Vice President of Shanghai Culture Radio and Television Group and President of Shanghai Film Group Company, the "Best Exhibition Award" of the 2005 Asia-Pacific Film Expo. In May, 2003, with the concept of "opening to promote reform and cooperation to promote development", we cooperated with famous filmmakers, directors and actors in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and overseas by using limited funds and abundant market resources for reference, and launched a number of influential works such as 2046, Subway, Song of Eternal Sorrow and If Love, and served as director of film distribution. Shanghai Film Group actively strives for cooperation with relevant departments of * * * *, and issues Sunshine Movie Cards, shows low-priced public welfare movies, reduces movie tickets, and allows more ordinary people to go into cinemas to watch movies through corporate sponsorship, cinema concessions and preferential treatment.
Work Experience Work 1974 Join the work.
1983 65438+ 10 served as deputy director of the Chinese Department of Shanghai Normal University;
1996 12 in charge of Wen Hui film times in Wen Hui publishing house;
June 2000: 5438-1October: 065438 worked in Shanghai Writers Association, and in February 2006: 5438-065438 served as vice chairman of the Association.
He used to be the vice president of Shanghai Culture Radio and Television Group, the president of Shanghai Film Group Corporation and the director of Shanghai Film Studio.
2065438+Chairman of Shanghai Film (Group) Company in April 2004.
Social post 1982 graduated from the Chinese Department of Shanghai Normal University, and served as the deputy director and professor of the Chinese Department. He is also a member of Shanghai Writers Association, a director of China Film Critics Association and a director of Shanghai Film Critics Association. He has been a special correspondent of Wen Wei Po and the editorial editor of Wen Hui Film Times for a long time. He has been engaged in the teaching of film theory and art theory for a long time, and has offered courses such as film theory, film criticism, new era film and China film director for graduate students and undergraduates. He is the author of academic works such as "New Era Movie" and "China New Wave Director".
Filmmaker Ren participated in the film Out of Xibaipo.
* * * 1928 as a producer, Lu Xun as a producer.
Walking through the red carpet "If Love"
gutter
Tokyo Trial
Dragon Tiger Gate
《2046》
world
The Everlasting Regret
countess
Still Life
Stories of 24 cities
to show one's sword
Calabash Brothers
Ipartment.
Personal honor: In 2007, he won the China Watch Award, the Excellent Producer Award, and the first prize of the national TV feature film.
Ren's In Northern Shaanxi won the second prize of China Radio and Television Award and the first prize of Shanghai Radio and Television Award.
He wrote the script of the film Out of Xibaipo and won the Baosteel Art Award and the Screenplay Award for the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Party. The film won the "Five One Projects" Award in Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China in 2003;
He created the TV series Loyalty and won the 20th China Golden Eagle Award for Excellent Works of Long TV Series. Won the second prize of the 22 nd China TV Flying Award for long TV series;
Outstanding Achievement Award of the 5th Shanghai Literature and Art Award;
Organized the creation and production of film and television dramas such as Life and Death Choice, Red Carnation, Motown, etc., which had an impact throughout the country.
He has been a special correspondent of Wen Wei Po and the editorial editor of Wen Hui Film Times for a long time.
He has been engaged in the teaching of film theory and art theory for a long time, and has offered courses such as film theory, film criticism, new era film and China film director for graduate students and undergraduates. He is the author of academic works such as "New Era Movie" and "China New Wave Director". Among them, "New Era Film" won the first prize of academic film works in national universities and was reprinted in Japan. He has published hundreds of papers and art reviews and won many awards in China, East China and Shanghai. He is regarded as a sharp-thinking and brilliant young film critic. In recent years, he has created more than ten TV feature films such as "Northern Shaanxi * * *" and "Song of Victory".
According to media reports, the 60th anniversary of Shanghai Film Studio was June 2009165438+1October 6, but for Shanghai Film Group, it was only 9 years-August 5438+0, 2006, with Shanghai Film Studio as the main body, Shanghai Film Group was established.
