"The Douban score of the movie has risen to 8.9 points." In a post-screening exchange of "Luo Xiaohei" (hereinafter referred to as "Luo Xiaohei") on September 5, the host said excitedly.
"This is everyone's encouragement, and the score is high." Compared with the passion of the host, the director MTJJ Mu Mu is very calm.
Douban scored 8.8 and received rave reviews from three rounds of screenings. This domestic animated film version, which fans called "I'm getting old", finally landed on national theaters last week. Because the fan drama version has built a 9.6 points on Douban and a loyal and enthusiastic audience base for fans in eight years, the movie version was immediately sought after by fans and became a "tap water" for the promotion of the film.
After "Luo Xiaohei" was filed and released on September 7, the proportion of the first day of filming also reached 25%, which is a very high score for domestic animated films; the film also won on the first day. The box office of 44.969 million is far lower than the 130 million box office on the first day of "Nezha: The Devil Boy" (hereinafter referred to as "Nezha"), but this result is still far ahead of the domestic animation movie box office ranking second. "Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage" (hereinafter referred to as "The Return of the Great Sage") and the "Dark Horse" movie "The White Snake: Origination" have the first day box office of 1.79 million and 9.759 million respectively.
Many animation film practitioners told Poison Eye that the results of "Luo Xiaohei" are quite good for a 2D domestic animated film, but because the time node of its appearance coincides with the "Nezha" maddening After the 4.8 billion box office, due to rave reviews in the fan circle, the audience’s expectations for domestic animated films were suddenly raised by this phenomenal film, which resulted in a current box office of 180 million "Luo Xiaohei" seems to be lower than The "illusion" that many people expected.
4.8 billion and 180 million, which number is closer to the normal volume of domestic animated films? What kind of adult-oriented animated films do Chinese moviegoers favor?
01. Why is it difficult to make "Luo Xiaohei" out of the circle? The fact that
had almost no negative reviews during the screening of "Luo Xiaohei" and fans chanted "The life is finally waiting", thanks to the good reputation of the fan drama version since its update in 2011. Although as of 2017, only 26 episodes of the fan drama have been slowly updated in seven years, the director and creative team have been urged by fans to change it has become a "daily operation" of the barrage, but the fan drama version has a score of 9.6 points on Douban. Such achievements are not only in animation, even in all film and television works, are among the best.
Judging from the data of the lighthouse professional version, the cumulative number of "Luo Xiaohei" pre-screening wants to watch is 327,857, which is much higher than 250693 in "Nezha" and 2317 in "The Return of the Great Sage". Before the film was released, a large number of audiences who were looking forward to the film had already accumulated. It is precisely based on the expectations of a large number of fans and a good pre-screening reputation that "Luo Xiaohei" has moved forward the release date originally scheduled for September 12 to September 7.
However, other than fans, not all passers-by will pay for it. After
won nearly 50 million box office on the first day, the box office of "Luo Xiaohei" dropped to 12 million on the third day of its release, and maintained a single-day box office of 10 million in the next few days. The results are far from the situation of "The Return of the Great Sage", "Nezha" and other hit films in the late stage of strong gains and constant counterattacks. This kind of box office trend is often the most common situation for fans to movies. Fans poured into the theater for the first time to contribute to the box office of the first week. However, when the popularity and reputation of the later films did not spread on a large scale, the trend of the box office began to weaken. .
"After I watched it, I also thought it was a movie with strong fan attributes." An animated film director said to Poison Eye. Some film critics believe that the story setting and narration of "Luo Xiaohei" are not friendly to non-fans, and it is not surprising that it did not make it out of the circle. According to a data analyst, the current box office of "Luo Xiaohei" is pretty good for the cost, and 2D movies like "Big World" and "The Great Guardian" are far less than it. "The number of fans is limited. , The current performance of "Luo Xiaohei" is'normal performance' when the film is not completely out of the circle."
Actually, from the perspective of the original IP of "Luo Xiaohei", it is different from the public classic IPs that audiences are familiar with, such as "Nezha" and "Dasheng". The former itself is still a niche IP. The drama version of "Luo Xiaohei" was rated on Douban by 34,799 people, with 9,716 short comments, and drama reviews52. Compared with many IP dramas such as "Journey to the West" and "Tomb Raiders", their momentum and discussion is not high-"Luo Xiaohei" is not a household name in the traditional sense.
"It's like being a Monkey King. You don't need to spend time in the film explaining the background for the audience. This is an image everyone knows, but Luo Xiaohei is still a niche." A senior animation film practitioner said to Poison Eye Frankly. Several movie studio managers also told Poison Mouth that non-fan audiences are not particularly receptive to the worldview setting of "Luo Xiaohei" and the author’s way of expression. "Ordinary audiences do not have "Nezha" when they come out of the theater. This kind of strong sympathy and empathy.” The temporary upgrade of
also made the reputation of "Luo Xiaohei" not have enough time to further develop in the non-fan circle. From the monitoring data of Fanying Market, it can be seen that the awareness of "Luo Xiaohei" is only about half of the market average level, and even less than the same period of "Bollywood Robot 2.0: Rebirth Return" and the documentary "Freehand Rock Climbing" .
