Out-of-the-box market is not performing well, but according to a statement on social media by Brian Lichtenberger, co-founder of the data research company “7Park Data”, the revenue of “Mulan” on Disney+ is about 60-9 thousand Tens of thousands of dollars have brought considerable “rebirth” income to the film-Paramount has made an attempt to conform to the trend of the times and follow the Hollywood studios to actively embrace the Internet.
In China, from February “Fat Dragon Crossing the River” in iQiyi, the PVOD mode was the first to follow, to “Spring Tide” and “Spring River Plumbing” and other literary films, followed by the July visual effects blockbuster “Zhengtu” Then, to this “SpongeBob SquarePants”, although domestic PVOD started less than a year ago, it is being selected by more types of films.
“Fat Dragon Crossing the River” poster
The combined efforts of big film parties and big platforms have released increasingly obvious signals: online monolithic payment for movies is becoming a normalized new trend in the future.
PVOD “seeking change”
The launch of iQIYI’s “SpongeBob SquarePants” this time is the third work of the “SpongeBob SquarePants Movie Series” and the first film in the series that uses full 3D animation. 3D format and network distribution are undoubtedly new challenges to the original screening mode and market rules. After all, if you want a movie to bring the audience an online viewing experience that is not lost in the theater, technical adaptation is particularly important. .
As the platform for the screening, more investment must be made to make new hardware upgrades to narrow the gap between online screening and big screen viewing. Therefore, this time iQiyi also made technical adaptations for the 3D version of “SpongeBob SquarePants”, and upgraded the viewing experience of 4K, Dolby sound, and iQiyi HDR in the visual effects and sound effects, in order to make the line The users watching the movie are within the range allowed by the hardware conditions>
“How to play online film marketing and how to measure the effect, we are really at a loss.” A senior film marketer said to Dumo. Moreover, according to the poison eye, compared with the traditional offline marketing of movies, the budget for online marketing is often only about half of the former. In this case, how to use less money to achieve better marketing effects?
In the past, the large-scale spreading of marketing materials on the “wide network” has to be abandoned. It is particularly important to find the target audience and point-to-point precision marketing. From this perspective, the online single-chip payment model has advantages: The audience is distinguished from the type of the film itself, and the convenience of the Internet environment and the speed of public opinion fermentation are used to help the online marketing of the film. With the advent of the platform D2C (Direct To Consumer) era, the advantages of online marketing will become more obvious. This is actually a good supplement for movie marketing that is difficult to reach users.
Take this time “SpongeBob SquarePants” as an example. As a family carnival animation film with a large audience of 80s, 90s and children, iQiyi opened the online for the first time based on the judgment of users. Multi-scenario integrated marketing, using the IP value of “SpongeBob SquarePants” to fully cover local life, from life travel, sports health, social sharing, consumption scenarios, children’s education and other fields, such as Baidu map, keep, Xiaohongshu, Huabei Carry out cross-border cooperation, and even cooperate with mainstream mobile phone manufacturers, operators, and Sponge IP authorized merchants to carry out joint marketing and promotion, trying to accurately penetrate the life scenes of the target audience of “SpongeBob SquarePants” IP.
Baidu map launches SpongeBob theme voice pack
In terms of resource promotion, S-level resource promotion of the film was also given, including the key position of iQiyi’s full port, homepage recommendation, sub-channel recommendation, oot terminal, TV manufacturer, short video on-the-go, etc. Key support. And use customized H5 games, password red envelopes, and movie draws in the stationInteractive gameplay such as awards and fun marketing reach users, which triggers communication. Therefore, the popularity of “SpongeBob SquarePants” on the first day of the launch approached 6,000.
In addition to the changes and upgrades in marketing, the PVOD model also puts forward new requirements for content creators: film creators must figure out the “home” of the film and where the audience is from the early stage of the work, so as to have a clearer picture Direction and goals. As Song Jia, the general manager of iQiyi Film Center, said, with the development of streaming media, the film industry will need a pre-distribution strategy in the future. “When you see a movie, or even in the production stage, you should make it clear whether you want to choose a theater in the future. Streaming first.”
However, whether it is audiovisual, marketing, creative thinking, and distribution strategy, the changes that PVOD brings to all aspects of the industry cannot be ignored. Judging from the results, the platform’s determination to advance the PVOD model is very clear, which also gives some originally conservative and wait-and-see filmmakers a certain degree of confidence.
