiatives have been handled very well, and the results are outstanding.

Furthermore, they are still in the expansion phase, and Xingdou Culture will continue to require increased support from the group in terms of personnel and equipment. Wang Hao agrees with this, given that the group is about to launch more film, television series, and game projects involving special effects.

However, the expansion of Starlight Fantasy also requires foresight.

Because in this area, there is another project under development within the group, namely AI rendering and AI graphics/animation generation technology.

In the future, although AI-generated graphics and animations will still have many problems, and many will look obviously fake, it is an inevitable trend for them to replace traditional special effects workers.

After all, it's a dual optimization of efficiency and cost, and for businesses, the choice is self-evident.

Therefore, Galaxy Group has also reminded several art colleges in China that specialize in film and television special effects, stating that the number of special effects practitioners in China is almost saturated, and that the impact should be taken into account when recruiting new students in the future.

In fact, it's not just the film and television special effects major. Thanks to the platform formed by GoodProduction.com in conjunction with other associations, every year after the college entrance examination, Xinghe Group contacts various associations and colleges to release industry survey reports to the public, which contain a general overview of the current status of various professions in the industry.

For example, the current number of makeup artists in the industry, their skill level distribution, average income, ease of employment, whether there is an industry gap, and the future development prospects of the industry.

There are also professional lighting technicians, special effects artists, prop masters, photographers, directors, screenwriters...

The data may not be entirely true or accurate, but the situation is certainly close to the truth.

The reason for releasing this information is to prevent the industry from overheating, so as to avoid a rush of people into the industry and intensified competition among practitioners.

Especially for recent high school graduates, this can be considered as providing some assistance in their college application and future career choices.

Wang Hao kept flipping through the department's summary documents, and he would write down any minor questions or ideas he had in the blank spaces next to the relevant documents.

His secretaries were already familiar with his habits, and they would always leave enough blank space on the documents when printing them.

If a problem or matter comes to mind that is of importance, Wang Hao will usually contact the relevant person in charge directly by phone, or ask someone to come to the office, or discuss it over the phone.

During this work process, Wang Hao also went to the cafeteria for lunch.

Although today is New Year's Day holiday, many employees are still working overtime at the company due to work requirements, and there are naturally quite a few people eating in the canteen.

The employees weren't too surprised to see the chairman eating with them in the cafeteria, because Wang Hao had done the same thing when he was filming at Xinghe Cinema in the past. They were all used to it and would even greet him warmly with "Hello, Chairman Wang!" Wang Hao would naturally respond with a smile.

After finishing his meal, Wang Hao took a half-hour nap in his office before resuming his work.

However, this job could not be sustained for long.

"Honey, are you still so busy?"

The door was pushed open, and Jing Tian, ​​dressed in a beige down jacket and carrying her son who was wrapped up tightly, walked into Wang Hao's office under the guidance of her secretary.

"You... Oh, look at my memory, I forget the time when I get busy."

Wang Hao glanced at the clock on the table, slapped his forehead, and then gave his wife an apologetic smile.

Jing Tian has been too busy lately, so last night she told him to ask Wang Hao to take some time out during the New Year's Day holiday so they could take the kids out together and enjoy some pleasant family time.

"Let's go!"

Wang Hao didn't let Jing Tian say anything more. He immediately put aside the documents he hadn't finished reading, then had his secretary take away the documents he had already read, organize the comments, and hand them over to the relevant department.

But in just a short while, his son Liangliang was already opening his arms and calling "Dad" repeatedly.

Wang Hao smiled and hugged the chubby boy in his arms. He accompanied Jing Tian as they left the company and drove to a park not far from their home.

The temperature in Beijing on New Year's Day was already quite low, but because it was a holiday, the park was still bustling with local residents strolling and playing.

Moreover, even though the temperature is low in winter, when the sun is shining brightly, wearing such thick clothes and moving around a little will cause a thin layer of sweat to form on your body.

The two of them, just like any ordinary young couple, spent the afternoon playing with their child in the park. Afterwards, they went to their own supermarket to enjoy the thrill of shopping, had a simple dinner, and used up the shopping cards given to them by the company as New Year's Day benefits before returning home with bags and packages.

What they didn't expect was that their ordinary family outing was photographed by paparazzi who often loiter around the Galaxy Cinema, and the photos were posted online.

#During the New Year's Day holiday, Wang Hao's family went grocery shopping; his wife and son were also in the photos#
These photos and related news quickly became trending topics.

A well-known director taking his wife and children to the park and supermarket has attracted a lot of attention and goodwill from netizens due to his down-to-earth behavior.

After all, with the rapid rise in celebrity salaries in recent years, a high wall seems to have been erected between celebrities and the public.

Not only do celebrities rarely appear in public anymore, but their outings are often accompanied by security guards, fans crowding and making noise, which annoys many unrelated people.

Similar situations are not uncommon; the days when celebrities would go grocery shopping in Hong Kong are now rare.

However, even with Wang Hao and Jing Tian's down-to-earth behavior, their fame and influence still didn't make it to the top of the trending searches that day.

Another incident ignited the entire entertainment industry on the first day of 2018, giving netizens a good dose of gossip.

(End of this chapter)