"I know that my future is not a dream. I live every minute seriously. My future is not a dream. My heart moves with hope!" - Zhang Yusheng This popular song was used in the movie by Dapeng "The annual meeting cannot be stopped".
indeed far exceeded the expected results. Unexpectedly, at the end of 2023 and at the beginning of the new year of 2024, a dark horse film will be born, and this film will be the first film to hit 1 billion plus this year.
Brother Fei boldly predicts that the box office will be 1.2 billion, adding to the Chinese film industry this year and injecting new vitality! This film is the New Year's Eve comedy that I will discuss with you next - "The Annual Party Can't Stop".
1.
The Chinese film industry has finally come to an end in 2023. Some people are happy and some are worried. Some filmmakers have made a lot of money, and some have lost everything. To sum up, in one sentence: Zhang Yimou and Guo Fan made a lot of money; Chen Sicheng, Ning Ning Hao had the last laugh; Dapeng’s productivity was comparable to that of Huang Bo 15 years ago.
On January 1, 2024, the State Administration of Film announced the latest data. In 2023, the total national film box office revenue was 54.915 billion. The top ten box office films were all domestic films, accounting for 83.77% of the total box office, which greatly exceeded the 41.175 billion in 2019. The results reached a record high.
Since the frequent exposure of high-box office masterpieces in the summer season, mainland theaters have been quiet for too long. Several seed movies in the National Day season have not triggered a movie-watching craze. After entering the Lunar New Year season, there are only "The Three Brigades" and "Walking in Anger". "The Sea" is a little more passionate.
But on New Year’s Day, the situation has fundamentally changed. Two films have become hits one after another, bringing a successful end to 2023.
The box office rankings for the New Year's Day period were released on January 1, with the market taking in a total of 330 million. Considering that New Year's Day falls on Monday and is also the last day of the holiday, the popularity of the film market has plummeted significantly, and the market has dropped 55% month-on-month compared to the New Year's Eve period.
The top three are "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop", "Golden Finger" and "Twinkle Twinkle Star".
Three new films during the period have shown signs of being "cannon fodder". One is the imported film "Taylor Swift: Time Tour", which only took in 49.22 million at the box office in two days, ranking ninth.
The first one is Zheng Yuanjie’s animated film "Shuke Beta: Pentagram", which only had a total box office of 33.73 million in three days, ranking eighth.
There is also "If You Are the One 3" directed by Feng Xiaogang and Shu Qi Ge You, with a cumulative box office of 54.72 million, ranking seventh, and almost no one cares about it.
These three new films cannot beat the old films "The Third" and "Aquaman 2", especially "If You Are the One 3". It is really surprising that "If You Are the One 3" failed so miserably.
Andy Lau has two movies released in this period. His position is a bit awkward. He is fighting against himself. In such a sluggish market, there is indeed a lot of pressure to create high box office results.
The box office of "Stealth" and "Goldfinger" both exceeded 200 million, which can be regarded as some explanation to investors. Although they did not become a big hit, they maintained a balance of payments, which was not a big problem. Ask Andy Lau to star in a Hong Kong commercial film, and the box office There are still some guarantees.
"Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle Star" is the biggest winner in this year's New Year's Eve. The box office exploded to 607 million in three days, almost becoming the best in the world. No movie in the previous two days could compete with it.
The video is positioned as New Year's Eve, and the target audience is very clear, that is, young men and women in love. The 1314 "Snow Resort" marketing campaign is quite successful. Regardless of whether it can go further in the future, at least it has made a lot of money in the first few days. .
The box office of "Twinkle Twinkle Star" plummeted 82.7% in a single day on Monday to 56.59 million. After two consecutive championships, it fell directly to the third place. It is conceivable that the future trend of this film will continue to be sluggish.
《The annual meeting cannot be stopped! ", as a movie in the schedule that only caters to the audience, finally changed its focus on the fourth day of its release.
fell only 14.3% on Monday compared with yesterday, with a daily box office of 84.62 million. It was lower than the film schedule of "Twinkle Shining Star", and there was a rare phenomenon of going against the decline to win the championship.
In four days, "The annual meeting cannot be stopped!" 》The mainland box office grossed 315 million, completing a powerful counterattack. More importantly, the data are tilting towards this movie.
