John UM
The fourth part of the film business articles.
Chapter 4 Film Distribution and Cinema Network, Department of State Painting and Department of Western Painting.
The basic three major processes of the film industry structure, production, distribution, and release. The previous few succinctly talked about the basics of production and distribution, and this topic has transitioned to the stage of release. First, each link will say separately, and in the future it will be said that they operate in conjunction with each other
The starting point is still the old idea. If you want to see which link you want to see, you should clearly understand the business operators in this link and their nature. When the topic enters the movie release, it is necessary to focus on the film screening company. What a movie screening company is, not accustomed to circling! Well, it’s a cinema. Let’s repeat the analogy of the whole picture: If the movie is like a physical item, the cinema is a retail store and a supermarket
Accurately speaking, it is not focused on cinemas, but on companies that operate cinemas, especially those that operate chain cinemas. But at the moment it is still in a transitional phase, let’s talk step by step. From the release phase to the release phase, it is first clear that the existence of these two links is the cinema
The cinema in the concept of the lecture hall is not the same as the cinema in the concept of the cinema management company. For example, the general audience is easy to understand the subconscious mind, oh, this cinema belongs to a certain theater, then the cinema should be operated by a certain company. Because, indeed, the name of the theater and the name of the cinema management company often have many overlapping keywords. It is not surprising to understand one thing in the subconscious, but we can clearly distinguish the difference from two angles
From the perspective of the film distribution company, the theater is what they have. The so-called cinema line is that the publishing company has talked with a cinema and signed up for cooperation. These cinemas can be combined as a whole, so they are called cinemas. A film is released to a certain theater, and all members included in the theater must release the film. The film distribution company can negotiate with the cinema and sign it, or negotiate with the cinema. Then A and B may be in the same theater, but A and B are not necessarily operated by the same company
From the perspective of the cinema management company, if the capital operates a lot of theaters, there is no need to let them all join the same theater. Not only is it unnecessary, but it is also said that one of the separate theaters can also join different theaters at the same time. This is in the hardware facilities, relying on the concept of the contemporary development of the studio, that is, there are multiple screens in a theater, and the movie will be detailed later.The essence of
Is that the cinema is a concept from the perspective of a film distribution company. Although it involves a cinema, it still belongs to the concept of distribution. And what company operates a chain of cinemas, this is directly the concept of the release of the link, so it is not the same thing
In the final analysis, it is still the old one. I always recognize what stage and topic the topic and concept are at, and therefore what the related business should be closely related. Sometimes it is understandable that there is confusion about logic confusion, because we have said in the past that the issue and release of the US imperialism does not allow the same capital to operate in the US, but this is the norm since ancient times in Japan
A film company that can have a distribution function or a release function. It has a distribution department, a direct-operated cinema, and even a subsidiary that specializes in chain cinemas. Then, the release of the film can be released to the cinema of its own group, or it can be released to a cinema that has nothing to do with its own capital. In the eyes of the general audience, it seems that this is indeed a messy ghost thing, expensive chaos
Speaking of the release system of Japanese movies, we are still old-fashioned, first classifying the structure clearly. As shown in the figure below, first of all, the first layer, all movies are divided into theaters or theaters
The so-called no theater, of course, is the secondary scope, but still have to mention it. There are no batches of movies in the cinema, so it is independent, which is equivalent to one negotiation between the publisher and the cinema. The Showa era was called a single-story department, and later it was fashionable to call a mini-cinema. The most striking feature of the movie released in the single-sector is the small size of the release. Not only is there no national release, it may even be shown in several theaters in several or one metropolis
When the single-chamber system in the last century was just emerging, the original intention was to release some content that was not suitable for mass entertainment, or that there was no capital in the capital to hook up on publisher giants and large cinemas. In the years to come, in recent years, it has become more and more biased to be the latter case. That is, for example, a film that is particularly artistic, or a very rookie, even amateurs make their own films, and a small range of self-entertainment
A few small-scale theaters, there is no strict dividing line, generally less than 30 theaters. More than 30 can also be doubled to 60, but the number of theaters is three digits. Of course, it is obviously difficult to count as a single museum.The
Single-story was released on a small scale but it was accidentally fired. Later, the number of enlarged museums reached three digits. This kind of movie is not without. Catching the typical of recent years, like “The camera does not stop! This is the case with “The Corner in the World”. Focusing on the animated film class, a famous example before “The Corner in the World”, there is the “Girls Passing through Time and Space”
On the second floor, there are movies on the cinema line. The cinema system is roughly divided into the Department of State Painting and the Department of Western Painting
Let me first explain the literal meaning in Japanese. Bang painting is a domestic movie, and foreign painting is an imported movie. Therefore, the so-called state painting department and the foreign painting department were also very straightforward for this division of labor when they were first established. The film of the Department of Fine Arts draws Japanese-made movies on the line, and the theaters of the Department of Western Paintings show overseas imported movies
But now it doesn’t mean this anymore
Note that this is a very important point. The state of the Department of Painting and the Department of Foreign Paintings have only been passed down on the level of salutation. It has nothing to do with the division of labor between Japanese domestic films and overseas imported films. Take Dongbao’s official announcement to give an example. The following is the film released by Dongbao in 2018 last year (all Japanese-made movies), which is the final classification of movies with a final box office income of more than 1 billion yen.
