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water temperature cools

Fast Reading

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not being able to get money has become a consensus among film practitioners. each project has its own financing difficulties, the only difference is the amount.

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in the past, there were more funds and more projects, but now the biggest feature of the film industry is the lack of money.

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investors are becoming increasingly cautious. the three questions they are most concerned about are: can it be released? when will it be released? how long does it take to get the money back?

author丨gaoyue

cover source丨"i'm crazy about money"

after more than two years of preparation, yu yanze still could not find enough money to start his new movie. he participated in film festivals and investment meetings and received some awards and attention, but he never got any money.

the closest thing to success was when everything was negotiated, but in the end, the funds still didn’t arrive.

this director, who has been in the industry for 13 years and has participated in many feature films, is now preparing for his first horizontal screen drama, with a total of 24 episodes of 15 minutes each. it costs 4 million yuan to shoot such a horizontal screen drama. in the early stage of filming, yu yanze's team had to spend their own money to create scripts and view scenes.

the days of hot money are gone. lack of money has become a survival proposition for every filmmaker.

even wang baoqiang has trouble finding money

finding investment is far more difficult than director chen haitao (pseudonym) imagined. his new movie is a popular suspense theme. the producer and supervisor are quite well-known in the industry and have many masterpieces. this made him quite confident.

however, for more than a year, the investors chen haitao has contacted almost all follow the same process: very interested, hold internal meetings, and let nothing go. during the most intensive period of time, he met with more than 30 investors in three days, and said the same words over and over again, but still with no results. a few investors even bluntly said that they were just waiting and watching. only if the film was successful would they consider subsequent cooperation.

confidence is being eroded little by little.

chen haitao told xuebao financial news that each project has its own financing difficulties, "the difference is only the amount." directors with less experience are worried about not getting paid, and well-known directors with several masterpieces are worried about not being able to get enough money.

before filming "the octagon", wang baoqiang met with many investors in search of money and told them that the film was a realist theme and that inner drama was his strength. however, investors always "talk about it being very good, but when it comes to the implementation of the contract, it falls apart."

this has a lot to do with the failure of wang baoqiang's first movie "havoc in tianzhu". a film investor told snow leopard financial news, "investors are very cautious nowadays. if a director's last movie failed, it will be difficult for the next one, and financing will become difficult. even for famous actors who have received large investments, the same goes for directors.”

stills from "the octagonal cage"

source: douban

an industry insider who focuses on mid- to late-stage investment in consumer brands revealed that some acquaintances of film producers will directly send film project documents to ask if they are interested. "maybe they are really desperate."

withdrawal of capital midway also often occurs. a film investor revealed that a film was shot and edited last year and is being prepared for filing and release. as a result, investors withdrew their capital midway due to cash flow difficulties. the film's release has become elusive.

chen haitao wants to reduce this risk as much as possible. his attitude is more conservative than before, "i will only start the machine if i get 80% of the funds."

short dramas with short shooting time, fast payment cycle, and more favored by the market have become the choice of many people. yu yanze leads the team to shoot short plays. the short play can take as short as one week or as long as ten days, and it only takes two to six months to get the money back. for many people in the industry, short plays are not very profitable, but they can still survive.

director yu yanze on the set

source: photo provided by interviewee

many colleagues around yu yanze are trying to shoot and invest in short plays. bona pictures is also experimenting with micro-short dramas, using them as a training ground for young teams.

a senior post-production editor who edited 10 films in the past year has only one order this year, and this is the order he received last year. he switched to editing short plays and had “too many jobs to handle”. another senior lighting engineer who has worked on many well-known film crews also joined the ranks of doing short dramas because he obviously felt that there was less work in the film.

there are also practitioners who have completely left the industry. some are caterers, open hotpot restaurants, work for internet companies, and some have returned to their hometowns.

from the hot money rolling to the water temperature getting colder

in the first few years after joining the industry, yu yanze witnessed the era of hot money.

yu yanze started as an on-site producer and executive producer, worked as a director's assistant, executive director, and finally became a director. he has participated in films with various themes such as family ethics, financial and business wars, and costume suspense. the cost was mostly 15 to 60 million yuan. back then, it was much easier to get money than it is now.

at that time, the film industry had a lot of funds and projects, and there were many people with investment enthusiasm. professional film and television companies and investment companies were generous, and lay investors with financial strength were also willing to participate. most of them came from industries such as real estate, mining, and energy. "even if i lose money, i am still willing to invest in movies and join in the fun."

