Before Zhou Fangyuan's rebirth, there was a term that became more and more popular, and that was called the fan economy.

Fan economy generally refers to the business income-generating behavior based on the relationship between fans and followers, and is a business operation model that improves user stickiness and obtains economic and social benefits in the form of word-of-mouth marketing. In the past, most of the followers were celebrities, idols, and industry celebrities, for example, fans in the music industry bought singer albums, concert tickets, and products that celebrities liked or endorsed. Nowadays, the Internet has broken through the shackles of time and space, and the fan economy has been widely used in many fields such as culture and entertainment, sales of goods, and provision of services. With the help of a certain platform, merchants gather circle of friends and fandom through a certain point of interest, provide diversified and personalized goods and services to fan users, and finally convert them into consumption and achieve profits.

In the fan economy, there is a very important project, which is called film and television peripherals, and film and television peripherals themselves are a category under "peripherals".

Film and television peripherals, game peripherals, anime peripherals......

In this regard, whether it is in the past life or in this life, the country is not very good. Movie peripherals have always been the strength of the United States. And anime peripherals have always been Fuso's strength.

And among them, Disney is definitely the top player in this field.

In the previous life, with the "Star Wars" spin-off "The Mandalorian" on the streaming platform "Disney+", the business-savvy Disney Company began to skillfully operate movie derivatives - the American media "Variety" said on the 4th that the cutest and most mysterious baby Yoda in the play was made into a toy doll, and customers can pre-order it on the official website of the Disney Store. At present, film and television peripherals have become an industry abroad, and the income of peripheral products can sometimes even surpass the film and television works themselves, while China is still weak in this regard.

There are a number of Yoda baby peripheral toys on Disney's official website, among which the 11-inch toy doll made by the toy manufacturer Mattel costs $24.99; The toy doll is dressed in a baby sweater and sticks out one finger in a Force gesture, almost exactly like the character in the play.

"This 50-year-old Yoda creature looks like a child," reads Disney's official website, "and this Star Wars merch will add a touch of the Force to your collection!" Since Baby Yoda became a popular character in "The Mandalorian" as soon as it appeared, Disney also launched more than 20 merchandise for it, including T-shirts, phone cases and mugs, to fully explore its commercial value. "Variety" said that Disney began to pre-sell merchandise immediately a month after the series started, completely harvesting the feelings of fans, this alien creature "is both a pet and a friend".

Groot in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" also belongs to the "cute characters", and the launch of them as merchandise is the result of careful consideration by the filmmakers. The production of this kind of character is also mainly for the purpose of developing the subsequent story structure and creating commercial selling points.

This isn't the first time that Disney has been so eager to develop merchandise, with the animated film "Frozen" series being another success story. "Frozen 1" brought in more than $5 billion in merchandise revenue, of which the main sister's skirt sold 3 million in North America. In the sequel, Elsa wore a new Ice Queen dress, and related merchandise has long been on the shelves of Disney stores.

Among the major Hollywood studios, Disney is particularly adept at mining peripheral value, from Mickey Mouse to Iron Man to the Snow Queen, as well as Universal's "Transformers" and Warner's "Harry Potter" series, which rely on merchandise to make no less profit than the movie box office. According to the statistics of "The Hollywood Reporter", in the first week of the release of "Captain Rice 3" in 2016, the revenue of peripheral products reached 200 million US dollars, and the cumulative revenue of peripheral products of "Star Wars" exceeded 30 billion US dollars. Through cooperation with more than 100 brands around the world, Disney has printed the image of superheroes such as Captain Mi on various products, expanding the promotion of the movie while also receiving a lot of brand commissions from product sales.

In Fuso, where the film and television industry is developed, there is also a wide variety of Japanese dramas and Japanese comics, and there are many stores and websites that specialize in selling peripheral products. For example, the Japanese longevity anime "Crayon Shin-chan" regularly sells merchandise on its official online store, including dolls, accessories, clothing, stationery, and toiletries, to meet the needs of fans in an all-round way.

