The Spring Festival in 2024 can be described as a world of ice and fire.
Data released by the National Film Administration on February 18 showed that the box office revenue of the eight-day 2024 Spring Festival period in the Chinese film market reached 8.016 billion yuan, breaking the record of 7.822 billion yuan for the same period in 2021 and setting a record high.
Among them, " is hot and hot " leads the box office, and " Speeding Life 2", " Bears Reverse Time and Space " and " Article 20 " rank second to fourth in the Spring Festival box office list.
In sharp contrast, four of the eight movies released during the Spring Festival this year have officially announced their withdrawal. Half of the eight movies have been withdrawn. Some netizens jokingly called this year the "first year of withdrawal."
Some are happy and some are sad. While breaking the box office record, they are collectively canceling the release. What happened to this Spring Festival release?
There are 4 movies in the schedule Box office 1 billion + movie
On the afternoon of the third day of the Lunar New Year, Ms. Zhou and her family went to a theater in her hometown of Shaoyang to watch "The Bears: Reverse Time and Space". This is the largest IP in the domestic family animation circuit and has accumulated a lot of children's audiences. Ms. Zhou's daughter is one of them.
"There were not many available tickets for "Bear Bears" that day. I originally wanted to buy a seat in the middle of the theater, but in the end there were only a few seats left in the first three rows." Ms. Zhou told the Xiaoxiang Morning News reporter that every Spring Festival and Watching movies together as a family has become a habit.
During the Spring Festival, Ms. Zhou and her family watched several popular movies such as "Hot and Furious", "Bear Infested: Reverse Time and Space", "Flying Life 2" and "Article 20". This is also one of the top four box office movies during this year’s Spring Festival.
"Hot and Spicy" directed by Jia Ling took the lead in the schedule starting from the second day, and the current box office has exceeded 2.8 billion. Directed and written by Han Han and starring Shen Teng, "Flying Life 2" has a box office of more than 2.4 billion yuan. The IP animated film "Bear Infested: Reverse Time and Space" and the reality-themed film "Article 20" followed closely. As of 6:30 pm on February 18, the box office both exceeded 1.4 billion.
Chinese Movie Audience Satisfaction Survey･2024 Spring Festival Movie Survey results show that during this year’s Spring Festival movies, on the one hand, films such as "Hot", "Flying Life 2" and "Article 20" are based on family comedy elements, and are highly It is in line with the movie-watching atmosphere during the schedule. On the other hand, it realizes the care and thinking about social and personal destiny and growth, and is rooted in reality to warm the audience. At the same time, these high-quality contents highlight the professional, pure and sincere creative style, which has been highly recognized by the audience.
According to the "2024 Spring Festival Movie Data Insight Report" released by Maoyan Research Institute, during this year's Spring Festival, the proportion of tickets purchased from other places during the period accounted for 39.2%, a new high in the past five years; the box office share of third- and fourth-tier cities increased to 58.9%, reaching 58.9%. The highest level in five years; family viewing behavior of purchasing 3 or more movie tickets accounted for 26.4%, and the proportion is gradually increasing.
Retired movies performed poorly at the box office
On one hand, there were four films with a box office of over 1 billion, but on the other hand, there was a rare collective withdrawal.
This wave of withdrawals can be traced back to February 14. Fang Lianrui Pictures, the main producer of "Let's Shake the Sun Together," announced that the film will be screened on February 15, its last day, and will subsequently be withdrawn from the Spring Festival schedule.
16, two more movies announced their withdrawal.
The animated film "Huang Pi: The God of Wealth Cat" announced at about 8 o'clock that night that "see you later, see you in the world." At 11 o'clock in the evening, "Mr. Red Carpet" announced that it would withdraw from the Spring Festival schedule and would reschedule to meet the audience.
Half of the eight movies released during the Spring Festival have been withdrawn, which is extremely rare. Some netizens jokingly called this year the "first year of withdrawal." As the Spring Festival holiday was coming to an end, some netizens joked that #我also quit the Spring Festival stalls. The topic became the top trending topic on Weibo and received nearly 10,000 retweets and more than 80,000 likes.
It is worth noting that the box office of the four withdrawn movies did not reach the expected target. According to data from
Maoyan Professional Edition, the box office of "Huang Pi: The God of Wealth Cat" was 886,000 in the 9 days it was released, and the cumulative box office of "Bajie: The Lower World of the Canopy" was 3.323 million.
"Let's Shake the Sun Together" is the final chapter of director Han Yan's life trilogy. The previous two works were "Get Out, Mr. Tumor" and "Send You a Little Red Flower". In 2020, the box office of "A Little Red Flower for You" reached 1.432 billion yuan, and in 2015, "Get Out!" "Tumor King" had a box office of 511 million yuan.
Compared with the previous two works, the box office of "Let's Shake the Sun Together" before withdrawing from the Spring Festival was only more than 90 million yuan.
In addition, "Mr. Red Carpet" was originally scheduled to be released on November 17, 2023, but was later changed to New Year's Day. After 9 days of release, the film's cumulative box office was only 83.772 million, failing to break 100 million.
The film schedule and popularity are not as high as the top films
Overall, the box office, film schedule, and popularity of the four withdrawn films during the Spring Festival are far lower than those of the top films during this year's Spring Festival.
In terms of topicality, "Hot and Spicy" is the most discussed movie during this year's Spring Festival. The news that director Jia Ling "successfully lost 100 pounds" ignited the entire Internet and attracted a lot of attention. However, "Huang Pi: The God of Wealth Cat Descends from the Sky" and "Bajie: The Lower Realm of the Canopy" are full of "cannon fodder" attributes, and there is no splash in topic performance. In terms of
film schedule, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, the film schedule of the four withdrawn movies did not exceed 10%. On February 12, the movie "Bajie: Under the Canopy" also issued an emergency notification letter, calling on theaters to increase their schedule for the film. The film producer said that it took eight years to make the film, which was not easy. One of his partners passed away during the production of the film. However, the film's scheduling rate on New Year's Day was only 0.2%, and they hope to get support from the industry.
In addition, data shows that the top four films in this year’s Spring Festival season accounted for 97% of the total box office in that period.
A statement on the withdrawal of "Let's Shake the Sun Together" said: "There was a major mistake in the selection of the schedule, which failed to live up to the hard work of the director, actors, and many creators and staff in front of and behind the scenes." It was decided to be released again on March 30. The statements of "Mr. Red Carpet", "Huang Pi: The God of Wealth" and "Bajie: Under the Canopy" did not reveal when the films will be postponed.
In fact, there were also movies that were released and then withdrawn during the Spring Festival. The sports-themed movie "Chinese Table Tennis: The Last Strike" was released on January 24, 2023, the third day of the Lunar New Year. After receiving a box office of 40 million, it was urgently withdrawn from the Spring Festival schedule. The film was released again on February 17, and its performance was still poor after the re-release. The film's final cumulative box office was 100 million.
was also withdrawn after its release. The road ahead for the re-release of the four withdrawn movies is not optimistic.
's "2024 Spring Festival Movie Data Insights" analysis believes that on the one hand, popular schedules mean a huge market base, and on the other hand, they also mean a difficult test of content quality and publicity strategy. Only by accurately determining the main audience of moviegoers and understanding the emotional resonance points of the public can the film producers make correct efforts in production, publicity and other aspects to stimulate the public's enthusiasm for moviegoing.
Xiaoxiang Morning News reporter Luo Yaqi
