The 2024 Chinese New Year movie season has concluded, and the eight-day long holiday has given the market more room to release.
Lighthouse Pro data. According to data from
Lighthouse Professional Edition, as of February 17, the Chinese film Year of the Dragon Spring Festival has a cumulative box office of 8.02 billion yuan, and the number of moviegoers exceeds 160 million, both of which are the highest in the history of the period. Considering that this year’s Spring Festival period has one more day than previous years, if the previous seven days were calculated at 7.499 billion yuan, this result would rank third in the Spring Festival period over the years. Among them, " hot " and " speeding life 2" entered the 2 billion yuan club, and by the end of the holiday, they had earned 2.713 billion yuan and 2.394 billion yuan respectively; "Article 20" and "Bear Infested· Both films, "Reverse Time and Space", have grossed nearly 1.4 billion yuan, and are expected to have a long-tail effect after the holidays based on word-of-mouth.
On the one hand, the total box office and total number of moviegoers reached a record high during the Spring Festival. On the other hand, the withdrawal of four films, screen shooting and other viewing etiquette caused controversy - the most important time of the year not only delivers real results, but also faces real propositions. . Yin Hong, vice chairman of the China Film Association and vice chairman of the Chinese Literary Critics Association, wrote: "The Year of the Dragon has raised its head, but to be alive and vigorous, it still requires calling on the wind and rain, and meeting the wind and clouds."
meets the emotional needs of the New Year, and produces big benefits at a medium cost
"Hot and Spicy" poster
It is different from the "one super, many strong" pattern in the past few years. The Spring Festival movie of the Year of the Dragon does not have a huge investment, a super IP, or even a highly industrialized first movie. Such a schedule has successfully produced great benefits. Behind the record, multiple links in the market have formed a synergy.
Yin Hong said: "The top four box office movies during the Spring Festival are intertwined, with different orientations for women, men, adults, young children and families, which together contribute to the prosperity of the film market. From the National Film Administration to local management agencies in Beijing and Shanghai It has provided preferential subsidies totaling over 100 million yuan, and also called on the market to lower ticket prices to allow more viewers to enter theaters."
Looking at it generally, comedy has once again become the mainstream of the schedule. On the first day of the new year, "Hot and Spicy", "Flying Life 2", "Article 20", "Bear Infested·Reversal of Time and Space", " Mr. Red Carpet ", " Let's Shake the Sun Together " " Huang Pi: Falling from the Sky" Eight films including "Cat of Wealth " and "Bajie: The Lower World of the Canopy" were released. The first five of them all belong to the "comedy +" genre fusion, and the first three are even more or less connected with "ideals".
"Hot and Spicy" is adapted from the Japanese film "One Hundred Dollars of Love". The core of "burning" in the original film is placed in the Chinese local context. The creator's own nationality and real experience are used to find the right point of convergence. . Jia Ling not only dedicated her body to the film, she also did not hesitate to thoroughly show her life experience, "gamble" on the schedule with a rigorous countdown that is difficult to replicate. It’s unimaginable what kind of predicament the entire film would be in if that year’s weight loss experience had suffered setbacks and stagnation. From this perspective, what she has achieved is not only the integration of the on- and off-screen values of female creators, but also the creation of a new dimension in film criticism.
As a sequel movie, "Flying Life 2" is still a mixture of comedy and racing elements, and the script and production are better than the previous film. In his new work, Han Han hides his pain, but it is the underlying sadness of the comedy that touches many middle-aged people. You have failed once or even many times in your life, and the downhill road seems to be inevitable. Do you want to try it again and get inspired again? In the film, questions are asked over and over again, and answers are given layer by layer. Audiences who have been with Han Han's works for many years left a message after reading it: "As a generation of creators and audiences, we have grown up together and have reached a similar stage of life - concealing the inner passion and blood for a self-consistent appearance, but always At that moment we knew that enthusiasm is not residual, but full."
"Article 20" actually implements the popularization of the law, but Zhang Yimou chose to interpret the legal interpretation of "legitimate defense" in a short-sighted, laughing and scolding way. For the injustice of "good people suffering", it touches people with emotion and analyzes legal principles with fairness and justice that ordinary people understand. Interestingly, the film also talks about whether people should fight for their ideals and regain their original aspirations when they reach middle age, and combines this with the theme of the film.
