Beads and jade are in front, if you do not advance, you will retreat.
was released for 7 days and won the single-day box office championship for 6 consecutive days. Among the movies of the same period, the market performance of "Frozen 2" is very impressive. However, due to the stunning performance of the predecessor "Frozen", the sequel is temperamental and mediocre, and the great success of "Nezha: The Devil Boy" has even eclipsed the Hollywood animation films.
Objectively speaking, "Frozen 2" still maintains the quality of Disney's high-quality animation, but the audience does not buy it. "Online level, no highlights" has become the evaluation of most viewers after watching it. Chinese audiences have become more critical of Disney animation.
And behind the higher requirements of Chinese audiences for animated films, it is actually the overall quality improvement of domestic animation.
In 2019, Chinese animated films were very exciting. "Bears: The Original Age" reached a new high. "Luo Xiaohei Zhanji" won attention due to its novel content, especially "Nezha's Devil", which won 5 billion yuan at the box office in one fell swoop. "Children Come to the World" created a new milestone in the box office history of domestic animated films. At the same time, it will also apply for next year’s Oscar "Best International Film" award (formerly the Best Foreign Language Film Award) on behalf of Mainland China, and enter the Oscar "Best Animated Feature Film" primary list, and "Frozen 2" "White Snake: Origin", "Children of the Weather", "Snowman", "Toy Story 4" and other animated films are head-to-head. Domestic animated films have made great progress this year.
However, despite the fact that domestic animation is moving towards high quality and there is the opening of "Nezha's Devil Boy", is still a threshold for most high-quality domestic animations to exceed 500 million yuan in the box office. This is not unrelated to the lack of real "family carnival" type films in my country's animation. At the same time, it also indirectly shows that my country's animation films are still in the developing stage, and there is still a long way to go before "the rise of the country".
01 The three legs of China, the United States and Japan continue, and the strengths are facing each other.
strength plus.
In 2018, there were 13 animations with a box office exceeding 100 million, of which 4 were domestic animations, and the rest were American and Japanese animations. China, the United States and Japan formed a tripartite trend. Among them, the domestic animation "Bear Haunt: Metamorphosis" won the crown with 605 million yuan.
In 2019, as of now, there have been 18 animated films with a box office of more than 100 million yuan, which is far more than last year. In addition to the Finnish "Angry Birds 2" and the Sino-British co-production animation "Little Pig Peppa New Year", The pattern of China, the United States and Japan remains strong. American animation focuses on "Family Reunion", while Japanese animation takes youth, sentiment and passion, and has won fans in the domestic market.
However, a "Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World" broke the internal balance, and the domestic animated film won an absolute victory this year.
is more than that. In the top ten animation films released this year, 4 domestic films, "Ne Zha", "Bear Infested Primitive Times", "White Snake: Origin" (Sino-US co-production), and "Luo Xiaohei Zhan Ji" occupy the seats. , And Douban scores are all above the passing line, respectively 8.5, 6.6, 7.9 and 8.2 points, achieving a double harvest of box office reputation. More importantly, compared with previous years, the strength of domestic animation of has been significantly strengthened, and the content has broken the limitations of parent-child orientation, and is in line with the content favored by young audiences and even audiences of all ages. It has a tendency to catch up with Japan and surpass the beauty.
Among them, "Luo Xiaohei Zhanji" directed by director Mu Mu, tells about the harmony between elves and people. The story is biased towards healing. It has a clear Japanese style, fresh and natural. In the domestic film market, this type of Very rare, its appearance has made up for this vacancy in the market, and has been sought after and loved by mainstream young audiences aged 20-24.
The animated film "White Snake: Origin" co-produced with Warner Bros., and "Nezha" produced by Horgos Color Strip House Pictures and Horgos Cocoa Animation, chose the classic Chinese IP. In the re-creation, the content of the former tends to the lingering love between White Snake and Xu Xuan, while the emotions of the latter favor family affection and self-growth and identification. In the end, "White Snake: Origination" won the support of non-parents and children, and "Nezha" broke the circle. Become a representative work of "Family Carnival" animated film suitable for all ages.
"Bear Infestation" produced by Huaqiang Fangte, has been working hard to upgrade the film since the Spring Festival file was locked, hoping to break the audience’s impression of parent-child and inferiority and reshape the "family carnival" shapeElephant. For this reason, in terms of content, "Bear Infested" has added a lot of new gameplay and new characters under the premise of keeping the main characters fixed, so that it has increased year after year. The box office of "Bear Infested Primitive Times" released in the Spring Festival this year reached 7.14. 100 million yuan.
Obviously, "Carnival" animation films have more advantages in market performance, but "Carnival" animation is precisely the weakness and direction of my country's animation film development.
02 Towards a "family carnival", 500 million is a threshold
"family carnival" is more likely to burst.
Currently, there are a total of 16 animated movies with a box office of over 500 million yuan. According to Maoyan’s forecast, the box office of "Frozen 2" may stop at around 600 million yuan. Then an animated movie with a box office of over 500 million yuan or Add another member.
Throughout the box office of more than 500 million animation films, we can find that whether it is "Kung Fu Panda 2-3", "Dream Quest" and "Angry Birds", these movies are basically suitable for all ages, and the content starts with " "Family Huan" is the main direction, which is also the main direction of American animation films. In contrast, Japanese animated films are at a disadvantage. Even high-quality animated films, such as Spirited Away, only hover around 400 million yuan, and it is difficult to break through to 500 million yuan.
500 million yuan has become a watershed in the box office of animated films, considering whether an animated film has reached the audience of all ages, and whether it has reached the limit in genre.
