So what do you think about buying box office and rebates in the mainland?

The staff of Lanyu had a discussion with Du Xinghe and others, although their main business is the singing circle, but Lanyu's plan for Du Xinghe is an all-round artist, and it must not be limited to the identity of a singer, they hope that Du Xinghe can become an all-round idol.

So in the field of film, they also chatted with Du Xinghe about the current status of films, and Brother Kang and Jay Chou also participated in this private discussion. Everyone has benefited a lot.

Is buying box office and rebates a means of promotion or unfair competition? This is the focus of heated debate.

Buying box office and rebates allows filmmakers, distributors, e-commerce, and theaters to make different profits. If you don't do this, your film's interests will be directly affected, it may be that the film schedule is very low, or it may be stolen from the box office. As a result, two very different views emerged: the injured party certainly believes that it is encountering unfair competition, but the vested interest defends itself by saying that "the state has not expressly forbidden it". The establishment of a well-established film market regulation seems to be the ultimate solution.

The party who profits from buying box office and rebates has two defenses for his actions: first, I have the ability to do it; Second, I do this as normal marketing.

"I have the money, the strength and the resources to do this, so why don't I do it? I can't just because people can't do it, so I won't do it." In the eyes of some distributors, whether it is rebates, box office purchases, or bribing theater managers, expenses are just a kind of "public relations expenses". It's like film investment, some invest more, some invest less. It is understandable for the filmmakers to replace better publicity methods with their own distribution resources. "Everyone says to buy box office and rebates, but I think I just can't eat grapes and say that grapes are sour."

"I think rebates are a kind of incentive policy, and you have to give a sales commission to sell products, not to mention that this is a kind of sales in the first place. One is the general distributor, the other is the distributor, and there are many distributors, so it's normal for you to give incentives," said one publisher. Another person likened it to this: "For example, McDonald's gives free burgers, the same." Right? Then you can't say to scold him, you are really shameless, you don't make any money, as long as the effect is achieved, it is okay in business. There are also industry insiders who use the situation in the United States as an analogy: "You see that the proportion of account sharing in the United States is not one-size-fits-all, they are also step-by-step account sharing, the longer the movie shows, the more points are given to the theater, and we reduce the proportion of account sharing for the same reason." ”

Many people in the industry think. It is indeed scoffing to buy a box office on a large scale like a certain film, but a normal scale of chartering and e-commerce activities is acceptable.

In the opinion of a theater manager, chartering is a promotional method that has always existed, except for some sponsors who will have local tyrants who are generous, and it is generally within the normal range, "I think the difference between chartering and buying a venue on a large scale is that after the additional tickets are sent out, there will indeed be audiences to watch, because we will also select customers in a targeted manner." And it's all money, and Chinese audiences will feel that they don't watch it for nothing. "Even for acts like fakes. Industry insiders also believe that although it is immoral, it is not illegal: "Doing fake shows is just that we are willing to reach a consensus, and the theater chain doesn't want this money, but just takes some benefit fees." We don't have our hands and feet. For example, if you steal the box office, there must be a so-called injured party, but there is no fake game. ”

But frustrated filmmakers in the context of rebates and box office buying obviously don't think so, and they are calling for a fairer market access mechanism.

Wang Shuai's "Break-in" has only 1% of the film schedule on May Day this year. Hit hard, he went to the theater to learn about the market situation, only to find out that a movie in the same period had bought the box office. "They're just trading directly, not influencing the market with the quality and publicity of the normal film. In our film, the conclusion they gave was 'you didn't promote it well', but in fact, the publicity fee this time was 8 million. It's already good, I didn't have any publicity money before, and when I was "I 11", it was just two people in the office who relied on a meager little bit to turn around. But they're going to take this for example, because you don't have a direct deal with him. As soon as he spoke to the people of the whole country, the people of the whole country believed that there was no film schedule because of the propaganda problem, so they avoided all the tricks here. ”

