" Mr. Red Carpet " starring Andy Lau was forced to withdraw from the Spring Festival schedule.
The reason is that the box office was too bad. The production budget was 260 million, and it was released for 8 days, but it only sold 82.3 million at the box office. With , investors will lose their money. During the period, in order to increase the box office of the party, the producer also posted a detailed bill of the film's production costs, hoping to generate a wave of sympathy. After all, even if it sells poorly, there is still quite a market for it in the film market.
The first movie to hit the box office through poor sales was "百鸟向风". At that time, producer Fang Li, who was filming "A Hundred Birds Pay Attendance to the Phoenix," knelt down directly under the live broadcast camera and begged the audience to support the box office. With this kneeling, the box office of "A Hundred Birds Pay Attendance to the Phoenix" increased, with cumulative box office sales of 86.92 million. This is a niche literary film that is not popular in the commercial market. There are two main reasons why "A Hundred Birds Pay Attention to the Phoenix" can hit the box office by kneeling down:
One is sincerity. The second is to promote traditional culture. producer Fang Li spent 2 million of his own money to make a 99% non-profitable literary film, mainly because he wanted to promote the traditional Chinese musical instrument: the suona. It is precisely because of "A Hundred Birds Pay Attendance to the Phoenix" and the spread of short videos that has completely ignited Chinese people's enthusiasm for suona. Suona is no longer an old and unpopular musical instrument, but a famous and popular fried chicken. The audience is willing to pay for Fang Li's sincerity and Chinese traditional culture.
The movie "A Hundred Birds Pay Attendance to the Phoenix" itself is also a touching work of sincerity.
At that time, many people criticized Fang Li for his poor performance, but Fang Li's shocking kneeling reflected two cruel realities: First, high-quality niche literary films do not make money, and directors have to kneel to make money. . Second, if it sells badly, it can indeed earn box office.
With this case, many movies began to promote in the direction of poor sales. The captain remembers that when "Wolf Warrior 2" was released, it was a hit at the box office. However, in order to further increase the box office, the film studio still carried out a large-scale miserable promotion. For example, Wu Jing mortgaged his villa in order to film "Wolf Warrior 2".
Later, the first part of "Feng Shen" opened low and did not do well at the box office. Director Wu Ershan also suffered from repeated misfortunes. If the first part of "Feng Shen" loses money, Wu Ershan will have to bear a debt that will take ten years to repay, and the second part of "Feng Shen" may not be released. But in fact, the "Feng Shen" series adopts a continuous shooting of three parts. The second and third parts have been filmed long ago, but post-production will take some time.
After a lot of miserly publicity, "Fengshen" opened low and went high, reversed the reputation, not only recovered the cost, but also made a small profit. However, there are also those that failed miserably. A typical case is Wu Yue's 15 million yuan investment in the production of the online movie "Standing in the Way". The box office on the first day of release was only 194,000, which was a total loss. What's even worse is that the live-action online movie "Bad Man Who Draws Jianghu" directly bankrupted the producer.
Faced with such low-quality online movies, the director and producer went bankrupt and could not save the box office at all. "Mr. Red Carpet" is not low in quality. It exposes a large number of ugly hidden rules in the film and television industry and satirizes the film and television industry through black comedy mode. Ning Hao wanted to make a commercial film, but also full of literary and artistic flavor.
The most popular movies during the Spring Festival have always been family comedies, which are mainly "watching for fun". Audiences don't like to watch a movie full of metaphors and satire during the Spring Festival. In terms of producers of , "Mr. Red Carpet" is almost single-handedly produced by Huanxi Media, commonly known as: "Eating alone." lacks a co-producer, and other film and television media companies are bound to suppress "Mr. Red Carpet", and " Hot" Behind "Hot " and "Flying Life 2", there are a large number of producers and publishers, which can create a pattern where multiple parties benefit.
The Chinese film market is essentially a marketing market. Any losses on the marketing side will be directly reflected in the box office. As the leading actor, Andy Lau has long lost his box office appeal in today's era.Not only is Andy Lau gone, but Jackie Chan has long been unable to handle the mainland box office market. Because the real main consumer force of mainland movies has become the post-90s and post-00s generations. These Hong Kong stars are too old and have been away from the spotlight for too long.
Hong Kong directors, actors, screenwriters, etc. have completely fallen behind the times. This is related to the limitations of Hong Kong itself. Hong Kong is just a tiny place. 30 years ago, Hong Kong people were making police and criminal movies, and 30 years later, Hong Kong people are still making police and criminal movies. When Wu Jing was filming "Changjin Lake", Hong Kong people were filming the "Anti-Drug" trilogy. When Kwok Fan was filming "The Wandering Earth", Hong Kong people were filming "Tomorrow's War". Hong Kong can no longer lead China’s film culture.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Hong Kong's martial arts films, police and gangster films, Young and Dangerous films and other film and television dramas were essentially Jianghu films focusing on street fighting. They emphasized brotherhood and loyalty, and were incompatible with the mainstream culture of today's China. We want to revive the glory of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and we also pursue individual value. "Hot" touches on feminism, while "Flying Life 2" is the complete opposite. Han Han removed all the heroines and created it specifically as a passionate comedy about male drivers.
The audience for industry themes such as "Mr. Red Carpet" is too small. 's "Wolf Warrior" and "Changjin Lake" series of battles represented by Wu Jing satisfy the universal patriotism of the rise of great powers, "Hot and Spicy" exports female power, and "Flying Life 2" also represents The blood and passion of surrender. If Hong Kong directors and Hong Kong actors want to regain the mainland film market, they must go out of Hong Kong and look at the whole of China, enlarge their horizons, expand their structure, break away from the original market culture, and interpret the Chinese stock market with a more grand spirit. .
But the decline of Hong Kong’s film and television industry is inevitable. Because 30 years ago, the prosperity of Hong Kong film and television was based on the backwardness of mainland China. Now that the mainland has caught up, Hong Kong film and television will naturally return to its original status.
It’s not just Andy Lau who can’t hold the box office, but the entire Hong Kong film and television industry.
