Beijing Daily Client | Reporter Yuan Yun'er
"Twinkle, Twinkle, Shining Star" is romantic and snowy, "Don't stop at the annual meeting!" ” expresses the voice of migrant workers. The 38-day 2023 Lunar New Year period (November 24 to December 31, 2023) ended with the collective efforts of several New Year’s Eve films, and finally harvested a total box office of 4.5 billion yuan. . Among them, "The Third" became the box office champion of the Lunar New Year in 2023 with 559 million yuan, and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Shining Star" and "Wading in the Angry Sea" ranked second and third respectively.
New Year's Eve movies are the perfect ending to 2023
86 movies were released in 38 days. The number of Lunar New Year movies this year hit a five-year high. Feng Henan, marketing director of the Lumiere Cinemas Vanke Store, said bluntly that in previous years, the Lunar New Year festival was dominated by domestic films. This year, there are many imported films such as "Aquaman 2: The Lost Kingdom", "Wonka" and "La La Land", which are open to the public. To a higher degree. "From the perspective of genres and themes, this year's Lunar New Year festival is more diversified and caters to the needs of different audience groups, including "Twinkle Twinkle Star" and "Taylor Swift: The Age of Concert Tour" that are loved by young audiences, as well as " "Goldfinger", "Stealth" and other commercial blockbusters. The ultimate goal is to attract different people to enter the theater and develop the habit of watching movies."
Domestic Lunar New Year movies have gradually matured since Feng Xiaogang's movie "Party A and Party B" in 1997, but In recent years, the Spring Festival stall has become more and more popular, becoming the undisputed largest stall of the year. The influence of the Lunar New Year stall, which is one or two months away from the Spring Festival stall, has gradually weakened. Film critic Zhu Qingtian (pen name "Liancheng Yibri") said frankly that the market has been relatively deserted in December 2023, and there is no film with a box office of more than 1 billion yuan. "Aquaman 2: The Lost Kingdom", which originally had high hopes, failed both in terms of word-of-mouth and box office.
In the last three days of 2023, "Twinkle Twinkle Shining Stars" and "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop!" ” and other 7 new films were unveiled, bringing the Lunar New Year season to a successful conclusion. "'Twinkle Twinkle Star' can be said to be an annual marketing phenomenon. If there was no 'Snow Resort' event, the box office during the New Year's Eve would have been at least half off." Zhu Qingtian said that several movies released during the New Year's Eve The box office performance of the new films is pretty good, helping the box office for the whole year of 2023 to reach 54.9 billion yuan, which is a pretty good tail for 2023 and a good start for the movie market in 2024.
A victory in word-of-mouth and sense of ritual
"The Three Brigades" has become the box office champion in the Lunar New Year season, which is a victory in word-of-mouth and also illustrates the current audience's desire for high-quality realistic works. Rao Shuguang, secretary-general of the China Film Society, analyzed that the film is not a conventional police film, but it has captured the hearts of the audience with its realistic characters and tragic and touching story, and has great box office stamina. "Today's Chinese audiences are accustomed to audio-visual spectacles and hot scenes. They want to see works that are relevant to their daily lives and better character creation." He suggested that practitioners should learn from American and Hong Kong genres Incorporate more reality into the film experience and find ways to relate to the audience's daily life and emotions.
The phenomenal success of "Twinkle Twinkle Star" fully proves the importance of the sense of ritual in movie watching. Feng Henan said that at 22:13 on the evening of December 31, his theater held a "New Year's Eve Snow Park" event for "Twinkle Twinkle Star", and all 220 seats were basically sold out. On New Year's Eve, artificial snowflakes floated in the theater, the audience cheered, and everyone said "Happy New Year" to each other, which made Feng Henan feel a little "excited." "Activity venues can provide audiences with special experiences and allow them to gain more happiness." He believes that theaters can carry out specific activities for a certain film or special group of people at special time points, which will have a positive effect on increasing the number of moviegoers. Both the audience and the audience will enjoy it.
The comedy film "The Annual Party Can't Stop!" has only been released for 4 days. ", is expected to become the most popular film leading the market in recent times. The film is billed as a "must-see for working people" and sharply criticizes various workplace phenomena. Currently, the Douban score is as high as 8.1. "The final annual party scene in the film is based on New Oriental's annual party dance. During the screening of the film, the incident of Oriental's selection of Dong Yuhui happened to occur, which formed an echo on and off the screen and generated positive publicity for the film." Zhu Qingtian said.
Fung's comedy failed in the Lunar New Year slot
In contrast, Fung's comedy and Hong Kong-style crime films suffered box office failures in the Lunar New Year slot.
As of the evening of January 1, the cumulative box office of Feng Xiaogang's "If You Are the One 3" has just exceeded 50 million yuan. It is seriously lagging behind among the new films. The single-day box office cannot even beat "The Three Brigades" which has been in theaters for a long time. Feng Xiaogang was ultimately defeated by the Lunar New Year stalls that he single-handedly took the lead, which is disappointing. When the film's trailer was released, it was already criticized for its macaron color scheme and Ge You's "old age" for starring in a romance film. After the film was released, its reputation plummeted even more miserably. "The filming of "If You Are the One 3" is too perfunctory! There are too many advertisements, the sense of science fiction is too low, and the large number of studio shots brings a serious sense of cheapness. There are too many scenes from "If You Are the One 1" and "If You Are the One 2" cut into the film, without any The processing is just hard editing and water injection. The film also seems outdated and pedantic in terms of values. The robot Xiaoxiao played by Shu Qi and the real Xiaoxiao compete for Qin Fen played by Ge You, which makes people very uncomfortable." Zhu Qingtian said.
Old-school Hong Kong crime films have performed poorly and are struggling to attract today's audiences. The box office of "Breaking Point" was less than 100 million yuan. Even though "Stealth" and "Goldfinger" were supported by stars such as Andy Lau and Tony Leung, they did not beat "Twinkle Twinkle Star" and "The Annual Party Can't Stop!" 》. Film critic Jing Runcheng (pseudonym "Twenty-Two Island Masters") analyzed that audiences have certain requirements for stories and scenes. If the script is too bad or the action scenes are not good, it will be difficult to watch. "Among these films, "Goldfinger" is okay, but the story is also relatively old-school. It tells the story of the Hong Kong stock market in the 1970s and 1980s, which is too far away from today's audiences." In his opinion, Hong Kong directors who go north to make films should It’s time to adjust your thinking. "Either you have some renovations in big scenes, such as the "Bomb Disposal Expert" series, which has eye-catching scenes such as bombing an airport; or there is some room for the audience to discuss in the plot or characters, such as whether the protagonist is a good guy or not. Bad guy. Like "Stealth", it's actually a remake of "The Disciple". The characters are too single and old-fashioned, and they can't keep up with the needs of the audience. Naturally, it won't do well at the box office."
