originally thought that this year’s Lunar New Year file would return to the market structure dominated by domestic films. On November 29, it was revealed that the Hollywood super IP blockbuster "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" is scheduled to be released simultaneously in mainland China and North America on December 20. Donnie Yen’s "Ip Man 4" and Feng Xiaogang's "Only Yun Knows" competed on the same day. This is another top Hollywood blockbuster released in the Lunar New Year file after "Aquaman" last year. It seems that the traditional domestic film protection schedule in December has been completely opened to the introduction of blockbusters.
Since Feng Xiaogang's "Party A and Party B" in 1997 created the first Chinese New Year comedy, December is the New Year festival in the mainland film market, and around Christmas in mid-to-late December, it is the prime time for the New Year festival. Before 2018, under the protection of policies, the Lunar New Year stalls were completely domestically produced, and the box office champions of the Lunar New Year stalls from 1997 to 2017 were all domestically produced movies.
In recent years, with the outbreak of the Spring Festival stalls and catching up from behind, the summer stalls have become more and more prosperous. The importance of the Lunar New Year stalls has declined sharply, and the weight of the blockbuster domestic films targeted at the Lunar New Year stalls has also been much less than before. On December 7, 2018, the DC superhero blockbuster "Aquaman" broke into the Lunar New Year box and was released, winning 2.012 billion yuan in the box office in one fell swoop, and won the box office champion of the Lunar New Year box. This is also the first time the box office champion of the Lunar New Year stall has been introduced to a blockbuster in more than 20 years.
"Ip Man 4" directed by Ye Weixin, starring Donnie Yen and "Ip Man 4" directed by Feng Xiaogang, starring Huang Xuan and other stars in the Lunar New Year file this year, "Only Yun Knows" is scheduled to be released early on December 20 in the prime time of the Lunar New Year file. There are also New Year comedy "Two Tigers" starring Ge You, Qiao Shan and Zhao Wei, "The Whistleblower" starring Lei Jiayin and Tang Wei directed by Xue Xiaolu, "The Party at Southern Station" starring Hu Ge and Gui Lunmei, and Happy Twist. Many blockbuster domestically produced films such as "Half Comedy" by Xiao Yang and Tan Zhuo starring in "Manslaughter", originally thought that this year's Lunar New Year file would return to the market structure dominated by domestic films.
broke heavy news on November 29: the classic Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" is scheduled to be released simultaneously in mainland China and North America on December 20! Unprecedentedly squeezed into the Lunar New Year stall prime time. Moreover, starting from 7pm on December 18th, the film will be screened on a large scale in mainland China, allowing domestic Star Wars fans to see the final chapter of the "Star Wars" trilogy first. Be the first to win and seize the market in "Ip Man 4" and "Only Yun Knows".
In previous years, in order to protect the domestically produced Chinese New Year films, the "Star Wars" series of films in mainland China will be postponed to the beginning of January. This time it is not only released simultaneously with North America, but also has a large-scale advanced screening, which shows that today's Chinese New Year festival has almost completely opened up to the introduction of blockbusters, and domestic films Dancing with Wolves will become the norm in future New Year festivals.
However, although "Star Wars 9" is highly anticipated by Chinese Star Wars fans, judging from the acceptance of Star Wars IP among Chinese audiences, it is certainly not possible to achieve the box office results of last year's "Aquaman". For the previous "Star Wars" and its rumors, except for the 2016 "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" which got a box office of 825 million, the other few have a bad box office in China. The worst box office performance of
was "Solo: A Star Wars Story" released on May 25, 2018, with a box office of only 106 million yuan; "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" released on January 5, 2018 was the same period. The domestically produced romance film "Predecessor Raiders 3", which was released, was very successful. The box office of "Predecessor 3" reached 1.942 billion yuan, and "The Last Jedi" was only 268 million yuan.
It can be seen that although "Star Wars 9" is scheduled to be released simultaneously with North America on December 20, it may not be able to beat the "Ip Man 4" and "Only Yun Knows" released on the same day. The box office champion of the Lunar New Year stall this year may also belong to the domestically produced film.
