This article is reprinted from: Beijing Daily's "Walking Through the Angry Sea" last Saturday, the box office exceeded 100 million yuan on the day it premiered. There is still potential to be tapped during the weekend. Our reporter Yuan Yun'er Cao Baoping's new film "Walking Thro

This article is reprinted from: Beijing Daily's "Walking Through the Angry Sea" opened last Saturday, and the box office exceeded 100 million yuan. The movie's weekend release still has potential to be tapped. Our reporter Yuan Yuner's Cao Baoping's new film "Walking Through the Angry Sea" was released last Saturday. ”, the box office exceeded 100 million yuan on the day of its premiere, leading the market for 6 consecutive days. Although the film is far from a hit, the market, which has been sluggish since the end of the National Day holiday, finally became popular because of it. Popular schedules such as Spring Festival and summer are the most prosperous times for theaters throughout the year, and "Wading in the Angry Sea" has allowed the market to see the potential of weekend releases. Creating and building a seemingly "mundane" weekend slot is of great significance to the sustained and healthy development of the film market, and requires the active participation of practitioners from all parties. "Wide the Angry Sea", released on November 25, became the best-performing film at the box office in the past week due to its good reputation. Weekend schedules are the basis of the market. "Spring Festival, summer vacation, and National Day are currently the three largest domestic schedules that receive the most attention. Only a handful of the most blockbuster films can be released in these three schedules; followed by Dragon Boat Festival, May Day, Chinese Valentine's Day, New Year's Day, etc. Small schedules; other than the daily weekend schedules, less attention is paid to them, resulting in a smaller number of key films being released." Zhu Qingtian, a film industry observer, said that only by utilizing each weekend schedule and arranging film releases evenly , will be conducive to the overall development of the market and attract more audiences to watch movies. According to the "2023 Movie Market and Audience Research Report" released by Beacon Professional Edition in October this year, as of October 17, the proportion of viewers who only watched a movie once in 2023 accounted for 52.5%. In other words, more than half of the viewers regard watching movies as a "one-time consumption". "If he only watches a movie once a year, he will definitely choose the one he likes the most, and he will definitely go to the theater during the busiest period, which is the Spring Festival or National Day. But this situation is a bit contrary to the development of the film industry." Movies Industry expert Liu Jia bluntly said that there is a lot of room for improvement in the number of moviegoers and the frequency of moviegoers in China. In this sense, it is necessary to make weekend movies good and not allow audiences to go to theaters only during the Spring Festival and National Day. Compared with popular schedules, ordinary weekend schedules should be the basis. "Only if every weekend slot is done well, the popular slots will be better." For theaters, regardless of popular slots or weekend slots, they have the highest expectations. "It's impossible for theaters to survive just by relying on the Spring Festival, National Day, and summer holidays. We still have a huge demand for weekend slots," said Fu Weijian, manager of the Broadway Cinema Center. However, he admitted that theaters, as the final end of the film industry, "depend on films" and are relatively passive. Only when there is a supply of films of high quality and quantity upstream can theaters make a difference. Movies are scheduled to be released in a "forward and backward manner" In August this year, Mao Yu, executive deputy director of the National Film Administration, said at the "New Power of Chinese Film" forum that the phenomenon of blockbuster films being released together during holidays still exists, and a balanced and reasonable control mechanism for schedules and film arrangements has not yet been established. Mature, the market potential has not been fully exploited, and we must continue to work hard on the creation and construction of weekend stalls. For a long time, for those films that film companies focus on, popular schedules have been considered to be more likely to achieve their box office aspirations. "If you only have a box office demand of tens of millions or one or two billion (yuan), you can do it at any time." A senior film distributor said bluntly that based on past experience, if you want to get a higher box office, you can only Choose a popular schedule, and once everyone thinks so, the popular schedule will be "congested", and in the fierce competition, some films will fail. If you find another way to release it on weekends, you will face the risk of a cold market. The practitioner said that movie scheduling is a very complex systematic project that requires "looking forward and looking around." What works are available before and after the schedule, what competing products are available in the same schedule, and how to formulate a publicity strategy based on the schedule... all need to be discussed and reached consensus among multiple parties before they can be determined. "The producers, promoters, and creators all have their own expectations for the box office. If one party disagrees with the schedule, it will be difficult." Liu Jianxin, general manager of Xingboda (Beijing) Cinema Management Chain Co., Ltd., believes that now the film industry There is too little communication between upstream producers and downstream theaters and theaters, and there is a disconnect, which also results in uneven distribution of schedules."For example, there is a long off-season after the National Day holiday this year, and there is a gap in the film schedule. If the film studio can communicate more with the theaters and make up for the gap as soon as there is a gap, it will be beneficial to both the theater and the film studio." He said, the film studio When setting the schedule, it is usually estimated based on the performance of works of the same type in previous years, but changes in the market are ignored. "Executives of film and television companies have almost no experience in first-line theaters, and they mostly rely on subjective judgment to set schedules. If they can communicate more with theaters, they will be wiser in selecting schedules." The formation of weekend ticket prices for various key schedules is One of the signs that the film market is mature and sound. From the reform of the theater system to the present, the Chinese film market has been cultivated for many years and has formed several large and small popular schedules that are interspersed from the beginning to the end of the year. The production plans of the film studios, the marketing strategies of the promoters, and the off-peak seasons of the theaters are all affected. this impact. Compared with the popular stalls that practitioners are familiar with and the audience is more familiar with, the weekend stalls are "slightly greener". Its brand building is a long-term process that requires the active participation of all upstream, midstream and downstream links in the industry and cannot be achieved overnight. "Nowadays, various domestic distributors have formed a tacit understanding, and generally set the schedule one month or even three months in advance. We still communicate privately, exchange information, and refer to each other to avoid schedule 'crash.'" Lu Yao, a film market expert, said , the construction of weekend slots requires film studios to integrate information from multiple parties when formulating distribution strategies, and make rational choices based on their own box office expectations, instead of blindly squeezing into popular schedules. Flexible and discounted movie ticket prices are implemented on weekends, which can attract more viewers to watch movies on a daily basis. "If the content supply of the weekend slots catches up and there are discounted ticket prices, it may stimulate everyone's desire to consume." Liu Jia suggested that the weekend slot box office can be set at 25 yuan to 30 yuan, targeting students, the elderly and other groups. Half-price tickets can also be launched to cultivate movie-watching groups of different age groups. Liu Jianxin suggested strengthening big data research and analysis on schedules to provide effective reference opinions for practitioners. "Although there are many analyzes of the film industry, there is a lack of authoritative information that convinces both upstream and downstream, and no system has been formed, resulting in film studios and theaters working independently in this regard."