Wanda Film: From "Movies" to More Than Just Movies
The well - known Wanda Film is undergoing rapid changes.
Since 2024, on the one hand, Wanda Film has actively promoted organizational flattening, specialization, and synergy. It has abolished the north - south regional operation centers at the headquarters, streamlined 30 business regions into 10, and established vertical management systems for various businesses such as distribution and marketing, significantly improving internal operational efficiency.
On the other hand, Wanda Film's business strategy is getting closer to consumers than before. The cinema space has shifted from a single "movie - watching" function to a pan - entertainment space with a composite experience. Through fun, delicious, and purchasable products such as snacks, tea drinks, movie and independent IP peripherals, it fills the waiting time before the movie, optimizes the waiting experience, and at the same time improves the commercial efficiency per square meter of the cinema lobby.
In terms of content and IP, Wanda Film has also stepped out of the traditional movie category and systematically expanded into areas such as games and art IP. It builds a deep - interactive content ecosystem around consumers, excavates the value of IP content through forms such as movies, games, trendy collectibles, prints, and fan meetings. Through the construction of a social magnetic field, it extends the consumption chain and expands consumption scenarios to reach more people.
Wanda Film defines the upgraded and renovated cinema as a "Super Entertainment Space", emphasizing its composite nature, and further deepens the "1 + 2+5" strategic layout around the "Super Entertainment Space". Here, "1" refers to the Super Entertainment Space, "2" refers to the domestic and international markets, and "5" refers to the five major business segments of cinemas, film and TV dramas, strategic investment, trendy collectibles, and games.
Chen Zhixi, Chairman and President of Wanda Film, sharing on - site
After the strategic adjustment, Wanda Film has expanded and strengthened itself in both the space and content dimensions, reshaping the logic of performance growth. Its sources of income have become more diverse, and its products have extended from the visual dimension to cover all aspects of food, drink, shopping, and entertainment. It can meet the current trendy consumption trends with corresponding new products during the three periods of "waiting - movie - watching - after - movie".
The new positioning of the "Super Entertainment Space" means that Wanda Film can offer more than just "movies". It will be a composite experience provider that deeply integrates various entertainment and consumption industry segments. This also brings greater room for imagination for Wanda Film's growth potential.
01
Beyond Movies: Cinemas Transform into Super Entertainment Spaces
With the economic transformation and the iteration of the main consumer groups, domestic consumption trends are undergoing drastic changes, and the movie market is no exception.
From 2020 to 2024, the total box - office revenue in China was 20.314 billion yuan, 47.036 billion yuan, 29.949 billion yuan, 54.953 billion yuan, and 42.502 billion yuan respectively, showing significant fluctuations in the overall box - office.
In the movie industry chain, the income of cinemas is closely related to the overall box - office revenue. The fluctuations in the overall box - office have, to some extent, caused instability in the income of cinema companies. The income and survival issues of nearly 90,000 screens in domestic cinemas urgently need new solutions.
With the continuous increase in movie production costs and the widening gap in box - office between popular and unpopular movies, it is more urgent to solve this problem.
According to the experience of mature foreign markets, in the income structure of relevant enterprises such as cinema chains, the income from derivatives such as figurines, models, and theme parks usually accounts for more than the movie box - office income. The peripherals and movies empower each other, forming a product ecosystem with a long life cycle.
Domestically, the path to expand non - box - office income is also being explored, but the only relatively successful example before was the "popcorn + cola" combination. The sales of popcorn are highly dependent on the attendance rate of the movie itself. Therefore, the anxiety of cinema companies cannot be completely relieved by the "popcorn economy".
Domestic cinemas are usually located in shopping malls, which are important "third spaces" for urban families, aggregating consumers' high - frequency needs for leisure, dining, parent - child activities, and socializing. If we return to the essence of commercial space when considering the cinema space, the new positioning of cinemas should be an offline comprehensive entertainment space centered on cultural consumption and emotional resonance, which requires a richer and more diverse range of products to provide consumers with high - density experiences such as deep immersion, social interaction, and integrated play and shopping.
