Prior to this, this "small and medium-sized" film with a production cost of only about 10 million yuan has topped the box office for four consecutive weeks, becoming the biggest "dark horse" in theaters in 2024. Related topics such as the elimination of the three evils and cult brainwashing have also Continue to be popular on short video platforms.
"I thought the box office would be high, but I didn't expect it would achieve the results it has today." An Yugang, the promoter of "Zhou Chu Destroys Three Evils" and CEO of Beijing Film Studio, told Jiupai Financial Reporter that the box office of "Zhou Chu Destroys Three Evils" in Taiwan was less than 11 million yuan, and it was only hovering near the return line. The team originally estimated that the film's mainland box office would be around 50 million to 100 million yuan, but the final results far exceeded expectations.
An Yugang recalled that when he watched "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" for the first time in January this year, he was sure that the film had the potential to become a hit. "The subject matter of "Abolition of Three Evils" is currently a scarce film type, and it has also been recognized by the Academy Award nomination in terms of reputation." An Yugang said. But in terms of production and publicity costs, the film is still a low-budget film after all. Compared with other waist-level films, the publicity budget for "The Three Evils" is low, and there are no premieres, press conferences, or road shows. and other activities. How to present the core of the film to the audience within the limited cost space has become a difficult problem faced by An Yugang and the Film World team.
Why did "Zhou Chu Eliminate Three Evils" become such a hit during the "off-season for theaters"? How does Yingxingtianxia develop core selling points for different platforms? Can short video marketing determine box office performance? Focusing on the above issues, Jiupai Finance conducted an exclusive interview with An Yugang.
[1] A counterattack on publicity and distribution of a low-cost film
For a movie, the publicity and distribution link at the back end of the process is self-evident. Sometimes, the quality of publicity directly affects the film's box office and even word-of-mouth performance. As the promoter of many imported films such as " Interstellar " and " La La Land ", Film World has rich experience in bringing "niche" imported films to the local public. When
summarized the promotion strategy of "Eliminating Three Evils Every Week", the company's CEO An Yugang said that the key is to adopt different marketing strategies according to the marketing rhythm according to the target audiences and core selling points of different platforms. In the early stage of
screening, the Film World team will target vertical platforms such as Weibo New Media and Douban where core movie fans gather. "They are the first core layer for the film to break through, and they are an important link between the project and the audience during the screening period." An Yugang believes that the audience's expressive ability and understanding of the film are profound, sincere and effective, and the team Then capture some of the movie review feelings and use various methods to amplify and disseminate them. This approach of
has been proven by the market. During the screening period, the film reviews of "Zhou Chu Eliminate Three Evils" focused on "high reputation, good plot, and large scale", gradually "breaking through" the user group with high frequency of movie viewing. Subsequently, the film's rating on Douban rose from 8.1 to 8.4, and due to an episode mid-screening, the film became a blessing in disguise and became more visible to more viewers. After the screening of
's "The Three Evils" started, there were rumors of replacing the hard drive to "deletion", which caused the market to hesitate to watch the movie, which made the promotion team very nervous. Fortunately, there was early word-of-mouth pavement, and some netizens stepped up to buy tickets to watch the movie because of the news that the disc was about to be changed. Subsequently, some film and television self-media issued an article to clarify the "deletion" rumors, saying that the duration will remain unchanged after the disc change, and it will not affect it at all. Plot and look and feel. By chance, it boosted the market discussion of "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils".
Compared with Dianxing's ability to open up the core circle, the real breakout moment of "The Three Evils" came in the short video announcement after the movie was released. Different from the "high reputation" that is mainly focused on Weibo and Douban, the core selling point of the movie on Douyin is "exciting and refreshing".
An Yugang told Jiupai Financial Reporter that the Douyin announcement of "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" focuses on "the victory of small evil over big evil", emphasizing how villains do evil and how to be subdued, breaking the circle with the feeling of punishing evil and promoting good. . The essence is to convey the exciting explosive points in the plot and stimulate the emotions of the general public. In the end, short videos related to "Cult Brainwashing, Countdown to Ten Seconds" and other related short videos were widely circulated on Douyin, and the Douyin topics related to the film were played more than 1.78 billion times.