Shanghai films and China films have since become the two giants of China films. "The film industry in China now only talks about box office, not profit." "Profit" is one of the most popular words in Ren's mouth.
In 2008, the main income of China Film was more than 700 million yuan, and the profit was 0./kloc-0. 50 billion yuan. The main income of Shanghai Film Group is15180,000 yuan, and the profit is 2160,000 yuan-the profit of Shanghai Film Group is 20 times that of China Film Group.
This is an amazing number. No matter the number of films shot or the proportion of China blockbusters, Shanghai films look far inferior to China films. "We have a principle in doing business. We don't want lively scenes and superficial prosperity. Profit in development is king. I have been in the business for six years, just three words, "industrial chain." Ren said.
165438+1October 9, Southern Weekend reporter interviewed Ren at Crowne Plaza Shanghai Silver Star for nearly five hours-this famous hotel and its adjacent Shanghai Cinema are the home of Shanghai International Film Festival and a small part of the industrial chain of Shanghai Film Group.
At present, Shanghai Film Group is building 1 10000 square meters of Shanghai Film Group headquarters building and 15000 square meters of Shanghai Film Museum. Establish Shangying Emperor and Shangying Huanya; The Chedun Film and Television Base will be further expanded to 650 mu. ...
According to the instructions of * * *, Shanghai Film Group also began to consider the possibility of listing.
On May 8, 2003, he took over as Party Secretary and President of Shanghai Film Group. He still remembers the reception and "sparse applause". At that time, Shanghai Film owed the bank nearly 500 million.
The employee's salary could not be paid, and someone rushed to Ren Zhonglun's office and smashed all his thermos bottles. Someone threatened to kill him.
Southern Weekend: When you took over filming in 2003, what was the state of filming?
Ren: Shanghai films have a glorious tradition and a historical burden. At that time, the debt ratio of the whole group was as high as 70%, and it borrowed more than 500 million yuan from banks. The subordinate units suffered a loss of 7 1%, and these units suffered a total loss of 35 million.
I asked the CFO, how much cash is there? Only170 thousand. As a result, two days later, the notice came, and it was necessary to pay a one-time housing subsidy fee of 1070000 yuan for retired cadres of Shanghai Film Studio. I also want to pay my employees. My first week was mainly about borrowing money and asking for money owed by others.
Some old comrades lead a hard life and say at NPC meetings with salary scales: "What is respect for art and what is respect for artists? A national first-class actor like me is 300 yuan a month. "
At that time, we borrowed money to solve the difficulties of old comrades at one time. The elderly are the biggest contributors to this film. In the era of planned economy, the film industry made the greatest contribution to national finance and taxation.
Southern Weekend: How do you change this situation?
Ren: At that time, other film units had such a difficult experience. So, everyone is using the policy at that time to ask * * * for some money, and each person will give 30,000 to 50,000. Please leave this factory.
There is also a method similar to independent production, which distributes manpower to many small companies. At that time, there was a popular view that 80% of American films were produced by independent production companies. Independent production ships are easy to turn around, but few people have the ability and no burden.
Shortly after taking office, the city leaders asked me to visit the United States. I went to seven companies in America, and after my investigation, I had a new idea.
Southern Weekend: What did you find in America?
Ren: When I met my American colleague, I asked, "What do you do to make money?" Their answer chilled me: in the United States, the investment cycle of a film is two to three years. If you only rely on the theater box office, only one out of ten movies will make money.
Only three of the ten films made money from video market rental and TV copyright, and the other seven films lost money or barely tied.
I asked them: How did your company grow up with such low opportunities to make money? Can I show your company's financial statements ... Many companies in the United States are listed companies, and their financial statements are public. In the financial statements of MGM 200 1, the income from new films was $65,438+$700 million at that time, but the income from copyright (which they called film library management) was $540 million.