After the New Year's Day release, "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop"'s single-day share of market screenings on Tuesday surged to 21%, surpassing "Twinkle Twinkle Star" to become the top single-day movie list.
's predicted box office has also increased significantly from the previous 700 million to about 1.1 billion. If subsequent films do not pose a threat to it, this film will be the highest-grossing film before the Spring Festival. There is no suspense about 's target of 1.2 billion. .
2.
So, why can "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop" defeat the box office decline and win the championship?
"The Annual Party Can't Stop" is a typical Lunar New Year comedy, and the burden of comedy is a combination of circumstances.
The fitter Hu Jianlin played by Dapeng was mistakenly transferred to the headquarters. After joining the company, he formed a team with the HR personnel manager Ma Jie (played by Bai Ke), and Pan Yiran (played by Zhuang Dafei) who was transferred to the company by outsourcing.
After dealing with the incident of employees being "optimized", Hu Jianlin rose through the ranks and his annual salary reached one million. However, behind this outrageous "misalignment" were wrapped up complex human relations and various ridiculous stories.
This is the second feature film of creative director Dong Runnian. His previous works include "The Man Caught by the Light" starring Huang Bo, and he has also participated in the production of many films by Guan Hu and Ning Hao.
After accumulating experience, Dong Runnian came up with this sincere movie, and the market feedback was also very good. The reason why was such a hit at the box office was mainly related to the script creation.
Fan feedback mainly focuses on three aspects, which are also the key reasons for the popularity of this movie.
The first aspect is the decline in word-of-mouth.
In addition to the box office decline, "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop" has also seen a decline in word-of-mouth. This phenomenon has only occurred in four movies in 2023. One is Wu Jing and Andy Lau's "The Wandering Earth 2"; the other is Ur The good "Fengshen Part 1" and the animated film "Chang'an Thirty Thousand Miles" are also available.
These films all had a meteoric rise in reputation on Douban after they were released, which eventually fed into the box office.
"The Wandering Earth 2" has a Douban reputation of 8.3 points and earned 4 billion at the box office. "Fengshen Part 1" made steady progress; step by step, it finally got 2.63 billion; "Chang'an 30,000 Miles", with the blessing of high reputation, exploded at the box office 1.824 billion.
After the large-scale release of "The Annual Party Can't Stop", Douban gave it an 8.0 score. In just four days, the score rose to 8.1. You must know that comedy films that can score 8 or above can be directly classified as high-quality films.
Therefore, such a high reputation will inevitably stimulate a further explosion in the box office. It is only a matter of time before the box office of "The Annual Meeting Cannot Stop" explodes.
The second aspect is workplace resonance.
I believe that the audience who have watched this movie will definitely resonate with it. The main creator used the underlying workplace logic and after being processed by Qingbu Qingyun, completed this comedy genre film. Amidst the laughter and scolding, it directly hits the emotional pain points of people in the workplace. Many things Just like what happens around you.
The intrigues between bosses, the mutual suspicions between colleagues, and the mutual subversion among subordinates are all vividly displayed. If you want to keep your job, you have to stand in line. If you are not focused on work, it does not matter. You can get twice the result with half the effort.
This seems to be a very ironic movie. The story is intriguing and the core of life is found in comedy. Comedy is not limited to simple nonsense, but presents an attitude and a reflective meaning to society.
After watching the movie and laughing, what did we think of? Just like the song "My Future is Not a Dream" in the movie, Dapeng, Baike and Zhuang Dafei in the dream gave up the conditions proposed by the boss and faced introversion.
After waking up from the dream, we have to continue to work overtime and go to that never-ending 996...
The resonance has been sublimated at this moment, and the irony of reality is like a fairy tale.
The third aspect is that "The Annual Party Can't Stop" chose the right actor Dapeng.
Dapeng, who was very productive last year, is just like Huang Bo 15 years ago, creating a series of masterpieces in one breath.
Huang Bo became famous in "Crazy Stone", and later closely bound Ning Hao and Guan Hu. Between 2009 and 2014, he released many excellent works.
such as "Crazy Racing", "Bullfighting", "Killing", "The Cook, the Actor, the Ruffian", "People on the Road", "Dear", "No Man's Land", "The Flower of the Heart", etc.
