Huayi Brothers Media Corp. Research Paper Sample

Huayi Brothers Media Corporation (HBMC) is a company based in China which is primarily engaged in production, issuing and derivative businesses of movies, movies and television (TV) plays. Notably, the company is involved in entertainer booking and similar services, over and above investment, operation and management of cinema. This includes event planning and booking services for enterprise clients. Additionally, its business is far and wide including services like audio and video wholesaling, music and art creation, event organization, cultural technical communication, digital musical technology development among others. It also deals with production of games and brand authorization services.
Markedly, Huayi Brothers aims to reshape how the world sees Chinese entertainment through its aim, as in its mission statement, to “touch the hearts of audiences” through entertaining, meaningful and unforgettable works of art (Yizhong, 15).

Background

Huayi Brothers Media Corporation was founded in 1994 in Beijing by Mr.Wang Zhonglei and Mr.Wang Zhongjun. Mr. Wang Zhongjun is the current CEO and Chairman of the Board while Mr. Wang Zhonglei is the president. It was started a d a production company, talent agency, and record label. Currently, it is the owner, creator, producer and distributor of many of China's most popular and renowned film and television productions. This make has made it a worthy leader of the entertainment industry by virtue of its high innovative approaches to film, music, talent agency, television among other businesses.
Over the past number of years, the company has built a collection of marquee entertainment assets and has thus ascertained itself as trusted brand that prides itself of consistent delivery of high-quality commercial entertainment. Huayi Media broke into the World news and international addressees when the Shenzhen stock exchange was cut short on October 30, 2009 subsequent to HBMC’s stock price opening at 63.66 Yuan per share which was a doubling of 122.74% from its IPO price. On February 2011, Huayi Brothers took the company a notch higher in the global entertainment industry when started the creation of the largest TV and film complex in East Asia. In the same year, they announced their intention to earn 10 billion Yuan by 2016 from the box office. Commendably, the company was worth an overwhelming US$7.9 billion by April 2015.

Production Profile

HBMC, as one of the most successful television and private film companies in China, has successfully facilitated bringing dozens of financially successful blockbusters to the silver screen. For instance, the company has brought in productions such as “The Forbidden Kingdom”, “Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame”, “Assembly”, “The Message”, “Aftershock”, “If You Are the One” series, “Look For a Star”, “A World Without Thieves”, “Rob-B-Hood” among others.
Noticeably, major successes in HBMC’s business have come in the movie and TV production, distribution and investment. “Aftershock” for instance, which was hailed as a both a commercial and artistic success, rejuvenated and revitalized a dwindling film industry in East Asia by earning a record 672 million at China's domestic box office. Commendably, Huayi Brother's total box office earnings of US$ 487.6 million were the highest among Chinese film production companies. For instance, Stephen Chow's "Journey to the West: Conquering Demons" alone, generated over $200 million and even became the second biggest grossing film from a Chinese company.
In television, HBMC has also been a driving force behind hit series such as “Dwelling Narrowness”, “Soldiers Sortie” and “My Chief and My Regiment” with every single one them winning top ratings in the same year. In addition, the company has built a sophisticated production studio network through fetching some of the China’s best production talent. The company had extended its network to 12 studios by the end of 2011.

Talent Agency

As a talent agency, HBMC represents and manages more than 100 A-list and emerging stars in television, music and movies. This has undoubtedly made it the leading talent agency in China. The company’s focus and intent to base its production on emerging stars is based on passion to discover and cultivate new talent, which has earned HBMC a reputation for lasting relationships with scores of China’s most gifted contemporary filmmakers and stars. As a company at the pinnacle of this talent-driven industry, Huayi Brothers Media Corporation's success is rooted in the company's deep commitment to forming beneficial cooperative partnerships and ensuring that the needs of its people come first.

Variety Show

In the film, Huayi Brother's has also been a force to reckon with. The company has created close relationships with a number of very distinguished filmmakers in the Chinese film industry. An example of these filmmakers is the Chen Kuofu and Feng Xiaogang. Additionally, HBMC has also influenced and enhanced the development of the entire film industry through its highly innovative approach towards film production.
The development philosophy of Huayi Brother's business has always been rooted in constant innovation and future-oriented thinking. The company has in the past few years become the global ambassador of Chinese pop culture since being listed on ChiNext in 2009 through the expansion of its business through the world's industry chain. Today, the company does not only do content production, but it has expanded its scope such as through expanding its distribution channels (e.g. self-owned cameras) and investing heavily in derivative business anchored in the original IP, including location-based entertainment, cultural tourism, video games among others.

