interface news reporter | Huang Wenbin
interface news editor | Jiang Yan
As of yesterday, the total national movie box office in February 2024 exceeded 11 billion yuan, of which nearly 8 billion yuan was generated during the Spring Festival period from February 10 to February 17 . More than 70% of the box office was generated in 8 days, which also shows the disparity in market popularity between the Spring Festival period and non-Spring Festival period.
The movie market has gradually cooled down after the Spring Festival. Take the single-day box office as an example. During the Spring Festival, the single-day box office was more than 700 million yuan. However, after the holiday, on the ninth and tenth days of the first lunar month, the single-day box office was halved to 480 million yuan and 340 million yuan. After the tenth day of the first lunar month, it has No film has exceeded 100 million in box office in a single day.
Rao Shuguang, president of the Chinese Film Critics Society, defines the period from the Spring Festival to the end of the first month as the "post-Spring Festival." According to Rao Shuguang's definition, February 18th to March 9th is the "post-Spring Festival period" in 2024. Maoyan Professional Edition data shows that the cumulative box office in the first week after the Spring Festival was 1.901 billion yuan, with 42.823 million weekly moviegoers and approximately 2.933 million screenings. Although the first week of the "post-Spring Festival stall" briefly continued the popularity of the Spring Festival stall, 1.901 billion yuan is already the highest single-week box office performance since 2024 except for the Spring Festival stall. However, compared with the 2.45 billion yuan in the same period in 2023 and 2022 Compared with 2.361 billion yuan, there is still a gap.
Spring Festival movies are the mainstay of the box office in the first week of the "post-Spring Festival". " Hot Hot " and "Flying Life 2" were unparalleled at the box office during the Spring Festival period but did not continue after the holiday. " Article 20 " directed by Zhang Yimou began to overtake "Hot" on the tenth day of the first lunar month. "Hot and Spicy" has topped the single-day box office for 10 consecutive days. There will be only five new films released during the 2024 Spring Festival, and "Article 20" ranked fourth among new films at the box office during the Spring Festival.
Stills from the movie "Article 20"
The counterattack after the release of "Article 20" represents to a certain extent the trend of waist films during the Spring Festival. The influence of the Spring Festival atmosphere on family-themed films weakens as the holiday ends. Waist movies have a certain degree of freshness because they are less popular during the Spring Festival period. Therefore, they have the opportunity to take advantage of the momentum of the Spring Festival period to achieve a long-tail trend.
The weakness of the "post-Spring Festival" movie market in 2024 is directly related to the lack of mid-range movies in the Spring Festival. The movies " Let's Shake the Sun Together " and " Mr. Red Carpet " accounted for less than 4% of the film schedule during the Spring Festival release period, and their box office did not exceed 100 million. The poor results caused "Let's Shake the Sun Together" and "Mr. Red Carpet" to withdraw from the Spring Festival schedule and be re-released at selected dates. This also resulted in the tragic situation of only "Article 20" supporting the market after the Spring Festival schedule. In 2023, the Spring Festival movies include " unknown ", "Deep Sea" and "Exchange Life", and in 2022 there will be "Miracle: Stupid Kid", "Four Seas" and "Sniper".
The number of low-end movies has dropped sharply, and the top movies during the Spring Festival have not been able to harvest the box office in the long run. On the second day after the holiday, the single-day box office of the movies "Hot" and "Flying Life 2" has dropped below 100 million yuan. For comparison, within 5 days after the end of the Spring Festival in 2023, the single-day box office of the movie "Man Jiang Hong" was still over 100 million yuan; in 2022, "Changjin Lake: Shuimen Bridge" still had a box office of more than 100 million yuan in 4 days after the holiday.
The lack of Spring Festival movies is one of the reasons why the "post-Spring Festival movies" are not as good as in previous years, and the new movies are not as good as expected is another factor. The
movies " Argyle: The Mysterious Agent " and "Still Think You're the Best 2" will be released on February 23 and 24 respectively. "Argyle: Secret Agent" is directed by Matthew Vaughn and stars Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard and others. It tells the story of the best-selling spy novel writer Ellie and agent Alley in order to escape the pursuit of a professional killer. The story of Den’s adventures around the world. Matthew Vaughn used comedy to innovate spy-themed movies with action movies as the core. However, too many plot twists inevitably caused aesthetic fatigue, and the slightly exaggerated narrative was also criticized. Hollywood blockbusters have been declining in the Chinese mainland market for a long time, and it is difficult for "Argyle: The Secret Agent" to counterattack without the advantage of word-of-mouth. The
movie "Still Think You're the Best 2" is directed by Chen Yongshen and stars Stephy Tang and others. It tells the emotional entanglement between three couples. The previous film's box office in mainland China also exceeded 100 million, but the second film was accused by the audience of being a "dog-tailed sequel".Therefore, although "Still Think You're the Best 2" is the box office champion during the Spring Festival in Hong Kong, mainland audiences don't buy it. The film's current cumulative box office is only 13.14 million yuan.
Some posters of new films to be released
Rao Shuguang, who proposed the "post-Spring Festival schedule", believes that although the Spring Festival schedule is only eight days, the remaining warmth of the Spring Festival will not dissipate in the remaining 20 days of the first month. If enough new films can be released to promote " "Post-Spring Festival stalls" will help continue the movie-watching craze during the Spring Festival stalls and at the same time alleviate the uneven phenomenon of hot and cold in the movie market. The effectiveness of the "post-Spring Festival release" in 2024 depends on the box office performance of new films.
The second week of the "post-Spring Festival" will see the release of the new film " Weeks to Eliminate Three Evils". The film is directed by Huang Jingfu and stars Ethan Ruan and others. It tells the story of the wanted criminal Chen Guilin, who thought that his life was about to end, so he decided to The story of getting rid of two criminals who were ahead of him on the most wanted list and making a name for himself. The film has a box office of over 7.63 million and a Douban score of 8.4. It may be able to gain an advantage through word-of-mouth. The current Beacon Professional Edition shows that the film's predicted box office is nearly 200 million. Before the end of the "post-Spring Festival schedule", new domestic films to be released include Tan Jianci and Zhang Jingyi's romantic film " I Lost You ", and "Chasing the Moon" directed by Qiao Liang and starring He Saifei. The former is directed by Han Yan, the director of the highly acclaimed youth drama "The Sky of the Wind Dog", and the latter was nominated for the 36th China Golden Rooster Award for Best Small and Medium-Cost Feature Film. The Hollywood science fiction film "Dune 2" will also be released on March 8. Films with diverse themes may boost the box office at the end of the schedule.