During the release of “Spring River Plumbing” in the iQiyi Super Cinema and the high-end pay-on-demand mode of screening, Huang Xufeng, the film’s producer and founder of the factory gate film industry, also pointed out to Poison Eye that PVOD is also promising after the epidemic. The mobile Internet is developing faster and faster, and the influence of network distribution is increasing. This general trend is irreversible.”
One-chip payment is becoming a trend
Before “SpongeBob SquarePants” landed on iQiyi, single-film payment was already in the limelight on a global scale.
In the bumpy 2017 in Hollywood, the box office in North America was 11 billion U.S. dollars that year, a drop of nearly 3 percentage points from the 11.3 billion in 2016. The number of movie viewers was 1.239 billion, the lowest in 25 years. With box office growth in the North American market already very weak, where is the new box office growth? Hollywood manufacturers have explored a new possibility of single-chip payment: the PVOD model.
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By breaking the theater window period and launching streaming media platforms synchronously or quasi-synchronously with theaters in order to seek revenue from the online market outside of physical theaters, PVOD has become Hollywood’s new hope for box office growth, but with 2018 The North American box office market rebounded in 2010, and discussions on PVOD were temporarily put on hold. Until this year, the epidemic has accelerated the real use of PVOD, making the prospect of single-chip payment for movies in streaming media gradually clear:
In March and April when the Hollywood cinema market was shut down, Universal chose to launch “The Invisible Man”, “Hunting”, “Emma” and “Tangling 2” on the online streaming media platform for users to watch on-demand through a single-chip payment method. ; In May, “The Greyhound” starring Tom Hanks announced the abandonment of physical theaters and was distributed online through Apple’s Apple TV+, which received a high copyright fee of 70 million US dollars; then Hollywood studios “Greatly inspired”, blockbuster films such as “The Fantasy Adventures of Artemis”, “Hamilton” and “Mulan” have joined the streaming media and have gained high downloads and revenue, and even greatly helped the platform to recruit new members— -Single-film payment has “saved” many Hollywood films.
The domestic market is equally sensitive to the feasibility of single-chip payment.
On February 1st of this year, the action comedy “Fat Dragon Crossing the River” starring Donnie Yen was exclusively launched on iQiyi. The first domestic movie application PVOD mode was attempted; if it is because of action and comedy Internet movie viewers have a preference for the type, “Fat Dragon Crossing the River” itself has genes suitable for PVOD, then “Spring Tide”, “Marriage Story”, “Spring River Plumbing” and other art films attempted to pay for single films on iqiyi , It is quite “experimental” and challenging. Many film practitioners told Poison Mouth that the tonality of literature and art was originally difficult to be considered suitable for the needs of Internet viewing. However, “break through the insurance of the type of film, choose literature and art The film actually shows that the platform has enough courage and ambition to promote the payment of a single film.”
Soon, the visual effects film “Journey” was also launched on iQiyi through the PVOD mode, and the 72-hour film production revenue exceeded 42.62 million, setting a new record in the paid mode of the first online movie. And if such an achievement is in the theater market, it would take about 150 million box office to achieve. Until the launch of “SpongeBob SquarePants” yesterday, it opened a new situation for PVOD in China-cartoons also adapt to the PVOD mode.
“SpongeBob SquarePants” is a popular IP that has been popular since 1999, and every season of “SpongeBob SquarePants” has a Douban score of 9 or more, which means that the IP itself is available in the domestic market. Great audience favorability. If you choose to be shown online in theaters in November, compared to the current box office results of nearly 100 million in the same type of “Digimon: The Last Evolution” in the same period, the box office revenue of the 3D “SpongeBob SquarePants” in the theater market is also promising. “From the perspective of genre, audience base and schedule, this film has elements that will be paid for by the market.” A certain tier city studio manager said to Dumo.
The first season of “SpongeBob SquarePants” Douban scored as high as 9.5
It is such a film that seems “very marketable”. Paramount chose to launch it on iQiyi. This has actually released a very clear signal: the future prospects of single-film payment are being recognized.
From comedy action, literary and artistic films to visual effects blockbusters to Hollywood animation, iQiyi’s bold attempts step by step show that the platform is determined to promote single-film payment, and different types of films have accepted the PVOD model. The degree is indeed getting higher and higher. As Zhang Yibai said at the 10th Beijing International Film Festival this year: “Whether we are making movies or making plays, first of all, we are creators and we are very enthusiastic about the convenience and freedom that streaming media brings to our creative expression. , Even a bonus.”