The International Entertainment Marketplace

Huayi Brothers Media Corporation, being one of the most influential if not top media corporations in China, has an overwhelming number of growth and expansion opportunities. The wide spectrum of media that the Huayi Brothers is involved in gives it an advantage when tapping in the international marketplace especially in the Southern Asia region. There is an increase in the demand for films and Television entertainment such as TV series, documentaries, non-scripted programmes, live event coverage and miniseries.
Outside the East Asian market, Huayi Brothers looks to form strategic alliances with Hollywood studios to help the distribute movies internationally either jointly or separately. For instance, HBMCs recent partnership agreement with STX Entertainment will see it share production of 18 major films by the end of 2017. This move will help both STX and HBMC expand their international marketplace in America, East Asia, and Europe.
However, there has been a problem with the local distribution release strategy “windows” of exhibition are limited locally due to challenges such as struggles to reach audiences, limited creative capacity, censorship and government imposed quotas on imported films. The biggest issue is the 20 foreign films a year theater releases import limit imposed by the government. This quota, though meant to protect local entertainment industry, has restrained the potential growth of producers and distributors such as Huayi Brothers.
Markedly, HBMC has sought to circumvent these quotas through joint ventures with foreign film studios. An example is the joint venture between HBMC and Legendary Pictures in 2011 which led to the formation of Legendary East Limited headquartered in Hong Kong. This not only allows legendary pictures to export more movies into China but also increases the library of films and market share of HBMC. It was also expected that beginning 2013, legendary East will produce at least one or two English-language films for worldwide audiences annually.

Media, Audience, and Global Convergence

Huayi Brothers is a comparatively representative brand in the Chinese industry. It was ranked as the leading brand in media corporations by “China’s 500 most Valuable Brands” in 2006. According to Walters et al. (55), even with such a brilliant record on the domestic market, the company needs to do what, as in the words of its V.P Wang Zhonglei, "Is necessary to grow into an international enterprise." This has led to increased focus on diasporic media such as through the internet, personal videos, emails, letters and satellite broadcasting.
This long journey embarked by Huayi Brothers Media Corporation will involve mixing and choosing between media content that originated from different countries. It will also involve developing entirely new flows that are outside corporate trans-nationalism and the control of national states. Notably, this is in line with its vision of generating a cultural hybridity through entertainment. For instance through the internet, HBMC is particularly excited to achieve an active audience paradigm through the involvement of bloggers, fans and gamers in the entire production and distribution process. Such interactive technology will help achieve an optimal interplay between its grassroots and corporate convergences.

Global Audiences, International Expansion, and Soft Power

Cultural Imperialism
Despite, numerous development and expansion success, Huayi Brothers has faced the problem of cultural imperialism. This is where major countries, especially the U.S, have forcefully extended their authority and through their dominance have achieved a territorial gain in the Chinese film industry. Since 1919, Hollywood’s production budget has incorporated profits from overseas film market. U.S. film revenue from overseas began to exceed those from the domestic part by 1994 (Yan, 25). This has led to Hollywood as the industry to try and influence overseas production and distribution of the film. To achieve this, U.S. based, profit-oriented TMCs have focused on manipulating production and distribution of entertainment globally through multinational investment in internal property rights and entertainment industries that these producers and distributors are in.
Another feature and channel of cultural imperialism is “flexible accumulation of capital. This is where capital for production and distribution is converged from overseas and domestic markets. These days, global patterns in the entertainment industry require that shooting fees be paid by pre-sale revenue of films. This forms a capital circuit that is aimed to finance and share risks as it results in joint ventures between Hollywood joint ventured cinemas and distribution companies abroad. Huge and overwhelming financial insertions in the industry have coerced producers to produce the "abroad brand".
The Hoskin-Mirus model, a representative research model of international cultural trade, explains why domestic companies such as Huayi Brothers Media Corporation have failed to take the competitive advantage in international trade. The interaction that exists between cultural discounts of consuming productions within the domestic market has facilitated popularity and domestic success of such films. In line with this ideology, Huayi Brothers’ company has grown in popularity, thus growth in the domestic market.
In accordance with Wang et al. (78), Huayi Brothers’ domestic experience has made the company attempt to film towards the overseas market and to strengthen the brand’s advantage position, it has bought the “global imagination” into the local culture. Consequently, while coproduction is becoming popular, U.S studios have been piling to China with Paramount expanding their office in China and Huayi Brothers Media Corporation signing a deal with STX Entertainment Company based in Los Angeles. DreamWork Studios is also currently building a studio in Shanghai with local partners. News Corp., the owners of Twentieth-Century Cinema Fox, now own 20% stake in Bona Film Group, a Beijing-based and Nasdaq-listed producer.
For instance, Huayi Brothers recently signed an agreement to co-produce fund and distribute 18 films by 2017. According to this agreement, Huayi's U.S partner, STX Entertainment, will lead the production while Huayi will be tasked with distributing the film within the Greater China Region. As evident from this agreement, U.S producers are constantly on the lookout for an edge that will help them get their films distributed in China. Such attempts have resulted in the worldwide cultural domination of U.S leadership in global entertainment through diffusion of its popular artifacts.
Last year, though both production and distribution of Jackie Chan’s work Chinese Zodiac were done by Huayi Brothers Media Corporation, the film had a similar style as those earlier films of Jackie Chan which had been produced in Hollywood. Some people mistook it for a co-production with a U.S-based company due to the good reputation it earned. This example shows that the popularity of U.S based profit-oriented production TMCs would leave local companies as bystanders and stifle local companies, values, and ideologies.

