Author: Lila
The wind of IP cosmosis still blows to Jin Yong.
16 days after its launch, the first unit of "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World" "Iron Blood Dan Heart" entered the advance screening, and the main story belonging to the Condor Shooting ushered in the end. The launch of this drama is Tencent Video's attempt to build a "Jin Yong universe".
Different from the previous Jin Yong dramas adapted according to the original timeline, "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World" has turned "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" into five units, each of which is filmed by different director teams. Each unit is a separate story with different characters as the main line, but it is also interrelated. The main line of Guo Jing and Huang Rong is 30 episodes, and the rest of the units range from 6 to 8 episodes.
Lu Chao, the founder of Yaoke Media, who is also the producer, mentioned in the book that this shooting method draws on Marvel's method of shooting the "universe" from the characters.
The "Marvel Universe" – a "multiverse" made up of multiple independent yet interrelated units.
Jin Yong's works have the same qualities. Each story is written independently, and there are inextricable relationships between its characters and sects. There are links in the timeline, all of which are based on Chinese history as the same background, which is itself a "universe" of its own.
In addition, another commonality between Jin Yong's works and the Marvel universe lies in a wide range of audiences, which is why Jin Yong's IP has continued to be sought after by the most accessible cultural products such as film and television, publishing, and games for nearly half a century.
But so far, viewers don't seem to be buying it.
According to Yunhe data, as of July 1, the market share of "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World: Iron Blood Danxin" was only 6.1%, ranking 6th on the whole network, and the popularity of public opinion did not rank in the top 10. Word-of-mouth is also not optimistic, and most of the bad reviews focus on the unclear priorities caused by the too fast pace and compression of the main plot.
"Jin Yong's Martial Arts World" is the first S+ Jin Yong drama series after Tencent closed Jin Yong's IP copyright, and this achievement obviously failed to meet the expectations of the platform and the market. But it is the first step on Tencent's road to building Jin Yong's universe.
Exploring new creative models is an essential process when moving closer to a mature IP operating model. For the moment, "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World" may be an IP adaptation, but in the long run, this is not a paving stone for the development of Jin Yong's universe.
The chaotic process of film and television
Jin Yong IP and Marvel IP have different paths in development, and the process is also different.
The success of the Marvel Universe is largely due to two aspects. On the one hand, the unified planning, management and incubation of IP, content creation, distribution, and licensing of various commodities are completely under their own hands, forming a mature closed loop.
On the other hand, there is a high degree of symbolization of IP. For example, when you think of a superhero in the Marvel Universe, an iconic symbol comes to mind. Iron Man's outfit, Spider-Man's jumpsuit, not the image of a specific actor.
The characters, moves, and weapons in Jin Yong's works are still at the level of images given by words or a film and television remake. When people mention a classic character, they can't think of a unified symbol in their minds, but a certain version of the image of a film and television drama. Why are film and television dramas repeatedly wrong? Because the image of the person projected in everyone's mind is different.
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As Chen Gray mentioned in the book "Principles of Super IP Incubation", the primary stage of IP is intellectual property, and the advanced stage is super cultural symbols. Jin Yong's development is obviously in its infancy, and half a century has passed, and a mature IP operation model has still not been formed.
For a long time, there was only one path for the development of Jin Yong's IP, which was film and television adaptation.
In the 80s of the last century, the copyright of Jin Yong's works was concentrated in the hands of TVB, and since "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" in 1983, Jin Yong has become a big hit in the film and television industry. Since then, it has been remade and rights sales.
In that era when media was still scarce, film and television became the most effective way for IP to transform and expand its influence. The success of TVB also laid the foundation for Jin Yong's IP to enter the mainland market.
After 2000, the film and television adaptation of Jin Yong's IP entered the mainland market. "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", "The Legend of the Sky and the Dragon", "The Eight Divisions of the Heavenly Dragon", "Smiling Proud Jianghu" and "The Legend of the Deer and Ding" are the six books that have been remade the most.