Their chief financial officer wrote a sentence behind the four characters of film library management: "Film library management is a' safety valve' to avoid the company's financial risks this year."
Southern Weekend: So MGM relies on old movies?
Ren: Investing in new movies is very risky. For large companies with a large number of copyrights, movie copyrights can help them avoid commercial risks and become a lovely cash cow. Because these films have removed the production cost, only the direct sales cost, and the rest are all profits.
MGM is in recession, but its copyright income is three times higher than that of new films. Among them, the annual copyright income of movie music and theme songs is $97 million. In 2003, the total box office of Chinese movies was only 900 million RMB. This is equivalent to saying that MGM's movie music copyright income in one year is equivalent to the box office income of China movies at that time.
No wonder the top management of American film companies told me that they were against piracy. They are against it, as a matter of fact, so are we.
It suddenly dawned on me that the film is not poor. There are 800 feature films in Shanghai Film Studio and more than 500 art films in Art Studio, 155 1 science and education films. With the integration of cable TV networks, the rise of Internet video websites, the launch of high-definition channels and the launch of mobile TV, a large number of film and television copyrights need to be purchased. Copyright is a cash cow. Slowly, you will shake out real money.
The content is that Wang Shangying and Warner of the United States cooperate to build a cinema. The first article of the contract stipulates that the cinema jointly built by the two parties must hang Warner's logo. I also made a wall and put all the star images of Warner's Marilyn Monroe on it.
Article 23 of the contract stipulates that because Warner's Logo is hung, Warner will charge an intellectual property fee, which is three thousandths of the total box office.
Logo can't be hung, which is stipulated by the legal department of Warner headquarters; Intellectual property fees are not allowed, but there are regulations.
Ren zhonglun finally thought of a way: Shanghai film is also a well-known enterprise, and it also has to hang its own Logo, and Warner agreed; Shangying went on to say that since the Logo was hung, Shangying also had to charge intellectual property fees, and Warner agreed.
"Downward balance, which means everyone doesn't charge." Ren gradually learned the logic of Hollywood.
Southern Weekend: What other ways to change quickly?
Ren: Or industrial chain. An expert who studies the British film industry analyzed a phenomenon:1968+1in the late 1980s, British domestic films only accounted for 7% of the film market, and more than 90% of the market was American films. Because the British don't have their own cinema lines and distribution companies, Americans don't arrange British movies in cinemas, but occasionally show French and German movies, mostly American movies.
The expert concluded that film production companies are equivalent to the oil exploration industry. It is a high-investment and high-risk industry, which may have high returns or may never return. You explored an oil well and died of poor oil; Dig another oil well, there is no oil, then do it? Line 10? If you don't do it, the previous investment will die. You may suddenly find an oil field when you arrive at 1 1, and all your previous investments will come back, and you will make a lot of money.
Southern Weekend: But you don't know whether it's 1 1 01or 100 1.
Ren: Yes, so film companies and cinemas are equivalent to gas stations in the oil industry. It is a medium-term investment; Will form a network; Can bring abundant cash flow. Cash flow is the blood of enterprise operation, and the network of cinemas and cinemas will support you to make movies, forming a virtuous circle. The powerful film groups in the world have strong market networks. So after we came back from America, we made up our minds to finance the construction and development of cinemas.
Southern Weekend: Where does the money for the cinema come from?
Ren: At that time, Comrade * * * inspected the Shanghai Film and Television Station and explicitly requested that the Shanghai Film Station be changed from a public institution to an enterprise. Enterprises need resource allocation to get out of the predicament. The biggest resource I won at that time was that according to the policy of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, any film group that established an enterprise could be equipped with a film channel. So Shanghai Film established east movie channel, which started broadcasting on February 28th, 2004, and brought me 1 100 million yuan in cash flow by the end of 2005. At the same time, as the parent company, Wenguang Group also supported us in the most difficult time.
Southern weekend: So, the breakthrough at that time was not filming, but filming?
