At the beginning of 2024, the Chinese film market is off to a good start. According to statistics from Maoyan Professional Edition, the New Year's Day 2024 (December 30, 2023 - January 1, 2024) will receive a total box office of 1.533 billion, which is only a single day for the New Year's Eve ( December 31, 2023), the box office reached 730 million. This is the first time after 336 days in the market that the single-day box office exceeded 700 million again. The New Year's Day box office record for the same period in Chinese film history was refreshed. In "Twinkle Twinkle Star" and "The Annual Party Can't Stop!" Driven by many domestic films such as "Stealth" and "Goldfinger", the Chinese film market also ended strongly in 2023 with a total box office of 54.915 billion yuan.
《The annual meeting cannot be stopped! "The emotional catharsis of "Goldfinger", the star cast of "Goldfinger", the warm feelings of "If You Are the One 3", the Hong Kong film quality of "Stealth", and the IP blessing of "Twinkle Twinkle Star", these films have shown enough Differentiate the selling points to attract different audiences into the theater. The excellent box office results and other data obtained in exchange reflect the obvious rebound in the audience's willingness to watch movies. There is still room for expansion in the domestic film market. It also boosts industry confidence and provides film practitioners with more opportunities in creation, promotion and distribution. Explore directions. This achievement is undoubtedly a strong proof of the continued steady development and recovery of the Chinese film market. This growth trend is not only due to the effective adjustment of the opening up of my country's film market, but also the continuation of the prosperity of the film market in 2023 at a specific time node. At the same time, it also shows that the industry and audiences are full of expectations for the box office performance in 2024.
[Data]
The number of screenings and total box office hit a new high
To summarize the past year and pave the way for the new year, the New Year's Day has always been an important period to connect the past and the future, providing the audience with more information during the three-day holiday While having a variety of movie viewing options, it is also a warm-up for the upcoming Spring Festival. According to data, a total of 13 new films were released on New Year’s Day this year, covering various genres such as romance, comedy, crime, music, and animation. The top five box-office-grossing movies during the New Year's Eve period are "Twinkle Twinkle Star" and "The Annual Party Can't Stop!" ”, “Goldfinger”, “Stealth” and “If You Are the One 3”, among which the first four new films all exceeded 100 million in box office during the period. The number of new films released and the number of new films exceeding 100 million during the period both hit a five-year high. Thanks to the popular IP of the drama version, "Twinkle Twinkle Stars" leads the New Year's Day in terms of popularity and box office during the pre-sale stage. With the "Snow Field" announcement, it perfectly fits the New Year's Eve ritual and becomes a New Year's Day drama. However, the plot of the film collapsed in the later period and the reputation declined. Starting from the third day of the New Year's Day release, the film's schedule, attendance and box office all showed a clear downward trend; on the second day, the box office reached 326 million yuan, and on the third day, the box office dropped sharply. It fell to 57 million yuan, a plunge of nearly 83%.
On the last day of New Year's Day, the box office of "Twinkle Twinkle Star", which had received pre-sale and marketing bonuses, began to be overtaken by the well-known comedy masterpiece "The Annual Party Can't Stop!" 》Go ahead. As of January 1 (6 p.m.) "The annual meeting cannot be stopped!" "" surpassed "Twinkle Twinkle Star" in daily box office data with 64.8 million yuan. Li Yulin, a theater manager who has been working in theaters for many years, told reporters that they had already "predicted" this incident, because nowadays box office changes are closely related to word-of-mouth fermentation. The quality of word-of-mouth is getting faster and faster, and is directly reflected in box office data. superior. "The annual meeting cannot be stopped!" 》The Douban score was 8.0, and then rose to 8.1. The Douban score of "Twinkle Twinkle Shining Star" was 6.5. Affected by a large number of comments about the plot collapse of the film, the score dropped to 6.3, and the box office will naturally flow to those with better reputation. movies, indicating that the core competitiveness of movie box office still comes from content quality. Yin Tengyu, senior analyst at Maoyan Research Institute, analyzed: "The New Year's Eve period has always been a period with a strong sense of ritual, and blockbuster movies have become commonplace. The counterattack of "The Annual Party Can't Stop!" lets everyone know that the 'laughing point' is indeed The keywords with the highest mention rate in audience comments, and the film's high discussion on social platforms, good reputation, and strong resonance with the audience are the main reasons for the film's counterattack."
Maoyan Professional Edition data.
