is ready for review.
"May Day" has only passed for less than three days, and the box office pattern has already been determined. In the first three days of
, the total box office has exceeded 1.08 billion. Compared with last year's May 1st five-day total box office of 1.519 billion, both box office and discussion are higher than expected. Why is
so powerful?
Let's start with this unusual "number one dark horse in the May 1st stall": " is spending money on ".
has been released for less than three days. This May Day only pure comedy, which was not widely favored by film critics and the market before its release, has already made a comeback to lead the box office in a single day, reaching the first place.
Judging from the current Maoyan box office forecast, the top three movies with total box office forecast are: "Thelma and Louise" 872 million, " Kowloon Walled City: The Siege " 697 million, and "Peacekeeping Riot Squad" 604 million.
’s prediction is not unreasonable.
Looking at yesterday's box office, the market fell by 22.3%, "Spy's House" fell by 21.1% year-on-year, "Howl's Moving Castle" fell by 31.9% year-on-year, and "Peacekeepers" fell by 35.5% year-on-year.
However, "Thelma and Louise" and "Kowloon Walled City: The Siege" dropped only 6.8% and 5.8% year-on-year. The softer the fall, the stronger the stamina. In terms of attendance, these two films are also leading the way.
Looking at the Douban score again, "Howl's Moving Castle" scored 9.1 points, "Spy's Playhouse" scored 8.0 points, "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City" scored 7.5 points, " Journey Through the Moon " scored 6.8 points, and " did not "What a Hot Pot Can't Solve" scored 6.5 points, and "Thelma and Louise" scored 6.4 points.
If nothing unexpected happens, the final box office champion of this year’s May 1st Film Festival will most likely be "Doomsday Spending Money".
This result is no small surprise.
Compared with "Peacekeepers", which has a larger investment, and " Kowloon Walled City ", which has a better reputation, "Thelma and Louise" does not have the "prestige" of the championship no matter how you look at it.
New female director Uzhina, writes and directs herself. The lineup is Jia Bing, Tan Zhuo, Xiao Shenyang, Yu Yang and Baoshi Laojiu.
The title of the film is Lao Lei's "Thelma and Louise" with the word "money" added at the end. Not counting the homophones, but counting the pinyin, the feeling is still the same.
The only label that has broad appeal is comedy.
An inspirational comedy for middle-aged men in Northeast China.
These days, comedy is the hard currency of domestic movies.
For example, " Hot and Spicy " and " Speeding Life 2" released during the Spring Festival, and even Zhang Yimou's " Article 20 " also contain strong comedy elements, and they all won at the box office.
Judging from the feedback from the audience of this film, there were many complaints.
But there are also many people who express their true feelings: It’s funny! Laughing till tears come out.
How to understand this ending that can be seen at a glance?
If "Thelma and Louise", which is temporarily at the bottom of Douban's ratings, finally wins the May Day box office championship, will it once again prove that the Chinese audience is not up to expectations?
still says that the audience once again voted with their feet, teaching Chinese filmmakers a lesson: the domestic entertainment film market has changed.
01 Formula comedy
To put it simply, "Thelma and Louise" is about a middle-aged man Jia Youwei who was misdiagnosed and thought he had a terminal illness and could only live for ten days, and his three childhood sworn brothers Sha Baihu (played by Xiao Shenyang). , Xu Dali (played by Yu Yang), and Dong Jianfeng (played by Dong Baoshi) spent money wildly in different ways, experienced all kinds of jumps, and finally achieved a happy life.
To put it simply, the whole movie is the classic line from Xiao Shenyang's "Not Short of Money" - "When people die, the money is not spent. When people live, the money is gone."
is essentially a formula comedy.
establishes a funny character → encounters a sudden change → starts the main task → is funny first and then reverses → brothers turn against each other → sensational reconciliation → happy ending, highlighting the theme of instant gratification in life.
The whole story trend is familiar and can be seen in detail.
But "Thelma and Louise" is not a bad comedy.
is a work that was carefully shot and acted, and has a relatively complete degree of completion.
But strictly speaking, "Thelma and Louise" is definitely not outstanding among comedies. It is hard to say whether it is outstanding among domestic comedies.
After all, among recent domestic comedies, many are good sellers but not many are good to watch. The core problem of
is that everything is too "simple".
The point of laughter is one-dimensional.
has a funny character. arrange.
Jia Youwei, played by Jia Bing, can be said to be the stingy god in ancient Greece.
takes careful planning to the extreme - toothpaste has to be squeezed out with all his life, tap water has to be collected drop by drop, he goes to the supermarket to grab special products and takes out a stack of coupons, spending 92 cents per pass, even the incense is only half-full...
day Day after day, year after year, he is still 200,000 yuan away from his goal of earning a flat income of 1 million yuan in life.
sold the house and added the deposit, which was exactly one million.
The main comedy effect is the constant excitement through the protagonist group.
