Author | Yuhan
American Disney movie "Frozen 2" was on the Zhihu hot search list because of a press conference in South Korea.
On the morning of November 22, the Korean Film Promotion Committee held an emergency press conference in Seoul. Several directors jointly protested against the excessively high proportion of "Frozen 2" and proposed legislation to restrict "screen monopoly" to all films With enough living space.
On the same day, "Frozen 2" was released in China. The first day of the release accounted for 36.4% of the films, and the next day it rose to 43%. Next week’s previews exceeded 50%, and the current cumulative box office reached 240 million. Domestically, there is no sign of protests against the excessive proportion of "Frozen 2" films.
Prior to this, the Korean film market often mentioned the term "screen monopoly". "Silver screen" refers to the sequence of movies in a movie theater. The higher the number of screens of a single movie, the more times it will be played in the movie theater, which means that the larger the proportion of movies in the movie theater. Once the "screen monopoly" of a single movie is formed, there is almost no chance of a movie being released at the same time. In China, there have been many cases of low-ranking and dismal ending of niche movies. The popularity of
movies and the proportion of movies are actually a "chicken and egg" problem. Movies with high platoons have higher popularity, and movies with high platoons deserve more platoons. However, in the era of "content is king", cinemas still have to be arranged to protect films, which also exposed the problem of imbalance in the structure of the film industry.
The long-standing controversy over filming
On November 21, "Frozen 2" was released in South Korea. According to the data, the number of pre-sale viewers of "Frozen 2" before the release was as high as 1.1 million, and the number of viewers on the first day of the release was as high as 600,000, and it exceeded 1.24 million in the two days of release.
is different from the habits of the Chinese film market. The Korean film market places more importance on the number of movie viewers. Considering that the total population of South Korea is only more than 50 million, the evaluation standard of the film market is lower than that of China, and 1 million movie viewers are the performance of "high box office".
Before the release of "Frozen 2", the film "Black Money" directed by Jung Ji Young led the South Korean box office. It was released on November 13, and the number of movie viewers exceeded 1 million five days later.
However, director Zheng Jiyoung said at a press conference on the 22nd that on the day "Frozen 2" was released, the number of viewers of "Dark Money" dropped from 900,000 to 300,000. "Such a decline is in one day. I want to complain about this unfair phenomenon.” At the same time, the Korean Film Promotion Committee pointed out that the current schedule rate of "Frozen 2" is 63.0%, which completely suppresses the living space of other movies. The
committee stated that the purpose of this press conference is not to suppress "Frozen 2," but to promote the implementation of relevant laws and policies to solve the long-standing problem of "screen monopoly".
In terms of production level, Korean films have formed a unique style and have repeatedly achieved good results in the international arena; however, the scale of the Korean film market is not that large, and the issue of "screen monopoly" is most criticized.
In August 2015, the movie "Veteran" was released in South Korea, with a box office of 100 billion won (600 million yuan), and the cumulative number of viewers exceeded 13.4 million. Almost one in every four Koreans had seen this movie in a movie theater. the film. In the end, the film won the 2015 South Korean box office champion and ranked among the top three in Korean movie history at that time. (Note: The film was later remade by China into the movie "The Big", starring Wang Qianyuan and Bao Beier)
Two years later, when the director of "Old Hand" Liu Chengwan returned with his new work "Warship Island", it was very Hurry up to reap thousands of expectations. On the first day of its release on July 26, with less than 3,000 screens in Korea, "Gunkanjima" set an amazing record of occupying 2027 screens in a single day, surpassing the previous record of "Captain America 3" and became a Korean film. The number one screen has also caused dissatisfaction among many filmmakers.
South Korea’s special situation is that the movie production company has a huge number of chain theaters. Once the production team and the movie theater line collude, it is easy to form a "screen monopoly."
In response to this, the Korean film industry has called for a limit on the proportion of film screens, so that all films can have room for development and ensure the sound development of the film industry. Compared with the "screen monopoly" caused by "Gunkanjima", the situation in "Frozen 2" is a bit more complicated.
"Frozen 2" is a Disney pushThe typical commercial film released at the same time, "Black Money" is an "anti-corruption" film based on South Korea's national conditions. The box office competition between the two is also a war between Korean local movies and foreign imported movies.
protects domestic films by arranging films
Like China, South Korea also has the argument of “protection of domestic films”. Since the 1950s, South Korea has the awareness of protecting the film industry, and since then, a large number of supporting policies have been adopted to promote the development of domestic films.
Since the implementation of the "First Amendment to the Film Law" in 1966, the South Korean government has stipulated the number of days that theaters must show domestic films each year. This model is called the "screen quota system." After 1985, the "screen quota system" stipulated that domestic films should be shown at least 146 days a year to prevent theaters from only showing imported blockbusters for profit.
This policy has promoted the development of local Korean films. At present, Korean films have made such great achievements, and the "screen quota system" has contributed a lot.
On March 7, 2006, the South Korean Council of State passed a trial order to reduce the film quota system, reducing the time for at least 146 days of domestic movies to be shown in half to 76 days, causing many controversies.
This is also reminiscent of China's "domestic film protection month" and the weakening of this concept in recent years.
"Domestic Film Protection Month" is not actually a folk joking. In 2004, in order to support domestic films, the National Film Administration issued an oral notice, hoping that the national cinemas would reduce the introduction of overseas blockbuster movies from June to July or July to August each year. The purpose was to increase the proportion of domestic films to the box office each year. This period is called "domestic film protection month."
Earlier, "Domestic Film Protection Month" once caused movie lovers to complain. During the Spring Festival and the summer vacation, blockbuster movies that are currently being screened abroad have to be postponed for 1-2 months before they can be released in China, while domestic films that are being screened are hard to get praise.