Director Wang Shuai believes that the films released at the same time deprived him of the opportunity to compete fairly by buying box office and rebates, and his films were sentenced to death in advance before they entered the market and were tested by the audience. He pointed out that now that there are resources for cinemas and distribution, a huge system has been formed, and people outside of it will not have a chance: "China does not have a market access mechanism, so it can only hug the thighs, and can only hug the thighs of the distribution and cinemas." Each cinema chain has its own children, and if the cinema chains unite and take care of each other's children, they form a large organization. If any unit that does not have any interests linked to them, you will not be able to enter their system, then you can only watch, and there is no hope for any basic system. ”

Foreign models can be used for reference, and the ultimate foothold is the establishment of laws and regulations.

"The state doesn't explicitly stipulate that we can't do this!" This is the ultimate defense of the party that benefits.

"Why doesn't the state restrict them from doing so?" This is the question and cry of the frustrated side.

In the end, the question points to the state's supervision of the current film market, whether to intervene in the distribution process, and what kind of laws and regulations should be established is the key to solving the current problem.

Before that, let's take a look at the practices of developed film markets. According to industry insiders, the act of buying box office does not exist in the developed film market. An official from CNC, France's film and television management agency, told us that buying box office will not happen in France, because buying box office is too expensive, and he can't understand why there is such a phenomenon in the Chinese market.

According to the analysis of industry insiders, "the French film market is mature, and the audience also has relatively mature viewing habits, and will not follow the trend like Chinese audiences." The situation of buying box office should be a phenomenon unique to the initial stage of the Chinese film market, just like some problems in other areas of film, which should be solved with the progress of Chinese films as a whole. ”

How do you fix it? The U.S. and French models may provide a lesson. First of all, the profit model of Chinese films is relatively simple, mainly relying on the box office. This is also the reason why the filmmakers blindly pursue high box office. "The seven-tier window distribution model in the United States can ensure that the film has a relatively long-term income, not just relying on the box office", industry insiders introduced, "In the United States, there are seven windows, such as theaters, cable TV's "single film pay" channel, cable pay movie channel, home video, cable TV, and wireless TV, to ensure that the film can have income from release to offline for three years. ”

Director Wang Shuai represents a relatively weak presence in today's Chinese market. What they are calling for is a relatively level playing field and market access mechanism, such as limiting the maximum number of films a blockbuster and stipulating the minimum number of films and release times for a film.

According to the official of the French CNC, there are similar regulations in France, CNC stipulates that a film cannot exceed 25% of the schedule at most, and the minimum number of films in one theater cannot be less than 1 theater, which prevents blockbusters from dominating the market and ensures the survival space of small films. There is no such thing as a "day trip" in France, where the CNC stipulates that a film must be shown in theaters for at least two weeks.

Put a big shark like a commercial film and a small fish like a literary film in a pool to compete. There is a certain degree of unfairness in itself. Both commercial films and literary films have put forward an appeal for separate screenings. A senior distribution practitioner pointed out that if the conditions for establishing art cinemas in the mainland are not yet ripe, the model of Baodao can actually be used as a reference: "The largest cinema in Taibei is called Weixiu Cinema, which has 16 halls, but it has two halls dedicated to theatrical films. For example, "Flying Against the Light", which was screened here last year, was actually shown on Treasure Island for three months, and the box office was released more than 20 million. It is issued in the long term. Play twice a day, but insist on putting it every day. "In the hinterland. There are also art theaters like MOMA, but it is difficult to grow because of the lack of government support.

If rebates are a kind of promotional method similar to the ladder of account sharing in the United States, and if buying box office is gradually recognized in the form of chartering and e-commerce subsidies, if these two operating methods can indeed benefit some filmmakers and make the Chinese box office continue to hit new highs, does it mean that there is no problem with this qiē?

The establishment of arthouse cinemas may be an important way to save literary films. The establishment of arthouse cinemas may be an important way to save literary films.