At the same time, among the readers of various social platforms and Poison Eyes, a common discussion is: "Can I read the movie version without seeing the original work?" Many non-fan movie viewers may think that this is a film that needs A film based on the original.
After "Nezha" ignited the popularity of movie watching, the audience's expectation for "Rise of National Man" and animated films has increased significantly. Higher psychological expectations are for a "niche" film like "Luo Xiaohei" It is not good. Fanying audience survey data shows that the post-screening reputation of "Luo Xiaohei" is average, and the "recommendation" and "expected achievement" indicators have not reached the average value, which is not ideal. As an IP movie, it failed to break the circle and the enthusiasm of non-fan audiences was not fully mobilized.
In the case of non-big IP and not very friendly to the general audience, it is not easy for "Luo Xiaohei" to get out of the circle. ""Luo Xiaohei" is overhead, full of the author's talent and expression, but it does not have the public resonance and universal sentiment like "Nezha". So this movie actually gives fans an explanation, not too much To cater to the general public.” said the above-mentioned animation film practitioner.
02. What kind of animated film will be bought by the audience? The box office of
"Luo Xiaohei" did not bring another surprise besides "Nezha". "Animated movies are the top of the domestic box office. Normally, they are more than 1 billion. After all, "Nezha" is only a very small number." In the interviews with Dumo and many practitioners, they found that, in their opinion, the explosions are only a few cases. , Practitioners do not have high expectations for the box office of animated films.
Tuopu Film Think Tank data shows that among the top 20 animation films released in China at the box office, only 5 have a box office of 1 billion, and 500 million box office can reach the top 15 in history. Most of the animation movies that have been popular are such as The box office of "Crazy Animal City" and "Dream Traveling" is only a billion.
Among the top 20 animation films in the gross box office, there are only two two-dimensional films, and both of them are "Your Name" (576 million), which are called "master-level" works in Japan by industry insiders. And "Spirited Away" (487 million), no domestic two-dimensional animation is currently on the list. Compared with 3D animated movies, 2D movies do not dominate the big screen.
"Although 2D animation has its own aesthetic height, it is difficult to compete with the market and box office of 3D animation in the short term." Some practitioners said that the psychological description of characters and the exaggeration of facial expressions required by 2D animation are very popular on the big screen. It is difficult to be fully accepted by the audience, "especially at the moment when 3D technology is mature and has become a trend." Therefore, from this perspective, ordinary audiences are not so interested in 2D "Luo Xiaohei", and it is not surprising.
At the same time, it can be seen from the top five user portraits of the animation film box office provided by the Beacon Data Professional Edition that, apart from the "one case" of "Nezha", the popular "Nezha", the other 4 moving movies 30 -The 39-year-old audience constitutes between 20% and 35%, and the 40-year-old and above population is also between 10% and 20%. Therefore, an animated film must be out of the circle, excluding young people, and satisfying the consumption and purchasing power The needs of audiences over 30 are also very important.
The audience composition of "Luo Xiaohei" accounts for only 10.5% and 6.2% of these two age groups, and it is difficult to become an attractive hit for audiences of different ages.
In the eyes of practitioners, in addition to "Bear Infestation" and other low-age animated films, they want to attract more age groups and charactersIt can be established, can be liked by the audience, the script is solid, logical, and has a slogan. It is basically a good animation movie, and even all good movies are standard: "Nezha can become a hit because it is in the story, Emotionally, they have reached the standard of excellent movies, not just how to do well from the perspective of animated films."
must strive for higher box office and more audience’s love from the past. Judging from the experience of becoming a popular film at the box office, whether it is "Wolf Warrior 2", "The Wandering Earth" or "Nezha", all have universal and strong emotional impact, and this emotional impact brings together Empathy and topical discussion are undoubtedly the necessary conditions for explosive models.
However, for domestic animation filmmakers, even if they know the "routine" well, it is still a rare occurrence that they can put it into practice and create high-quality animation works. Especially since the decline of the domestic animation industry in the last century, the lack of talent and technology has also kept the number of outstanding domestic animation films in short supply over the years. (Click here to read: "Nezha" has broken the record, but most animation filmmakers are still worried about money).
"Everyone knows what is good and what the audience likes, but it is still too difficult to make it." said the above-mentioned self-animation film practitioner. If the emergence of "Luo Xiaohei" means that the market and box office of animated films after "Nezha" have returned to the level of "normal performance", then before more works that surprise audiences appear on a large scale, it may be necessary to provide domestic animation Movies have more time.
