Business Strategies of the Iranian Cinema Industry: The Business Model of the Iranian Cinema industry in the Covid-19 Era

Objective
Global crises generally have two major effects on cinema: a group that boosts the business of this art industry and another group that brings it to the border of closure. Many social crises cause the closing of movie theaters, which has a significant impact on the business of the Seventh Art Industry; as we saw during the Corona epidemic, many countries in the world closed their movie theaters due to the gathering of people in order to prevent the transmission of the Covid-19 virus. This issue has had a huge impact on the sale of motion pictures and with the sharp drop in the market, many companies have introduced other ways to earn profits. There were even more problems in Iran. First of all, there is no studio system in our country. Some of the films are produced by the government and some privately. The works that are supported by the government are often not concerned about sales, and the works of the private sector, following the traditional production line, did not have the ability to create a security margin to pass the Corona period. During the epidemic, the country's cinemas were closed and it was even rumored that some theaters were rented out for official ceremonies and weddings in order to return the minimum fixed costs to the owner's account. The production of works went down and many old actors and actors of the cinema faced serious financial problems. The screenings were postponed and thus, the hands of the producers were left empty. No one knew what was going to happen and gradually, experimentally, our cinema learned how to save itself from the quagmire of such crises. But this happened at a heavy cost and did not create a suitable infrastructure and a modern and standard business model, and even now the situation has not returned to the normal state before Covid-19. The current research seeks to design a business model for the Iranian cinema industry in the situation of pandemic crises. For this purpose, the management of Iran's cinema industry, the basic challenges and opportunities of Iran's cinema in the field of management and business have been examined.
Research Methodology
The present research is practical in terms of its purpose, and in terms of the method of data collection, it will be a description of the survey branch. Also, in terms of the research method, it is qualitative. Since this research was done on a real, objective and dynamic issue and its results can be used practically, it is an applied research. Using the snowball method, with 15 owners and managers of film businesses (including government cultural institutions, film production companies, broadcasting companies, institutions active in the field of film education and research, Video On Demands (VODs) and...) interviews have been conducted and the data have been analyzed using the MaxQuda software and the method of content analysis and descriptive and interpretive coding. In terms of formal validity, after designing the questions, a limited group of experts were consulted and their opinions were applied to modify the questions.
Findings
According to the results, the customers (audiences) of the cinema business, in both normal and pandemic situations, are the urban middle class. Filmmakers have turned to making TV series in the pandemic situation. Costs have not changed too much in the pandemic situation; but the salary of the actors has increased. Online screening on VOD platforms has been the main source of income during the pandemic, and the category of comedy and entertainment has been the most important value proposition of Iranian cinema.
Discussion & Conclusion
Determining the business model as a strategic necessity in the cinema industry is very important to gain benefits.
One of the important factors in choosing a business model is the type of strategy that owners and stakeholders choose. In the meantime, the importance of marketing and identifying customer needs, market territory, and market share compared to competitors is significant. Although some of the interviewees admitted that Iranian cinema as a whole cannot be called an industry; Because cinema in Iran has not yet reached credit management in order to be able to evaluate customers' perception of its brand and improve the reputation of cinema and maintain the loyalty of the audience and receive feedback from them and achieve reputation and credit to form a competitive market and generate income. Achieving a favorable competitive position is realized only with a business model. It is a suitable business model that can offer more value to a group and bring more benefits to the company's owners and stakeholders. The results of this research showed that filmmakers in the Iranian cinema industry should reconsider their traditional business models. They can abandon the linear business model and adopt a new platform approach to their business. They can change many of their traditional methods of customer acquisition and retention to become a platform business that creates value through collaboration with partners and consumers. Although Iran's VODs and OTTs have improved the quality of their products, they are still far from modern serialization products such as works produced on Netflix; But due to the fact that many Iranians show interest in local content, a significant part of audio and video content produced in Persian is limited to the programs of these platforms, and many Iranians still welcome their productions.