Due to the limited audience of animated films, especially typified animated films, they are more focused on the audience, thus limiting their base of movie viewers, and imposing a ceiling on box office revenue. Like "White Snake: Origin" released this year, because it is aimed at young adult audiences, the audience is severely divided, and the final step is 451 million yuan, but in the same category, it is already very mature from the perspective of quality. And for animated films like "The Return of the Great Sage" and "Nezha", which open up audiences of all ages, the box office space is no longer limited to 500 million yuan.
"Family Carnival" animated films reach a wider audience and bring more substantial benefits. It has also become the direction for many domestic animation companies to work hard, but the overall market performance in the past is not optimistic.
For example, Chasing Light Animation, Original Force Animation, Kingkey Animation and October Culture, etc., have tried to create Chinese-style family carnival animation films, such as "Mommy Duck", "Cat and Peach Blossom Spring", "Bean Fortune" and "Rock Tibetan Mastiff" And so on, are all evidence that they are moving closer to the family. However, China’s "Family Carnival" technology has actually reached the standard of advanced animation, and high-quality output is guaranteed in the presentation of sound and pictures. The problem lies mainly in the image design and storytelling.
After "The Return of the Great Sage", Chinese animation began to gradually get rid of the low-child to single animation content, and tilted towards the adult to the audience, thus achieving a batch of non-parent-child animations, such as "Big Fish and Begonia", "The Great Guardian" and "Ten Thousands of cold jokes" etc. However, in the process of trying the "Carnival" animation, the producer reduced the difficulty of the story again and again in order to take care of the children's audience, but the image was biased towards adults, which made it difficult for children and adults to digest the Chinese "Carnival" animation. Both audiences The films failed to reach effectively, causing the box office to lose out.
It was not until the appearance of "Nezha" that the correct way to open the "Family Carnival" animation was revealed, that is, the story told should be suitable for all ages, but the main direction was to settle at the core audience of the animation film and spread to the parent-child crowd a little bit. And marginal audiences.
Following the path pioneered by "Nezha", the "Family Huan" animation is on the agenda. However, the production of animation is cycled, so it will take time for the "Family Huan" animation to enter the market on a large scale. Until then, perhaps more films that break the 500 million yuan mark will emerge.
03 The special standard of domestic family carnival
is a Chinese animation film above the curve.
has been verified that the film market needs low- and young-oriented animations, as well as adult-oriented animations, but more needs to be animated films like "Family Fun" produced by Disney.
Now, with the explosion of "Nezha", the audience's expectations for the domestic "Family Carnival" animated film have been raised. However, due to the special development path of Chinese animation companies, there is still a long way to go before becoming a real "family fun".
Currently, the animation film company that supports the domestic animation market has two branches. One of is Huaqiang FangThe animation company headed by the special is an animation company that started from the production of early childhood animation, and the other is an animation company that produces adult-oriented and styles that are biased by the day. No matter which branch it is, it is very difficult to operate the "Family Huan" animation.
is like Huaqiang Fangte. They started by producing parent-child cartoons, and the "Bear Infested" broadcast on television has accumulated a large number of parent-child viewers. However, when they seek to expand upward and try to open up the adult audience market, they have spent huge costs and energy. Not only did they add more content suitable for adults to watch the "Bears" series that entered the theater, they also fixed the film in the Spring Festival file, which is crowded with blockbuster films, in order to reach all age groups through this special schedule. For this reason, they have repeatedly mentioned "Little Aunt Field" and "Little Uncle Field" in the promotion of the film, that is, allowing young audiences to watch the movie with their relatives and children. However, overall, "Bear Infested" has not eliminated the audience's opposition. Its parent-child, low-child orientation, and its attraction to young adult audiences are still limited.
An animation company that started by producing adult-oriented animations, their national comics are mainly for adult audiences, with a style biased toward Japanese comics, and the content is not friendly to relatively younger audiences and has a certain threshold for viewing. Among them, more than 20 animation companies invested by Horgos Color Strip House Pictures are highly representative.
Like "Big Fish and Begonia" produced by Bi Antian, "Yesterday Blue Sky" of Shanghai Qingkong Painted Animation Culture, and "Great Protector" of good culture, the content is separated from the young, parent-child, teenagers and young adult audiences. Became their focus. Companies like
are good at producing Chinese comics, but they are not easy to take care of children. This is also a problem that companies of this type need to face when they move towards "family fun".
However, it is gratifying that the development of domestic animation films from "The Return of the Great Sage" to "Nezha" and then to "Jiang Ziya", let us see that domestic animation is breaking through the dimension wall, and the domestic "family love" is gradually taking shape , To complete leapfrog development.
"The Return of the Great Sage" can reach audiences of different ages. The classic IP of Monkey King has made great contributions. This is the first step for the domestic "Family Carnival"; and the success of "Nezha" is, on the one hand, Nezha. One IP image dictates, and more importantly, the stories it tells and the emotions it conveys are suitable for all ages. Family affection, brotherhood, and self-identification are universally valued emotions and concepts that make "Nezha" a home-made carnival animation. The second step.
Now, "Jiang Ziya", which is scheduled for the Spring Festival in 2020, does not have an advantage in IP popularity compared to the previous two. However, the current film’s Maoyan Want to See Index has reached 221835, ranking No. Second, second only to "Detective Chinatown 3". It can be seen that under the predecessor of , animation films for all ages in the domestic market are further expanding the market through the advantages of schedules, so that the domestic "carnival" can be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, so as to move towards the third step for more domestic carnivals in the future. Animation enters the market to create momentum.
When more and more high-quality domestic "family carnival" animations emerge, the domestic movie market may undergo earth-shaking changes.
In 2019, domestic animation will compete head-on with foreign animation. In 2020, as more high-quality animations appear, market competition will become more intense.