But still separately called the state painting department and the foreign painting department, but did not merge together, because there is indeed a difference between the two, and there are subtexts when calling the state painting department and the foreign painting department. In the last time of this series (more than a year ago), I talked about two forms of film distribution, one is package-based distribution, and the other is flexible distribution. This is the semantics behind the two names of the state painting and the western painting system. A movie is screened in the cinema of the State Department of Painting, which means that the film is issued by a publishing company in a package, and the cinema in the Western Department of the film means flexibility
There has been a famous phenomenon in animation movies that has lasted for many years. The theatrical versions of “Detective Conan” and “Crayon Xiaoxin” are all published by Dongbao, but they are always premiered on the same day year after year.This is precisely because the “Detective Conan” theatrical version of the practice is placed in the Dongbao Ocean Painting Department, and the “Crayon Xiaoxin” theatrical version of the practice in the Dongbaobang painting department, the two never conflict, belonging to different hospitals Line system
The above example is the golden week peak season starting in late April. For example, in summer in late July, Dongbao always issues 2 major masterpieces at the same time. On one side is the “Pokémon Dream” series of theatrical version, on the other side is the Ghibli long animated film supervised by Hayao Miyazaki, or the supervised work by Hosoda, and will become the default file of Xin Haicheng’s supervised works in the future. The two sides never conflict, the reason is the same, then put the following diagram again:
Two kinds of stage changes We have also said that the golden age of the past industry is a matter of course, and has since become a flexible issue. Now there are package-style distributions in Japan, only Dongbao and Dongying are left, that is to say, only Dongbao and Dongying still have a cinema line. And they are both a state painting system and a foreign painting department, while others are only foreign painting systems
The package-style distribution was originally unique to Japan, and foreigners did not play this, so the introduction of the Western Painting Department was a flexible release. Moreover, the film production department will only release Japanese domestic movies. Nowadays, in the Western Painting Department, it is indifferent whether the film itself is a state painting or a foreign painting. Japanese domestic movies or overseas imported movies can be released in the Western Painting Department. There are only two state-of-the-art theaters in Japan, which is very simple
Next to the third floor, the Western Painting Department is a bit more complicated, because the flexibility of distribution has become mainstream. So for example, the term “Dongbaobang Painting Department” refers to a clearly defined theater line, while there are many sub-hospital lines under the Dongbao Ocean Painting Department. But in general, the Department of Western Painting is also the most important existence of the two major departments, one is the Dongbao Ocean Painting Department, and the other is the Songzhu Tokyu Department
Japan’s three major movie companies are Dongbao, Shochiku, and Toei. This should be a common sense for the Japanese industry. Shochiku gave up the only paintings’ department 20 years ago. So what is the existence of Tokyu, the Tokyu Group is a giant in the transportation industry, and the parent company Tokyu is not a film company, neither will it make or issue it. However, there is a subsidiary called Tokyu Entertainment, which manages real estate, and it also intervenes in the operation of the cinema. Tokyu Entertainment has cooperated with Shochiku in its chain of cinemas, which has formed the Sapporo Tokyu Department
At the same time, Toei and Tokyu have historical origins. This is the topic of Toei’s history. It’s a simple matter now: 70 years ago, Toei was born as a Tokyu subsidiary, and later developed into a corporate group independently in the film and television industry.However, there are still some broken links, and the two sides have capital relations. Therefore, Dongying’s own line of foreign paintings was originally included in the Songzhu Tokyu system
Because Dongying and the other two giants, Shochiku and Toho, have a big difference. Production, distribution, and release, the three basic links of this industry, Songzhu and Dongbao started at the stage of the launch (operating the cinema), and Dongying started at the production stage (management photography office). Therefore, the production of film and television works is the strength of Toei since ancient times. On the contrary, mastering the cinema is inherently a weakness. However, Toei continued to develop itself. Later, the Dongying Ocean Painting Department was no longer so dependent on the cinema under Tokyu Capital. It is now called the Toei alpha system
As for the cinema directly related to the cinema, and the commercial influence of the cinema on the films issued by different companies, and the fact that the cinema is actually a business guy, it is not the topic to be talked about today. It is. Finally, I want to emphasize only one point: it is clear that the cinema is still the concept of the issuance of the link. The cinema is formed by the issuer and the cinema, rather than the publisher’s operation of the cinema. So for example, the film released by Toei is absolutely impossible to release in the Dongbaobang painting department or the Dongbaoyang painting department, but it is normal if it is released in a cinema operated by the Dongbao Group