From the long-term perspective of film diversification and the healthy development of the market, the crisis has surfaced. First of all. Blockbusters that use rebates and box office buying techniques squeeze the living space of small and medium-sized films such as literary films. China's literary film market itself has not started, and in today's market environment, literary films that are small in size and do not have enough capital to rebate and buy box office operations can only become victims of film scheduling. Secondly, under the baton of money. Cinema schedules may determine what films will be made in China in the future.

When a film achieves great box office success through rebates and box office purchases, it will lead more investors to shoot similar films, and then use the same distribution model experience to replicate this box office success, thus leading to the production of more and more homogeneous and assembly-line films. In the end, the result of the director is that domestic bad films cannot cultivate audiences, and the market environment is unwilling to support domestic good films, and the audience can only be kidnapped by Hollywood blockbusters. Then a vicious circle of Hollywood blockbusters squeezing domestic blockbusters, domestic blockbusters squeezing domestic medium-sized films, and medium-sized films squeezing small films. When the import of American films was fully opened in 2018, how could Chinese films resist the menacing arrival of Hollywood?

When director Wang Shuai was promoting his "Break-in", he once went to a theater in a second-tier city to meet the audience. "I didn't dare to look up after entering the theater, there was no film schedule, it was too embarrassing." At the end of the meeting, the theater manager came to shake hands with Director Wang Shuai and thanked him, but Director Wang Shuai finally couldn't hold back, he looked directly at the manager who avoided his eyes and said: "You are in this cinema, you are the manager, and you have the right to schedule films." If one day, out of this studio, you go to the hospital to see a doctor, you go to politics. Prefecture. Division. Do you also hope that this society is fair? Everyone has equal rights? ”

Kang Kang, as a rookie director, if he can't find the doorway here, the encounter will not be much better than that of director Wang Shuai.

After listening to Lanyu's story, Kang Kang benefited a lot, because he has been immersed in this circle for a long time, and seeing that Du Xinghe is quite interested in the film industry, especially Du Xinghe wants to know about the movies on their treasure island, Kang Kang told Du Xinghe about the current situation of treasure island movies based on what he saw and heard when he entered the industry last year, and took the 2014 treasure island movie as an example.

The 2014 Taiwan film as a whole is lackluster, and there are not many exciting real masterpieces, even the surging trend of documentaries in 2013 is no longer seen.

The "Golden Horse Awards" has spanned half a century and is moving towards the 51st edition, and the Taiwan film has once again set an unprecedented low tide in terms of award records. If you put the "Army. Middle. Happy. The Best Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress Awards won by "Garden" (Chen Jianbin and Wan Qian, two mainland actors, respectively) are not counted, but the "second" award is reserved for Taiwan: Chen Xiangqi's Best Actress (won the award for "Echo Sonata") and Yi Zhiyan's "Action Codename Sun Yat-sen" Original Script Award.

In terms of the results of international film festivals, the Treasure Island film is probably only "Ice. Poison" is the most beautiful, from the beginning of 2014 selected cypress. Lin International Film Festival、After in love. Fourth. He won the Best Film Award at the Fort International Film Festival, and was invited to countless international film festivals throughout the year, and even became the representative of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. "Army. Middle. Happy. "Garden" is the second part of the kettle after Hou Hsiao-hsien's "The Best Time". The opening film of the Mountain International Film Festival was also selected for the 2015 Bai International Film Festival. Viewing film at the Lin International Film Festival.

In terms of box office, in 2014, among the top ten highest-grossing Chinese films in the Taiwan Bend market, "KANO", "Waiting for a Coffee Guy" and "Dadaocheng" ranked the top three, but only "Waiting for a Guy for Coffee" made money, and "KANO" still lost money even if it accumulated NT$340 million at the box office in Taiwan; Middle. Happy. Garden" suffered a miserable loss, as for the co-production "Ruffian. Sub-Hero 2 relies on the big . The box office of Lu was recovered, and the performance of Taiwan Bend was only about NT$50 million, which was not particularly outstanding. (To be continued......)