At present, peripheral products are still a gold mine to be developed for domestic films, and the main income of the film company still comes from the box office, and most of the peripheral products are just giveaways during the publicity period. Chinese animation and science fiction films, which have been serialized, also need to increase investment in the development of peripheral goods on the basis of protecting copyright awareness. Some Japanese netizens found through investigation that the peripheral products that are popular in the market should first conform to the tone of the original film and television works and have a certain practicality. In addition, the characteristics of the product also need to be in line with the "world view" of the work, for example, if the original background is set in ancient times, the modern atmosphere of the peripheral products should not be too strong. Only in this way can fans turn into consumers and pay for feelings.

There is a saying in the United States, that is, a boy's childhood is always indispensable to a "Star Wars" prop.

When the baby divorced in his previous life, fans said distressedly, baby, I will support you with a movie ticket. The money for a ticket is really nothing, and the most profitable thing now is the derivative of the movie.

Peripheral products are eroding the pockets of "fan brothers" and "fan girls" for the second round. I still remember in my previous life, on the Time Network APP, the movie was not staged, and all kinds of the same products began to confuse people. In the Star City Cinema, there is even a new position of film peripheral product manager, and there is a special counter area to sell peripheral products.

Industry experts have said in more than one interview that movie peripheral products are a "gold owner", and it is predicted that it will bring a market of 100 billion yuan. Don't think that this name sounds pretty professional and shouldn't make you money, but it's been abusing your wallet countless times and you're ignorant of it. In fact, unconsciously, domestic filmmakers have become more and more interested in this "second money" market, and have strengthened the development and research and development of peripheral products, vowing to dig into a larger market.

And don't think that this is what the post-00s did, you and I are actually "poisoned" not lightly.

A few years ago, when I watched a Disney movie at the Hunan Provincial Grand Theater, when I entered, the staff sent a fluorescent "pop" bracelet, Minnie Mouse pattern, worn on the wrist, in the dark theater, like a halo. Many years later, Disney's "Super Marines" was printed on Star City, and the theater also gave a "big white" keychain as a souvenir. I'm sorry, but the various images of "Big White" are not given away, only bought and sold.

Mickey, Snow White, etc., the anime images that have accompanied us for generations are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. When Zhou Fangyuan was a child, when he was a child, if he had a stationery box and schoolbag with a Mickey Mouse pattern, he would be a little arrogant. Up to now, Mickey Mouse seems to be everywhere, and the stationery, clothes, and cups purchased for children are all this mouse, and the price is not cheap.

Elementary school students love toys. Middle school students love figurines. In particular, some classic images have a very long-lasting life. I really can't underestimate the influence of these movie products, they are popular, and the goods can't be entered, and if some products sell well, the profit can reach more than 50%. The sales of various derivatives of "Balala Little Demon Fairy" exceeded 100 million yuan. The same yo-yo in "Fire Boy King", almost every boy from all over the country has one, and it sold for 450 million yuan. When "Notes on Tomb Robbery" was released, some sellers on Taobao sold four or five hundred pieces of the same gold chain and black-backed knife in a week.

Peripheral products with stories and feelings are more marketable.

In some large toy cities, all kinds of movie merchandise are played in sync with their movie videos. The film and television image that people are familiar with, after becoming a product, is actually not so magical and powerful, but lovers don't mind this.

Only with feelings and classics can we have a better market and lasting benefits. "Star Wars", "Captain Rice", Marvel's character image, deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and there are constantly new stories and characters appearing, and now they are the best-selling peripheral products. The customers of the peripheral stores are not all young, and there are many middle-aged people, who pay more attention to quality in their purchases. This part of the post-70s and post-80s "fans" have a deep love for their heartfelt movie images, mainly collecting and reminiscing, like the "Star Wars" series has a history of more than 30 years, and some customers have collected the "Star Wars" images in each film.

There are also areas that confuse and feel risky for these sellers. A Star Wars laser sword, priced at two or three hundred yuan, is very profitable, it may be that the film companies are aware of the considerable market for peripheral products and are launching their own products.

Derivatives contain a 100-billion-level market that far exceeds the box office, and building a long-term brand is the key.

The rise of the Internet has given a larger market for peripheral products.

The data shows that this is a 100 billion market. Toys derived from Hollywood movies sold for $5.7 billion, which is 85 percent of the 2015 Chinese box office. Only 30 to 40 percent of the profits of the overseas film industry come from the box office, and the rest comes from the sale of film derivatives and rights. For example, in the United States, the revenue from derivatives is as high as 70% of the total revenue of the movie, far exceeding the box office. However, at present, 90% to 95% of Huaxia film revenue comes from box office and product placement, and the entire derivatives market is almost blank.

