As of now, the box office of mainland Chinese movies in 2019 has broken the 60 billion mark, an increase of 5.2% year-on-year, and 24 days ahead of schedule; the total number of movie viewers was 1.619 billion, compared with 1.614 billion in the same period last year, an increase of 3.1%. Under the unfavorable situation that
fell behind year-on-year in the box office in the first half, with the excellent performance of "Nezha", "My Motherland" and "Youth in Youth" and other films, the mainland film market finally completed the counterattack in the second half, and the annual box office again The new high is no longer controversial.
has entered the Lunar New Year gear in December, and the potential for the first round of war seems to be insufficient. According to data from the
lighthouse, the 48th week of 2019 (last week) reported a box office of 676 million, a slight drop from the same period last year. Last week’s top 5 films were "Game of the Brave 2", "The Gathering at Southern Station", "Frozen 2", "Blade Out" and "Two Tigers", which won 172 million, 136 million, 98 million at the box office. 72 million, 70 million.
This Friday, there will be 4 films including "People Caught by Light", "Manslaughter" and "Downton Abbey" on the same day. Among them, the crime film "Manslaughter" produced by Chen Sicheng has been screened nationwide recently, and its reputation is fairly good. Douban scored 7.6, praise rate 78%, Maoyan Dianying scored 9.6.
The "preemptive strike" strategy of "Manslaughter" seems to have won the title of "good film", but for this type of film, a good reputation does not necessarily mean a good box office. This is from the "Gathering of Southern Station" "From the box office performance, I have a lot of experience. The
hot money is missing, and the Lunar New Year stalls have a bad start. At the beginning of this month, the daily box office of multiple working days showed a downward trend. On December 4, the single-day box office dropped to about 40 million yuan. The old and new films are average, especially the domestic films have been lacking in volume for a long time. First it was crushed by "Frozen 2", and then it was hard to beat "Game of the Brave 2". In terms of specific films, the current 11-day "Two Tigers" has a cumulative box office of only 208 million. Without the support of high word of mouth, it is difficult to do much at the box office.
"The Whistleblower" directed by Xiaolu Xue is a foregone conclusion. The film was originally scheduled to be released on the Mid-Autumn Festival this year, but suddenly announced its withdrawal 3 days before it was released, and then joined the Lunar New Year War. But because the plot was so unreasonable that word-of-mouth was at the bottom of many movies, the box office was also affected, only 30 million in the first 4 days of release.
"The Gathering at Southern Station" starring Hu Ge, Gui Lunmei and others, although it has a good reputation, from the box office curve, it has more than enough energy. At present, the total box office is 140 million, and the box office on Sunday has dropped by 15 million compared with Saturday. With the continuous decline of movie popularity, there is basically no chance of counterattack becoming a dark horse. Compared with last year,
did not have such a strong dark horse in the first round of the Lunar New Year game today. This low-cost film can be regarded as an example of the successful counterattack of Chinese-language movies in 2018. At the content level, it not only captures the audience's laughter, but also captures the audience's tears through love and family.
A week after the film came to the theater, it still holds the top spot in the box office after facing the front and back of Hollywood blockbusters such as "Venom", "Fantastic Beasts" and "Invincible Destruction King". Even in the first week of "Aquaman" (49 weeks in 2018), "The Nameless" still scored 122 million in a single week.
Obviously, the counterattack of "The Unknown" is not only a good reputation. Many cases tell us that emotional resonance is the key to winning a film. Even if the reputation is mediocre and there are enough topics, it is easy to become a winner.
For example, "Call Mania", which was released in the Lunar New Year file last year, has numerous negative reviews on Douban due to issues such as values, but it is full of suspenseful and smooth stories, just right jokes, and live broadcast rewards, mother-in-law relationship, divorce and house purchase, etc. The full of sense elements all made the social topic heat caused by the film ranked first in the same period, and finally won 640 million box office. The topical enthusiasm caused by the reality of
and the strong empathy generated by the content of the film are missing from the films that have been released in the Lunar New Year archives, so that facing the impact of "Holly Tiger" almost completely fell, leaving the domestic films that were at a disadvantage. The situation was hit again. Has the
Lunar New Year files become "chicken ribs"?
has been released from the 1997 film "Party A and Party B" by Feng Xiaogang. The Lunar New Year file has a history of 22 years. The early Lunar New Year files were made with big productions and big IPsSaid, such as "Hero", "Full of Golden Armor", "Zhao's Orphan" and so on. It also had a box office performance against the sky. For example, it produced more than a dozen annual box office champions such as "Jinling Thirteen Hairpins", "Flying Dragon Dragon", and "Thailand". When will
Lunar New Year files gradually lose their original dominance? It should be the beginning of the Spring Festival file of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons". After the opening of the New Year's Day in 2013, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" successively broke the box office records of 20 Chinese films in the mainland Chinese film market.
