As of January 30, there are 9 films scheduled for the 2024 Spring Festival, including " Hot and Spicy ", " Speeding Life 2", "Article 20", "Mr. Red Carpet" and "Let's Shake the Sun Together" ”, “Bear Bears: Reverse Time and Space”, “Bajie: The Lower Realm of the Canopy”, “Breaking War” and “Huang Pi: The God of Wealth Cat descends from the sky”.
The 2024 Spring Festival will last for 8 days, which is longer than the 7 days in previous years, so it is called the "longest Spring Festival in history." The Beacon Professional Edition shows that in the current real-time want-to-watch ranking list, "Hot and Spicy" ranks first, "Flying Life 2" ranks second, and "Bear Infested: Reverse Time and Space" ranks third.
Jia Ling 's "Hot and Spicy" directed and starred in is one of the highlights of this Spring Festival. Jia Ling recently publicly stated that she lost 100 pounds for the film. In the previous 2021 Spring Festival, "Hello, Li Huanying" directed and starred by Jia Ling had a box office record of 5.4 billion yuan. China Film and Alibaba Pictures (Beijing) Co., Ltd. are the producers of the film. "Flying Life 2" directed by
Han Han and starring Shen Teng, Fan Chengcheng, Yin Zheng has also attracted much attention. The film's predecessor "Flying Life" was released during the Spring Festival in 2019, with a cumulative box office of 1.728 billion. China Film, Hengdian Film and Television and Bona Pictures (001330.sz) participated in the production and distribution of the film.
Regarding the officially announced film lineup, some voices in the industry believe that the upcoming Spring Festival schedule will be characterized by the "absence of blockbusters." Because there have been many blockbuster movies during the Spring Festival in the past few years, such as "The Wandering Earth" and "Shuimen Bridge of Changjin Lake", it is difficult for a single film to break the record during the Spring Festival this year.
Liu Chunsheng, a professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics, told China Business News that he basically agrees with the "absence of blockbusters" during the Spring Festival. "This Spring Festival film mainly focuses on comedy and animation. Five of the films are labeled as comedy, and there are three cartoons. The overall genre is relatively single, lacking special effects blockbusters and industrial blockbusters with strong appeal. However, "There is no shortage of famous directors, stars and IPs in this year's Spring Festival."
Young playwright and director Xiang Kai does not agree with the view of "absence of blockbusters". In his opinion, although this Spring Festival stall cannot be said to be a hundred flowers blooming, the content of the Spring Festival stall can still meet the needs of the audience. The content and themes cover multiple groups of people and multiple age groups, and overall meet the viewing needs of Spring Festival reunions, and the lineup is relatively complete. In addition, it is not ruled out that there may be "airborne" movies approaching the Spring Festival, because some film producers are observing the current box office pre-sales situation during the Spring Festival. Therefore, during the Spring Festival, there may also be unknown films that break out and become dark horses at the box office.
"The current movie market is recovering strongly, and this year's Spring Festival box office is expected to hit a record high, because this year's Spring Festival is the longest Spring Festival in history. In the past 2023, the box office performance of every holiday period has been quite impressive , especially the 2023 summer season, which has broken through a record high, giving a shot in the arm to the recovery of the entire Chinese film market. The Chinese film market has moved towards a more ideal state." Xiang Kai said.
Sun Jiashan, an associate researcher at the Central Academy of Culture and Tourism Management and a critic signed by the Beijing Federation of Literary and Art Circles, believes that this Spring Festival film does not have top IPs like "The Wandering Earth 2", but the supply of genres is still relatively abundant. The strengths of each film are also relatively close, so the competition will be very fierce. It is estimated that the box office will be a "you versus me" situation. The box office during the entire Spring Festival period will also change greatly depending on factors such as word-of-mouth. The previous IP series of "Bear Bears: Reversal of Time and Space" has a clear positioning and share during the Spring Festival every year, and with the support of Fantawild Entertainment World and offline derivatives, it should continue its previous performance this year. "Article 20" is a reality-themed comedy film directed by Zhang Yimou. It focuses on reality but is also humorous. It also has many big names in the cast, so it may have a better performance. "Hot" is worth looking forward to whether Jia Ling can make a breakthrough in the sports theme genre based on "Hello, Li Huanying".
Liu Chunsheng believes that with the recovery of the film market, audience demand for movie viewing may be further released. There is no suspense that the overall box office will exceed the same period during the epidemic, and may even reach a new high. After all, the 2023 summer season has already set a record for the same period. As one of the important periods in the Chinese film market, the Spring Festival has a high degree of attention and box office appeal. However, the box office performance of the Spring Festival movie is also affected by various factors such as film quality, market competition, ticket prices, etc. Which movie can finally detonate the Spring Festival movie depends on the audience's reputation.