The mainland remake of Jin Yong is mainly divided into three stages.
The first phase was from 2000 to 2011. At this stage, Huaxia Audiovisual is dominant. This company started by relying on the remake of Jin Yong's dramas and became the leading film and television company in China, remaking 7 Jin Yong dramas in 10 years.
After 2011, the context of Jin Yong's IP film and television adaptation began to become complicated, and the copyright of Jin Yong's IP film and television adaptation was transferred from Huaxia Audiovisual to more producers.
Huace Film and Television is a company that holds the most Jin Yong's copyrights in addition to Huaxia Audiovisual. In 2011, Huace Film and Television launched the "New World of Martial Arts" project, remaking three Jin Yong dramas, including "Dragon Babu", "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and "The Legend of the Deer and Ding". These three Jin Yong dramas are not bad in terms of market performance or word-of-mouth performance.
At the end of 2013, the Huace version of "Tianlong Babu" was broadcast at the end of 2013, and the average rating of Hunan Satellite TV was 0.928, ranking first in the national network ratings. In 2014, Huace's remake of "The Legend of Deer and Ding" had a Douban score of 6.6, which was the highest among the three remakes in the mainland. In 2017, "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" scored 8.0 on Douban, becoming the only word-of-mouth work adapted by Jin Yong in the past ten years.
After that, there has never been a Jin Yong drama that has qualified word-of-mouth and market performance.
One Media Group is another company that owns part of Jin Yong's IP adaptation rights, including the most important "Condor Trilogy". This company established an "IP Copyright Bank" in 2017, which includes two well-known Jin Yong IPs, "Smiling Proud Jianghu" and "The Legend of the Condor Heroes".
In 2018, Guangguang Media produced "New Smile and Proud Jianghu", with a Douban score of only 2.8, which is the lowest score in the history of Jin Yong's remake. According to industry insiders, the film and television adaptation rights of Guangguang Media's "Smiling Proud Jianghu" are likely to come from One Media Group.
"The Condor Heroes" was announced to be adapted into a movie in 2019, jointly produced by LeTV Pictures and Yiyi Media, directed by Tsui Hark, and produced by Shi Nansheng.
It's only four years later, and the project has not been launched. Tsui Hark took the copyright of the "Condor Trilogy" and became the "guest of honor" of the China Film Group. This year, "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero" directed by Tsui Hark was the first to complete filming and is scheduled to be released in the summer.
In 2019, Huaxia Audiovisual also produced a version of "Heaven and Dragon Slayer", with a Douban score of only 5.8 points.
After that, Huaxia Audiovisual's film and television business fell off a cliff, and in 2020, Huaxia Audiovisual Education's film and television production and investment business revenue accounted for 54.1%; In 2021, the proportion of film and television business plummeted to 18.2%; By 2022, the revenue of the film and television business will decrease from 105 million in 2021 to 95 million.
After 2019, the remake of Jin Yong's IP came to another stage, and the film and television copyright began to be closed to Tencent Video. The above version of "Heaven and Dragon Slayer" is jointly produced by Huaxia Audiovisual and Penguin Films.
From Huaxia Audiovisual's 2020 annual report, you may be able to find a clue. In 2020, the copyright income of Huaxia audiovisual TV series will be 45.8 million yuan, and it will be explained in detail in the later financial report that this is a transfer agreement for TV drama copyright, with a sales revenue of 102 million yuan, so as to make its investment in production more high-quality and quickly recover its investment.
"Heaven and Dragon Slayer" is the last Jin Yong drama of Huaxia Audiovisual, and since then, only the IP copyright of the Februaryhe trilogy has been left in the "Media Intellectual Property" column of Huaxia Audiovisual's official website, and Jin Yong's IP has not appeared.
Penguin Film and Television has produced three Jin Yong dramas in succession, "New Dragon Babu" in 2021, and a remake of "Flying Fox Gaiden" in 2022; Then Tencent announced the preparation of "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World" and "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World: The Condor Heroes", and started the film and television of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", the two most high-profile IPs.
