Lighthouse Professional Edition data shows that as of 6:30 pm on July 23, the total box office of the summer season has exceeded 10.6 billion yuan. Although the audience's enthusiasm for watching movies is high, the domestic blockbuster "Fengshen Part 1: Chaoge Fengyun" (hereinafter referred to as "Fengshen Part 1"), which has the highest investment in this summer, is facing the dilemma that it may not be able to pay back.

Looking back, in May 2017, Wu Ershan announced the shooting of the fantasy epic film "Fengshen Trilogy", with an investment of up to 3 billion yuan, which is planned to be released in 2020. At that time, Song Ge, chairman of Beijing Culture, one of the producers of the film, said that it was the first time in the history of Chinese film that three consecutive filmings and an investment of about 3 billion yuan were made.

A film critic told the reporter, "Generally, the payback line for a movie is three times the cost. If you invest 3 billion yuan, you need a box office of more than 9 billion yuan to get back the cost." It is reported that before the filming started, Jiang Zhiqiang, the producer of "Fengshen Trilogy", had a box office target of 10 billion yuan for the film.

On July 20, 2023, "Fengshen Part I", which was postponed for three years to enter the theaters, was finally released. According to data from Beacon Professional Edition, as of 6:30 pm on July 23, four days after its release, the box office of the film was 350 million yuan, and the film studio paid 124 million yuan. Maoyan data predicts that the final box office performance of the film may be 1.5 billion yuan. The above-mentioned film critic said that, on average, the investment in "Fengshen Trilogy" is about 1 billion yuan. If calculated based on the total box office of 1.5 billion yuan, it is impossible for the film studio to recoup.

It is worth mentioning that before the film was released, Beijing Culture disclosed that the company's investment in "Fengshen Trilogy" was not more than 1.3 billion yuan, and the investment ratio was not higher than 70% and not lower than 20%. In 2021, in order to diversify investment risks and ease the pressure on working capital, Beijing Culture will transfer 25% of each of the three Fengshen series films at a price of 200 million yuan each, and return 600 million yuan of funds.

If "Fengshen Trilogy" fails to meet expectations, Beijing Culture's performance will be even worse. The company's financial report shows that from 2020 to 2022, the company will be in a state of loss, and its revenue will decrease by 50.19%, 30.01%, and 63.75% year-on-year respectively.

"Looking at the current status of the industry, large-scale investment in movies is a risky move." Zhang Yi, CEO and chief analyst of iiMedia Consulting, told reporters: "Large investment does not necessarily lead to large returns. There are many lessons learned in China. For example, "Taiping Wheel" released in 2014 and "The Great Wall" released in 2016. But there are also positive cases, such as the "Wandering Earth" series."

Zhang Yi said that film investment is mainly used in three aspects. One is technology and shooting, the other is actor costs, and the third is marketing costs. The key to the success of "The Wandering Earth" previously lies in the presentation and innovation of technology.

""Fengshen Trilogy" used many new actors, and the investment in technology and marketing may account for a higher proportion." The aforementioned film critic said.