Ren: We didn't choose a single product development. World-famous film groups all have their own industrial chains, especially powerful production companies and powerful cinema companies support each other and form their own core competitiveness. In the era of planned economy, film studios in China were all single production organizations, and films were purchased and sold by distribution companies. Distribution and projection are subject to people. Therefore, when we realize the key to the development of modern film groups, what is euphoria? That was the mood at that time. At the end of 2003, we made up our minds to build an industrial chain in advance! At that time, the film circle in China was still advocating "content is king". Several famous factory directors laughed at me and said, "What kind of cinema is built, the content is king! Building a cinema is a matter for the cultural department. " Now China Film and Huayi are also building their own cinemas.
Southern Weekend: The cinema gives you the confidence to compete with China Film and Huayi.
Ren: In my dictionary, there are few competing entries. At the beginning of 2004, Shanghai Film put forward that opening-up forces reform and cooperation promotes development.
At the forum of Shanghai International Film Festival the year before last, I said half jokingly that the pursuit of Shanghai films is to dig deep, accumulate grain widely and not seek hegemony. Digging deep is to lay a good foundation; Widespread grain accumulation means taking stable profits as the foundation of an enterprise.
Movies are two sides of the same coin, and one side is folk art, which is shot for ordinary people; On the other hand, "aristocratic art" costs a lot of money, so filmmakers can't do without money; Not seeking hegemony means that Shanghai Film Co., Ltd. develops boldly and steadily according to its own strategy and treats all its partners equally. Under the condition of market economy, no one wants to be your subordinate with dry food, and pay dry food to listen to your attention and peace of mind.
In recent years, the egg theory has quietly created a number of firsts in China film industry: in 2003, it cooperated with Warner USA to establish the first joint venture cinema in China; Blueberry Night in 2007 was the first time that a domestic film company invested in a foreign film.
Southern Weekend: After the profit of filming is rising, there are fewer and fewer wholly-owned movies. Why?
Ren Zhonglun: The answer is simple. In order to avoid investment risks. China Film, Huayi and Shanghai Film are all choosing to co-produce. It's almost impossible to see an exclusive movie now. Before the reform and opening up, it was often a single studio that invested money, and the China Film Company bought and sold it. Generally, the drought and flood ensured the harvest. In the1980s, the investment of a film was about 300,000 yuan. If the director can get a film with an investment of 500 thousand, everyone will be envious. Now a commercial film is tens of millions, and some even hundreds of millions.
So, everyone learns to put eggs in different baskets. "Red Cliff" was originally a 6 investment, and later it became a 14 investment; "Wind" was originally invested by Huayi and us, and later a Tianjin TV station was added; There are more than a dozen "The Great Cause of the Founding of the People's Republic of China", and no enterprise dares to put all its money on one film.
Shangying invested more than 30 million yuan in Chibi, with a wind of 20 million yuan and an assembly number of100000. At present, film groups around the world are generally like this. If they have good projects, they will go to finance; When others have good projects, they will invest, with the goal of ensuring that their investment has good social and economic benefits. In 2003, I visited Universal Pictures, and their president told me that more than two-thirds of the films in the world are invested by others every year. An hour before I went, he just decided to invest in a Polish film.
Each film has more than two or three investments at the same time, which can avoid some risks. When China Film filmed The Founding of the People's Republic, Sanping asked me to "invest a little". I asked how much it was. He said the budget is 37 million, and I think the cost control is ok. Later I invested 10%. As an investor, because of the low cost, the chances of winning are great.
Southern Weekend: Can we get Jianguo 10% box office?
Ren: It should be said that it is 10% profit. Of course, I will vote for such a movie. It takes three minutes to decide. Now there is a misunderstanding. For example, how much did you invest in this movie? You said a hundred million; How much is the box office? You answer: 200 million. He would say: Congratulations on making 100 million dollars. In fact, the investment 1 100 million, the box office of 200 million, the film is a loss of 20 million. Because movies can only take 40% of the box office.
