Picture source @Visual China
text | Entertainment talk, author | Xiang Xiang, editor | Zhu Ting
Finally, there is no need to look forward to the next spring when writing a movie summary. Of course, if the comparison is to the past three years.
According to a report from Maoyan Research Institute, in 2023, the total box office of the movie box office market reached 54.915 billion, a year-on-year increase of 83.4%.
Looking purely at the results of the data, the main reason why the box office performance is not as good as that of 2019 is not caused by domestic movies. According to statistics from the Beacon Professional Edition, in 2023, the total box office of domestic movies will reach 46 billion yuan, breaking a new record, accounting for 84% of the box office. But at the same time, since 2020, the performance of imported films has plummeted, returning directly to the double-digit era from 23.091 billion yuan in 2019.
html’s box office performance of 446 billion yuan corresponds to 432 new domestic films.
It is not difficult to see from the total number that this year’s domestic film market is indeed a bustling year. At the same time, this is also a magical year in which media predictions are always wrong, box office dark horses emerge from time to time, and box office myths are written every now and then.
There is no doubt that the past three years have silently completely changed the consumption patterns of the film market. Standing on the ruins of the old patterns, moviegoers and filmmakers are rapidly iterating on the new industry development patterns.
Short video, public opinion field and big stage
The big time slot effect is still an important law in the distribution of box office data throughout the year, and the Spring Festival stalls still play the role of a good start. What has changed is that the situation of focusing on various prime time slots has changed. Now, it is an era when the summer slot accounts for nearly 40% of the annual box office, and one company is the only one.
As the big schedule effect intensifies, movie marketing has obviously become more important.
And as mentioned above, for the film market, 2023 is a turbulent year where changes and opportunities coexist. And through the spring, summer, autumn and winter, the fermenting stage of film public opinion has gradually changed its decoration. After years of hard work and precipitation, Douyin movie marketing was quickly put on the table this year. However, the scope of fermentation was too large and wide. This dinner table, which should have been stable, seemed a little shaky.
It is worth mentioning that whether it is "Man Jiang Hong" or "The Wandering Earth 2", the promotion arrangements on Weibo and Douyin highlight a bowl of water, and the hot topics on both sides have not fallen behind. The slight difference is that , "Man Jiang Hong", which went further on Douyin, finally won the box office championship during the Spring Festival.
In contrast to the big-time effect, except for the golden cycle other than the big-time period, the market in other periods appears to be more deserted.
Until the Dragon Boat Festival, there was no huge wave in the market. It was not until "The Vanishing Her", as the pioneer of summer movies, that it entered the market first.
Looking back, this year’s summer season mainly highlighted the theme of "you sing and then we appear". Among them, the Douyin stage opened with a bang.
Before the soldiers and horses move, the food and grass go first. Here, the topic of love brain in "The Lost Girl" is still fermenting. The boat has crossed the Ten Thousand Mountains and has already crossed thousands of mountains and rivers on Douyin. Wang Chuanjun of "All or Nothing" has already worshiped the Buddha statue on Douyin for a long time. .
When the public opinion field shifted to short videos, coupled with the popular short video BGM, it was full of dramatic conflicts in less than one minute. In the social spectacle and movie topic carnival created by people, the right to speak about movie watching seems to have been changed from the elitist professional film media to a model of public participation - through likes on short videos. vote.
What is certain is that 2024 is indeed a big year for Douyin movie marketing.
year-round carnival?
Faced with the shocking summer results, almost all film projects have chosen to increase their emphasis on short videos in their promotion work.
Of course, some people have great success, and winners are often imitated by future generations.After the box office miracle of the 3 billion club created by "The Lost Girl" and "All or Nothing" in the summer, the shadow of "shake-style movies" is always looming on the latecomers.
These videos that have a bit of a "shaking" flavor mainly come from two aspects.
is partly based on the theme of the movie based on current popular social issues - "The Vanishing Her" is based on wife murder in Southeast Asia, "All or Nothing" is about online fraud, and the subsequent "I Passed the Storm" focuses on women who have been domestically abused, " "Walking through the Angry Sea" focuses on the original family, "School Dad" shows parents' educational anxiety, "Hot Search" talks about cyber violence...
part is adapted from the "Predecessor" series, published by Douyin "Flow formula".
Director Zhang Yimou, who has been in the industry for many years, still used the gimmick in the short video of "Sturdy as a Rock" that "the leading actor's acting skills are too good to scare the director." In the promotion of "Mr. Red Carpet", Andy Lau still couldn't escape the "not sleeping for a month." His acting skills shocked the director." The "director was shocked" and the audience had already seen the numb reaction of crying in the cinema and Wu Jing's visit, which was jokingly called the three-piece set released by TikTok on Douyin.
Similar promotional three-piece set, as well as similar slogans - "Mistake by the River": "If you don't have the answer, it's better to go crazy", "Second-hand Masterpiece": "Succeed first, then go crazy", "Priceless Treasure": "Zhang Yi "Bringing Up Children" starring a crazy person" and "Rescue the Suspect": "The year's craziest female anti-murder crime suspense blockbuster"... After the end of the summer season of
, almost all the films followed the same promotion path. First, have close contact with Douyin online, and then do "Subject Three" offline. It seems that after completing the process of getting into movies, you can announce your complete entry into the sinking market, and you can look forward to a new box office myth.