In 2019, the situation seems to be different. "Spider-Man: Far From Home" released on June 28 and "The Lion King" released on July 12 were released earlier than North America; in August there will be "Angry Birds 2" and "Fast and Furious: Special" "Action" was also released in China within one month of being released in North America.
Some people attribute this to the fact that domestic films have started to produce excellent films, which can face Hollywood blockbusters. Others believe that this is actually a manifestation of the weakness of Chinese films, and it is necessary to rely on popular imported blockbusters to make up for the box office gap. The only constant of
is the absolute power of the theater lineup.
On April 24, "Avengers 4" was released in China. In order not to encounter this movie destined to dominate the theater, "Twenty Years in the Northeast", "Nine Dragons", "A Mother's Revenge" and other movies have been changed. files. In the next few days, "Avengers 4" almost all accounted for more than 80%, even more than 90%, and the box office exceeded 100 million in a single day for 9 consecutive days.
Regarding this, Wang Jingchun, the lead actor of "Long Days, Long Days", sent out angrily on Weibo, unable to conceal his mocking intentions: "It must be 100% lined up!" Then he posted on Weibo to clarify: "I am indeed a little bit sour today, but sour is not a comic We hope that different types of movies will have their own space.”
previously had only 6.5% of the highest-ranked films in "Long Forever", with a total box office of 45 million.
In fact, film scheduling and word-of-mouth influence each other and work together on the box office of movies. In the case of "Everlasting" and "Avengers", it is difficult to say which side is more powerful.
However, from the current industrial model of the film market and the audience’s viewing habits, the power of theaters is often greater than the audience’s reputation. With the sinking of the movie market, more people who value social and entertainment will join the movie watching team, and theater lineup data can play a key guide.
's amazing box office counterattack
In May 2016, Fang Li, the producer of the movie "Hundred Birds Chaofeng", opened a live broadcast on Weibo, telling the behind-the-scenes story of "Hundred Birds Chaofeng". Before the live broadcast ended, Fang Li knelt on his knees in front of the camera, and begged the theater manager to add a lineup of "Hundred Birds in the Phoenix" in the coming weekend. In an interview with "The Beijing News", Fang Li said that this is the last time they have fought for theaters and audiences, and it is also their last hope: "There are a few more new films to be released this weekend... and only the day after tomorrow. This weekend, today is 1.2, tomorrow is a few o’clock, this weekend there will be no (schedule)."
Fang Li also said that the schedule of "Hundred Birds in the Phoenix" fell from 2% to 1.2% at that time. Before that, the schedule of the film "Afternoon" in which he was the producer fell from 38% to 24%. The next previews It becomes 10%. The decline in the proportion of film platoons is a chain reaction of extremely fast speed, and his kneeling is really helpless.
On May 12, the cumulative box office of "Hundred Birds Chaofeng" released on the 6th was only 3.22 million yuan. On the weekend after Fang Li’s live broadcast, "Hundred Birds Chaofeng" accounted for 4.4% and 7.2%. By the 18th, the box office of "Hundred Birds Chaofeng" was close to 40 million, and the final total box office exceeded 80 million. This excellent Douban scored 8.1 points, and finally got its due score.
Fang Li said in the live broadcast: "The theater managers control the power of life and death of the film", this is not a lie. The movie schedule of
is a science. A suitable release time can create a "popular" movie, while an improper schedule may make the same movie quickly "slam the street". However, "theatrical monopoly" is another concept. Film scheduling is one of the commercial behaviors of theaters. It may be a market-driven result or an unseen industry rule.
In 2016, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings publicly stated that the cinema chain has formed an oligopoly. In most countries, the formal distribution mode of all movies is divided into three rounds. First, they are broadcast in theaters, second are made into DVDs, and finally appear on video websites. In China, the second step is generally omitted.
Under such circumstances, the theater lineup is a must for all movies. Monopoly theaters can control the box office, and the box office split can often make movie theaters make a lot of money. Once the movie theater and the film producer reach an agreement, the giant film and television company can monopolize the screen, and the audience will become very passive in choosing films. While
's large-scale production movies rely on arranging the box office, the arranging space of other movies is squeezed, and the audience is insufficient, unable to cause public repercussions and secondary dissemination, which in turn affects the subsequent platooning situation and falls into a vicious circle. Trading like
is based on damaging the interests of niche film and small film and television companies, which is clearly contrary to the rules of the free market.
At the same time, once film and television producers put cinemas into their own industrial chain, this situation will become more serious. This model was popular in Hollywood at the beginning of the last century.
In 1890, the United States Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, an antitrust law, in an attempt to combat the oligopoly in the market at that time. At that time, the American film industry was dominated by eight major studios. With strong resources and capital, they produced their own films, distributed them, and screened them in their own company cinemas. This was an out-and-out "monopoly market."
After 20 years of lawsuits, the court finally found that the eight major studios had monopolistic behavior in 1948, and added the "Paramount Act" to the anti-monopoly, stipulating that film companies are not allowed to own theater business, thus giving A certain development space for small companies and independent films.
Nowadays, similar monopolies are happening in China. Previously, Feng Xiaogang had accused Wanda Cinemas of monopolizing the film market and suppressing "I am not Pan Jinlian", speculated that the reason is that "I am not Pan Jinlian" was produced and distributed by a competitor of Wanda Films.
Senior filmmakers like Fang Li and Feng Xiaogang still need the support of theaters, let alone new filmmakers struggling on the starting line.
On the road to maturity of domestic films, niche films are eager to protect their films. The profit-driven cinema monopoly needs to be resolved urgently. Protests and kneeling are not a long-term solution.