The supply of high-quality content and the huge release of movie viewing demand jointly promoted the New Year's Day market rise.As the market recovers, the overall willingness of the audience to watch movies has been activated. This year, 36.608 million people watched movies on New Year's Day, and the total number of screenings reached 1.417 million, both setting new highs in the number and number of screenings on New Year's Day in film history. The proportion of viewers who watched multiple movies also increased. The gradual rise reflects the strong demand in the film market. At the same time, the audience has not resisted the "increasingly long" movie duration. Movies with a box office of over 100 million yuan on New Year's Day are all longer than 100 minutes, with an average of 2 hours. High-quality long content has not been eliminated in the era of fragmentation. Give up, as long as the quality is good, the audience will like it. In addition, driven by the strong sense of New Year's Eve rituals such as "Twinkle Twinkle Star" and "Taylor Swift: The Age of Concert Tour", young audiences under the age of 25 accounted for 10% on New Year's Eve (December 31, 2023). The ratio reached 49.7% (32% were under 25 years old throughout the year), indicating that young audiences have a high demand for New Year’s Eve rituals.
[Feelings]
"Good memories are running towards me at full speed"
As the founder of the New Year's Day and Lunar New Year movies in the Chinese mainland film market, director Feng Xiaogang has a deep connection with the New Year's Day movies. In 1997, he directed "Party A and Party B" After being released on December 24, it received a box office of 36 million. For the first time, a domestic film has the concept of a New Year's Day and Lunar New Year film. Subsequently, "See You or Die" in 1998, "No End" in 1999, "Big Shot" in 2001, "Cell Phone" in 2003, and "A World Without Thieves" in 2004 were all released at the end of the year and achieved high reputation and box office. As a frequent visitor to the New Year's Day movies, Feng Xiaogang's New Year's Eve film "If You Are the One 3" is a bit late (it was 15 and 13 years after the first two "If You Are the One" films were released), but it still continues the familiar feelings of the first two films. He and Shu Qi continued to "love each other". The first part talks about marriage search, the second part talks about trial marriage, and the third part talks about the issues of living alone and marriage, and also adds the latest artificial intelligence technology elements. Among the movies released on New Year's Day this year, "If You Are the One 3" is undoubtedly a work that is full of emotions. It continues the emotional clues of this series, including the sweetness of love and the helplessness of life, making its tone more warm. , as Feng Xiaogang said, I hope people who watch this movie will feel warm and healed.
"If You Are the One 3" still continues the familiar sentiments of the first two films, with Ge You and Shu Qi continuing to "talk about love."
Another movie that carries the nostalgia of Hong Kong movies for most viewers is undoubtedly the movie "Goldfinger" starring Andy Lau and Tony Leung. This is the first time they shared the big screen together in 20 years after "Infernal Affairs 3", but "Goldfinger" "Goldfinger" actually does not have the usual action scenes in Hong Kong-style crime films. Instead, it shows the ups and downs of the world of financial capital, and is more realistic and critical. In "Infernal Affairs" 20 years ago, Tony Leung and Andy Lau contributed many classic scenes. For example, the confrontation between the two on the rooftop has become an insurmountable famous scene of the confrontation between good and evil. In "Goldfinger", the identities of the two are reversed. Policeman Liu Qiyuan, played by Andy Lau, represents the righteous side and perseveres in tracking and investigating the capital tycoon Cheng Yiyan, played by Tony Leung. Their cooperation this time is like reuniting old friends. Tony Leung described the tacit cooperation between him and Andy Lau: "We have known each other for many years, starting from the TV station and then to "Infernal Affairs". Although many years have passed, we may have established the relationship when we were young. We have gained a lot of trust, and we don’t need to communicate too much when we are on set. We will naturally have a tacit understanding."
Andy Lau and Tony Leung prepared gold buckets of popcorn for the audience at the premiere of "Goldfinger", which symbolized good fortune.
The movie version of "Twinkle Twinkle Star" is adapted from the TV series of the same name, focusing on the TV series IP extra chapter, a "snow field" marketing, successfully harvesting the feelings of fans of the series and creating a box office myth; the national classic fairy tale "Shu" originally written by Zheng Yuanjie "The Adventures of Shuke and Beta" has become the collective memory of five generations from the 1970s to the 10s. The animated film "Shuke Beta·Five-Pointed Flying Saucer" adapted from this national IP also met with the audience on this New Year's Day. Many viewers After the screening, they all said: “Good memories are rushing towards me at full speed."
In addition to new movies showing off nostalgia, old movies are also being re-released. For example, the movie "Your Wedding", which was released on May Day in 2021, was also selected for re-screening on this New Year's Day, and its marketing promotion focuses on "feelings" card", such as "Is the person who watched "Your Wedding" with you that year still with you now? "The release also prepared small considerations for couples. For example, if you choose to go into the theater to watch "Your Wedding" at 22:15 on December 31, 2023, you will hear the starring Xu Guanghan say "Thank you," at midnight on the New Year. "Appeared in my life", these selling points carrying feelings have given this re-released film a new lease of life, with a cumulative box office of 817 million.