Southern Weekend: Why is Han Sanping willing to let you take this 10%?
Ren: Maybe he wants to ensure the box office. Because Shanghai movies have wholly-owned cinemas, accounting for 10% of the national box office. Our Oriental Film Distribution Company is also very strong, with a revenue of 420 million last year. In addition, we have a movie channel and a publicity network for four kinds of movies and magazines. Han Sanping told me at that time, let's make sure it was 100 million. I said 200 million is no problem. He bet me that the box office was 200 million, and he streaked on Nanjing Road in Shanghai. As a result, he finally achieved 400 million yuan. He changed his mind and streaked at Nanjing Road in Chedun base at night.
* * * Win "There are 300,000 sets of props in the movie alone, which can be equipped with various shooting guns of a division." In the face of Southern Weekend reporters, Ren has always been very confident.
The cinema is his most confident part: "The box office of United Cinema can reach 650 million yuan this year, accounting for 10% of the national box office, and the Oriental Film Distribution Company achieved 420 million yuan in 2008."
Shanghai Film Group owns 126 cinemas and 404 screens in 47 cities in 18 provinces, which now accounts for about one tenth of the national box office. Among the nearly 400 million box office of The Founding of the People's Republic of China, the cinemas under Shanghai Film Group contributed 46 million box office.
"Without its own cinema, the cinema company will become a leather bag company." Ren stressed.
Southern Weekend: Regardless of interests, can your United Cinema not support China Film?
Ren: Internationally, cinema companies make films independently, and each cinema company arranges different films. The films in our 35 cinemas are all the same, which is not normal. In the United States, according to the anti-monopoly law, film companies are not allowed to own cinemas for a period of time. Why? They think that cinemas owned by production companies will give priority to showing their own films, which will form unfair competition. If you have a problem with which movie, then you don't play, don't schedule, or play less exclusive movies, which is possible in reality. Because the cinema is completely independent, it is up to the cinema manager to decide whether to arrange a movie, how many times to arrange it, and how many times to arrange it in the hall and small hall.
The cinema is not impulsive. As long as you make money, you won't maliciously exclude other people's movies. So the United States later lifted this restriction. There are shopaholics and shopaholics. If this movie is strong, you don't need to stop it. Even if I make money, my theater makes money. It took 40% and I took 50%. Generally speaking, we are all rational entrepreneurs and will not kill each other. If we insist on doing this, we will definitely have conflicts and become vicious competition. If you stop me, I will stop you. It's over. You lost, and I lost. Then one day, everyone will shake hands.
Southern weekend: only * * * wins, not * * * loses?
Ren: I just want to win, but I don't want to lose. As long as we persist in vicious self-protection, we will certainly lose. Everyone has a cinema, which means everyone has nuclear weapons. Don't move, don't hit. As soon as you hit me, everyone was in chaos. In principle, we are comrades-in-arms on the same front with our brother company, striving for a win-win situation, not a lose-lose situation. In recent years, there have been many co-productions of Shanghai films, China films and Huayi.
Southern Weekend: What are the disadvantages of co-production?
Ren: Disadvantages? Maybe in the final division of copyright. It will be blurred after a long time. In fact, if the film investment is 30 million, and each person is 6.5438+million, theoretically, the copyright belongs to three companies. But time will blur this copyright, especially the copyright income.
But in foreign countries, two years after a film is made, the leading party will discuss with other producers and ask the leading party to buy back the remaining copyright at a price.
No Zhang Yimou In early 2004, Shanghai Film Group proposed to establish an industrial chain and put stable profits at the highest point as far as possible. These parts include the production of pre-shooting props, post-printing and copying.
"Generally, small companies don't have printing houses and distribution channels, but we do take pictures. If you develop copywriting, we will make a profit, plus pre-prop production, post-production and distribution, which is another profit. " This is how Ren changed from a scholar to a businessman.
