Talking about it | China urgently needs to establish a film schedule coordination mechanism

Recently, with the good box office performance of "Life", the film market showed signs of recovery. A number of new movies have announced their fixed files. However, on June 30, several films originally scheduled to be released on July 8, including "Sky Rescue", "Learning Dad" and "New Order", announced the withdrawal. However, unlike previous films, these films are more likely to be due to the regulation of the competent authority to avoid being too crowded by the summer stalls that have just improved.

The fate of the movie is undoubtedly one of the decisive factor. In some popular schedules, Chinese films always seem to be difficult to escape the same type. How to coordinate the schedule of the release of movies more scientifically and reasonably is a very important proposition for the future development of the Chinese film market. Especially in the context of the current epidemic, the film industry needs more refined overall operations in order to recover faster and better. So how to establish a coordination mechanism? In addition to the operation of the competent authority, a market -oriented means based on objective and impartial data are needed, so that subjects participating in market competition can be followed.

In the Hollywood film industry, a set of schedule coordination mechanisms that are relatively convinced of various film companies have been established. Third -party research institutions -the National Research Group founded in 1978, now it belongs to the global marketing group Stagwell ) It is the core of this mechanism. It has signed an agreement with the largest issuers in Hollywood. Competitive Positioning Report. The report played a pivotal role in helping the publisher to determine the date of the film's distribution and marketing plan.

The follow -up survey is mainly to measure the audience's awareness and interest in certain movies within a certain period of time (usually from several months before the release) and compare it. NRG investigates 1,000-2000 viewers through phone samples every week to ask them if they "pay attention" to a movie, and if they notice, they are likely to watch the movie when the movie is released. At the same time, the age and gender of these audiences are also recorded and are divided into different groups, usually including male audiences under 25 years old/or above, and four female audiences under 25 years old/below. NRG will then publish a competitive positioning report every week based on data evaluation of different audiences' awareness and desire to buy films to be released for reference for film publishers to make decisions.

In the following table 1, the content of the competitive positioning report is presented. The degree of knowledge is divided into two types. Among them, the degree of unknown awareness means that the interviewee will take the initiative to be released by the interviewee to be released without any prompts or options. Interests are divided into five different degrees of different degrees by the respondents. The first choice includes the three films that are listed as a preferred consideration to watch the theater. It has been watched for the options listed only for the release of the movie.

Let's see which movie in this form is the most advantageous? Which movie should be the most replaced period?

Table 1: Example of the content of the Hollywood Competitive Positioning Report

Source: Robert Marich, Marketing to Moviegoers: A Handbook of Strategies and Tactics, (Carbondale: SOUTHERN ILLINOIS University Press), P.43.

The competitive positioning report covers the movie planned during the similar period, usually about 30-35 units. With the horizontal comparison between this film, if the two movies with similar target audience group collision, the survey shows that the audience expects to expect Movies that take advantage of the wind usually change the schedule. For example, on July 4, 2005, the American Independence Day period, Paramount, Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox wanted to launch a new film. However, the NRG survey shows that Paramon's "World War" occupies the upper hand in all audience groups. So the Warner Bros. moved his "Batman: The Mystery of Xia Shadow" to mid -June, and Fox moved his "Fantastic Four Heroes" for a week. In the end, these three films won the box office championship in the week. For hundreds of American film markets, competitive positioning reports are in helping publishers to determine the distribution date and avoid playing a pivotal role as the collision with the same type.

Another role of tracking survey is to evaluate the marketing effect of a film from a vertical angle. Before the film was released, the publisher launched a round of marketing offensive. For example, after a new trailer was broadcast new advertisements, the follow -up survey report would evaluate the audience's expectations and awareness of this film, and as before Similar films compare the performance of marketing at this stage. If the audience's expectations and awareness are far lower than the previous similar films, publishers will often be vigilant and immediately adjust related advertising creativity and marketing offensive. In addition, publishers can often compare the data of the survey data with the historical data of similar films, and comprehensively consider other factors to predict the box office of the first week of the film. Although the error rate is still as high as 15%-20%, it has a higher reference. value. Based on its important values, tracking investigation and competitive positioning reports are the market research type with the highest adoption rate of Hollywood film companies. Each large studio pays up to $ 250,000 a year to obtain a report on Monday, and independent publishers will also buy this report while issuing a large -scale distribution of a film.

In general, there are several points for Hollywood's film schedule coordination mechanism. One is that NRG is independent of any film company and provides an objective third -party market analysis. This positioning is essential; the second is a unified family. Institutions will conduct relevant market surveys to maintain the systemicity and integrity of information collection to avoid confusion; third, based on scientific investigations and data, more convincing There is a basis for follow -up decision -making decisions to avoid "no one can accept anyone"; the fourth is to distinguish different audience groups in the investigation, so that movies with similar target audiences can avoid each other. The film can still be released in the same stage, making full use of theater space.

In China, in recent years, some institutions have also been committed to introducing this mechanism. For example, Fan Ying, founded in 2014, is one of the representatives. Dr. Li Zhan, one of its founders, has worked in Nielsen (National Research Group was once acquired by Nielsen), Effects the experience of Hollywood has established the tracking monitoring system of the Chinese film market, and has also provided many filmmakers with audition and audience research services. But in recent years, Fan Ying's business has been greatly impacted by the box office platform. As the box office platform has established their own research institutions, with their own platforms such as big data and marketing, they are more likely to reach research cooperation with the filmmakers.

It is undeniable that the big data survey provided by the box office platform is of great value for the industry, but as far as the tracking monitoring subject required for the schedule coordination mechanism, the ticketing platform may not be the best service provider, because as they continue to enter movies today The upstream of the industry is not only "ticket salesperson", but also many roles such as products, publishers, and marketing parties in many films. "Athletes" are not suitable for "referees" at the same time.

In the process of developing from a large film to a film power in China, it is similar to that of institutions such as the National Research Group. Large -scale profits cannot be generated, but the healthy development of the industry can play an important auxiliary role. It should be noted that if it is simply in the market, it may take a long time to form institutions such as national research groups that have been trusted by major studios. Therefore, the author believes that in China, a better way to establish a scheduled coordination mechanism may be the role of industry associations. For example, the establishment of relevant departments by the Chinese Film Publishing and Screening Association, or entrusted professional third -party market research institutions to provide related services to the industry. Related survey data can not only be used by companies in the industry, but also for reference for competent departments when decision -making and regulation.

In general, referring to the experience of Hollywood, it is necessary to establish a film schedule coordination mechanism with Chinese characteristics. In this way, the Chinese film market can let more movies gallop on the screen and create better overall market benefits.

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Author | Peng Kan

Editor | Peng Kan

Capture | Xi Yan

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