director and screenwriter qin shuhua (pseudonym) recalled that for a while, whenever he walked into a coffee shop near sanlitun, almost all the tables around him were discussing investment in movies. a well-known director with a box office of more than 1 billion told snow leopard financial news that there was once a saying in the industry of the "three divine beasts of ppt", which meant that as long as a few well-known actor casts could be assembled, "you don't have to worry about investment."

a set of statistics revealed by zhang yi, founder of iimedia market consulting, shows that the amount of investment and financing in the chinese film market reached its peak in 2018, approaching 12 billion yuan.

but this situation has completely changed after 2019.

wang yibing, ceo of bad monkey pictures, which has produced well-known films such as "i'm not a medicine god" and "all or nothing", said at a film investment forum that around 2019, the financial environment of the film industry was very different from the past. "in the past, there were more funds, more money, and more projects, but now the biggest feeling is the lack of money."

stills from the movie "i'm not the god of medicine" produced by bad monkey pictures

source: douban

yu dong, ceo of bona pictures, also mentioned on many occasions that the biggest problem in the film market currently is the funding gap. his company's "operation dragon" is the film project with the largest investment in china so far this year. bona pictures concentrated its cash flow on this film, so much so that it had to temporarily shelve the production of other small and medium-cost films.

according to the "china film investment and financing development report (2023)", from 2021 to 2023, the number of private equity financings for film and television companies has declined year after year, reaching 53, 33, and 18 respectively. compared with 2018, it was almost halved.

large productions have insufficient cash flow, and small and medium-sized productions cannot get money. is it just because investors have no money?

qin shuhua told snow leopard finance and economics that the phenomenon of "one life per film" in the current film market is becoming more and more obvious. only a very small number of directors or actors can be said to be "able to carry the box office," "because they have formed an inherent mode of getting along with the audience. ". in addition, any choice made by investors will face great uncertainty.

but now, the last thing they want to take is risk.

think twice about every penny you spend

in the past, there were only a few producers of a movie, which was a symbol of financial strength. but now, the list of producers is getting longer and longer. for example, "the wandering earth", which tops douban's chinese adventure film list, has 27 producers, and the 2024 spring festival box office champion "hot and spicy" has 31 participating companies.

wang xiang (pseudonym), a senior film investor, told snow leopard finance that on the one hand, this is because everyone has no money, and each family has to contribute less, so they work together to work on projects; on the other hand, it is to share risks, "this movie is profitable. , everyone also voted together for the lower part.”

in order to achieve good results, film production is spending more and more money wisely. a person from a leading film and television company said that one of the most important costs today is advertising and investment, "accounting for about one-fifth of the cost." as for other investments, such as group performance fees, they can be saved as much as possible.

wang xiang can feel that investors are becoming more and more cautious, even when facing first-line directors and actors at the top of the pyramid.

hot topics have never been more important. in the past two years, suspense themes and realistic themes adapted from real events have been the easiest to get money for, while some unpopular themes have found it difficult to get investment.

stills from "the siege of kowloon walled city"

source: douban

rather than how much money they can make, investors care more about the stability and certainty of the project.

chen luochao, the producer of the film "the siege of kowloon walled city", once publicly stated that due to the increasing number of examples of hong kong films performing poorly at the box office in the mainland, many film companies have begun to make cautious choices and will suspend investment and distribution of hong kong films.

wang xiang told snow leopard finance and economics that the three most common questions among investors are: can it be released? when will it be released? how long does it take to get the money back? in order to seek peace of mind and protect their rights and interests, more and more investors even choose to sign capital guarantee agreements.

therefore, wang xiang rarely recommends early-stage investments to them that have not yet started filming. instead, he will recommend more projects that will be released this year to allow investors to make later-stage investments. “the funds are used for publicity and final settlement of participants and rental venues. ".

investors must think twice before investing every penny.

when the movie "the octagonal cage" was launched, the producers wuxi baotang pictures and lehuahua pictures on the background board were both wang baoqiang's own companies.

last year, yu yanze finally received an investment for his new movie, but the amount was not enough to start the project, so he could only continue to seek funding.

chen haitao is still waiting for his controlling investment. the story of the movie takes place in winter, and the best time to shoot is either after december this year or february to march next year.

if several investors who are meeting internally still fail to bring good news and the movie cannot be launched on time, he will have to miss another winter.