[Marketing]
Organizing concerts, giving gifts, and linking with new films
2024 New Year's Day movies The marketing of "Twinkle Twinkle Star" is full of strange tricks. In order to attract audiences, New Year's Day movies first make a big fuss about the "sense of ritual". For example, "Twinkle Twinkle Star" launched a "snow field" plan; and the movie "Taylor... Swift: The Age of Concert Tour" has been made closer to the audience, creating a lively concert for the audience in the theater. In addition to regular theater screenings, "New Year's Eve Sing-Along" is also open in many movie theaters across the country "Scene, when the New Year's Eve bell rings at midnight in 2024, a gorgeous scene of fireworks will appear on the screen, with the main theme of "seeking good luck". The audience can also dance in front of the seats in the cinema or on the open space under the screen. In the cinema, they held up light sticks to sing along with the movie's "Taylor Swift"; the comedy "The Annual Party Can't Stop!" prepared a "beer field" option for the audience, where they could drink beer and watch the big show. Peng and Baike held an "annual party" to feel the atmosphere of the New Year. Andy Lau brought two starring movies "Goldfinger" and "Stealth" to compete with each other: "Stealth" arranged a "lottery show" to watch December 2023 If you play "Stealth" at 22:06 on March 31st, you will have the opportunity to receive a customized envelope containing a lottery ticket; there are 2024 games scheduled for this show, and there is a "Forward 2024" show label on the ticket purchase page. Marketing of "Goldfinger" The main theme is "Wealth Cards", preparing golden buckets of popcorn that symbolize good fortune for the audience, and encouraging everyone to receive the "first pot of gold" in the new year.
The movie "The Annual Party Can't Stop!" stars Bai Ke and Dapeng in "Goldfinger" "The starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai has conducted off-site linkages.
In addition to the respective marketing of the new films, these new films have also conducted many linkages. For example, the starring actors Dapeng and Baike of "The Annual Party Can't Stop!" have linked up with Tony Leung Chiu-wai, the star of "Goldfinger" , the three even reenacted plots in the movie together, such as Dapeng and Baike asking Tony Leung to invest in an annual meeting; in addition, "If You Are the One 3" used Qin Fen's social account to post about himself and Xiaoxiao in WeChat Moments They took a group photo together and said, “It’s been 15 years, and you are still the one accompanying me on New Year’s Eve! "This circle of friends has also received likes and comments from the creators' circle of friends such as "Goldfinger", "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop!", "Shuke Beta Penta UFO", etc. It can be seen that these movies have a common linkage in marketing; in addition, , "Twinkle Twinkle Star", "Goldfinger", "The Annual Party Can't Stop!", "If You Are the One 3", "Shuke Beta·Five-Pointed Flying Saucer" have also joined forces to create a project, printing the title of the film on the rocket to travel in space. Good luck to everyone.
Li Yulin affirmed the creative marketing methods. He believed that providing the audience with benefits other than movies really surprised the audience, but many methods still need further standardization and innovation. If it always revolves around "snow resort" , Beer Field, Lottery Field, Pet Field" not only quickly overdrawn the new ideas brought by creativity, but not every audience likes it. It is also necessary to explore marketing methods that the audience likes.
"Marketing has become the current movie An indispensable part of the market, successful marketing can indeed attract audiences and increase box office. These rituals enhance the audience's immersive movie-watching experience, and are indeed a major reason for this year's New Year's Day performance to hit a new high, but the content of the movie is still the key to determining the final box office.If cinemas can continue to innovate and improve the quality and effectiveness of marketing methods, and producers can ensure that the quality and content of the movies themselves meet the needs and aesthetics of the audience, then creative marketing such as 'Snow Resort' will also become the icing on the cake. the trend of. On the contrary, the reputation of the movie will be affected. Box office analyst Luo Tianwen said that in the future, "special marketing" may appear more frequently and in more diverse forms, which will inevitably further meet the needs of audiences and expand the market potential of films. Yin Tengyu, senior analyst at Maoyan Research Institute, emphasized that this year The New Year's Day schedule has a "good start". On the one hand, it further proves that the promotion is in line with the characteristics of the schedule and the needs of the audience, which has the effect of getting twice the result with half the effort; on the other hand, excellent reputation is still the key point for the film to ensure stable box office output or even breakthrough.
Luo Tianwen According to the analysis, the current "self-pleasant" movie consumption is particularly obvious. More and more audiences pay more attention to their own interests and preferences when choosing to watch movies, rather than blindly pursuing popular blockbusters. The current movie market is diversified and Personalized, everyone can choose different types of movies according to their own preferences, which also requires each movie to have its own characteristics. There is a lot of experience worth summarizing during the popular screening of each movie on New Year's Day this year, and there are still many ways for China to Movies to explore.
Beijing News reporter Zhou Huixiaowan
editor Huang Jialing
proofreader Zhai Yongjun