The audience has already memorized the story by heart, and there are successful film and television works in the past, and it is of course difficult to get applause if they want to penetrate into the hearts of the people. But the high difficulty also confirms that to this day, this IP still has a huge influence and a wide audience.
Tencent's entry into the game means that capital has not lost confidence in Jin Yong's IP.
The twists and turns of Jin Yong's IP development map
If you want to build an IP universe, you can't do it by relying on film and television adaptations alone. Over the years, Jin Yong's IP has also entered various sectors of the cultural market, however, the development process can be described as twists and turns.
Among them, the game industry has a soft spot for Jin Yong's IP and attracts the most attention. Whether it is in the stand-alone era, the terminal game era or the current mobile game era, Jin Yong's IP is the object sought after by the game industry. In 2002, developed by Zhiguan Technology, "Dragon Babu" was the most successful Jin Yong IP in the game industry, and 5 years later, the end game "Dragon Babu OL" was open beta, which directly promoted Changyou's spin-off from Sohu and went public.
At the same time, it was an era of chaos, piracy was frequent, and there were many games on the market that used Jin Yong's character settings and world view, but there were very few games that really had the adaptation copyright.
After 2010, Jin Yong's IP game copyright was gradually standardized in the mainland market. In 2011, Perfect World signed the game adaptation rights of four works, namely "Heaven and Dragon Slayer", "Smiling Proud Jianghu", "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", and the mobile game adaptation rights of these four works were also won by Perfect World.
In 2013, Changyou Company obtained the adaptation rights of 11 other Jin Yong's works at a price of 20 million yuan.
In the same year, in response to the mobile game market where piracy, rubbing, and infringement have become the norm, the two companies jointly carried out a large-scale rights protection with Fang Minghe Society, the copyright agent of Jin Yong's works. Successfully removed 100 infringing mobile games from the shelves within half a year. Since then, the game adaptation of Jin Yong's IP has changed from chaos to order, and the copyright has been concentrated in the hands of leading game companies such as Perfect World, Changyou, and CMGE.
If the development and transformation of Jin Yong's IP by Perfect World and Changyou focuses on games and film and television, CMGE should be a little more "slash". Its ambition is not only the development of cultural products, but also the development of Jin Yong's IP offline physical business.
In 2020, Wuxi National Digital Film Industrial Park, Hengxin Oriental, CMGE and Huaao Media cooperated to develop cross-media and multi-scene industries around the IP of the "Condor Trilogy". The development projects mainly include Jin Yong's "Condor Trilogy" theme experience hall, Jin Yong's "Condor Trilogy" immersive drama and theme business; Jin Yong's "The Condor Heroes" animated film and television drama; Jin Yong's "Condor Trilogy" mobile game; Jin Yong's "Condor Trilogy" theme derivatives development.
The IP copyright of Jin Yong involved here comes from Chivalry Culture, a subsidiary of Hengxin Oriental. Chivalrous Culture was acquired and controlled by Hengxin Oriental with a 51% stake in 2018, and the main purpose of the acquisition was to develop Jin Yong's IP.
Hengxin Oriental's 2018 financial report disclosed: "The founder of this company (chivalrous culture), Zhou Yeping, has established a deep friendship with Jin Yong's family, and the company can communicate directly with Jin Yong and has the unique resource advantage of obtaining the adaptation authorization of Jin Yong's martial arts works." ”
Chivalrous Culture has the authorization for the adaptation of the animated film of Jin Yong's martial arts work "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and the authorization for the adaptation of the animated TV series of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes". and the "Condor Trilogy" indoor experience hall and themed catering products, as well as the relevant commercial authorization of derivative products used for theme exhibitions.
It can also be seen that, like film and television copyrights, the channels for obtaining the authorization of Jin Yong's works are scattered and chaotic.
