Last Friday, March 15, " Mr. Red Carpet ", which was withdrawn from the Spring Festival schedule, was released again. However, the revised version of "Mr. Red Carpet" failed to "change its destiny" and was further ignored by the audience. From March 15th to 17th, "Mr. Red Carpet", which was re-screened for three days, only received more than 5 million yuan at the box office, and its overall performance was far inferior to that during the Spring Festival. Another movie "Let's Shake the Sun Together " that was canceled during the Spring Festival will soon be released in the second round on March 30. " Nothing That Can't Be Solved by a Hot Pot " starring Yang Mi will also be released on 1 It will be released on May 13th and will be released on May 1st. What kind of test will they face?
"Let the audience choose for themselves"
The schedule has been changed again and again
Previously, "Mr. Red Carpet" was first released on February 10 (the first day of the Lunar New Year). It only lasted 7 days and was released on February 16 ( On the seventh day of the first lunar month) at 23:00, the producer Huanxi issued a statement announcing that it would withdraw from the Spring Festival schedule and choose a new schedule to meet the audience. This release is the second round of screenings of the film, one month after it was withdrawn on February 16, the seventh day of the Lunar New Year.
This is not the first time that "Mr. Red Carpet" has changed its schedule. The film was originally announced on October 13, 2023, and would be released on November 17. Due to concerns about the cold release period, the film studio may not be able to recover the cost of 260 million yuan, so on November 8, a few days before the film was released, it was announced that the film would be rescheduled to February 10, 2024. This became the first live-action movie to be scheduled for the first day of the Year of the Dragon in 2024.
"Mr. Red Carpet" was changed from November 17, 2023 to February 10, 2024, and then from February 10 to March 15, 2024. Facts have proved that this kind of "fear of wolves before and tigers behind" "The film's rescheduling has not greatly improved the film's reputation and box office. ——The film was released during the Spring Festival, with a score of 7.0 on Douban and then dropped to 6.8, becoming the lowest-rated among all live-action movies during the Spring Festival this year. At the bottom is not only the ratings, but also the box office. While the box office of other films exceeded the 2 billion and 1 billion mark, the cumulative box office of this film during the Spring Festival was only more than 82 million yuan. It was the lowest box office among the six films during the Spring Festival. It was worse than the other one being withdrawn. The film "Let's Shake the Sun Together". After
, several films such as "Let's Shake the Sun Together", "Huang Pi: The God of Wealth Cat from Heaven", "Mr. Red Carpet" and "Bajie: Under the Canopy" were successively announced to be withdrawn. This was dubbed by some netizens as "the first year of withdrawal". ". This arrangement set a precedent in the market and caused huge controversy at the time: some people thought that changing the schedule was an act of stopping losses in time, and it was an opportunity for rebirth for these films; some thought that changing the schedule would not have much impact. The fact that no one is paying attention to the film is not because of the cruel competition for time slots.
Indeed, as the latter said, when "Mr. Red Carpet" was re-released on Friday, March 15, the slogan "Let the audience choose for themselves" was used, which seemed to imply that the withdrawal from the Spring Festival schedule was not because the audience did not actively choose. oneself, but cannot choose oneself for passive reasons. However, "Mr. Red Carpet" did not achieve a box office explosion because it avoided other comedies during the Spring Festival. Instead, it was further ignored by the audience. The film only made 2.45 million yuan at the box office on the first day of its second run. From March 15 to 17, it grossed more than 5 million yuan at the box office during the first weekend of its second run. The results were far worse than during the Spring Festival. Major movie platforms also predict that the final box office of this film will not exceed 100 million yuan, which is even lower than the prediction during the Spring Festival. The rescheduling of "Mr. Red Carpet" not only failed to revive the film, but made the film's slogan of "let the audience choose" even more ironic.
"Mr. Red Carpet" made the mistake of "wanting both"
"Mr. Red Carpet" has changed its schedule many times, but its market performance has not improved. I am afraid that the film's failure in reputation and business cannot be attributed to "schedule selection" Error".
There are many voices in the industry who believe that "Mr. Red Carpet"'s repeated schedule changes are not only a sign of "cannot afford to lose", but also a "failure to take the lead" and disrupt the market order. It is better not to withdraw from the Spring Festival schedule, even if the box office is not ideal, it will still appear More tragic.Without solid word-of-mouth support, the cancellation and re-fixation further consumes the novelty and public reputation.
Some people also believe that "Mr. Red Carpet" has misleading and deceptive publicity, which can easily cause negative feelings among the audience: the starting point of the film's promotion on social platforms such as Douyin is mainly to "boldly reveal the secrets of the entertainment industry", which can Arouse the audience's prying eyes. In fact, the stimulating aspects such as "revealing secrets", "deep digging" and "revealing news" are not the core of the film at all. The cold minimalist audio-visual style and some passages of "Mr. Red Carpet" are very similar to the 2018 90th Academy Award-nominated film "The Square". The film's theme of "star anxiety" is similar to that of the 2021 Venice Film Festival. The nominated film "Main Competition" is similar. Ning Hao and Andy Lau repeatedly mentioned in the live broadcast room that this film focuses on the issue of "communication between people." However, judging from the final effect, the film does not solve the communication problem, but instead conveys "No one communicates with me." "The question shows the gap and obstacles that exist between the middle-aged and older generations and the current situation. This kind of presentation effect is obviously different from the audience's imagination, which will inevitably affect the film's reputation to a certain extent.
