Hu Fang continued while making tea: "Last month, a company called "caused a storm in the circle, and I heard that the distributor Xingyue Times organized salesmen distributed across the country to peddle film investment shares on the grounds of film investment, resulting in more than 40 people being trapped and finally losing all their money. ”

Shen Feng pouted, isn't it the fault of profiteering?

With the successive emergence of popular movie projects, many laymen want to participate in a piece of the pie?

Deserve!

Film share transfer has never been a new business, and the film and television and financial industries have always been closely intertwined. However, compared with other industries, film and television have more serious information asymmetry, which is simply a pit step by step.

"The film will usually only raise shares in three time periods: first, during the project incubation period, only one script or even the outline stage will be fundraised. ”

"The second is that the project is in the middle of the project, and the cash flow suddenly breaks, and the main creative team has to turn to the outside world to continue its life. ”

"The third is that the film has been filmed and produced and is in the waiting period before its release. The producer was unwilling to bet all the proceeds on the market, so he chose to resell most of the film before the release. ”

Hu Fangdao: "Of course, these share premiums are so high that sellers can not only recover their costs, but also earn most of their profits in advance. ”

Shen Feng nodded, the so-called three ways of playing actually correspond to three ideas. The first is mostly seen in the first few years of the outbreak of the film and television industry, when hot money in the industry was surging and the crowdfunding model was emerging.

But 17 years later, due to box office fraud and repeated blows from the tax gate, movie crowdfunding players have withdrawn one after another. Now that the tide has completely receded, only some long-established teams, or government-backed film and television centers, can have enough appeal to attract investment;

The second type is mostly seen in some literary directors and animation directors who rely on emotional support, which is often a last resort, and the income is also unstable. Back then, producer Lu Wei raised funds through his circle of friends.

Later, it set a box office myth, and the 89 participating investors returned more than 400%!

The last way to play is more similar to the financial idea, packaging the relevant film and television projects into a kind of financial products, which is not uncommon in the industry, that is, the producer first adopts a co-investment strategy to obtain shares, and then sells them to other investors at a premium.

In the process of share resale, the seller charges a certain premium, which is a completely reasonable business practice. Because although the early share of film and television projects is low, it requires thick network resources to get it.

"Let's put it this way, the most difficult part of a film project is in the incubation period. I've seen a boss hire a bunch of screenwriters to write a script, pay a salary and add rent, and burn millions in two or three years, but the book is still not finished. ”

"When the film is filmed, it means that the highest risk period has passed, and it shouldn't make more money?"

"Is it possible to transfer the parity to the next family and let others make money?"

Hu Fang is also an insider now, and he was deeply touched: "The logic is indeed valid. But the key point of controversy is the magnitude of the premium. ”

"For large companies in the industry with early market share, the premium is still in a more reasonable range. In order to protect the interests of investors and the reputation of the company, they often promise to sign a repurchase agreement. ”

"If the box office of the film does not meet expectations after its release, resulting in a loss for investors, the company will make up the difference between the promised income and the actual income. ”

"Anyone's funds have a time cost, and it often takes more than half a year or even a year or two from the time investors pay for the subscription of shares to the release of the movie. In addition, the settlement cycle will not start until at least three months after the offline line, and the long period can even reach one or two years. ”

"Therefore, companies that are willing to sign repurchase agreements during the share sale process have a conscience in the industry. If the chain continues to extend downward, and secondary investors get the shares and then resell them, it will be even darker. ”

Shen Feng understands that under the temptation of high commissions, the premium range depends on one mouth, and the whole system will become more and more biased towards pyramid schemes, and downstream investors naturally have no protection.

Film and television projects, because almost every expense is not transparent!

It is simply difficult to verify whether there is an over-subscription phenomenon, and it is almost technically impossible. In addition, there are many investors in film and television projects, and the chain of capital flow is long, so it is very difficult to trace and determine responsibility for such cases.

In other words, as long as the subject matter of the contract can be released normally, investors will have no way to prove the existence of fraud, and in most cases, they can only be regarded as investment failures and consider themselves unlucky.

In May last year, Xu Zheng posted a solemn statement on Weibo about the investment share of the film being sold under false names, and even though the director has issued a statement, there are still people selling the right to profit from the project online.

Can it even be guaranteed to directly connect with Xu Zheng for an interview?

There are also scammers who combine fake projects with Internet technology, develop financial management APP to attract investment, and run away with money after the thunderstorm.

At the end of the day, the industry is limited in how it can be financed. Behind the hundreds of millions of dollars in film and television projects in the United States, there must be a large financial institution, which is why Hollywood continues to sweep the world.

The main source of funds for domestic film and television projects is the company's self-raising. This near-primitive chain of financing continues to evolve, and it is easy to blur the boundaries between fundraising and pyramid schemes.

Some layman's money was smashed in,

I don't know that the theater will have to pay in the end?