It's just that neither the animated film nor the development of offline scenes have been implemented in the end. Co-produced with CMGE, "The Legend of the New Condor Heroes: Iron and Blood Pill Heart" is the only achievement of Hengxin Oriental in Jin Yong's IP transformation.
According to Hengxin Oriental's 2022 annual report, there are two main reasons why the Condor World Theme Experience Hall was not completed.
On the one hand, because the project is in the middle and middle stages, the budget is overrun, and the four parties to the joint development have disagreements on the proportion of investment.
On the other hand, the subsidy of Wuxi Hualywood National Digital Film Industrial Park, where the theme world is located, has not been in place for a long time, and the project wants to attract further investment, but finally no investor can be found, and the project is shelved.
In 2023, Hengxin Oriental's annual report shows that the shares of Chivalry Culture have been resold, and Jin Yong has also disappeared from Hengxin Oriental's IP operation business. The animated film of "The Condor Heroes" and the once windy Jin Yong-themed world have all come to an end, and only the game remains.
Restricting copyright, pan-cultural development, from online to offline, Jin Yong's solution to the universe
If Jin Yong's universe wants to do a good job, Tencent may be able to try the path of the three-body universe.
First of all, the copyright of the work will be tightened, and unified planning and operation will be carried out.
In fact, in the past two years, Tencent has been insisting on the convergence of martial arts IP. In 2018, the purchase of the adaptation copyright of Gu Longquan's works was a start.
There is no announcement on the purchase of Jin Yong's IP adaptation copyright, but in 2022, Tencent Merchants has made it clear that the "Jin Yong Martial Arts World" series will be filmed in 6 works: "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", "The Legend of the Sky and the Dragon", "Dragon Babu", "Smiling Proud Jianghu" and "The Legend of the Deer and Ding". At present, "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World: Iron and Blood Dan Heart" is only the first step.
Secondly, the development of diversified pan-cultural content. Based on the original work, Tencent does content transformation covering all fields. Focusing on IP cultural symbols, not just film and television, expand the transformation of cultural products.
In this regard, Tencent is only scratching the surface. In 2017, Tencent Animation and Phoenix Entertainment reached a strategic cooperation to jointly launch comics adapted from all 15 classic martial arts novels of Jin Yong. In 2022, Tencent Photon Studio will integrate a number of Jin Yong's novel IPs and develop the mobile game "Codename: To Jin Yong".
Although it has also touched the three industries of film and television, comics, and games, these are only point-like adaptations, and cannot constitute a complete and linked development system, and cannot bring about a matrix effect.
Then, from online to offline, a three-dimensional Jin Yong IP universe is formed.
In addition to relying on online cultural products, mature IPs such as Three-Body Universe will also actively promote the development of derivative peripheral products, brand linkage, and offline commercial entities, providing more possibilities for IP expansion and monetization.
Liu Chun, head of Three-Body Universe Business, once told Entertainment Capital (yulezibenlun): "The most important responsibility of the consumer goods licensing business is to let more relevant content and stories appear on more products to maintain popularity when IP does not have blockbuster content products online." ”
Peripheral products and co-branding have also become very common development methods in film and television, literature, and animation IP. But in this regard, martial arts-related IPs are still latecomers, and Jin Guliangwen's Jianghu story obviously did not take advantage of the east wind.
Tencent is consciously turning things around. In January this year, Ciwen Media said that it was cooperating with Tencent to develop Gulong IP, which includes a variety of cultural products and offline physical entertainment scenes. However, as mentioned above, Jin Yong's IP is obviously still in a state of starting from 0 after experiencing a shelving of theme world development.
In the face of Jin Yong's IP, which has been chaotic for decades, on the one hand, it is necessary to restrain the copyrights that have grown wildly and are scattered everywhere, and on the other hand, it is necessary to sort out a new path of development after these IPs with huge audiences are in the bag. Tencent is going through a process of integration and reshaping, and there is still a long way to go.
But this also means that Tencent is facing a blue ocean of Jin Yong's universe development. As long as the audience is still there, the old IP that has found a new solution can also radiate new vitality.