In the past three years, the box office of the Spring Festival movie season has exceeded 6 billion yuan every year. It is the time of the year when the movie box office is most concentrated and the box office competition is fiercest. Previously, there were " Hot and Spicy ", "Flying Life 2", "Article 20", "Mr. Red Carpet", " Let's Shake the Sun Together ", "Bear Infested·Reverse Time and Space" and "Bajie: The Lower World of the Canopy". Nine movies including "Breaking War" and "Huang Pi: The God of Wealth Cat" have been officially announced to be released for the 2024 Spring Festival. Among them, "Breaking War" will premiere tomorrow (16th).
As the 2024 Spring Festival season enters the second half, the box office gap between the eight Spring Festival movies released on the first day of the new year is getting wider and wider. "Hot and Spicy" directed and starring Jia Ling has exceeded 2.2 billion yuan, and "Flying Speed" has exceeded 2.2 billion yuan. The box office of "Life 2" also followed closely, exceeding 1.9 billion yuan. As of now, the box office of "Let's Shake the Sun Together" and " Mr. Red Carpet " have not exceeded 100 million yuan. On the evening of the 14th, Fang Lianrui Pictures, the producer of "Let's Shake the Sun Together," suddenly announced that it would withdraw from the Spring Festival schedule, saying that it had made a major mistake in selecting the schedule.
A Spring Festival film suddenly announced its withdrawal. "Let's Shake the Sun Together" is not the first time. Last year, " China Ping Pong: Jedi Counterattack " co-directed by Deng Chao and Yu Baimei also announced its withdrawal from the Spring Festival. Why do some films repeatedly withdraw from the Spring Festival schedule? Are these films really not suitable for release during the Spring Festival? Recently, Red Star News reporters interviewed many industry insiders.
Cinema Manager: The tone of the film is not in line with the New Year atmosphere
On the evening of 14th, Lianrui Pictures announced that the movie "Let's Shake the Sun Together" has decided to withdraw from the Spring Festival schedule and postponed its release to March 30. It will be released on February 15 It is the last day the film will be screened during the Spring Festival. Lian Rui Pictures also stated that as the main producer of "Let's Shake the Sun Together", it made a major mistake in selecting the schedule and failed to live up to the hard work of the director, actors and many creatives and staff in front of and behind the scenes.
The movie "Let's Shake the Sun Together" is directed by Han Yan, starring Peng Yuchang and Li Gengxi. As the final chapter of Han Yan's "Trilogy of Life" series, it continues director Han Yan's previous work "Get Out!" The philosophical thoughts and discussions on love and life issues in "Tumor King" and "Send You a Little Red Flower" continue to focus on the joys and sorrows in the fate of ordinary people.
The film tells the story of "brainless" Lu Tu and "unhappy" Ling Min, two young people who are seriously ill but have very different personalities. Because of the agreement of "Relay for Life", they accidentally embark on a journey full of love and friendship. A healing journey of strength.
A viewing party was held before the release of "Let's Shake the Sun Together". At that time, many people in the industry said that the film was not suitable for the Spring Festival. A movie theater manager who did not want to be named said that as the Spring Festival is a traditional Chinese festival, people are more interested in happiness, joy, and family reunion. In terms of film selection, comedies and family-friendly films are more popular among the audience. "The tone of the film is not in line with the Chinese New Year atmosphere," however, the manager also said that the quality of the film itself and the acting level of the actors are very good, and he believes that it will have good box office output when it is released at a more suitable time in the future.
After the film was released, some viewers said that the story was very emotional and made them cry several times while others said that the film was too full of emotions and made people cry every five minutes. It was indeed not suitable for a Spring Festival release.
Industry insiders: The unsatisfactory box office performance on Valentine's Day may be the direct reason for the film's withdrawal
Industry insiders analyzed that the unsatisfactory box office performance on February 14 (Valentine's Day) may be the direct reason for the film's withdrawal. The original target release date of "Let's Shake the Sun Together" should be the Valentine's Day release, but this year's Valentine's Day is stuck in the middle of the Spring Festival release. In addition, this year's Spring Festival release films are generally of good quality and the competition is fierce, especially "Hot and Spicy" and "Hot and Spicy". "Flying Life 2" performed extremely well and won a large number of film schedules from movie theaters. "Let's Shake the Sun Together" lagged behind during the Spring Festival due to its weak subject matter. The film studio admitted that it made a mistake and chose to withdraw the film in order to recover losses as much as possible.
Film critic Tan Fei said in an interview with a reporter from Red Star News that the announcement of the withdrawal of "Let's Shake the Sun Together" and its release date on March 30 was "reasonable but unexpected."He believes that it is difficult for a good-quality movie to grab a share when a few giants are relatively stable, and there is too little room for counterattack. In addition, the theme of the film does not match the atmosphere of traditional Spring Festival movies.
"This movie is suitable for long-term development, and the Spring Festival is not the most suitable period," Tan Fei said, "But I also think that regardless of the box office, it is the most mature and natural one in Han Yan's life trilogy, and it is also the most suitable one for Peng Yuchang, Li Gengxi's best work so far. A good movie needs more people to see it, and withdrawing it is the right choice. March 30 is close to the Qingming Festival, which is more suitable for the spread and fermentation of this life-and-death movie."
At present, in addition to "Let's Shake the Sun Together" which has officially announced its withdrawal from the Spring Festival schedule, another film "Mr. Red Carpet" is also experiencing a slump at the box office. This film is directed by Ning Hao and Andy Lau and currently has a box office of just over 70 million yuan.
Director Ning Hao once said in an interview, "We have no shortage of lively movies. I am tired of it myself and want to make a calmer one." In this regard, Mr. Xiao, an industry insider, said that "Mr. Red Carpet" " "Calm down" is really not suitable for the Spring Festival. On the one hand, because it tells the story of a movie star, it reveals some inside stories about the film and entertainment circles, and is far from ordinary audiences; on the other hand, because the way it tells the story is not that of a traditional commercial film, the whole film The film rarely uses dense dramatic scenes to narrate, and rarely uses soundtracks to express emotions and resonate with the audience. It requires the audience to more actively participate in and understand the story. "For audiences who are used to Spring Festival films to directly convey emotions, there is a certain threshold for movie viewing.”
The movie "China Ping Pong: The Last Strike", which was withdrawn from the Spring Festival last year, had a total box office of only 100 million yuan after its re-release. It remains to be seen whether the revised "Let's Shake the Sun Together" can make a comeback.
Red Star News reporter Zhang Shihao editor Wang Liqiang
