Three executives left within two months, Wanda Films pre-lost more than 520 million in the first half of the year

“Mozart in Outer Space” stills

Wanda Film’s top-level personnel changes are still in progress.

On August 19, Wanda Films announced that the legal representative and chairman of the company were officially changed to Zhang Lin. It is reported that Zhang Lin served as chairman of Wanda Films from November 2012 to December 2020. This appointment can also be called “returning” to Wanda movies.

On July 4, Wanda Films announced that Zeng Maojun, the company’s chairman and president, submitted a written resignation application. He resigned from the company’s chairman, president and related positions in the professional committee of the board of directors due to personal reasons, and no longer served as the company’s legal representative. According to the Wanda Films financial report, Zeng Maojun joined the Wanda Group in 2006 and will earn an annual salary of about 9.03 million in 2021.

The Tianyancha app shows that since July 15th, Zeng Maojun has resigned from at least 20 Wanda Films companies, and no longer holds positions such as legal representative, executive director, general manager, etc. The resigned companies include Wanda Film and Television Media Co., Ltd., Beijing Shadow Time E-Commerce Co., Ltd., Dynamic Art Time Information Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., etc.

The departure of Zeng Maojun seems to be the prelude to the “exchange” of Wanda Films’ executives. The company announced on July 23 that Bu Yifei, the vice president in charge of the Human Resources Center, will no longer serve as a company manager due to job changes. According to the financial report, Bu Yifei joined Wanda Group in 2001 with an annual salary of about 2.57 million in 2021. As of his departure, he did not hold any shares in the company.

More than ten days later, on August 4, Wanda Films announced that Xu Jianfeng , the company’s vice president, resigned as a senior executive due to personal reasons. Xu Jianfeng joined Wanda Group in 2007, with an annual salary of 1.967 million in 2021, and holds 2,250 shares of the company. The specific business in charge in 2021 is not specified in the financial report, but in the 2020 annual report, Xu Jianfeng ‘s position is “Vice President and General Manager of the Project Construction Center”.

In recent years, the top management of Wanda Films has undergone constant changes. According to the Wanda Films 2021 Annual Report, a total of 5 people in Wanda Films have held the position of “Vice President”, and 3 have left in the past two years: Liu Xiaobin has left on March 18, 2021, Bu Yifei and Xu Jianfeng have resigned on July 2022. left in August and August. Director, Vice President and Secretary of the Board Wang Huiwu and Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Huang Shuo are still in office.

Zeng Maojun was replaced by another “veteran” Zhang Lin. Wanda Films announced on July 22 that the board of directors agreed to elect Zhang Lin as chairman. In response to Zhang Lin’s return to Wanda Films, Wanda Films responded to relevant questions on the investor interactive platform, saying that the company will work hard under the leadership of the new board of directors, improve profitability and financial conditions, and strive to return shareholders with better performance.

Since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the performance of Wanda Films, which relies on the theater business as its main source of income, has not been satisfactory. In 2020, Wanda Films suffered huge losses, with a net loss of 6.85 billion attributable to listed shareholders after deducting non-fees. In 2021, the situation of the film market will improve, and Wanda Films will turn losses into profits, with a net profit of 12.77 million attributable to shareholders of listed companies after deductions.

However, the repeated epidemics in the first half of 2022 have once again put the theater giants in a loss situation. According to the performance forecast for the first half of 2022 released by Wanda Films, the company expects a loss of 520 million to 600 million yuan in the first half of 2022, and a profit of 640 million in the same period last year; the net loss attributable to shareholders of the listed company after deduction is 580 million to 660 million. Net profit after deducting non-deductibles in the same period was 610 million.

According to the financial report, the reason for the company’s loss in performance was the repeated outbreak of the epidemic in the first half of the year. Affected by the epidemic, about 410 of Wanda Films’ domestic theaters were temporarily closed at the same time, accounting for nearly 51% of the company’s domestic theaters, and box office revenue fell sharply. However, from January to June 2022, the cumulative market share of Wanda Films was 16.5%, an increase of 1.5% over the same period of the previous year, and it was still in the leading position in the industry.

In addition, the financial report stated that in the first half of 2022, Wanda Films’ main investment and main control films could not be released as scheduled. The “Detective Chinatown 3” released in the same period last year made 4.52 billion box office, which also caused the company’s performance to decline.

In the second half of the year, the film market has gradually recovered, and the total box office of the summer program has reached 8.729 billion, exceeding the overall level of the summer program last year. But at present, even if Wanda Films has the main investment and main control film release, it has not been able to get the light of market recovery. “You Are My Spring” and “Underwater Column: Cave Adventure” released in July did not break 100 million at the box office. The highly anticipated “Mozart in Outer Space” encountered word-of-mouth waterloo and only received a box office of 223 million. There is a question mark on whether it can recover the cost. According to the 2022 semi-annual report, Wanda’s film content reserve includes films such as “Hello, Brother”, “Peacekeeping and Anti-riot Team” and “Want to See You”.

Under this circumstance, Wanda’s film selection vision has also been questioned. At the end of August, an investor asked Wanda Films: “Has the company considered the reasons for its poor performance in recent years other than the epidemic? Does the company’s executives understand movies?” , thinks that “”Tang Detective 3” has a high-opening and low-going reputation collapse, the audience level of “Canned Little Man” is too narrow, there is a problem with the casting of “Mozart”, and “Manslaughter 2″ forcibly touches the previous work”, the company’s “invested film” It’s neither a blockbuster nor a good one.”

Affected by the epidemic, the theater business fluctuated sharply, and the production business failed to provoke a major role. Wanda Films’ new management under Zhang Lin may need a new approach to “improve profitability and financial conditions.”