Is this Real East Company Trying to Replace Wanda in the Entertainment Industry?
Last week, real estate giant Evergrande Group opened its 100th movie theater in Changsha, Hunan Province. Like Wanda, Evergrande Group is a real estate company with big ambitions to conquer the entertainment market. Although it entered the market much later than Wanda, Evergrande has been making rapid progress. In a list of top 10 Chinese real estate groups in 2016 by revenue, Evergrande ranks first and Wanda only ranks ninth, which indicates that Evergrande has more capital to invest in the film market if they want to. Read more on yiyuguancha
What is ‘Suo Chang’ and Does it Help or Hurt the Film Industry?
Since the opening of the fantasy drama Once Upon a Time, the ‘Suo Chang’ strategy, which literally means “Lock a Screening”) has become a hot topic again. Passionate fans use this tactic to help a movie achieve false box office success in support of the stars they admire. Here’s how they do it: Once the screening schedule of a movie is released, they will buy at least one or two tickets to each screening in order to ensure no screenings will be canceled. Then they will purchase more tickets to less popular screenings, such as late night screenings or matinees to ensure that no single screening’s ticket sales are too low. Read more on yulezibenlun
JD.com to Compete with Alibaba in the Film Market?
Recently, online retail giant JD.com announced a strategic partnership with Weiying Technology, a company that operates the online ticketing platform Wei Piao. According to the partnership agreement between JD.com and Weiying Technology, the two companies will collaborate in areas including online ticketing, film distribution, and IP development, which are very similar to the market sectors Alibaba has been targeting. It remains to be seen how serious JD.com is about their new initiatives and if they will threaten Alibaba. Read more on yuleguan001
NetEase to Acquire Game Companies Overseas
NetEase is quite conservative when it comes to mergers and acquisitions. However, according to a recent story in Bloomberg, NetEase’s VP Wang Yi revealed that NetEase Games planned to explore the opportunities for overseas acquisitions as part of the company’s efforts to expand its market reach and increase revenue. Over the past five years, NetEase Games has grown rapidly and become one of the two largest gaming companies in China. It’s important for the company to consider how to maintain its growth, and their answer is: entering overseas markets. Read more on Ent Group
While Applauding for Wolf Warriors 2, Please Feel Badly for Indie Flick My Other Home
Wolf Warriors 2 has become China’s highest grossing film, ever. As a result, more screenings are being scheduled for the film. Since there is no policy in China to limit the number of screenings each film can have per day, Wolf Warriors 2 has been getting over 60 percent of the screening slots. Meanwhile, movies such as My Other Home, get a very limited number of slots each day. In China, middle and low budget movies have to compete with few big budget productions in mainstream venues due to a lack of dedicated indie cinemas. Read more on yingshidushe
