In China, there are two completely different situations between commercial films and art films.
Two years ago, wu Tianming’s “Song of the Phoenix” received only 2% of the screenings and only earned 3 million yuan in the first week of its release. Fang Li, a well-known producer, kneeled down to beg for screenings. The documentary film twenty Two, released a year later, surprised everyone by earning over 100 million yuan at the box office.
Although the market acceptance of art films has gradually improved in the past two years, there is still an irreconcilable contradiction between literature and commerce. Many excellent art films and documentaries have been submerged by commercial films of mixed quality, and few people appreciate them. Most art films still escape the fate of public praise and no box office. There are only a few art-house films that are favored by commercial cinemas and the film market like Youth. Highly acclaimed films such as A Problem Without A Problem and Love Each other have only a few screenings in commercial cinemas within a few days.
To add to the frustration, the few art-house films that make it to commercial theaters are the ones that “My Poems” director Wu Feiyue’s new film, “Village Drama,” is being screened in theaters because it’s not appreciated by commercial theaters. In 2017, there were 970 domestic films, but only 412 were released in commercial theaters, according to other figures.
Why is there such a disparity between the treatment of commercial films and art films? They are more willing to invest in idol films and Hollywood special effects films in order to meet the public taste at the box office, and cinemas are more inclined to show commercial films for profit. It is also the lack of aesthetic cultivation of popular films under the environment of bad money driving good money. Good filmmakers can only shake their heads and lament, “Not this year.”
Sadly, the difficulty of art films also hinders The pace of Chinese films towards the world. Fortunately, there are many visionary people with movie dreams in this effort, including Ye Shaoxiang, the founder of hibiscus campus cinema.
Ye Shaoxiang and Hibiscus Campus Cinema: The Unbreakable and inflexible dream chasers
According to beida’s Film Market Research Report for the first quarter of 2018, Chinese moviegoers are concentrated in the 19-29 age group, while another set of statistics shows that students often make up 15 percent or more of cinema audiences. Young people are not only the main consumers of movies. When legendary film directors of the fifth and sixth generations, such as Feng Xiaogang and Chen Kaige, are gradually getting old, rising young directors are also potential revolutionists of the film industry in the future, the cultivation of film aesthetics of young people is imminent.
“Young people are the future of Chinese films. I think we should start from their peers to cultivate their aesthetic taste, better movie consumption habits, and better and more professional film talents.” Keenly aware of this trend, Ye has set his sights on the campus. This young man from the ancient city of Xi ‘an, with the temperament of the ancient capital, but also with the ambition to make Chinese film brilliant, founded the first hibiscus campus cinema for college students.
It is said that the temperament of the enterprise is like that of the founder. Every step taken by the Hibiscus campus cinema really inherits the will of the founder who started from nothing after 90.
Nothing down, nothing up
Entrepreneurs may have a hundred kinds of personality, but all have dream pursuers indomitable spirit. What is not breaking ground is what Wang Xing often said: “no love in the past, go forward with abandon”, and sun Wukong’s “breaking through the south gate, if you don’t go back, you will never go back”. Ye Shaoxiang admitted that this is the true meaning of entrepreneurship.
It is unclear whether the snow came later that year than in previous years, but that winter was very cold for Mr. Ye and The Hibiscus Campus Cinema, which opened in late 2014. Dream, not only because the Ye Shaoxiang to give up the position of director of media to theaters, on New Year’s day from scratch founded the hibiscus campus theater, also for the next 2015 years is winter, venture capital Ye Shaoxiang for investment hit a wall for many times, but still with the movie dream Ye Shaoxiang decisively with 200000 college students entrepreneurial business loans into campus cinemas, Walk the line.
“It is the mission of filmmakers of our generation to make Good Chinese films brilliant. I will devote all my youth to the cause I love, no matter I am poor or rich, I have no regrets,” Said Ye Shaoxiang on his microblog. It can be said that hibiscus campus cinema is the good fruit of Ye Shaoxiang.
vision
Filmmakers may become famous and make a lot of money with a single film, but the construction of campus cinema needs long-term stability. Choosing to start a business in campus cinema in the winter of capital, Ye Shaoxiang is not interested in short-term profits, but in the long-term development of the whole film industry.
Talking to good people, reading a good book, watching a good movie all have a subtle effect on people. Someone saw Operation Red Sea and wanted to be a sniper, someone saw Operation Mekong and wanted to be a policeman… “Film has an irreplaceable influence on young people who are in the formative stage of values, and at the same time, young people have an immeasurable influence on the development of the film market.” “When it comes to the influence of movies on young people, Ye shaoxiang said.
But many colleges and universities are located in remote suburbs, and even if students want to, there is a lack of opportunities to watch movies — the long distance to the city is risky, and the auditorium is poorly equipped. Therefore, in order to improve students’ film aesthetics, the construction of campus cinemas is indispensable. As Ye Shaoxiang said, “Strong youth makes China strong, so that more college students can have their own cinemas in remote campuses. “It is of immeasurable significance to the future of the film and cultural industry.”
Once the aesthetic of film is formed, it will continue students’ life. No matter from the perspective of cultivating young directors, young audiences or shaping students’ correct life values, campus cinemas have both educational and social significance.
“In the next 10, 20 or even longer years, China’s film industry will enter a faster and higher-quality development, and young people will be able to shoulder the banner and become the mainstay of China’s film industry and the world’s film industry.” To this end, Ye Shaoxiang proposed the idea of “creating a cinema exclusively for college students”, which took into account students’ movie-watching needs and economic capacity. He cooperated with Shanghai Film Group to realize simultaneous screening of films with cinemas all over the country, but the fee was very low. According to students’ feedback, the ticket price of many popular films was less than 10 yuan.