Only by leveraging offline advantages in addition to focusing on content can cinemas possibly resist the influence of the massive "time - killing" content provided by mobile video and social platforms. However, to achieve the synergy between content and space, as well as between online and offline, it requires a very strong ability to integrate cross - industry resources, and the operation of cinema space with the thinking of commercial real estate and the integration of relevant industrial chains with the thinking of new retail.
"Any industry needs development, innovation, and change." At the new strategy press conference held at the Oil Tank Art Center on June 16, Chen Zhixi, Chairman and President of Wanda Film, said that compared with mobile phones, which are increasingly rich in content and can provide users with almost everything, the imagination of the big screen still needs to be unlocked. "Today, we should give ourselves a new definition."
If we regard a movie theater as a "mobile phone" platform, the cinema chain can be just one of the apps, and trendy collectibles, cultural and creative products, and snacks can all be new apps installed in it.
Wanda Film's "Super Entertainment Space"
In this direction, Wanda Film has been continuously exploring. In September last year, Wanda Film opened the first national "Flower World" popcorn specialty store in Shanghai, endowing popcorn with the attributes of "culture and experience". Then it jointly launched a limited - time anniversary event with Genshin Impact. The "Genshin Impact Package" drove tens of millions of box - office conversions. In April this year, Wanda Film collaborated with Identity V, launching co - branded theme packages in more than 700 Wanda cinemas across the country and co - branded theme decorations in more than 200 Wanda cinemas. Co - branded peripheral products of Red Butterfly and "Prisoner" were launched both online and offline, triggering a boom in movie - watching and gaming. In June, Wanda Film collaborated with Light and Night, attracting more than 410,000 participants through activities such as co - branded popcorn cups and DIY invitations. Relevant topic keywords generated more than 700,000 sharing posts on Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin.
Wanda Film's collaboration with Light and Night
While detonating topics with well - known IPs and activating the movie, game, and animation communities, Wanda Film's Time Square holds different theme activities every month to interact closely with fans. While increasing customer stickiness, it has guided movie - watching consumption from a single "watching" experience to "watching, playing, shopping, and socializing", creating a high - density super entertainment space that meets the "emotional value" needs. For example, the marketing in Time Square is themed monthly, from the "New Year Time Square" during the Spring Festival, the "Romantic Time Square" on Valentine's Day, to the "Women's Time Square" on Women's Day and the "Love Time Square" in May. It integrates the sales of IP products, art exhibitions, and handicraft workshops, constantly updating gameplay and activities to surprise consumers.
After a series of explorations and upgrades, when audiences enter Wanda cinemas, they no longer need to kill the boring waiting time by swiping their phones before the movie starts. They can taste local delicacies at the market in the cinema lobby, visit art and trendy collectible stores, purchase movie peripherals, experience handicraft making, or interact with the characters in the movie through games in advance. They can even participate in non - movie - watching activities such as art exhibitions, markets, star meet - and - greets, and immersive live - streaming experiences.
So far, Wanda Film has moved towards retailization, offering more than just movies. It has become a comprehensive offline cultural and entertainment consumption gathering place with functions of socializing, leisure, playing, shopping, and exhibitions.
Time Square
There are two important reasons for the successful transformation of Wanda Film into a "Super Entertainment Space":
First, Wanda Film has strong content capabilities. As the industry leader, Wanda Film's market share reached 15.2% in 2024, ranking first in box - office for 16 consecutive years. Its output per screen is also higher, reaching 1.9 times the national average in 2024.
Second, Wanda Film is located in the core business districts of cities, usually near commercial centers, large shopping malls, or major transportation hubs. It is more sensitive to the efficiency of space operation and has resource advantages in the cross - category expansion of consumer products, easily creating a "1 + 1+1>3" effect. For example, during the film festival, Wanda Film launched the "One - ticket to Explore Wanda" and movie carnival activities in Beijing. Consumers can enjoy exclusive discounts at relevant stores with the ticket stubs of Wanda cinemas and the Beijing International Film Festival, and can keep shopping and dining with just one ticket stub.