In addition, from the perspective of the overall market environment, the popularity of "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" also implies another "underlying logic." When the
film was released on March 1, there was a problem of resource occupation during the Spring Festival. The market was relatively deserted during the same period in previous years, and a large number of self-media needed new content and popularity. An Yugang believes that "Spring Festival films tend to be warm comedies in a broad sense, while "Zhou Chu Destroy Three Evils" is a cold crime film; it's like eating light cuisine for a long time and suddenly encountering Sichuan hot pot. Everyone will also consider changing their taste."
"First find the core group and gradually open up the topic, and arouse public emotional points or resonance, gradually break out of the shell, and eventually have the opportunity to become a social topic and phenomenon." An Yugang concluded.
【2】Whoever wins Douyin wins the world?
Although the Film World team already has a mature methodology, as communication channels continue to iterate, film and television marketing is not static.
Just as the clip of "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" became popular on Douyin, short videos have now become a must-have for film and television promotions. From the emergence of Wang Chuanjun as the villain in "Going Forever", to the endless short videos of "showing off acting skills and crying" behind the scenes of movies, the view that "those who win TikTok will win the world" is widely circulated in the industry.
In this regard, An Yugang believes that the change in film and television marketing from "those who win Weibo will win the world" to today's "those who win TikTok will win the world" stems from changes in the way the public receives information. An Yugang revealed that the completion rate of traditional trailers with a duration of 1-2 minutes on major platforms is getting lower and lower, and the public lacks the patience to understand the logic of the film's story. "Everyone is immersed in the ocean of information, and there is always new information exploding. If you create too much content in the early stage, the public will not remember it at all, and they will not have that much interest and energy to pay attention to you."
At present, short videos and other social media Media brings challenges to traditional film and television marketing. The first is the transformation of the identity of the publisher. Once the film is released, the main job of the publisher will change from "thinking about the market and creating hot spots" to "excavating and sorting out folk wisdom."
After "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Pests" became popular, netizens have released related second-generation videos, such as different versions of "Eliminating Three Pests", counting down to ten seconds, etc. An Yugang said that after the project attracts a certain amount of attention, the propagandist needs to become a manager of folk wisdom, efficiently adopt appropriate forms of communication and implement them uniformly. For example, after initially noticing that one or two netizens mentioned being "brainwashed" by the episode "New Creation Man" in the film, the Yingxingtianxia team immediately found the mv, original film clips and audio to be released to a wider range of the entire network to promote relevant The topic is on the hot search list. The change of
's identity does not mean that the job of film and television marketing is easier. On the contrary, short videos and Internet hot spots are fleeting, which requires promotion parties to more accurately capture keywords and release a large amount of short video materials in a short period of time to directly convey product features to users.
An Yugang revealed that the current film and television promotion cycle is generally within one month. During the filming of the film project, a large number of behind-the-scenes videos are stored, and "special forces-style road shows" are conducted before and after the film is released, which is continuously carried out in more than a dozen cities within one or two weeks. To a certain extent, the purpose of publicity and interaction is to create a large amount of video material in a short period of time and increase the popularity of the topic.
In contrast, "Three Evils" is limited by cost. Not only does it not reserve the main creator's current schedule for interviews and other publicity activities, but it also does not have any surrounding materials such as behind-the-scenes. However, it does not pose a challenge to the publicity at all. The reason lies in the quality of the film. "When a feature film is exciting enough, the content should be fully utilized." An Yugang believes that the box office of a film is not determined by marketing, but by the relationship between the product and users.
"Marketing is just the icing on the cake and cannot provide help in times of need. "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" is first of all an excellent work, and secondly it is a relatively rare type in mainland China; marketing is just to find the right way and follow the trend." He said.
Jiupai Financial Reporter Xia Wenqi
Editor Guo Zihao
[Source: Jiupai News]