In addition to the "Bear Bears" series, which has a clear target audience and has focused on family viewing with young children to obtain "stable happiness" for many years, the other three movies that have been fully loaded during the Spring Festival all point to a realistic thinking: during the New Year period, the public is most likely to watch movies. What are universal emotional needs? Just like the protagonist in the movie, when life falls into a temporary quagmire, cheering up for your ideals is still the final choice. The plan for the year lies in spring. During the Spring Festival, for a more uplifting spirit and a greater sense of personal value, go to the theater, or watch movies, the emotional logic of the "new folk custom" during the New Year.
Chinese films under the new pattern still need more great wisdom
While achieving outstanding results, four films, "Let's Shake the Sun Together", "Huang Pi: The God of Wealth Cat from the Sky", "Mr. Red Carpet" and "Bajie: The Lower World of the Canopy" A few days after its release, it was officially announced that the film would be withdrawing from the Spring Festival schedule. See you again in the world.
Although there is no shortage of companions in major schedules, including the Spring Festival, and the film market also applies the "28/20 law" of economics, four films will be withdrawn from the market for the first time in 2024, especially those directed by Ning Hao and starring Andy Lau. The withdrawal of the movie "Mr. Red Carpet" still caused shock inside and outside the industry - the supply-side reform of the Chinese film market has indeed reached the time to break misunderstandings, find good strategies, and open up a new pattern. As Yin Hong said, "On the one hand, the withdrawal is to provide a buffer and pavement for subsequent issuance; on the other hand, it also shows that the supply of Spring Festival stalls requires stronger competitiveness and more precise positioning."
Among the four withdrawn films, "Huang Pi: The God of Wealth Cat descends from the sky" and "Bajie: Under the Canopy" are animated films with traditional cultural genes. They even take elements from "Journey to the West". It seems that the audience is destined to Can be expected. However, when the postponement was announced, the box office of the two films was only 900,000 yuan and 3.2 million yuan, which was less than the half-hour harvest of "Hot and Spicy". "Their withdrawal actually breaks a misunderstanding or schedule superstition: the market for popular schedules is high and the track is wide, and any film can get a share of the pie." Wu Hehu, a film market expert, analyzed that the particularity of movie viewing schedules is related to the most popular ones throughout the year. Fierce marketing competition is attacking from both sides, and the situation of box office polarization and winner-take-all during popular periods has become more and more obvious in recent years. Taking this Spring Festival period as an example, the top four films took over 97% of the box office share during the period.
If it is difficult to judge the quality of the two withdrawn cartoons due to the small viewing base, then "Let's Shake the Sun Together" and "Mr. Red Carpet", as new works by well-known filmmakers, have accumulated good reputations. Do good movies really get buried? Rao Shuguang, president of the China Film Critics Society, cited "Let's Shake the Sun Together" as an example. He believed that the film's postponement was reasonable because its theme did not match the traditional family-friendly and auspicious viewing atmosphere of the Spring Festival. "But no matter how big the box office is, it is the most mature and natural part of Han Yan's life trilogy, and it is also the best work so far by two young actors, Peng Yuchang and Li Gengxi." Critics said that good movies need more people Seeing that, it may be a wise choice to withdraw and wait until March 30 to see you again. It was approaching the Qingming Festival, which was more suitable for the dissemination and fermentation of this life-and-death movie.
What is worth pondering is that the other two interludes that have nothing to do with the content of the movie have also become very popular during the Spring Festival. At the Nanjing roadshow of "Article 20", due to a mistake in the theater arrangement, the roadshow time was occupied by other shows. There was a dispute at the scene where the audience reprimanded the main creator on the stage; and a star singer was criticized for using the social platform Amway's "Flying Life 2". The photo was taken with the screen off, causing an uproar on the Internet. The former exposed the unprofessionalism of the cinema, while the latter was a popular lesson in movie-going etiquette for the public.
As the Spring Festival of the year that coexists with excitement and disputes comes to an end, Rao Shuguang said: "Chinese movies in a larger context still need more wisdom, and the audience's consumption needs the supply side to provide more rational choices." During the most golden period, works representing the professionalism, artistry, industrialization and internationalization of Chinese films can celebrate the New Year for the audience and start the New Year with the people across the country - this is the real future of Chinese films.
Author: Wang Yan
Text: Wang Yan Editor: Fan Jing
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