Chapter 316: The Film and Television Industry Chain: Social Platform Video Website

On June 5, "Painted Skin" officially announced its release date of September 26, effectively withdrawing from this year's summer season.

This decision was carefully considered within Yi'an.

At present, the two major hot seasons nationwide are the Spring Festival season, dominated by domestic blockbusters, and the summer season, which features many Hollywood blockbusters.

For example, this summer's lineup includes major films like "Kung Fu Panda," "Hancock," "Red Cliff: Part One," "WALL·E," "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," and "The Dark Knight," making competition extremely fierce.

Therefore, some strong films capable of securing substantial theater screenings sometimes consider secondary seasons, such as the May Day holiday and National Day holiday periods.

Although not as advantageous as the Spring Festival or summer seasons, they can avoid major rivals and dominate the season.

"The Kung Fu Master," released in late April, had this consideration in mind, and "Painted Skin" is no different.

September 26 falls on a Friday, allowing it to capture the weekend box office first, then ride a secondary peak during the National Day holiday.

Considering "Painted Skin's" influence, Yi'an's promotional efforts, and support from Bona, China Film Group, and Light Chaser, it can directly become the top choice for most people entering cinemas during National Day.

If placed in the summer season, with so many Hollywood blockbusters and the giant "Red Cliff: Part One," "Painted Skin" would not stand out as much.

However, although "Painted Skin" is avoiding the season, it does not mean Yi'an is avoiding this summer season entirely.

"Contract Lover," produced by Yi'an and starring Zhang Zhilin and Wang Ou, will be released in August.

"Ten Perfect Beauties," invested in and co-produced by Yi'an, is scheduled for late July.

"Li Mi's Guess," invested in and produced by Yi'an and starring Zhou Young Master and Deng Chao, is expected to release at the end of August, also falling within the summer season.

This amounts to three films releasing at once; although all are low-budget, their momentum rivals that of major studios.

Yi'an is handling the promotion and distribution of all three films and has roughly defined their positioning.

Being low-budget, it's foolish to expect them to directly compete with Hollywood or "Red Cliff: Part One," so they're adopting a guerrilla strategy, operating in the margins and leveraging thematic differentiation to harvest leftover audience share.

Last year's Spring Festival release, "Call Me If You Can," did exactly this.

It managed to carve out a slice of the market with its comedy genre amid two tragic epics, "Assembly" and "The Warlords."

Especially after "Assembly" pulled early from theaters, "Call Me If You Can," as a harmless comedy, benefited greatly and ultimately earned over 35 million yuan in total box office.

Due to its low cost, significant cost coverage from product placements, and its comedy nature, several rights were sold well.

After settling accounts with their partner China Film Group, Yi'an netted over ten million yuan.

This is only the profit Yi'an made from the film project itself—advertising, distribution, and Yi'an Cinema Chain revenues are not included.

Thus, Yi'an increasingly believes low-budget films are good: unassuming on the surface but surprisingly profitable, with low risk.

"The Warlords" and "Assembly," released in the same Spring Festival season as "Call Me If You Can," looked more glamorous but still suffered losses.

Precisely because of past experience, Yi'an is now applying thematic differentiation and guerrilla tactics to its summer season films.

Simultaneously, they've lowered expectations, take profits when they appear, and adhere to the principle: small budget, small profit—small profit is still profit.

"Li Mi's Guess" is a suspense romance, with an artistic tone, and is not truly a commercial film.

However, with Zhou Young Master, Deng Chao, and Wang Baoqiang in a cameo, it still has strong cards—star power plus word-of-mouth could push it toward 20 million yuan in box office.

"Contract Lover" is a low-budget romance; Zhang Zhilin and Wang Ou have some fame, but lack strong box office appeal.

Yi'an's plan is to leverage the Qixi Festival in early August, using it as a theme combined with romance elements to attract couples, while promoting related topics on Weibo.

Considering this film's cost, breaking even requires only 10 million yuan in box office—anything beyond is pure profit.

As for "Ten Perfect Beauties," to be honest, Yi'an hasn't taken it too seriously.

It's not just because it's a co-production, but because the film has few strong cards.

The director is a newcomer, the cast are all newcomers to the film market, with limited appeal; the previous promotional focus was even on producer Li Xiang, so Yi'an can only emphasize comedy marketing to attract comedy audiences.

How effective this will be is hard to predict.

Yi'an has viewed the finished cut of "Ten Perfect Beauties"—it has minor charm, but overall quality is merely average.

Comedy films have high ceilings and low floors; quality matters only partly, while luck often plays a larger role.

As a result, Yi'an's forecast range for this film is wide—10 to 30 million yuan.

It all depends on the market performance after release!

For this summer season, Seeing Yan Li is merely observing and has handed full authority to subordinates.

After all, the combined projected box office of the three films is under 100 million yuan—would he personally direct such a small operation? Then the rest of the company might as well quit.

Du Guowei, Deputy General Manager of Yi'an Film & Television and head of film operations, has become the overall commander of this summer season.

Du Guowei is not an original Yi'an member; he joined mid-way and is from Singapore, having previously worked at multiple film companies in Xiangjiang and even in Hollywood.

Wang Decai, head of the Film & Television Department, is Seeing Yan Li's trusted confidant, unquestionably loyal, but his ability is merely experienced.

