"Nezha going to sea", is it a win or a loss?
As of 19:00 on the 16th, the domestic box office of "Nezha: The Devil Child Comes to the World" reached 4.899 billion yuan, ranking second in the box office of Chinese film history. The film has been released in North America for more than two weeks, and most of the feedback from the American film critics is positive. The critics on Rotten Tomatoes website give 80% praise, and the audience feedback is as high as 98%. However, the box office statistics website data shows that the current North American box office of "Nezha" is less than 3 million US dollars.
Many domestic media report titles have raised the same question: Why is the box office in North America cold for "Nezha"?
is hot and cold, from comparison. A contrasting data is: the North American box office of the film is about 1/250 of the Chinese box office. It seems a bit cold.
This summer, "Nezha" is undoubtedly the biggest, and even the only hot style in China. But in North America, the film ranks fifth in the 2019 U.S. non-Hollywood movie box office chart. "Dragon Ball Super: Broly" from Japan has a box office of more than 30 million in the United States, about 10 times that of "Nezha."
"Nezha" failed to make a success overseas may be a fact. If Guoman really wants to rise in the overseas market, relying on a single "Nezha" cannot immediately change the status quo. It needs to be more comprehensive in typology and commercialization. It is also a fact.
But my question is: "Nezha" goes to sea, is it really cold?
"Nezha going to sea" cold? But I want to praise "Little Master" for his overseas performance.
"Little Master" is overseas. Where is it cold?
first talk about word-of-mouth, the current rating of "Nezha" on IMDb is 7.8 points, and the number of ratings is 1401. It is the highest scored domestic animation on IMDb in recent years ("The Return of the Great Sage" is 6.9 points, "The Big Fish and Begonia" is 7.1 Points, "The Origin of the White Snake" 7.3 points). Media evaluations are also very positive. Seven of the nine media included in Rotten Tomatoes gave praise, with a freshness of 78%, and the popcorn index representing the audience is as high as 97%.
's word of mouth is not cold, what about the box office?
According to relevant statistics, as of September 8th, New Zealand Standard Time, the movie "Nezha: The Devil Boy Comes into the World" has topped the box office chart of Chinese-language movies in New Zealand in the past ten years. In addition, the performance in Australia is also the best in the decade of creating Chinese-language films. It can be said that the results are not bad.
As of last Thursday, "Nezha" has earned a total of 2.94 million US dollars in North America, which has surpassed the final North American box office of the domestic film history champion "Wolf Warrior 2" (2.72 million US dollars). The final score of
is expected to reach about 60% of "Wandering Earth" ($5.88 million), and it is likely to surpass the US box office of "The Mermaid" directed by Star Master who has a certain reputation in North America at US$3.23 million.
So is "Nezha" cold? At least as far as the performance of the film is concerned, it is fully in line with expectations. Nezha cannot be required to be overwhelmed in the international market just because Nezha is open at the domestic box office.
So far, "Nezha" has won US$2.67 million in the North American market and US$1.24 million in Australia. Among other regions, New Zealand US$250,000 and Singapore US$220,000. It is expected that the global box office will not exceed US$10 million. Seek truth from facts , Compared with the domestic box office, this result is not impressive.
But it can only say that "Ne Zha" did not succeed in getting out of the circle, instead of being cold.
So the next question is: Why didn't "Nezha" succeed?
"Nezha" did not make an appearance in North America, mainly due to the following three reasons. In terms of employment,
previously hoped that the North American box office of "Nezha" could surpass the "Wandering Earth". In fact, the film was also in IMAX screening. It has indeed achieved good results. The attendance of the single hall is very good. The average single hall income is 6000 US dollars, second only to the new film "The Clown's Soul 2" released on the 6th. However, after the official release on September 6, there was no good continuation. Up to now, it has received 2.67 million US dollars and is expected to eventually gain 3.5 million US dollars. Although
has successfully entered the TOP3 box office of domestic films in North America in the past ten years, it is really not worth being too excited, especially when the film has such a good reputation in North America and the theme has been recognized by overseas critics. Can't go out, what's the problem?
is a non-war-release. The American distribution company of
"Nezha" is Well Go USA Entertainment, which was responsible for the distribution of the film "Shadow" directed by Zhang Yimou. When they released "Nezha"Only English subtitles were added, and English dubbing was not made specifically, and Chinese dubbing continued.
