Author | Mia
On January 29th, 002739.SZ announced that Chen Xi and Gong Jie were elected as non-independent directors of the company's sixth board of directors after being examined and approved by the company's second interim shareholders' meeting in 2024. At the same time, the board of directors agreed to elect Chen Xi as the chairman (and president) of the sixth board of directors of the company, and the legal representative of the company will be changed to Chen Xi.
There are early signs of taking over this time. Half a month ago, China Ruyi, which took over Wanda Film, announced that Chief Executive Chen Xi (stage name "Chen Zhixi") resigned because of other businesses. Earlier, it was reported that Chen Zhixi and his team were stationed in Wanda's film inspection and research.
At this point, the 42-year-old Chen Zhixi officially became the youngest female head in the history of Wanda film, the leading stock in A-share film and television sector, and Wanda film officially entered the "post-Confucian era." Ruyi's content resources and integration ability, with streaming media, games and other derivative plates, coupled with Wanda's cinema distribution channels, work together to cover the upstream and downstream of content production, cinema, distribution, derivatives and other industries. it will be a "super aircraft carrier" that will open up the whole link of the industry.
For a long time, Wanda film executives change very frequently, real estate owners are under pressure, and decision-making tends to be conservative, which affects the content efficiency to a certain extent. No less than eight general managers have been replaced in 12 years, and the average serving time is no more than one and a half years. Zeng Maojun, chairman of Wanda Film, who has been with Wanda for 17 years, left. The injection of new blood from the post-80s generation may be expected to promote the revival of the head company, which has not been in control of the popular style for a long time.
Chen Zhixi is known as "Beauty producer" and "10 billion producer". So far, the cumulative box office of films produced by Chen Zhixi has exceeded 23.7 billion yuan, and the film "Hello, Li Huanying" released during the Spring Festival in 2021 has grossed 5.413 billion yuan.
Born in 1982, Chen Zhixi is a businessman from the Central Academy of Drama with a bachelor's degree in acting and an EMBA in Finance from Wudaokou School of Finance, Tsinghua University. When she first went to college, she invested in a SP (mobile value-added) business with a principal of 200000. A year later, she earned 3 million back. In his early years, he made his debut as an actor, starring in TV dramas such as "out of the Blue River", "the West Holy Land" and "how far is Happiness". He tried to become a producer in 2010 and founded Movie Media in 2012.
Judging from his past experience, Chen Zhixi himself has accurate judgment on popular style projects, makes bold decisions, and is good at digging and supporting new directors. In 2010, Chen Zhixi worked as the executive producer of "deserving you to be single" starring Lin Xinru, trying to work behind the scenes for the first time; in 2011, he produced "pretending to be a couple" starring Huang Bo; and in the same year, he became a producer of "Frontier Wind and Cloud".
Chen Zhixi worked as a producer to help Xu Zheng, who met in "low hands inside", made his director's debut film lost in Thailand. In 2015, she worked with Chen Sicheng to complete his transformational work "investigation in Chinatown" and supported Dapeng in directing his feature-length debut film Pancake Man.
The above-mentioned film IP has also accelerated the process of Chinese film marketization to some extent, and a new generation of directors has stepped onto the stage since then. In addition to blockbusters, small and medium-sized budget films such as comedy and suspense broke out. "lost in Thailand" was released, with a total box office of 1.27 billion yuan at a cost of 30 million yuan, setting a record for the top box office of that year, directly bringing Chinese films to a new journey of 1 billion yuan at the box office. After the release of "investigation in Chinatown", it sold 800 million yuan, and it was the "Tang Detective" series IP that made Wanda's film's achievements.
In July 2015, Chen Zhixi and Dapeng's "Pancake Man" was released, which earned 1.159 billion yuan at the box office at a cost of 50 million yuan. At the same time, it also started years of deep binding cooperation, including "Sewing Machine Band", "good luck", "keep you safe" and "warm". Dapeng also sent Weibo congratulations, "because of Xi Xi, I became a film director. I have worked together for ten years and five films. Xi Xi is my engine and sense of security."
Since 2015, Chen Zhixi has joined Ruyi and has served as president of Shanghai Ruyi Film and Television production Co., Ltd., and executive director of China Ruyi Holdings Co., Ltd. The main projects during its re-Confucian period are "Animal World", "send you a little red flower", "Hello, Li Huanying", "warm" and so on.
Ruyi Pictures was listed in 2020 and has become the largest private enterprise in the film and television industry in the Hong Kong stock market. When it went public, it launched "send you a Little Red Flower" and "Hello, Li Huanying", the former being the box office champion of New Year's Day in 2021, while Ruyi Pictures bought out the related share of "Hello, Li Huanying" from the first producer, Beijing Culture, at a guaranteed price of 1.5 billion. The film was the box office champion of the Spring Festival in 2021, earning 5.413 billion yuan at the box office, creating the highest box office record for a domestic comedy. And use it to complete the gambling agreement.
In the summer of 2022, Chen Zhixi and Alibaba Pictures won the distribution rights of the film "Lone Moon" together and became the main producer. Finally, the film won the summer champion with a box office score of 3.103 billion yuan.
Looking at the Spring Festival, "Ruyi Pictures + Wanda Film" has locked in four headline films, and the ability to integrate resources in the upstream and downstream of the industry is amazing. They include two popular champions: Zhang Yimou's "Article 20" (produced jointly by five continents), Jia Ling's "Hot and Hot" (jointly produced by Ru and Yi), Han Han's "Flying Life 2" (produced by Ru) and the animated film "Bear haunts and reverses time and Space" (produced by Wanda and Ruyi).
In addition, "White Snake: a floating Life", which is mainly invested by Ruyi Pictures, announced on January 11 that it would schedule this year's Qixi Festival, becoming the first animated blockbuster to be scheduled for the summer vacation since the beginning of the year.
Chen Chih-hsi once said, "an excellent young producer must first have an aesthetic; secondly, he must cherish his talent." When you see a talented director, he is willing to go all out for the director. At the same time, be persistent. Because it is very difficult to finance a film for a young director, without a persistent and firm character, it is very difficult to finally present a young director's work to the audience. "
Worldwide, Chaoying movies and big IP are in decline, "Barbie" such as the rise of "new films", the future of the film industry belongs to innovation. On the other hand, Chinese films are in urgent need of innovation. For Chen Zhixi, the test of whether the new combination of "Ruyi Pictures + Wanda Film" can really "activate the whole industry chain" and bring more brand-new popular styles has only just begun.