Huang Bo also quickly became the leading box office influencer in mainland China. At that time, there was nothing happening about Wu Jing. He, Xu Zheng, Wang Baoqiang and others were the well-deserved new darlings of theaters.
Almost every movie is a box office hit.
In 2023, Dapeng’s production rate is astonishing, and none of its films are bad. There are very few filmmakers who can work so intensively and achieve both word-of-mouth and box office success.
During the Spring Festival, He starred in "Unknown" directed by Cheng Er. His role in the movie was relatively small and can be ignored.
was followed by "Keep You Safe" released in March. The movie directly addressed the themes of cyber violence and school bullying, and used a comedy to unfold the plot. It finally received a box office of 700 million and a high reputation of 7.7 points on Douban.
During the summer season, he took Wang Yibo on a theater trip. "Hot" also received a box office of 910 million and a reputation of 7.2 points.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival, Dapeng teamed up with Lin Jiadong and Zhang Songwen to star in "The Eighth Suspect", which had a box office of 439 million. If it is not a comedy, the box office is not very good, but when it comes to comedy, that is Dapeng's home field. .
This is taking over from Stephen Chow and Shen Teng.
3.
Speaking of comedy films in the Chinese film industry, the two big names that have to be mentioned are Stephen Chow and Shen Teng.
As early as when "Keep You Safe" was released, Stephen Chow found Dapeng through private channels.
At that time, Dapeng was still on his personal social platform and shouted to Stephen Chow: Master Xingchi, I can learn photography! Let’s cooperate once in the future!
However, Stephen Chow took a fancy to Dapeng's photographer and wanted to collaborate with him in the future. It is easy to see from Dapeng's humble words that no one can shake Stephen Chow's comedy status.
However, Stephen Chow has not starred in a movie since "Yangtze River No. 7". He has served as the director of the subsequent "Mermaid", "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" and "The New King of Comedy".
In terms of comedy films, if Stephen Chow does not come out, who can do it?
Huang Bo took the lead for a while, but Huang Bo's subsequent works tended to focus on realistic themes. Similarly, Wang Baoqiang and Xu Zheng also began to take the realistic route. Simple comedies, these big names rarely paid attention to .
It can be seen from Feng Xiaogang's Feng's New Year film "If You Are the One 3" that this type of film is relatively difficult to make. It is not easy to do it well and get market recognition.
Later, Happy Mahua emerged. In just a few years, Shen Teng, Ma Li and Allen frequently appeared on the Spring Festival Gala stage, and their exposure also expanded rapidly. The most prominent one is Shen Teng.
It can be said that the market fully recognizes Shen Teng's comedy movies. Shen Teng's personal movie box office has reached 30 billion in a few years, second only to Wu Jing, and he is one of the big box office figures in mainland China.
Shen Teng also starred in last year's box-office-champion film "Man Jiang Hong". However, Shen Teng is still the mainstay of Happy Twist. Going out to do acupuncture is not a long-term solution. If you want to create a high-box-office work, you must have a high-quality script.
Happy Twist Since "Walking Alone on the Moon" the year before last, few high-quality works have been released.
Besides, the current situation of Happy Twist is no longer good. Several works have gained popularity one after another, such as "Li Cha's Aunt", "Human Comedy", and comedies such as "Super Family" released in the summer.
If Shen Teng wants to continue to be the king of comedy genre films, he must continue to make new movies. However, the quality of Happy Twist's scripts is not good, so how to crack it?
Shen Teng seems to have entered a loop.
In the middle, Jia Ling's "Hello Li Huanying" can be called a dark horse, but Jia Ling's creative bottleneck is limited, and it takes too long for a work to come out.
So and so, who can take over from Stephen Chow and Shen Teng?
The best candidate is Dapeng.
Dapeng knows what the audience wants very well.
The comedy of "The Annual Party Can't Stop" comes from life and resonates in the workplace. Dapeng has understood the rules of comedy commercial movies. Dapeng's ambition can be seen from the box office success of "Keep You Safe".
Happy Twist is funny for the sake of being funny, similar to Stephen Chow's movies, while Dapeng's two comedy movies will make you laugh uncontrollably.
The era of nonsensical comedies is over. Dapeng’s realistic satirical and reflective comedy films will become the new darling of the market. He can definitely succeed Stephen Chow and Shen Teng.
In 2024, the annual meeting cannot stop, and the comedy cannot stop!
