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Rhino Entertainment Original

Text｜Xiaofu Editor｜Pu Fang

As of August 15, the total box office for the 2024 summer season approached 9.6 billion yuan, only about 55% of the same period last year.

As many projects have failed to perform as expected, the dismal end of this year's summer season has become a foregone conclusion. Although there is only half a month left in the three-month summer season, there is not much left in the box office.

In such a generally accepted downward market environment, how many production companies that are closely linked to the market performance of their projects will survive? Let's take this opportunity to review the performance of this year's summer movie companies in advance.

Maotao further consolidates its monopoly position

When "The Silence" was released, the industry was already aware that this summer season would be dominated by Maotao. After almost monopolizing the release window of blockbuster films, Maotao has continued to extend its tentacles to the upstream of the industry in recent years, continuously deepening its layout in the field of project production, and moving step by step from seeking film investment shares to controlling projects, with a year-round schedule coverage rate of almost 100%.

Even in the bleak summer season of 2024, the two companies participated in the production of more than ten projects. These two companies appeared among the production companies of top films of the period, such as "Catch the Dolls", "The Silent Killer", "The Decryption", and "White Snake: Floating Life".

What is even more worthy of "vigilance" for other traditional film companies is that after entering this year's summer season, Maotao and Taobao, which used to be independent of each other, began to accelerate their cooperation and simultaneously entered the top three production ranks in "The Silent Killer", creating the first box office hit of the summer season and further consolidating the monopoly position of the two Internet film giants in the market.

Of course, although Maotao has a dominant position in the market and has seized the opportunity to seize high-quality projects, it is a real entry-level player at the level of main control projects. In addition, the two companies also present different states in the layout of the main production business of serving as the top three products.

According to public data, we have made an incomplete count of the top three projects produced by the two companies in this summer. Maoyan has produced a total of 9 projects, including two main films, "Silent Killer" and "Umbrella Girl". "Silent Killer" is the first hit project in this summer, with a cumulative box office of more than 1.3 billion yuan. "Umbrella Girl" is the first main animated film launched by Maoyan since it started to focus on animated films, but due to the limited IP potential and quality, the market performance is mediocre.

The number of major projects produced by Tao Piaopiao has shrunk compared to last year's summer season, with only three projects: "The Silent Killer", "Negatives Make Positive", and "Welcome to My Side". Among them, the fantasy romance film "Welcome to My Side", which it mainly controlled, has a cumulative box office of less than 50 million and the market response is mediocre.

Content is always full of uncertainty. Even the most powerful Internet film companies are bound to fail in their main projects.

However, traditional film companies clearly have a deeper understanding of this aspect.

State-owned enterprises gain strength, while private enterprises lose their voice

The happier the Internet film companies are during the summer season, the harder it is for traditional film companies to go through during this period, with the exception of Wanda Films.

Wanda Films is one of the few companies that can compete with Internet film companies this summer. After the new head, Chen Zhixi, came to the company, Wanda Films released a number of projects this summer, and most of them received good market feedback.

Specifically, Wanda Films’ “I Don’t Want to Be Your Friend” grossed 203 million yuan during the Dragon Boat Festival. The second-most-produced movies in the summer season, “Catch the Dolls” and “White Snake: The Floating Life”, will become the box office champions of this summer’s live-action and animated films. “Catch the Dolls” is also the only movie in this summer’s season that has grossed over 3 billion yuan.

As for other films, the projects it participated in producing, such as "Decryption", "Silent Killer" and "Under the Alien", were also at the forefront of the box office during the period. The participation in the period and the vision of the projects are far ahead of other private film companies.

The performance of the remaining few old and leading private companies during the summer season was somewhat unsatisfactory.

The always stable Enlight Media finally won the summer season this year. This result was caused by the "failed promise" of "Nezha: The Devil Boy Conquers the Dragon King" and the fact that the conservative strategy the company has adhered to in recent years is no longer effective.

Currently, the best performing work of Guangguang in the summer season, "Sweeping Black: Never Give Up", has a box office of less than 200 million yuan due to the dual support of the Dragon Boat Festival and the anti-gang theme. Another second production project, "Safe Evacuation from the 21st Century", was welcomed by movie fans as a dark horse in the summer season, but due to the subject matter, the cumulative box office only broke the 100 million yuan mark.

As for other projects, "Her Little Dimples", which was originally scheduled to be released during the Chinese Valentine's Day, was quietly withdrawn due to low pre-release popularity. Youth films were originally Guangguang's most comfortable theme, but this year, two projects, "Transparent Heroes" and "Her Little Dimples", have been withdrawn. Earlier, during the May Day period, "Xiao Qian", one of Guangguang's most skilled animation films, also chose to withdraw due to market heat.

With the box office performance of over 2.4 billion yuan of "Article 20" during the Spring Festival, we don't need to worry too much about Guangguang's annual revenue because of the failure of the summer season in just three months. But with the frequent failure of projects to meet expectations and the postponement and withdrawal of schedules, perhaps it is time for Guangguang to re-plan its content strategy.

Bona Film Group and Huayi also fell in love in the summer. Bona Film Group, which just celebrated its 25th anniversary, launched two films in the summer, Legend, which it controls, and Dream of Red Mansions: A Golden Marriage, which it distributed and co-invested. Both of them suffered box office failures. Huayi Brothers' carefully crafted Laifu Hotel and Dog Array, although they have good reputations, have not gained much popularity in the market.

In addition to private companies, the state-owned China Film Corporation has also shown some signs of slowing down during this year's summer season. The top three projects produced are only the two films "Stop and Go" and "Rebirth". One of them grossed just over 100 million yuan during the Dragon Boat Festival, and the other is a crime film "Rebirth" which will be released this Friday and is expected to take in around 400 million yuan.

Among the remaining traditional private companies, Ruyi Pictures still has a market size of about 500 million thanks to its collaboration with director Xu Zheng to produce "Reverse Life". As for the old Hong Kong film studio Emperor Entertainment Group, it suffered two consecutive defeats in this summer's season with "Customs Front" and "Legend".

Next, the only thing left for Emperor Entertainment Group is the upcoming new film "Hedgehog". The film was previously shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Shanghai Film Festival, but due to its relatively limited commerciality, it may have mediocre prospects in the market. Even so, this film is still the last straw for Emperor Entertainment Group in this summer's film season.

Matt did have a good harvest this summer. The film Stop and Go, which it directed, grossed over 100 million yuan at the box office after its release during the Dragon Boat Festival. The company also served as the second producer of the recent largest film, Life in the Past. Matt will also have a film, The Warehouse, released next. Both the project capacity and quality have surpassed some listed companies.

In 2014, Bona President Yu Dong said at the first forum of the Shanghai Film Festival: "The future development of film companies is to meet the needs of the three BAT companies. We will do whatever BAT wants... We traditionally rely on signing contracts, film contracts, or shareholdings, and relationships, but in the future, all of these will be gone. In the future, these platform companies will go directly to the fields to pick cotton. They will go directly to the fields to pick the best cotton. There is no need for cooperatives or suppliers. This will have a huge impact on our traditional industry."

Ten years later, it has become a fact that traditional film companies have become the foils of Internet film companies. The scene of this summer season may become the new norm in the industry. Traditional film companies are unable to change it, and may only find the next comfort zone in the process of adapting to the rules of the game.