The movie attracts members to consume, and the platform goes deep into the upstream of creation.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Deep Sound” (ID: deep-echo), author Lu Yan, reproduced with permission.
Core points:
▪ The movie is the earliest form of content viewed on the Internet in a paid form, and continues to play a role in pulling new and retaining it. At present, the movies on the video platform are divided into three types: cinema new films, online movies, and film libraries, which together constitute members’ consumption content.
▪ Online movies are a form of content created specifically for the needs of platform users, which can quickly release capacity and replenish differentiated content.
▪ The new films in the cinema industry continue to show strong member appeal, and the video platform actively enters the upstream production of cinema films to increase the film industry.
Always, movies are an important position to attract audiences for consumption, as well as for theaters and video platforms.
Currently, domestic video platforms usually divide movie content into three modules: cinematic new films, online movies, and library movies. In 2019, great changes have taken place in the field of new cinema films and the field of online movies, and the trends emerging from them will become more prominent in 2020.
In 2019, theater films set a new record with 64.266 billion box office, an increase of 5.4% year-on-year, and as many as 6 films with a box office volume of more than 2 billion, the gap with the North American box office has further narrowed. At the same time, the consumption of online movie users also achieved a historic breakthrough, with a total of 34 movies, breaking the box office and breaking the 10 million mark, and accumulating a total of 4.82 billion feature films in the year.
Behind the macro data, what are the new trends of various movies in 2019? How do movie and video platform members interact? What are the subtle changes upstream of content production? In order to discuss these issues in depth, “Shenxiang” focused on the video platform online movies and new movies in the past year, and interviewed important people in various links of the industry chain to try to draw a more comprehensive picture of future development.
Online movie revolution: quality has improved significantly, consumer enthusiasm has risen
Because it is not restricted by linear schedules, online movies can quickly release movie production capacity, attracting a large number of creators and a wide range of content; content is full of flowers, and it closely fits platform users and online movie viewing environments from the beginning of creation. According to iQiyi’s “ 2019 NetNetwork Film Industry Report. “This year, online video members’ content broadcasts achieved 81% year-on-year growth, and there is still huge room for growth in the future.
The year 2019 that has just passed is a year of leaps in the quality of online movies and a year of challenges and opportunities.
From the perspective of the environment, as of June 2019, the number of online video users in China has reached 759 million, an increase of 33.91 million compared with the end of 2018, accounting for 88.8% of the overall Internet users. In addition, iQiyi and Tencent Video successively announced that they have broken 100 million members in 2019, and the video platform has officially entered a new stage of 100 million members. The two factors, the expansion of the Internet population and the increase in the membership of the video platform, are all good for online movies.
But at the same time, due to policy tightening, creators of online movies are facing challenges. In February 2019, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television upgraded the “Recording System for Network Audiovisual Programs, including Online Dramas and Micro-Movies”. Since then, online movies have to undergo two reviews, two filings, and two public announcements before they can go online on the video platform. In this process, online movies with non-compliant content and subject matter are filtered, and the production cycle of compliant online movies will also be lengthened. The situation of once being online and dividing accounts no longer exists.
Under this background, the changes of online movies are extremely obvious.
First, the total number of online movies has decreased.
According to Yunhe data, in 2019, the number of online movies will be 789, a year-on-year decrease of 49%. In 2017 and 2018, the total number of online movies was 1892, 1537, and it can be seen that the overall number of online movies in 2019 dropped sharply.
Second, in addition to the strict review mechanism, the video platform’s threshold for online movies has also increased significantly.
According to the data released by iQiyi, iQiyi received a total of 1,710 films submitted by partners in 2018 and launched 1004, with a rejection rate of 24%. But in 2019, as of November, iQiyi received a total of 877 films submitted by partners and launched 378 films. The rejection rate was 56.90%.
The above two changes are for the producerExpanding overseas, the future audiences of online movies will be more diversified, so the space for creators to play will also be greater, more diversified content, and more suitable audiences can be found in markets at home and abroad.
In addition, in 2019, creators began to try to use technology to interact with users. For example, iQiyi launched the interactive drama “His Smile”. Although it is defined as an episode, the work has only one episode, which can be regarded as a content form between the episode and the movie. For online movies, the form of interaction may also be widely used in the future. In addition, online movies have a lot of suspense, investigation and other diversified themes, which are very suitable for developing interactive models. The sense of immersion and substitution will be stronger, and they can better interact with the audience.
Creation is born for the users. In addition to the producers to observe the needs of the audience and lead the audience with innovation, the platform is also carrying out a series of innovation and upgrade.
In 2019, iQiyi, Tencent Video, and Youku all upgraded the online movie support mode: Tencent Video upgraded the “Internet Movie” to “Homemade Movie”; Youku launched the “Theater Mode”, and the upgrade content is open Platform; iQiyi provides full life-cycle support for filmmakers, helping to match capital creators, actor teams and pre-marketing services, financial services, and upgrades the marketing cooperation method to “marketing + joint marketing”, giving platform marketing capabilities to partners .
The “Crazy Family”, which was launched on iQiyi in August 2019, is a case of successful launch under this model. According to the writer and director of the “Crazy Family”, iQiyi provided them with services such as script suggestions, box office predictions, matching actors, and participating in post-production. “Through the evaluation service, iQiyi helped me step by step to the present. It removed a lot of risks in the early stage and gave me the confidence to create.” Wen and his party said.
Cinema Movies with New Opportunities
In addition to online movies, there are a large number of new movies on the platform, as well as copyright movies that have entered the film library. Although they are not specifically produced for members, they are also important content for members to pay for and consume.
Iqiyi Film Center