Narrative Transparency

Narrative transparency is the ability of audiences to view texts and films as familiar regardless of their origin; to seem part of one’s culture although they have been made elsewhere. The narrative structures that are manifested by American cultural exports in the entertainment industry tend to blend easily into other cultures. In consumption in the film industry, acceptance of the audience is an important point. Abroad such as in Hollywood, there are no aren't any specific obligations or rules of art that is capable of replacing the impressing and gaining audience, the central rule of entertaining. With the global market within its territory, U.S. based companies need no effort to find what foreign audience needs for films as it easily blends with diverse cultures in America.
On the other hand, Chinese firms such as HBMC have many constraints and need to be very strategic in positioning international markets should they take into consideration the market capabilities of potentials, radiations, and acceptance into consideration. Regardless of the wide potential foe circulation of films and TV programs from Huayi Brothers Media Corporation, different features from common commodities govern this capability.
Judging on the basis of cultural affinity, to achieve narrative transparency HBMC and other Chinese companies should mainly be focused on two aspects. The first should be overseas Chinese markets that are far and wide. Statistics suggests that the Asian population overseas is increasing rapidly with over 50 million Chinese people abroad. Over 20 million are in South Asian regions, over 8 million in Canada and over 2 million in the U.S. (Vogel, 28). Additionally, the company should focus on areas that are influenced either partially or fully by Chinese culture and traditions such as South Korea and Japan. Through the use of cooperative strategies put up by the regional economy with countries neighboring China, Huayi Brothers can extend the popularity and strength of its films going outwards. This will help it advance slowly but surely towards the mainstream of international markets.

Pop Cosmopolitan

Global convergence in the entertainment industry has given rise to pop cosmopolitan. Pop cosmopolitan involves the process through which popular culture helps to inspire new forms of cultural competency and global consciousness through transcultural flows. Most of the contemporary audiences pay attention to stars and directors of films and TV shows. The attraction that exists towards directors and stars has profound influence on the audience who embrace the cultural differences they see in films, enter a broader sphere of cultural experience and can act beyond political, physical and cultural boundaries.
In line with this notion, star influence is a vital factor in the triumph of Huayi Brothers Media Corporation and the company should, therefore, focus on arranging influential directors and stars especially for its preferred or target markets. For instance, compared to other films, The Banquet has had higher popularity and acknowledgment overseas since it is all star cast. The involvement of stars such as Zhou Xun, Daniel Wu, Ge You, Zhang Ziyi and Huang Xiaoming guaranteed its great popularity and box office sales in mainland China, South East Asia, and Hong Kong.
Though it would be difficult for foreign audiences to comprehend typical Chinese contexts such as in the above-mentioned film, the presence of human essence such as lies, love and happiness guarantees fewer obstacles in perception by the foreign audience. Huayi Brothers should, therefore, put emphasis on the value of content in films and where and how it can be universally responded and acknowledged by a foreign audience and thus achieve pop cosmopolitan.

Works Cited

Vogel, Harold L. Entertainment industry economics: A guide for financial analysis. Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print
Walters, Sheena, et al. "Huayi Brothers: Setting Strategy for a Chinese Entertainment Conglomerate." American Journal of Management 12.2/3 (2012): 58-68. Print
Wang, Anqi, et al. "The Brand Strategies for" Huayi Brothers Media Corp" to Build Up International Competence: A Research Based on the Integration-Expansion of Market Channels." China Media Research 7.3 (2011). Print
Yan, Yizhong L. Focusing on Hollywood: culture and market in joint. Beijing: Peking University Press. 2006. Print
Yizhong L. ‘‘The interactive situation of Chinese and American film industries after China's entering WTO’’. Modern Communication, 2006(1): 14-19. Print