How far can the single-chip payment in the future go in China?
When discussing the future possibilities and prospects of single-chip payment, many practitioners have used “major trends” and “irreversible” to judge, and this judgment is often based on the single-chip payment in complementing the movie market. The positive effect shown on this “fatal shortcoming”.
The first is the contradiction between content supply and audience demand. At present, the film market has the problem of the lack of multiple types of films, leading to the situation that there are no films available in many periods, and the basic viewing needs of audiences are difficult to meet in other periods than popular periods.
This drawback also exists in the field of online content. Gong Yu, the founder and CEO of iQiyi, once publicly stated that the online film and television industry has long faced the main contradiction between users’ viewing needs and the industry’s insufficient supply capacity, and an important issue to resolve this contradiction is content segmentation.
The single-chip payment model is segmenting content. For example, “Spring Tide”, “Spring River Plumbing” and “Marriage Story” and other more artistic films, do not go to the big screen, and launch iQiyi to let audiences pay for on-demand, and at the same time give these film resources promotion space to attract their corresponding target audience Groups, if things go on like this, form a user’s cognitive habit of “finding exactly the genre they like in the paid content provided by the video website”, thus gathering a group of viewers with specific content preferences.
And this approach is in line with the concept of the streaming media D2C era advocated by iQiyi: In movies, the intermediate channels are compressed to directly attract its core audience, and the user determines the income and even the fate of the movie, the survival of the fittest, and For fairness. Therefore, regardless of whether it is on-demand videos through the PVOD online platform or the TVOD mode, the rich and diversified types of online videos can meet the needs of audiences for content types. At the same time, it can also use the update of online projection technology to achieve a higher quality audiovisual experience , Which can help the entire film market to increase its growth.
Not only that, but single-chip payment is also trying to solve an imbalance in the film market. For a long time, most small and medium volumesMovies in the theater market are in a disadvantaged position, especially in popular schedules when blockbuster movies are released. The top movies tend to take away the overwhelmingly advantageous rankings and divide most of the audience. Other movies become “cannon fodder”.
If this part of the film chooses to use the online single-point payment model of streaming media, avoiding large-scale movie theaters and blockbuster movies, it is also another important channel for retrieving viewers, being watched, and recovering costs to obtain box office.
At the same time, the audience’s viewing cost will also be reduced due to the single-chip payment viewing method on the streaming media platform. Online movie watching scenes can be brought to life. You can open a movie to watch at any time on the subway, while in line, before going to bed, etc., which is more convenient and convenient. “I spent money to watch Oscar-winning works like “Marriage Story” when iQiyi went online. Compared with pirated resources, 12 yuan can buy better picture quality and movie viewing experience. It’s also a convenience.” A fan said to Poison Eye.
Based on the positive impact of paying for a single film on the multiple shortcomings of the film industry, many practitioners have judged that this model will bring about a reshuffle of the entire industry. “After all, today there is a Hollywood animation like “SpongeBob SquarePants” going online, and tomorrow there may be “007” going directly to the Internet for screenings,” a senior film practitioner told DuMou, “from some that don’t have much market in theaters. From films to more high-quality genres, once the PVOD model is successfully verified on a large scale, it will undoubtedly give the entire industry a big shock.”
The extent to which this shock will continue will often depend on how far the cooperation between the platform and film content creators will expand in the future. A head of a head film company told Poison Eye that the traditional creations of most film creators did not really connect with the power provided by the platform. “How do the creators and the platform connect? Both sides have to act.” The person in charge of the film company believes that, after all, the screen capacity of the mobile terminal of the Internet is too large. No matter what kind of unique film, it is relatively able to find its own audience. This is a particularly big advantage of the platform. “Once (the creator and (Platform) when the docking is “Mars hits the earth”, the world changes.”
Judging from the action of Paramount’s animation film selection on iQiyi Online, changes are taking place. The domestic market is an important box office position that cannot be ignored by any foreign film. Once the box office grabbing ability of the domestic PVOD model line is confirmed, future overseas films may no longer only focus on physical theaters when considering the mainland market. on. In the long run, the role played by domestic streaming media platforms in the global film market will also be worth the industry’s expectations.
Maybe we can boldly imagine that in the future, the online monolithic payment model of movies will become a parallel and consistent new normal together with theater distribution, which will bring greater box office revenue and industry upgrades to the entire movie market. Imagination space.