Hibiscus Campus Cinema is also committed to the diversified development of college cinema, in addition to the theme film, art film and commercial film of the three types of film, but also regularly select classic red historical films, films adapted from world classics and other high-quality film sources, paving the road of film aesthetics for college students.
It has accurately grasped the balance between literature and commerce
Wang xing represents an image of a literary success who combines passion and wisdom, balancing literature and business. This balance can also be found in Yip shaoxiang and Hibiscus Campus Cinema.
The construction of campus cinemas is a long-term layout. Although many predecessors have made efforts in this area, most of them are from the direction of public welfare, relying on love to generate electricity can not go far, and the lagging film sources can not meet the needs of students to watch movies. Ye Shaoxiang knows that only by accurately balancing arts and commerce can the operation of campus cinemas be sustainable.
Although hibiscus campus cinema is a free project to build a first-level cinema for the school, and the cinema tickets are also low. After several explorations, a good campus cinema ecology has been built by combining cinema platform, network platform and consulting platform, and commercial profits have been achieved in extension services. Grasping the balance between literature and art and business, hibiscus campus cinema is gradually establishing a campus film cultural space set up by cinema, campus film festival, film salon, film premiere ceremony, micro film original competition and other cultural activities, and has launched a campus support plan for poor students to help students accumulate work experience.
Embrace the dream, do not break ground. The hibiscus campus cinema founded by Ye Shaoxiang has also been recognized by many colleges and student groups. At present, it has settled in Shanghai Jiaotong University, East China Normal University and other universities, and established more than 30 campus cinemas in 11 provinces and cities. However, the value of campus cinema line does not stop there.
Hibiscus campus cinema valuation of 500 million behind: campus cinema line has the potential to become the third largest cinema line
Compared with the expanding cinema, the campus cinema like Hibiscus campus cinema seems to be a small business, but from three aspects, the campus cinema has the potential to become the third cinema after commercial cinema and rural cinema.
First, campus cinema line, as an important carrier of “Chinese Dream” propaganda and education, has welcomed favorable policies. Relevant policies of “National Campus cinema Line”, which was planned in 2014, have been implemented in 2017, encouraging the introduction of excellent film resources to campus by market means. Clear policies mean that campus cinemas will have a more relaxed development environment in the future, which will not only reduce the resistance to the construction of cinemas, but also win the favor of more investors. Campus cinemas can also be further integrated with education, as a supplementary link of education resources, to carry out educational innovation.
Second, as of May 2017, there are 2,914 institutions of higher learning in China, with more than 26 million college students. The commercial cinemas on campus have hundreds of millions of box office potential and long-term profitability. For this reason, commercial films are also paying more and more attention to the consumption potential of campus. Many films are screened in universities before their official release in commercial cinemas. For example, The box office hit “Living Together in Time” was screened in Communication University of China in May.
Third, young people’s pursuit of high-quality films is gradually increasing, but commercial cinemas focus too much on box office, and it is very difficult to commercialize art films and documentaries. The film content of commercial cinemas can no longer meet the needs of audiences, and the establishment of campus cinemas can undoubtedly provide a screening channel for art films.
Moreover, the stickiness and viewing inertia of art film users exceed those of commercial film audiences, and campus cinema has the ability to make profits in the long run. Radiating outward from college students can also promote the attention of other social groups to art films and fundamentally promote the development of Chinese art films.
Ye Shaoxiang once said, “The strength of a country is not only political, military and economic, but also contains many comprehensive strengths, and culture is one of them. The strength of the cultural industry can not only give economic points, but also enable the world to better understand China and the Chinese nation.”
In other words, the campus cinema line led by Hibiscus campus cinema is welcoming the opportunity of commercialization. With a keen grasp of the business trend, Ye Shaoxiang and his hibiscus campus cinema have grown into a post-90s entrepreneurial brand with an estimated value of 500 million after three years of precipitation. They have a number of solid fans in colleges and universities, and the core users will become the foundation for the rapid growth of hibiscus. The model of Hibiscus campus cinema is also well recognized by investors. In 2016, hibiscus campus Cinema obtained 15 million ROUND of A financing, and in 2017, it obtained 35 million round of A+ financing led by Matrix China, which is undoubtedly ready for commercialization.
When the east wind blowing campus line, has stood in the tuyere hibiscus will soar. Grasps “the youth is the future of the film market” Ye Shaoxiang and hibiscus campus theater, will become the campus courtyard line leader and the incubator of movie industry, promote the campus cinema is matured, fill the blank of the campus film culture and film dispersing pertains campus, WanZhengHua film industry, more and more youth movie audiences and film director will benefit from it.
Ye shaoxiang once said, “I hope one day, when I walk on the streets of Brooklyn and Paris, I will be more proud to tell others that I come from China.” Not only the founder of hibiscus Campus cinema, I believe that every filmmaker, no, every young person with expectations and dreams for movies, has a “Chinese dream” of cultural rejuvenation of the country. I hope that Chinese films can reach the world, and I hope that everyone can feel proud when talking about the motherland and Chinese films. The campus cinema line, which has been developed from hibiscus campus cinema, will surely enable you and me, who have the dream of film, to approach this dream more quickly.
Article/Liu Kuang public account, ID: Liukuang110