1905Movie Network Zhuangao "Mission: Impossible" series of new work strikes again after five years.
"Mission: Impossible 7: Deadly Reckoning (Part 1)" starring Tom Cruise (hereinafter referred to as "Mission: Impossible 7") has landed on the Chinese mainland theaters on July 14, only two days later than the North American theaters.
It's a pity that the box office performance of the film was not as expected.
As of 21:00 on July 17, the single-day box office of "Mission: Impossible 7" on the fourth day of its release just broke 20 million, far lower than "Three Thousand Miles in Chang'an" and "In the Octagonal Cage", ranking third on the day. The total box office of the film is temporarily 204 million. The final box office forecast by the ticketing platform has dropped from 600 million to 450 million.
From 1996 to 2023, the "Mission: Impossible" series has gone through 27 years, and has been developed to the 8th, and 7 have been released to the public. Although they have never been released simultaneously in mainland China, the 7 films that have been released have all landed on the big screen in mainland China without exception.
From "Mission: Impossible 2" in 2002, which earned 25 million at the box office to "Mission: Impossible 6" in 2018, which earned 1.245 billion at the box office, almost every box office in the series can refresh the record held by the previous work.
The "Mission: Impossible" series has thus become one of the few film IPs in the history of Chinese film that has continuously increased its box office for more than 20 years.
If the total box office of the seventh film does stay at around 450 million in the end, such a glorious record will also come to an end. From the perspective of objective factors, it seems that there is only a theoretical possibility for "Mission: Impossible 7" to continue the series' box office momentum.
Intense schedule environment
1.245 billion, "Mission: Impossible 6" hit the best box office results of the same series.
At that time, the film accounted for nearly 50% of the first day of release, and won a box office of 168 million. It then won the single-day box office championship for 14 consecutive days, completely "crushing" "Ant-Man 2: The Wasp", "Sudan" and "Take My Brother Away". It is difficult to find rivals in the same category.
Compared with its predecessor released 5 years ago, "Mission: Impossible 7" is now surrounded by domestically produced films. The
film’s first day of release accounted for only 25.4%, second only to the 29.1% of “In the Octagonal Cage” and far lower than the 48% of “Mission: Impossible 6”, and finally won a box office of 50.9055 million, ranking only third in the single-day box office. Such a result is not only less than one-third of the first-day box office of "Mission: Impossible 6", but also lower than two old domestic films "In the Octagonal Cage" and "Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang'an".
At that time, "In the Octagonal Cage" had been released for 9 days, and "Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang'an" had been released for 7 days. "Mission: Impossible 6" is not as good as the former in terms of film schedule, and its attendance rate is also inferior to "Thirty Thousand Miles in Chang'an" and "Tea No. 2 High School". With only 12.7% of
films, "Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang'an" counterattacked with a 22.6% attendance rate, and won a box office of more than 51 million, which is slightly better than Hollywood blockbusters. Although only 11.3% of the domestic animation film "Tea Second Middle School" was released on the same day, the attendance rate of 15.5% was still higher than the 9.3% of "Mission: Impossible 7".
The first show of "Mission Impossible 7" was completely "misfired", which directly led to the continuous decline in its box office share in the first weekend.
20.7% on Saturday (July 15th) and 13.4% on Sunday (July 16th). The separated films came to "In the Octagonal Cage", especially "Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang'an" whose attendance rate was continuously higher than 30%. This also helped "Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang'an" to achieve consecutive declines in two days on the weekend, and reached the box office crown on last Sunday (July 16).
As of 21:00 on July 17, the proportion of "Mission: Impossible 7" has dropped to 11%, which is basically the same as "Tea No. 2 Middle School" and "The Disappearing She".
Next, "Feng Shen Part 1", "Super Family" and "Barbie" will meet with the audience this week, and "Hot" and "Megalodon 2: Abyss" will be released in turn. "Mission: Impossible 7" will face a more severe market environment.
The iterative moviegoing group
The core selling point of the "Mission: Impossible" series is always inseparable from Tom Cruise.
"Mission: Impossible 7" continues to use the classic Hollywood story framework and narrative techniques. Under the background of AI as the villain, all members fight for the "key".
In the fierce gun battle in the yellow sand sky, the car racing in the streets of Rome, and the brave battle in the alleys of Venice, Tom Cruise is still fighting hard. Whether it is a desert gun battle, hand-to-hand combat, or thrilling cliff speed car, he personally takes part in the actual shooting. This has also become a major promotional selling point of the film.
It's a pity that cruise's appeal is not particularly effective among the new generation of Chinese moviegoers.
