On January 8, the news that the global box office revenue of the film "Taylor Swift: Time Tour" (hereinafter referred to as "Time Tour") surpassed that of Michael Jackson's concert movie "This Is It" was posted on Weibo's hot search. With a box office of over US$261.6 million, the film became the highest-grossing concert movie in the world. Different from the common narrative techniques of movies, "Time Tour" is more like a concert video, allowing the audience to film in the theater, sing and dance along with the music, and wave light sticks. Looking at the market, "Era Tour" is not the first case of concerts being monetized through theaters. Singers including Cui Jian, Deng Ziqi and other singers have had similar movies released online. According to industry insiders, concert movies provide the industry with a new window to examine the value of concerts. However, this model cannot be directly copied. It needs to be judged based on the artist and the performance situation. How to use movie narrative to "re-sing" the concert is also Testing the production team.
0 million cost leverages hundreds of millions in revenue
According to Beacon Professional Edition, as of 16:00 on January 8, the total domestic box office of "Time Tour" reached 68.05 million yuan, with more than 1.31 million moviegoers, ranking sixth in the box office list. In terms of word-of-mouth, "Times Tour" scored 9.3 points on Douban.
The promotional points of concert movies are almost all aimed at "shocking sound effects" and "presence-like audio-visual experience."
Taking the first Saturday after the release of "Time Tour" (i.e. January 6) as an example, according to incomplete statistics by reporters, the film had 162 screenings, of which more than 110 were held in the "Dolby Atmos Auditorium". "Dolby Cinema" theaters or theaters with the "Dolby Cinema" label.
From the perspective of practitioners, a concert movie is a digital copy of the content of the concert, using lens language to give fans who cannot be present a sense of liveness. Wang Yi, founder of
Yimi Watch, pointed out that from the perspective of content production, "Time Tour", like most previous concert movies, is not a movie in the strict sense and does not have a clear plot line, character relationships, and scene changes. and other movie elements, more like a documentary. Being popular in the market is due to the appeal of celebrity IPs on the one hand, and the imbalance between supply and demand for offline performance tickets on the other. Through refined re-production, movies are used to meet the overflowing demand for performances.
"Times Tour" is not the music industry's first attempt in the theater market.
According to public information, music festival films including "Monterey Pop Festival" and "Woodstock Music Festival", as well as singer Michael Jackson's concert film "This Is It", have been on the Internet many years ago. On the big screen. Domestically, concert films of singers such as Cui Jian and Deng Ziqi have also been released.
"The extremely cost-effective profit margin is undoubtedly one of the reasons why concert creators have crossed over to the film market." Music critic Zhou Lin further said that from specific data, the film production cost of "Time Tour" was US$15 million. , has already generated hundreds of millions of dollars in box office. The previous Justin Bieber concert movie cost $13 million and finally brought in a box office of $99 million.
Zhou Lin also added that on the one hand, concert movies, as derivatives of concerts, can fill the gap period of singers in the form of independent works and effectively maintain the loyalty of music fans. On the other hand, through movies, singers can achieve cross-border Break the circle and reach a larger audience, thereby increasing your own popularity.
High-quality output expands coverage
Undoubtedly, concert movies also supplement the diversified content of movie theaters.
In the view of Zeng Pan, the person in charge of the theater, concert movies have enriched the theater's content reserves of different categories. Such films usually focus on sound and visual effects, so they are also an opportunity for the theater to show the level of projection hardware facilities to the outside world, thereby improving the theater. brand value.
The box office influence of this concert movie is no accident. "In addition to the fan consumption brought about by the artist's own market influence, the theater itself is diversifying its operations, and new formats such as performances and event broadcasts have appeared in the market, paving the way for the audience to accept the format of concert movies. ." Wang Yi said.
's professional film and television production team joins the promotion of the concert project, which is expected to become a new trend in the industry. In Wang Yi's view, concert movies are still "fan-oriented" and are still a niche subject for the entire market. For some large-scale concerts in China, the concert documentary itself will also be prepared. On this basis, a professional team in the film industry will refine it and embed the plot and character design in it, which can also effectively enhance the entire work. The "movie feel".
The market influence of artists and the profit margin of movies are also key points that the concert production team must consider. Wang Yi further talked about that if a leading artist receives 20 million to 30 million yuan in box office revenue from a single concert, excluding corresponding costs such as artist performance fees, venue rentals, stage production, etc., what will be the profit margin after the tour is over? Balancing the cost of adding a professional film team to the production, in addition to the budget, the market influence of the artists and whether they can sell movie tickets all need to be considered. Adding concert movies will be a new trend, but at this stage it is more suitable for industry leaders. For mid-waist artists, budget preparation and cost recovery still need to be explored. Fans are looking forward to experiencing the carnival at the concert through concert movies, and some movie audiences want to understand the storyline and development of the film. If they want to make the concert movie cake bigger, the concert team and film producers will inevitably face some difficulties.
producer Li Sheng pointed out that successful concert movies require a certain level of production and marketing strategies to ensure that they attract enough audiences. Additionally, musicians and stakeholders need to retain sufficient creative and artistic control over film production to ensure that the final product faithfully conveys the atmosphere and artistic character of the concert.
(Source: Beijing Business Daily)