Since then, more and more large-scale movies have moved from the Lunar New Year file to the Spring Festival file. But before 2018, the status of the Lunar New Year file is still considered acceptable.
observes the 2014-2017 Lunar New Year stalls. The top five at the box office were basically dominated by domestic films, such as "Take the Tiger Mountain", "The Year in a Hurry", "Looking for the Dragon", "Lao Paoer", "Chinatown Detective" and "Love Saint" "Flying Tiger on the Railway", "Predecessor 3", "Fang Hua" and other films have achieved good results in this period.
However, the number of imported films during the 2018 schedule has increased significantly, and imported films have become the main force of box office contributions. According to statistics from Maoyan, from 2015 to 2017, the proportion of Chinese-made films in the Lunar New Year movie box office was 99%, 88%, and 90% respectively, but this dropped sharply to 33% in 2018. It was the first time that the box office champion was taken off by the imported film (Neptune) during the period. Among the top 10 box office in the period, imported films accounted for 4 seats without precedent.
In the 2018 Lunar New Year file, the domestically produced films released are basically small and medium-sized, such as "Calling Crazy", "Yunnan Worm Valley", "Weather Pre-explosion" and "Wulin Monster", etc. If it is not an excellent reputation and lack of social topics, It is easy to become cannon fodder.
300+ company pushes, is the Lunar New Year file lively?
Of course, many people in the industry think that this year's Lunar New Year stalls have become lively again. At present, films such as "South Station" and "Whistleblower" are just appetizers. Before the Spring Festival, nearly 70 films will be released (including pending). The number has increased slightly compared with last year, and the themes are very diverse. , Covering comedy, love, art, crime, action, animation and other types.
Among these 70 movies, there are also movies blessed by big directors, big IPs, and well-known actors. After "Fang Hua", director Feng Xiaogang returned with the literary work "Only Yun Knows"; "The Man Caught by Light" starring Huang Bo and Wang Luodan; "Downton Abbey" was adapted from a well-known British drama IP; starring Yen Zidan" "Ip Man 4" ushered in the final battle of the series...
In addition, in the December "to be determined" film, there are also "Juji 2" directed by Guo Jingming, "Yabai" which was withdrawn from the summer file, and directed by Lu Yang. , Lei Jiayin, "Assassination of the Novelist" starring Yang Mi, Cao Baoping directed, Fan Bingbing, "She Kills" starring Wang Ziwen, "The Code of Famen Temple" directed by Tsui Hark, "Knife Back Hidden" directed by Xu Haofeng, and "Knife Back Hide" directed by Quentin "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" and other works that have received much attention. If these films can be released as scheduled, they are all potential stocks that may become dark horses during the schedule.
Another thing worth mentioning is that, judging from the number of production companies, this year's Lunar New Year gear seems a bit unusual: more than 300 film and television companies have gathered behind it. It includes not only established companies such as Wanda Films, Huayi Brothers, Bona Pictures, Guangguang Pictures, and Emperor Pictures, but also emerging companies such as Beijing Culture, Erdong Pictures, and Hengye Pictures.
In the cold winter, film and television companies are also increasingly inclined to "hold together for warmth." For example, "People Caught by Light" jointly produced 25 companies; "Manslaughter" produced a total of 8 companies, and a total of 20 joint production companies.
In addition, many well-known film and television companies have also chosen to participate in the investment of many Lunar New Year films by casting a net. For example, there are 3 films including "Sherlock on the Plain" and "People Caught by Light" during the Beijing Cultural Period; Wanda Films has 4 films including "Manslaughter" and "Ip Man 4"; the Emperor Film has "Two Tigers" Three films including "Only Yun Knows"; Tencent Pictures has three films including "The Whistleblower" and "The Party at Southern Station".
Industry insiders believe that whether it is a net investment or a group with other companies to keep warm, this is a way for leading film and television companies to avoid risks. No matter how the
Lunar New Year file declines, there may always be two or three dark horses that "bring big by small". All gods fight in groups, who will break through? Maybe only Yun knows.