However, the seamless promotion and distribution of homogeneous and high-density videos makes audiences and creators tired. Zhang Yi's refusal to skip subject three during the road show of his new film is more like a vocal resistance to this year's carnival - is it really time to stop? After the summer release of
, short video promotions tailor-made for the film became rare, and everyone unanimously chose to test the waters with a three-piece promotion package first, but the new box office myth almost never reappeared. There are many negative examples of
. For example, "Parrot Killing" and "Winter" starring Zhou Dongyu were completely separated from the audience of literary and artistic films, and were judged as entertainment by the public, becoming new memes on the Internet. For movies, this situation is obviously more harmful, but for Douyin, it is feedback. After all, with hot memes, traffic will also be there.
It is reported that "Burning Winter" only has a 5.6 score on Douban, and the film's box office is only 26.07 million; "Parrot Killing" is also in the same boat, with a box office of less than 40 million, and a Douban score of only 5.4. As literary and artistic films with certain commercial attributes, "Parrot Killing" or "Burning Winter" also received in-depth analysis and praise from fans on Douban, but they were drowned in the carnival noise of the Internet.
Obviously, this short video movie marketing carnival led by Douyin is not suitable for all movies, and is even losing some movie users.
"Sentiment" Waterloo
And those that are even less popular are imported films.
With the release of "Aquaman 2" and the re-release of "La La Land", the results of imported films in 2023 can basically be fixed here. Throughout 2023, there will be less than 80 imported films released in the mainland, which cannot even keep up with the number of new domestic films released in the summer. Even though there are "Fast and Furious 10" and "Mission: Impossible 7", except for "Avatar 2", the number will span from the end of 2022 to 2023. In 2017, the cumulative box office was 1.698 billion, and there was no player in the 1 billion club of other imported films.
In the overall sluggish atmosphere of imported films, in the spring, the Japanese-imported "Lingya Journey" and "Slam Dunk" performed relatively well, breaking the previous box office record of "Your Name" with 807 million and 660 million.
Hollywood is wailing. Whether it is superheroes or super action movies, they can no longer attract the attention of the audience. "Transformers: Rise of the Super Warriors", "Mission: Impossible 7: Reckoning (Part 1)", "Ant-Man" Compared with Wasp 3, Black Panther 2, etc., the box office is not even half of the previous one. The box office of the veteran IP "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is only more than 23 million. Although
is a sequel, it can no longer achieve the same influence as before.
After domestic films shifted their main promotion position to short videos, imported films still used the old-school press releases and roadshows as a single promotion method. They had no chance in the promotion market where short video positions were basically occupied by domestic films. There is no advantage at all, and the chances of being seen by the audience may also be reduced.
The publicity and distribution of
cannot keep up. The main reason is that the content is obviously not suitable for the local environment.
According to the "Wall Street Journal", the reason for the decline of Hollywood is the change in the tastes of Chinese audiences. "Even Tom Cruise can't attract Chinese people to watch Hollywood blockbusters. Some viewers think superhero movies like "Captain America" and "Spider-Man" are too superficial."
It’s not that Chinese people’s tastes have changed, selling emotions is really important. In addition to big scenes and old faces, Hollywood’s sequels have indeed regressed too much in terms of plot. The first generation of superheroes is no longer there, and action blockbusters are becoming more and more anti-physics. logic. After past epidemics and this year's general strike, only the original cast of the emotional Hollywood blockbusters are left with uneven levels. New films such as "The Little Mermaid" and "Elemental City" are seriously acclimated to American political correctness.
The more important reason is that domestic films, at least in terms of quantity, have indeed filled some of the gaps - there are no Hollywood blockbusters that are as good-looking as before, and it seems that they have indeed become less important.
Like many industries, 2023 in the film industry is also a good time for changes and opportunities to coexist. New gameplays have emerged, new players have entered the game, and domestic films are facing the best recovery. Even if Douyin’s announcement is too much, it does make us disgusted. But the movie itself is innocent.
We can only hope that after the initial chaos, the movie will eventually return to the positive cycle of being rewarded by telling stories well.
sprouts again
The good news is that this is still the best era for movies.
Looking at the data alone, according to the Beacon Professional Edition, the box office performance in 2023 has increased significantly by 70% compared to the past three years, returning to the level of 2017. The number of moviegoers in urban cinemas throughout the year once again exceeded 500 million, and the number of viewers entering cinemas has changed. There are more, and the number of viewers who often go to movie theaters is also on the rise. What
is sure of is that we still need movies.
And now, perhaps it is also the best time for creators and practitioners.
On the other hand, although the box office is not as good as before, imported films are indeed picking up, at least in terms of the number of introductions. This year, overseas key films such as "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" were successfully introduced and met with everyone at home, and Japanese animation set a new record.
On the other hand, the backlog of domestic films has been released to a certain extent. For example, "Crossing the Angry Sea" and "Solid as a Rock" were also successfully released this year. In terms of subject matter, domestic films such as genre films and crime films have increased significantly, which is a good sign.
looks forward to the "future" closest to us - the Spring Festival period in 2024. As the most luxurious period in the near future, although she still half-covers her face with her pipa, Jia Ling's new work "Hot and Spicy" has been determined to lose 100 pounds in the past two days. " and the ultra-luxurious lineup of "Twenty One" have reserved seats as the forwards, as well as Han Han's "Flying Life 2" and Ning Hao and Andy Lau's "Mr. Red Carpet" are the first to enter the game. It is known that six films are competing for the Spring Festival slot, and the excitement is no less than last year.
It is true that only good soil can produce good fruits, and a leaf can also tell the spring. 2024 is a new year full of hope for the film industry.