In addition, the decline in the appeal of established Hong Kong stars is also one of the reasons for the film's box office failure. In fact, it is not just the old Hong Kong stars, but the box office appeal of other middle-aged and elderly filmmakers is also declining: "If You Are the One", directed by Feng Xiaogang and starring Ge You and Shu Qi, sells feelings but no one cares about it, and it has no box office appeal. Ethan Ruan starred in "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils". The theme and content of the movie are attractive, but it has become very popular among passers-by. Various recent examples have shown that the current audience pays more attention to the actual quality of film works, and has long been disenchanted with the filmmakers who make the films.
"Mr. Red Carpet" won the "Special Contribution Award" after its world premiere at the 48th Toronto International Film Festival, had its China premiere at the 7th Pingyao International Film Festival, and appeared as the closing film at the 28th Pingyao International Film Festival. Busan International Film Festival... Therefore, some people believe that the perspective of "Mr. Red Carpet" is still elitist and professional. When filming the film, director Ning Hao was more inclined to show the fatigue, confusion and meaninglessness of his career. . The works that are more popular in the market at the moment are like the three giants of the Spring Festival "Hot", "Flying Life 2" and "Article 20", starting from the perspective of ordinary and failed little people in life, and finally achieving a comeback. s story. Rather than being released in domestic theaters, a film with a director's obvious personal style is more suitable for film festival screenings. However, "Mr. Red Carpet" wants to occupy the market, which makes the mistake of "wanting both", which is also the film's box office failure. one of the important reasons. Will the box office increase if
is changed? uncertain!
Before the withdrawal of "Mr. Red Carpet", there was another film that was withdrawn during the Spring Festival, and that was the healing romance film "Let's Shake the Sun Together" directed by Han Yan. At about 21:00 on February 14th (the fifth day of the first lunar month), Lianrui Pictures announced on its official Weibo that February 15th is the last day for the release of "Let's Shake the Sun Together" during the Spring Festival. After that, it will withdraw from the Spring Festival schedule and be postponed. It will be released on March 30 this year.
March 31st is Easter in the West, and April 4th is Qingming Festival in China. For this movie related to "birth, old age, illness and death", it may be more appropriate to choose to change the schedule to this time. However, in the same period, there are the Hollywood blockbuster "Godzilla vs. Kong: Rise of an Empire" (released on March 29), the comedy "Galaxy Writer" starring comedian Muzi Song (released on March 30), and the newly won No. Hayao Miyazaki's new film "What Kind of Life Do You Want to Live" (released on April 3), which won the 96th Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film, looks like the market performance of "Let's Shake the Sun Together" is not optimistic either.
In fact, many Spring Festival films have previously been changed to avoid strong competitors, optimize box office schedules, or adjust film quality. However, the situation after the second release was even worse - " Super", which was released in the summer of 2023 "One Family " had planned to be released on New Year's Day in 2022. With less than a month left before the Spring Festival of 2022, the film crew suddenly announced an emergency withdrawal.Until July 21, 2023, "Super Family" was released in the summer season. In the star-studded 2023 summer season, the film became one of the films with the lowest reputation. There is also " China Ping Pong: Jedi Counterattack " starring Deng Chao. It was originally planned to be released during the Spring Festival in 2023. However, after the film was released on the third day of the Lunar New Year, it became popular due to the popularity of films such as "The Wandering Earth 2" and "Man Jiang Hong" during the Spring Festival. It seemed quite bleak, so the film announced its withdrawal and then returned to the big screen. However, when the film was released in its second round on February 17, the box office was still dismal, with a total box office of 100 million yuan.
The situation of the previous Spring Festival films "Super Family" and "China Ping Pong: Jedi Counterattack" has reappeared in "Mr. Red Carpet". This may serve as a warning to future films: First of all, we need to make it clear that film changes No matter what the reason is, it is equivalent to changing the original audience's movie-watching plan, which will bring a certain psychological gap to the audience. Secondly, changing the schedule means that a lot of previous publicity resources have been wasted. Not only do new publicity plans need to be formulated based on the new schedule, but also new schedule competition will be faced. When Yin Hong, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University, commented on the four films released during this year's Spring Festival "Escape from the Spring Festival", he said that when setting the film's schedule, it is necessary to consider both market logic and audience psychology, and it is still necessary to take the audience seriously. Research the audience. The third and most important point is that the quality of the film itself and the reputation of moviegoers are the keys to a film's success. Changing the schedule may temporarily avoid the opponent's edge, but "you still need to be strong yourself".
Source: Jinan Times