However, all Yi'an's TV drama production staff were trained by Seeing Yan Li himself, and with the addition of external talent and the implementation of studio systems, they lack no capable personnel.

Wang Decai, relying on seniority and experience, can maintain stability, and TV drama production is thriving.

But he is ineffective in film.

Although both are called "film and television," TV dramas and films are actually two separate industries.

Moreover, Yi'an's film division is currently in a phase of bold expansion and territorial growth, requiring bold, aggressive talent.

Seeing Yan Li, as boss, can step in, but he can't always lead the charge—he needs a deputy or someone who can hold the line in his absence.

Du Guowei joined Yi'an at this time and has been heavily entrusted.

He has managed the production and distribution of "Call Me If You Can," the production of "Contract Lover" and "Peach Blossom Luck," and the investment in "Ten Perfect Beauties," "Ip Man," and other films.

For this summer season's overall command, Du Guowei holds full authority and sees it as an opportunity.

An opportunity to break away from the Film & Television Department and establish a standalone Film Department.

Although the current Film & Television Department already separates the two businesses, it remains officially illegitimate—who wants to be second-in-command when they could be first?

Moreover, Du Guowei's ambitions go further.

He not only wants the Film Department to become independent, but also wants to seize the film distribution division from the Distribution Department to create an integrated film-distribution pipeline.

Even if Yi'an Film & Television and Yi'an Cinema Chain eventually merge, he wants the Film Department to control part of the cinema chain's authority.

In this way, when Yi'an goes public, the Film Department can secure more original shares.

At the same time, the Film Department's influence within Yi'an will rise significantly, and he himself is a major figure in the industry.

Of course, plans are plans—it's uncertain whether they can be realized; the key now is to perform well in the business. The better the film division's results, the more amenable Seeing Yan Li will be, and the less internal resistance there will be.

Conversely, not only will he fail to snatch power from other departments, he might even lose his current position.

Yi'an's film division is gearing up, and its television division is also actively performing.

Leading off are two titles: "The Investiture of the Gods 2" and "The Difficult Love of Wang Laowu," with three other produced or invested TV dramas supporting them.

This is only the Film and Television Department; if you include the Distribution Department's released TV dramas, add "Red Cliff: Part I" plus three more series.

Combined, production/investment and distribution total four films and eight TV dramas—this is Yi'an's output for the 2008 summer season.

No other film and television company participated in as many projects.

In terms of number of produced projects, Yi'an ranks among the top two in the industry.

Similar press releases appeared across related platforms and Weibo; Yi'an's unusually aggressive publicity campaign had already alerted sharp observers.

…

"Director Yan, is Yi'an also preparing for an IPO?"

At a dinner party organized by Boss Li of Xiaoma Benteng, after a series of preliminaries, Boss Li finally asked his question.

In the film and television circle, many companies plan to go public, but only Huayi and Yi'an are widely recognized as having both the qualifications and capability to become new stars on the stock market.

Bo Na's Fatty Yu is jumping around aggressively, but the risks are too high and capital is insufficient.

Unlike Huayi, which is backed by advertising, TV dramas, and music, Yi'an stands out in profitability and may soon merge with cinema chains to build a complete film and television industry chain.

Capital markets value stories, but strength must be demonstrated; the stronger the strength, the more compelling the story.

Seeing Yan Li smiled but said nothing in response to the inquiry.

Right now, Yi'an Film and Television and Yi'an Cinema Chains still need integration, and a financial crisis is about to erupt, causing market volatility; moreover, Yi'an's achievements in some areas are still insufficient to tell a convincing story, so the IPO is still some way off.

But Seeing Yan Li could never reveal such matters publicly.

On one hand, it paints a vision for internal morale; on the other, it intimidates and misleads competitors, while also attracting high-quality partners.

With his star resources, personal brand halo, and internet channel advantages, few investors could truly interest Seeing Yan Li.

In Seeing Yan Li's view, there are only a few types of ideal partners.

One is an investor who can provide policy protection—the film and entertainment industry fears this most, as losses and setbacks often come without reason.

So Seeing Yan Li is considering bringing in a cultural investment fund or local cultural broadcasting entity to secure partial official support and reduce such risks.

This investor is the most important; they must be brought in, and if they work, even at a loss, they must be secured.

Another is one who can provide stable capital—after Yi'an's IPO, the cinema chains will need continued expansion, inevitably burning cash, and other investments will also require funding, so a deep-pocketed backer is essential.

Another is a company like China Resources' commercial real estate or Hengdian's film city, capable of offering resource complementarity and strategic synergy.

Even Tencent Video and Weibo could cross-hold shares with Yi'an, forming a more solid grand cultural entertainment alliance: film and television industry chain + social platform + video website.

Currently, the three-way cooperation relies entirely on Seeing Yan Li; after an IPO, many things will no longer be so convenient.

Cross-holding shares is legitimate and fair—no one suffers a loss; mutual ownership can also somewhat boost each other's stock prices, and as the direct connector and behind-the-scenes boss and shareholder of all three, Seeing Yan Li himself gains advantages.

In short, a company with potential to become an industry giant and capable of mobilizing multiple parties involves far too many calculations and considerations.

Even his closest companion doesn't know Yi'an's future—others trying to probe his intentions are dreaming.