After being online for more than 40 days, the iQiyi (IQ.US) “Soul Transfer” series of AI feature films continued to be a hit

On October 3, IQ.US (IQ.US) and Changxin Media's AIGC online feature film series produced by “Soul Transfer” and “Floating Dreams” officially surpassed 10 million yuan in cumulative sales!

The first two books in the series, “Soul Ferry: Butterfly Dream” and “Soul Ferry: Dream of a Celestial Girl”, were exclusively released on August 22 and were loved by the audience. The production costs of the two films were recovered in the first week of launch, and the cumulative split box office for the first month exceeded 8 million yuan. With the release of the third “Soul Ferry: A Princess's Dream” on October 1, the popularity of the series further increased, driving the film's popularity and continued growth in split box office. As of October 3, the cumulative split box office of the “Floating Dream” series surpassed 10 million yuan.

As a new online feature film series development for the classic IP “Soul Transfer,” the “Floating Dream” series continues the creative core of the original Chinese Shikai, uses ghosts to write people's hearts, and further expands the character's prehistory and IP worldview through a new story.

Each of the three works begins with a different story and gradually unravels the past, present, and fate trajectories of Zhao Li, Xia Dongqing, and Ya in “The Iron Triangle”. “Soul Ferry: Butterfly Dream” revolves around Zhuang Zhou Mengdie's Oriental philosophical imagery; “Soul Ferry: Dream of a Celestial Woman” explores destiny choices and the true meaning of life through multiple dreams; “Soul Ferry: Dream of a Princess” leads to a period of 100 years of waiting and obsession through a bizarre case, and the story of the three ferrymen continues to unfold as a result.

Since its launch, the “Soul Ferry” and “Floating Dreams” series have continued to garner attention and praise from viewers. On social platforms, many new and old drama fans discussed plot details, character prehistory, and series footnotes. The audience's emotional resonance with the classic characters and expectations for the next story also continued to drive the popularity of this series of online feature films.

The continuous launch of the “Soul Ferry” and “Floating Dreams” series has also demonstrated the application potential of AIGC technology in classic IP content development. On the one hand, relying on AIGC production methods, the work can present scenes with high visual imagination, such as fantasy and monsters, in a more flexible, efficient, and cost-effective manner, expanding new visual expression for classic IPs. On the other hand, through the “AI technology+live-action migration” creative method, the work was able to break through restrictions such as character age and linear time, classic characters can enter new stories and narrative time and space, and IP serialization can be expanded more.

At the same time, the three works also accumulated nearly 500 character assets, nearly 800 scene assets, and nearly 200 core item assets during production. These digital assets can be reused for subsequent content development, further improving the production efficiency and production flexibility of IP development while maintaining the unity of character image and performance style.

On September 23, at iQiyi's iJoy Autumn Fun Fair, Gong Yu, founder and CEO of iQiyi, said that in the past three or four months, AI has begun to be “explosively applied” in live content, significantly improving the audiovisual experience, shortening the production cycle, and reducing costs. At the same time, he stressed that AI is a plus for content; it is not a tool for building assembly lines and producing industrialized and standardized products; the quality of content must not be sacrificed.

Judging from the audience reviews and commercial performance of the “Soul Transfer” “Floating Dream” series, this series of works has achieved the use of AI technology to expand the boundaries of expression, respond to audience expectations with quality narratives, fully demonstrate the application value of AIGC in production efficiency, digital asset accumulation, and commercial return. It also provides a reference path for AIGC film and television content to move from technological exploration to serial quality creation and reap commercial returns.