The repeated outbreak of the epidemic has affected the pace of audiences entering the cinema, and it has also continued to put pressure on film and television companies.
The upcoming exam has to continue. Choice data shows that only 11 of the 23 film and television companies will be profitable in 2021.
Compared with the traditional film and television business, film and television companies are looking for new growth points. Among them, the representative companies in the film and television industries—, , have all set their sights on the popular “metaverse”.
At the beginning of this year, Huace Film and Television (300133, SZ; closing price of 4.52 yuan yesterday; market value of 8.593 billion yuan) established a special new business department of Metaverse to seize new development opportunities in the digital age.
On May 23, the veteran film company Huayi Brothers (300027, SZ; yesterday’s closing price of 2.66 yuan; market value of 7.38 billion yuan) and a digital integration service provider (600410, SH; yesterday’s closing price of 5.8 yuan; market value of 6.373 billion yuan) jointly announced : Based on Huayi Brothers’ film and television creative genes and Huasheng Tiancheng’s cloud computing technology, we will jointly build the first brand in the development and operation of domestic film and television virtual world (cloud content). On the day the news was announced, Huayi Brothers shares rose 3.14% to 2.63 yuan per share.
Internet traffic first saw the ceiling, but the Metaverse emerged from the gap. PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that the Metaverse-related economy will usher in substantial growth, and the market size is expected to increase from $5 million in 2020 to $1.5 trillion in 2030.
The development trend of the Metaverse is inevitable. Chen Xuguang, a professor at the School of Arts at Peking University, said in an interview with the Daily Economic News reporter on WeChat: “The Metaverse has begun a long time ago, and the relationship between the film industry and the Metaverse is getting closer and closer. The above is the accelerated performance of the “Internet +” situation of the Chinese film industry in recent years, especially since the epidemic.”
After four consecutive losses, Huayi entered the “Metaverse”
On May 23, Huayi Brothers and digital integration service provider Huasheng Tiancheng jointly announced that the two parties have officially reached a strategic cooperation, and will jointly build a domestic film and television virtual world based on Huayi Brothers’ film and television creative genes and Huasheng Tiancheng’s cloud computing technology (Cloud content) The first brand of development and operation.
This information announced that the old film company Huayi Brothers entered the Metaverse.
According to the cooperation plan, the two parties will jointly develop IP content creation and digital derivative output that can be applied to AR/VR equipment terminals, create classic IP digital world linkage, classic IP secondary creation, and provide digital world corresponding to the real world. Assets, functions, such as real estate, e-commerce, social entertainment, etc. According to the news, the cooperation period is 5 years.
Wang Zhonglei, vice chairman and CEO of Huayi Brothers, said that based on the company’s IP assets and content strength, Huayi has the opportunity to become the most leading content architect in the digital age, further rewriting the company’s business model.
Since this year, “Metaverse” has become a hot word in the Internet industry, and its market prospects are also broad. According to the latest report released by ValuesReports, by 2028, the global metaverse market will increase from $28 million in 2022 to $510 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 95% from 2022 to 2028.
In the fields of games, social interaction, virtual shopping, etc., a large number of companies have already made plans, but in the film and television industry, the application of “metaverse” is just beginning.
In fact, the birth of the “metaverse” is closely related to culture. The term “metaverse” was born in the 1992 science fiction novel “Avalanche”, which depicts a vast virtual reality world where people are controlled by digital avatars and compete with each other to improve their status. , which describes the future world that is ahead of its time.
Chen Xuguang, deputy dean of the School of Art of Peking University, told the “Daily Economic News” reporter: Metaverse is a “high concept” or “paradigm” that covers an extremely wide range and is highly radiant. However, the concept of the metaverse is not sudden, but a leap or ascension based on the new media image art of digital technology. It is closely related to the art of film and image. The metaverse is a leap or ascension on the basis of digital technology and new media image art. It overlaps with the emergence of VR, AR, high frame rate and high definition movies for a long time. That is to say, in a broad sense, there are The metaverse supported by the corresponding technology has already existed and has been expanding.
For Huayi Brothers to enter the Metaverse, Chen Xuguang believes that it is actually a component of the Internet strategy of traditional film companies.
Affected by the cold winter of the industry, Huayi Brothers has been losing money for four consecutive years. On April 28, Huayi Brothers released its 2021 annual financial report. The financial report shows that Huayi Brothers’ total revenue in 2021 will be 1.399 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.73%; the net profit loss attributable to the parent is 246 million yuan, a year-on-year loss narrowed by 76.5%; from 2018 to 2020, Huayi Brothers’ annual return The losses of the parent net profit were 1.169 billion yuan, 3.978 billion yuan and 1.048 billion yuan respectively.
Huayi Brothers has the need for transformation, and pursues innovation in the field of technology. For example, on May 20 this year, the company teamed up with “NFT Together” to create the “Predecessor 3: Goodbye to the Exemplary” series of digital collections “The Eternal Place in the Heart”. According to the data, there are a total of 3,000 single works in the digital collection, each priced at 99 yuan and sold in two phases. Subsequent works in the series will also be released in blind boxes.
According to the recent North American hit movie “All Cosmos”, according to the reporter of “Daily Economic News” from relevant persons of Huayi Brothers, the domestic rights of the film are in the hands of Huayi Brothers. According to BoxOfficeMojo data, as of June 5, the global box office of “The Infinite Universe”, which cost only $25 million, has exceeded $78 million, ranking 19th in the 2022 global movie box office list.
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