Southern Weekend: Compared with the booming back-end business of movies, it is an embarrassing fact that many Shanghai directors have gone to Beijing for development. ...
Ren: This is a historical phenomenon. In fact, many film talents have gathered in Beijing, forming the so-called drifting north. In recent years, local directors in Shanghai have begun to return, and there are also good films. Peng Xiaolian's Shanghai Story won four Golden Rooster Awards in 2005. Xiepu Li's *** 1928 is also an award-winning film, among which Jiang Haiyang's College Entrance Examination 1977 won the China Watch Award, Golden Rooster Award and Five One Project Awards. Zheng Dasheng's Yu Chenglong, an upright official, won the Huabiao Award and the Golden Rooster Award. Liangshan's father won the best director and best actor at Cairo Film Festival. The directors of Shanghai Meiying Factory basically insist on creating locally.
We also unite with outstanding talents in the film industry in China. Jia's four films in recent years are all produced by Shanghai films, such as The World, The Good Man of the Three Gorges, A Story of Twenty-four Cities and The Legend of Shanghai in Welcome to the Expo. Gao's first film "Tokyo Trial" also came to this film, and his second film "Close Call" also cooperated with this film, and so did "Wind". Next, our "hunting" is also ready to cooperate with him; Wong Kar-wai is my good friend and the best partner of Shanghai movies. He collaborated with Shanghai Film in Blueberry Night in 2046, and this time, The Grandmaster.
I often say that it is intentional and helpless. It is intentional, but judging from the current situation of international and China film industry, co-production has become a basic feature of China films. In fact, Universal and Warner in the United States basically don't support directors and actors. They mainly rely on a group of producers to produce 18 movies or 20 movies a year. Only five or ten films are produced by ourselves, and the rest are invested in global film projects. There's nothing we can do, because few films are made at the most difficult time of filming, which leads to the decline or departure of talents, and finally the lack of commercial film directors with audience appeal and capital appeal. At present, we don't have commercial directors like Xiaogang Feng, Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, but there should be a great director like Xie Jin in the film, which is what we are pursuing.
Southern Weekend: Why not?
Ren: I have studied the history of Shanghai movies. It has a tradition of realism, with Xie Jin as its representative and becoming the peak of contemporary movies. China films have entered the era of commercialization, and Shanghai film companies have no commercial directors. This requires a process. The growth of directors needs to find a breakthrough. Commercial films need a lot of investment and money, such as a Zhang Ziyi or a Zhou Xun, which are covered by vigorous publicity and a large number of copies. There is also an art film, just like Jia's film, which depends on international awards such as Venice, Cannes and Berlin.
The film must be paid attention to, and it will be miserable if no one pays attention. In fact, there are some good films and directors in the film market, but no one goes to see them, so they are easily overwhelmed by commercial blockbusters and the box office is very poor.
Southern Weekend: Why can't these good movies throw money at them like promotional blockbusters to make them better?
Ren: Some movies are good, which means their artistic pursuit and quality, but their audience is limited. It is difficult to win more audiences in the market by publicity alone. Some films are commercial films themselves, and you will choose to invest as commercial films.
The current film market emphasizes commercial attraction and forgets another value concept and artistic value of the film. A director does not have much influence, and investors will not give you money to configure your team. A company thinks there is a good film, so it goes to a first-line actor. The first sentence he asked was "Who directed it?" Later, because the director was not attractive to him, he didn't come. Then the company went to the boss. The bosses first asked: Who is in charge? Who starred? Never heard of it. Forget it.
In the end, only this company can fully invest. Considering the balance of payments, it dare not invest 50 million or 654.38+0 billion, because it is possible to recover 654.38+0 billion. Because of the limited cost, this film was made with third-and fourth-rate actors. The director is not well-known and has no good team, and the audience will not come. Investors will definitely lose money. Therefore, investors often face a question, who will the money be invested in? How much is the investment? In fact, what is behind it is how much money you can get back.