Breaking away from the traditional "popcorn + cola" narrative, Wanda Film's transformation from a traditional cinema chain to a "Super Entertainment Space" is not only based on the rise of new consumption trends such as the "figurine economy" representing emotional value and new domestic products representing cost - performance, but also the result of re - integrating the industrial chain based on its own resource advantages in cinema chains, film and TV dramas, etc.
All of this is to reshape the attractiveness of cinemas, establish a strong connection with the new consumer groups, and ultimately drive the company's growth.
02
"1 + 2+5": Building a Value - Added System for the Whole Industry Chain
The commercial transformation of a single screen often means the reconstruction of a commercial ecosystem.
In Wanda Film's "1 + 2+5" new strategy, the "1" represents the "Super Entertainment Space", which is a new definition of the future cinema form. The domestic and international markets are where Wanda Film's accumulated channel and market influence advantages lie. The five major business segments of cinema chains, film and TV dramas, strategic investment, trendy collectibles, and games are the main framework of the new ecosystem.
The main narrative line of this new ecosystem is: "Content drives traffic, and space precipitates value."
Cinema chains and film and TV dramas are Wanda Film's traditional strengths. As of now, Wanda Film has 707 cinemas and 6,144 screens, ranking first in domestic box - office revenue. It has formed a natural traffic aggregation field. Among them, 76 million APP/mini - program users and 7 million private - domain community users have been accumulated on Wanda Film's own platform. They will become the first batch of seed users for the company to build a pan - entertainment living scenario and an important driving force to activate new business forms.
Wanda Film's advantage in strategic investment lies in its access to the funds and resources of a listed company and an industry leader. It can connect relevant enterprises in the industrial chain through investment and mergers and acquisitions, or incubate new brands, and achieve full - link synergy driven by investment.
Wanda Film has advantages in scenario resources, users, and industrial synergy capabilities. By establishing strategic partnerships and providing resource support, it can connect different types of brands to its own consumption scenarios and ecosystem, easily achieving a win - win situation.
Wanda Film's investment synergy and brand incubation
In the "1 + 2+5" strategy, another key link is the commercial development of content IP. Trendy collectibles and games are the main types to enrich the content ecosystem and extend the industrial chain.
In the IP industry, Wanda Film is building an industrial - chain synergy platform that covers the entire life cycle of IP, connecting the whole process from creative incubation, content development to commercial operation. This content will appear in front of people in various forms such as movies, blind boxes, prints, plush toys, games, and virtual pets, becoming a new growth point for Wanda Film.
"We have no limitations on our understanding of IP. A brand or even an artist can be discussed in the context of IP," Chen Zhixi revealed. "Regardless of the type of IP, we hope to integrate them into the living scenario, engage in in - depth co - creation, and achieve expansion, operation, and consumption reach on a global scale."
Wanda Film is not limited to movie derivatives but has entered a more extensive and diverse IP universe. In the past 500 days, Shadow Time, a subsidiary of Wanda Film, has actively explored the incubation of original IPs, incubating 3 new trendy collectible brand lines and 2 original IPs. Their forms include plush toys, art prints, blind boxes, virtual idols, etc., covering both online and offline platforms.
For example, the derivatives of the original IP MOMO&FRIENDS, the wearable trendy collectibles "Furry Color World" created in collaboration with global artists, and the prints and blind - box peripherals of mature IPs such as The Great Dreamer Series can all become part of Wanda Film's new business ecosystem.
Wanda Film's in - depth cooperation with artist Chen Jianzhou on The Great Dreamer Series IP
In addition, after Shadow Time, a wholly - owned subsidiary of Wanda Film, and its affiliated company Shanghai Ruyi Xingchen jointly invested in Beijing Lezitiancheng Culture Development Co., Ltd. (52TOYS) in May this year, Wanda Film continued to carry out in - depth cooperation with 52TOYS, and 52TOYS' stores have also opened in Wanda cinemas.