According to the data released by the Maoyan Research Institute in March 2023, the main group of Chinese movie audiences is between 20 and 30 years old, and the post-95s and post-00s have become the main group of Chinese market. The audience portrait of "Mission: Impossible 7" shows that audiences aged 20-29 accounted for a total of 41.9%, which is about 6% lower than that of "Mission: Impossible 6".
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| "Mission: Impossible 7" audience age distribution map |
"Currently, post-95s and post-00s have not shown a strong pursuit of the "Mission: Impossible" series or Tom Cruise himself." Five years have passed since "Mission Impossible 6", and the series and Tom Cruise's die-hard audience are no longer the main moviegoers. The return of the leading actor and the value of feelings are difficult to leverage the enthusiasm of young audiences on a large scale.
On the other hand, Zhang Yimou took the initiative to get close to young audiences when filming "Man Jianghong", and rarely tried scripts to kill film creation. "The Missing She" explores the concept of marriage and love while emphasizing "girls help girls". The important reasons for the success of these domestic films are all to keep close to the topics that young audiences are paying close attention to.
's gradually iterative moviegoing groups have raised new issues for the Hollywood movie series that focuses on killing emotions.
Changing audience tastes
Mission Impossible 7's sluggish box office is no accident. The survival space of Hollywood blockbusters in the Chinese market is becoming narrow.
As of July 16, the box office of the first half of the summer file broke through 8.8 billion, close to the total box office of the same period last year, and exceeded the 7.317 billion in the same period in 2018, breaking the box office record of the first half of the summer file.
On July 14, the box office for the whole year of 2023 officially exceeded 30 billion, creating the fastest annual box office of the mainland film market since the epidemic to break the "30 billion" record.
Chinese films break box office records again and again, and they also send out signals of changes in audience tastes.
Currently, the top three box office hits in the summer of 2023 are "The Vanishing She", "In the Octagonal Cage" and "Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang'an", and the top three box office in 2023 are "Man Jianghong", "The Wandering Earth 2" and "The Vanishing She".
Corresponding to the continuous increase in the box office of domestic movies, there are about 50 imported movies released this year, but none of them can break through the 1 billion mark. The highest one is "Fast and Furious 10" which won 983 million. Including "Fast and Furious 10", among the Hollywood films released this year, 10 have a box office of more than 100 million, and only 3 have a box office of more than 500 million.
In the Chinese market, domestic masterpieces are selling well, while Hollywood blockbusters are weak. This is also a pattern that has gradually evolved in the Chinese film market in recent years.
Among the top ten box office films in Chinese film history, only "Wolf Warrior 2" was released in 2017, and the remaining 9 are all works since 2019. Among them, "Avengers 4: Infinity War" is the only Hollywood movie on the list. Since 2020, domestic films have dominated the top three at the annual box office. The last time a Hollywood film broke into the top three at the annual box office also dates back to "Avengers 4: Infinity War" in 2019.
This means that, while domestic films have repeatedly achieved success in recent years, the glory of Hollywood blockbusters is long gone.
Yu Dong, the president of Bona Films who participated in the creation of the "Changjin Lake" series, once publicly stated that foreign films gradually did not adapt to the viewing habits of Chinese audiences, which led Chinese audiences to prefer domestic films, film and television works that revolve around Chinese stories and conform to China's national conditions and Chinese culture. Judging from the schedule performance of "Mission: Impossible 7", this trend is once again confirmed.The word-of-mouth ban on the
film was lifted early, and the freshness of Rotten Tomatoes was once as high as 100%, setting a new high in the same series. On the fourth day of its release, its Douban score dropped from 8.4 to 7.9, reflecting a downward trend in the satisfaction of Chinese audiences with the new series.
At the same time, the Douban score of "Thirty Thousand Miles in Chang'an" has steadily increased from 8 points. The score of "Tea Second Middle School" is stable at around 8.2.
is established in the era when word-of-mouth drives the box office, and domestic films are frequently produced. Chinese audiences are obviously more willing to "pay" for high-quality domestic films. Therefore, there are many examples of small and medium-cost domestic films that stand out. This is also an important reason why the low-cost domestic animation "Tea Second Middle School" is not inferior to the Hollywood blockbuster "Mission: Impossible 7" head-on, and even surpassed the latter in attendance.
Now that "Mission: Impossible 7" is ending the series, it is a foregone conclusion that the box office will rise.
What is worth looking forward to is that "Mission: Impossible 8" is already in production. Whether "Mission: Impossible 8" as the finale will bring new surprises and draw a successful conclusion to the "Mission: Impossible" series, we might as well wait and see.