Just talking about the box office, Ren repeatedly quoted the first sentence in the book "Hollywood Film Industry": "The film industry is always confusing, so is the layman, and so is the expert."
"When Titanic invested 200 million US dollars and made a box office of more than one billion US dollars, everyone studied it and worked out its formula: tragedy, love, disaster, high technology and theme popularity, but I will tell you this formula. If you make a movie, you may not win." Ren said.
Southern Weekend: The history of Shanghai Animation Film Studio is basically equal to the history of China art films. Is this art film studio making money now?
Ren: There is no problem with normal operation now. The production cycle of art films is particularly long, unlike feature films that take half a year to shoot and two months to recycle. It may take three or four years to make an art film. But if this membrane is to be recycled, it may take a longer recovery period.
Cartoons seem to be booming in recent years, but there are still difficulties. Cartoons cost more than ten thousand yuan per minute. If CCTV buys the broadcast, the maximum is 1000 yuan per minute, most of which is 600 yuan to 800 yuan. There is a big gap between input and output.
Southern Weekend: Can't Disney's model of making money through derivatives be replicated?
Ren: Before Donald Duck, how many old ducks, Li and Liu, were produced in America and all died. Donald Duck is a hero born with corpses everywhere. Everyone wants to be a lucky Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. Now our cartoon production has reached more than 100,000 minutes, and each company has calculated an account, and the profit is really not much.
Southern Weekend: Isn't Pleasant Goat a great success?
Ren: I met the boss of this company. He said that from the perspective of comprehensive investment income, he is not making money at present. The propaganda of the cartoon Pleasant Goat is successful, with carpet bombing and advertising. Who can afford it if it is changed to cost price? This phenomenon is generally not reproducible.
The movie Pleasant Goat has a box office of 80 million. Cinema takes 50%, distribution companies and cinema companies take about 10%, and the remaining 40% is left to the producers for 32 million. 1000 is1000 yuan. Pleasant goat lost a lot in making TV series in the early stage.
Where can it make money? Keep doing it, do it next year, do it again the year after, do it again and again, make Pleasant Goat into a brand like Donald Duck, and then make money through derivative products.
Southern Weekend: What do you think of the 30% growth rate of China movies for five consecutive years?
Ren: When I took office, the box office of Chinese movies was only 900 million, and it can reach 6 billion this year, which is very gratifying. But if profits increase by 30%, everyone will be overjoyed.
China's film industry now only talks about box office, not profit. If this industry has a profit of 30% and it has been growing for five consecutive years, I estimate that real estate developers will definitely come to make movies. Because capital is conscious, as long as it exceeds the average social profit rate, capital will be assembled urgently. Now the box office of movies has increased by 30%, but the production cost has also increased significantly, which has objectively weakened the growth of industry profits.
Southern Weekend: Is it only the cinema that has a significant increase in profits?
Ren: From a big perspective, box office growth is beneficial to all aspects. Some movies have more profit margins. However, most small and medium-sized investment films still have losses; The profit of the cinema has increased a little, but the cinema has not increased as much as expected, because now it has become a 1600 cinema, and the box office has been diluted a little.
Southern Weekend: So this industry is actually unprofitable?
Ren: We say that the overall profit of the film industry has not increased substantially, not as fast as the box office growth, because the film cost is also increasing, but it does not mean that there is no profit. Box office is a concept and profit is a concept. Profit growth per unit is another concept. Some enterprises' profits are growing rapidly, while others may lose money or even go out. This is the nature of film companies, life and death, and those who survive are the strong.
Southern Weekend: Is it a good time to invest in movies?
Ren: It is a basic fact that films in China are developing vigorously at present. Many people take a fancy to this industry and rush in, which is good for the development of the film industry. Capital is conscious, and it always goes to the place where it is most likely to make money. But we can't be blind now. Film investment is also risky, even risky.