Because "Nezha" involves a rich Chinese cultural background, it is not very friendly to American audiences who are not familiar with Chinese culture. The lack of dubbing and only subtitles not only increase the difficulty of understanding for non-Chinese audiences, but more importantly, increase the target audience of the film. Understanding difficulty. Moreover, with the current space and film volume, it is obvious that the counterattack may also be very low. Back then, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" also started from a small-scale trial screening, but the scale of the trial screening was much higher than that of "Nezha".
It seems that the overseas non-Chinese audiences of the film are mostly industry insiders and movie enthusiasts who are interested in the Chinese film market. Children, as the main audience of animated films, are almost completely absent. Of course, the pot issued by
cannot be completely backed by the issuing company. An objective factor of
is that Nezha's popularity in North America is relatively average, not as good as the Great Sage. For example, Wong Kar-wai's film "The Grand Master" has opened up to 804 galleries, which also prompted it to finally get more than 6 million US dollars in the box office, becoming the domestic box office champion in the past decade. The main reason for the opening of so many theaters is that it is still the type of kung fu film that can be favored by publishers of Weinstein's level.
Another reason is that "Nezha" became so sudden. After the domestic fire, it rushed to North America. There was a global nude distribution that just left the country, and the distribution company did not even send the film to the American Motion Picture Association. A graded review is conducted, so the film will be screened under the label "Unrated".
And American audiences subconsciously associate "unrated" movies with "unsuitable for children" content, so even if American parents are curious about "Nezha", they will be dismissed when they see the "unrated" logo. .
These are all the experiences left by "Nezha" for the latecomers. "Nezha" can't be used anymore, but it can be used by Chinese movies.
Second, the comparative advantage is gone. The box office trend of "Nezha" in North America is similar to that of domestic fan movies. Fans poured into theaters for the first time and contributed to the box office of the first week. However, after the film's popularity and reputation did not spread on a large scale, the box office The trend began to weaken. The reason behind it may be that the film has not yet created strong resonance and empathy. Why didn't
create empathy?
"Nezha" is a successful commercial animation in China. According to the information in the "2019 Summer Archive Audience Data Insight" released by Fanying, the reason why the audience was interested in "Nezha" in the week of the release was: anticipation Domestic animation, exquisite screen special effects, unique image of Nezha, full of fantasy colors, etc. In terms of film type, picture, character image and storyline, the audience is inspired to enter the theater.
But these domestic advantages are automatically lost overseas.
In addition, "Nezha", whether it is the character style or the story setting, has completely jumped out of the stereotypes of traditional myths, completely subverting the traditional cognition of the public, coupled with its stable quality, surpassing the audience's expectations is that it became a hit The key reason.
In North America, the audience has no idea about Nezha, and naturally they can't talk about the movie surprises brought by the subversion.
Third is the cultural barrier most mentioned. The problem of
not only exists, but it is also very prominent.
has commented that North American film critics also commented well, indicating that cultural barriers are not a problem. This statement is logically problematic. Film critics are interested in Chinese films or come to watch movies with tasks. How can they be the same as ordinary audiences?
"Nezha" has distinctive cultural characteristics, but whether it can be perfectly highlighted in overseas markets is a particularly critical problem.
For example, before the media, the topic of how to translate a law like a law was launched. Some netizens gave the godly translation of "fast fast biu biu". Although it is very happy, it is a real obstacle to understanding when it is overseas.