It is not enough to stay at the stage of turning products into commodities, the goal of film peripheral product discovery is actually to build a long-term and continuously popular brand. In the first month of "Harry Potter" at Universal Studios in Osaka, Harry Potter fans had to queue up one night earlier to wait for their seats. The favorite drink of the characters in the movie, "Butterbeer", sold for nearly 30 yuan in soft girl coins, and sold more than one million cups after 102 days of opening, with an average of one cup sold every 4.6 seconds during the business period. And after seven films of "Harry Potter", the latest sequel began to launch a single script book last week.

In the Hollywood theme park of Universal Studios, "Future Water World" "airplane bombing, yacht splashing waves, pirate fire", when it brought surprises to the audience, this movie has been released for 21 years, it is like practicing the "gold absorption method", allowing tourists to spend five or six hundred yuan and travel thousands of miles to reminisce about that classic. And this is also the expectation of filmmakers for Chinese film peripheral products - making a vote on the movie, a little rich, absorbing more money on film products, not enough, and turning the film peripheral into a cultural product for in-depth development is the king.

Take superhero movies as an example, the current production cost of a single British film is generally between $150 million and $200 million. Then the publicity fee starts at 100 million US dollars, which means that the production and publicity alone is at least 250 million US dollars. In addition, the theater will share a large amount (at least half) of the money, and it will be up to the sky to really make one or two hundred million dollars. And that's not even counting the risk of a box office crash if word-of-mouth smashes it. Sony's 14-year Extraordinary 2 box office $700 million. Among them, the cost of 200 million US dollars, the publicity fee of more than 100 million US dollars, plus the theater account sharing, almost lost money, and almost smashed the reputation of Spider-Man, and finally forced Sony and Marvel to cooperate.

And in 14 years, Marvel easily earned $1.3 billion just by relying on Spider-Man's periphery. Although it is not a pure profit, the profit margin is much higher than that of the movie, and there are also things like Star Wars, which are now 30 billion US dollars a year, and the movie has completely become an advertisement for the periphery.

In this case, Zhou Fangyuan naturally hopes that "Warcraft 2" can win the Oscars.

According to incomplete statistics, any movie, as long as it can win the Oscars, has been nominated several times, and the peripheral sales can also soar by more than 20%, and this is still the lowest number, only for those movies that are not easy to make peripherals, nominations can strengthen the sales of DVDs, and like superhero movies, just come out with some models, you can make a lot of money. Of course, the "Warcraft" series can also be, not to mention, the "Warcraft" series was originally born out of the game, and there are a large number of loyal otaku players in itself, and otaku are often rich, because if you don't have money, you have to go out to work and survive, how can you live at home?

Let's talk about Star Wars.

The empty alley is not just talking, and the box office of "Star Wars" can only be hoped for by latecomers.

Not only the first part, but the entire series of "Star Wars" is a global box office harvester. The first film doubled the stock price of 20th Century Fox in just three weeks after its release, and so far, "Star Wars" has been released 9 films, and all 9 films are ranked in the top 50 box office in world film history, and the "Star Wars Fan Celebration" with a fan network all over the world can be seen in its sweeping trend.

But box office revenue is not the most profitable income of Star Wars, but the periphery is! Its games, Lego toys and other derivatives have reached $15 billion.

In 1978, the first Star Wars Splinterof of the Mind's Eye officially opened the door to the Star Wars "spin-off universe", and then expanded the recorded history of the Star Wars universe to nearly 30,000 years. Now, the distinction between "canonical" and "legendary" makes it possible to create new stories, and canonical stories continue to draw inspiration from legends.

Star Wars continues to expand in films, comics, animated series, and video games. According to some data, in 2015 alone, Star Wars merchandise sold $700 million, and in 2016, another $760 million, and this number is still increasing every year. In addition, the LEGO company creates 40 detachable villains and related items for each of the Star Wars IP rights each year, and "Star Wars" ranks in the top five LEGO IP rights selections due to its strong fan base.

Look at it, this is the horror around him, so Zhou Fangyuan would rather be with Weinstein and reach a cooperation with the other party, and then let the other party help him win some awards at the Oscars.