Chapter 316: The Big Cultural Entertainment Strategy: Film and Television Industry Chain, Social Platform, and 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 this stage, 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 blockbusters like "Kung Fu Panda," "Hancock," "Red Cliff: Part I," "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 or National Day holidays.

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

"The Forbidden Kingdom," 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 heading to theaters during National Day.

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

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

"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.

"The Mystery of Li Mi," invested in and produced by Yi'an and starring Zhou Jie 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; though all are low-budget, their momentum rivals that of major studios.

Yi'an is handling the promotion and distribution for all three films and has a general strategy for each.

With low budgets, expecting to directly compete with Hollywood or "Red Cliff: Part I" is foolish—instead, they'll adopt a guerrilla approach, targeting niche corners and leveraging genre 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, "Call Me If You Can," as a harmless comedy, benefited greatly and ultimately grossed over 35 million yuan.

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

After settling accounts with co-producer China Film Group, Yi'an netted over ten million yuan.

This figure only accounts for profits 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 excellent: unassuming on the surface but highly profitable, with low risk.

"The Warlords" and "Assembly," released alongside "Call Me If You Can" in the same Spring Festival season, appeared dazzling but actually suffered heavy losses.

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

Simultaneously, it lowers expectations, takes profits when they appear, and adheres to the principle: small budget, small profit—small profit is still profit.

"The Mystery of Li Mi" is a suspenseful romance with an artistic tone and is not truly a commercial film.

However, with Zhou Jie, 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.

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

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

Given 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 isn't placing much emphasis on it.

It's not just because it's a co-production—there are simply too 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 push comedy marketing to attract comedy audiences.

How effective this will be is hard to predict.

Yi'an has seen the finished cut of "Ten Perfect Beauties"—it has some distinctive qualities, but overall quality is merely average.

Comedy films have high ceilings but also low floors; quality matters only partially—luck often plays a bigger 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, Yan Li is merely observing and has handed full authority to his 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 and Television and head of film operations, became the overall commander for this summer season.

Du Guowei is not an original member of Yi'an—he joined mid-way; he is Singaporean and previously worked at multiple Hong Kong film companies and even dabbled in Hollywood.

Wang Decai, head of the Film and Television Department and Yan Li's confidant, is unquestionably loyal but only possesses experience, not exceptional ability.

However, all of Yi'an's TV drama production staff were trained by Yan Li personally, supplemented by external talent and a studio system, so there's no shortage of capable people.

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 drama and film 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.

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 moment 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 command, Du Guowei holds full authority and sees it as an opportunity.

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

Although the current Film and Television Department already separates the two businesses, it remains unofficial—why would anyone want 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 unit from the Distribution Department to create an integrated film-distribution pipeline.

In the future, if Yi'an Film and Yi'an Cinema Chain merge, he even wants the Film Department to hold partial control over cinema operations.

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

Simultaneously, the Film Department's influence within Yi'an will greatly increase, and he himself will become a top figure in the industry.

Of course, these are just ambitions—whether they can be realized remains uncertain; the key now is to deliver strong results—better film performance means Yan Li will be more accommodating and internal resistance will lessen.

Conversely, if results are poor, not only will he fail to seize power from other departments, he might lose his current position.

While Yi'an's film division is gearing up, its TV drama division is also actively performing.

"Investiture of the Gods II" and "The Difficult Love of a Millionaire" lead the charge, with three other produced or invested TV dramas supporting.

This is only the Film and Television Department—if you include TV dramas distributed by the Distribution Department, add "Red Cliff: Part I" plus three more.

In total, four films and eight TV dramas produced, invested in, or distributed—this is Yi'an's 2008 summer season report card.

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.

Related platforms and Weibo have seen numerous similar press releases; Yi'an's unusually aggressive promotion has alerted sharp observers.

…

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

At a dinner party hosted by Li Boss of Xiao Ma Benteng, after some preliminary talk, Li Boss finally asked his question.

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

Bona's Yu Fatty is pushing hard, but his risks are too high and capital insufficient.

Unlike Huayi, which has advertising, TV dramas, and music to fuel it, Yi'an shows strong profitability and is poised to merge with its cinema chain to build a full film and television industry chain.

While a good story matters in capital markets, real strength is essential—only with strength can a story truly captivate.

Facing the question, Yan Li smiled but said nothing.

Currently, Yi'an Film and Yi'an Cinema Chain still need integration, and a financial crisis is imminent, causing market volatility; Yi'an's achievements in some areas are still insufficient to tell a compelling story, so an IPO is still some way off.

But Yan Li cannot reveal this publicly.

On one hand, it fuels 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 can truly attract Yan Li.

In Yan Li's view, ideal partners fall into three categories.

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

So Yan Li is considering bringing in cultural investment funds or local cultural broadcasting entities to gain partial official support and reduce such risks.

This investor is the most critical—must be brought in at all costs; if useful, even at a loss.

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

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

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

Currently, the three cooperate solely through Yan Li's personal connections; after an IPO, many things will become inconvenient.

Cross-shareholding is legitimate, no one loses, and mutual ownership can boost each other's stock prices; as the direct connector and behind-the-scenes boss and shareholder of all three, Yan Li personally gains advantages too.

In short, a company with potential to become an industry giant and drive multi-party development involves too many calculations and considerations.

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