, for example, the film party announced the English name of the film: "NE ZHA: I AM THE DESTINY", which seems to conform to the film concept of "My life is up to me", but switching to the context of a North American audience may not understand the fate What does God mean. Another example is the Sichuan dialect of "Taiyi Real Man", which can be described as a highlight of the film, but it is useless in the North American market. In other words, the cultural "minus points" of films in the North American market cannot be ignored. But the hardest thing to surpass in the film may be the domestic film in North America in recent years.The market's influence problem.
step by step, "Nezha" and Guoman's overseas journey did not lose
realistically speaking, is the box office influence of domestic films in North America in the past decade going backwards? This question is very dialectical.
purely from the box office, it is naturally backwards.
Judging from the top ten domestic films in the North American box office, almost all of them are martial arts films and kung fu films, especially Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" which earned US$128 million, and it still holds the historical record of non-North American movies.
Zhang Yimou's "Hero" received US$147 million overseas and won three consecutive box office titles in North America.
However, the genre of domestic ancient costume martial arts movies has weakened in recent years, and overseas audiences’ interest in Chinese genres has basically remained the same. In recent years, the mainstream Chinese film market in North America has received relatively high attention from the Chinese film, which is still the main Kung Fu theme. "Series (2015 "Ip Man 3" box office was 2.68 million US dollars).
According to the "Hollywood Reporter", many Chinese films have entered the top 20 global annual box office charts after 2014, but the average box office revenue of these films from overseas is less than 1%. In contrast, North American films in the same period Basically, box office revenue in overseas markets accounted for 35%. The result of
is that the top ten Chinese-language films in North America have not changed for more than ten years. The most recent work "Fearless" is also a film 13 years ago, and it has clearly been the fastest growing Chinese film business in the past ten years. In the past ten years, many blockbusters of billions of magnitude have been produced. However, they have not made a breakthrough in North America. Behind the scenes, the output of domestic movies and the aesthetics of North American audiences have deviated: they want to see Kung Fu stars play Kung Fu, but domestic The focus of film creation is no longer here, and new types of explosions that meet the aesthetics of North American audiences have not yet appeared.
The emergence of "Nezha" is catching up with the vacuum period of the domestic explosion in the North American market. Is it realistic to expect "Nezha" to directly provoke the beams?
"Nezha" is a box office miracle in China. It is the hero of the times, the right time and the right place and the achievement of "Nezha" counterattack. But as Wang Changtian, President of Light Media said in July 3 years ago, “We need 5 to 10'Dasheng' or'Bigfish' every year, accounting for about 15% of the annual box office, to form the so-called industrial chain. "
only relying on the topicality and heated discussions brought about by one or two head works is not even enough to prop up the domestic animation industry, let alone hope that a "Nezha" will help domestic films successfully go abroad.
So where is the breakthrough now? It lies in how we make more works like "Nezha".
"Nezha" director Jiaozi said in an interview with the media: "When will everyone stop mentioning the four words'Rise of Guoman'? After an excellent animation appears, everyone will naturally watch it. It’s when the audience is going to be Amway under the banner of National Comics, and National Comics really rises."
I don’t think "Nezha" went to sea to lose. On the contrary, in terms of single-film performance, "Little Master" does not lose a share. child.
But for Guoman to go overseas successfully, it needs to be done step by step, first of all, to produce more excellent works, so that North American and global audiences can change their perception of Guoman. Can
do it? I see no problem.
Taking 2015's "The Return of the Great Sage" as an opportunity, Guoman has re-emerged, from "Big Fish and Begonia", "Defense Guardian", "Big World", "White Snake: Origin" to "Nezha's Devil Boy Comes to the World" From content, form of expression to art style, Guoman is bringing more imagination with its unique expressive power. It just takes time.
So the North American box office surpassed "Wolf Warrior 2" at less than US$3 million. Is "Nezha" going to sea to win or lose? The key is how to judge the success or failure of a movie? In my opinion, if it can inspire everyone and rewrite some impressions, it will win.
step by step, "Nezha" and Guoman's overseas journey did not lose.
But the next point is whether there will be more "heroes" like "Nezha" in the market, and more national comic heroes will create an overseas box office victory that belongs to us.