After all, the doctor has repeatedly stated that the male protagonist only has ten days left to live, and what he will not take with him in life or death, go ahead and spend it wildly.
A few brothers were playing with toy guns.
The police thought, "There is an arms seller in front of me."
Went to a restaurant to buy lobsters. After eating them all, they released them.
went straight to the Beautiful Paradise Funeral Service Center and met Wang Xiaoqian (played by Tan Zhuo), a student goddess who "usually only sees family members, but this is the first time she met the victim."
You must not be shy in front of the goddess. You must experience the high-end funeral one-stop service, from wreaths to graveyards, from shrouds to ghost coins, you want the best.
The last opening is a 200,000 single-family cemetery, wide.
Of course, there are also lines and memes.
"People are spending money like crazy, so let's spend money like crazy." "Mountain of Knives: Sea of Fire." "I grew up watching you."
"Please read Brother-in-law/jeff with me."
Especially in the first half of the film, the audience burst into laughter.
The funniest thing is Jia Bing’s performance.
For example, the expressions of "countdowns appear everywhere", and the phrases "What's the rush?" when walking into the funeral service center. "It's almost here. This place has a high rating." "There are still two days left!"
And the most The classic one - "I've never eaten a burger before, but I'm interested in you". The scene of Jia Bing eating a burger is always funny.
Death is such a heavy topic, but under the interpretation of Northeastern comedians such as Jia Bing, it still has some harmless wit and humor, and the "Team of Brothers Spending Money" has also become established.
After almost spending the money, and the emotions were brewing, it was time to discover that there was something wrong with the hospital's machine, and everything was a false alarm. The second half of
is "people are alive but money is gone".
It can be said that the comedy effect of the film varies from person to person. For northern audiences, it may be surprisingly okay. All kinds of jokes designed with great efforts can always hit your laughter point physiologically at a certain moment.
The problem is that the plot is too formulaic. The paragraph after the "terminal disease" mystery is revealed is basically messed up and the whole paragraph collapses.
What prevents "Thelma and Louise" from being a good comedy is this excessive straightforwardness and simplicity.
on the other hand.
The "simplicity" of "Thelma and Louise" is exactly what the audience lacks most in this May 1st episode.
02 Box Office Explosion
The simple advantage is that there is no threshold.
has a specific audience compared to "Kowloon Walled City".
Anyone from a young child to an adult can go into the theater and watch a simple comedy like "Thelma and Louise."
There is no need to think about the philosophy of life, and there is no deeper meaning. It seems to have everything
should have.
Jia Bing has the temperament of a comedian, even if he acts stupidly in the film, it still makes people laugh.
After being the star-chasing director of "Flying Life 2" and the funny villain of "Hurry Up", he has proven that his comedy box office appeal may be second only to Shen Teng.
As far as I know, nine out of ten viewers come for Jia Bing.
Uncle Gems was a surprise.
Among all comedians, including Jia Bing, Uncle Baoshi has the most natural acting skills.
The last song "Old Waste Paradise" is so good.
Tan Zhuo also plays comedy. He is straightforward, venomous, and beautiful. He speaks Northeastern dialect and is very funny!
Dada's pork-killing dish is obviously a reference to "Northeast Family". Li Qi's cameo is so effective.
plus a refreshing narrative: Spending money alone is fun, but helping brothers realize their wishes is even more fun.
Three brothers, one became the man behind a successful woman, helping children with their homework.
One went to the Shaolin Temple to learn martial arts, and now he became a security guard. He was fired after watching people boxing.
A divorced man drives a small train. His son likes the rapper Shell and ignores him. In the finale of
, Jia Bing contacted his brother and his wife and had a love show of thanks.
met the rapper Shell that his brother’s son liked again, and gave him tickets + let his father show off his skills in front of his son.
helped the brothers fight for the opportunity to box, although the brothers still lost to professional players.
In short, no matter how much trouble we go through, everyone's dreams can come true in the end.
At the same time, he did not forget to output simple positive energy: enjoy life in time and live for yourself...
By the way, sensational and tear-jerking is also indispensable.
Dong Baoshi's paragraph fully makes the audience feel the humbleness of being a parent. For the sake of his children's hobbies, he has to practice rap. When he stands on the stage and performs, what he thinks about is not to win many cheers, but to make his son agree with this. The father who drives a small train at the amusement park.
The last rap gave the entire movie the best outlet to vent emotions, and the combination was perfect.
For ordinary viewers, it seems that all the needs of going to the theater to watch a comedy can be basically met.
Tan Zhuo is a beautiful girl who is eye-catching, and Jia Bing and Xiao Shenyang are natural comedians who can make people laugh. If you are not willing to splurge, just follow the protagonist and spend money like crazy on the screen. Smile, and cry again when the love between father and son or something else brings tears to your eyes. There is also an old uncle singing and shouting for you, and the dreamy happy ending makes people feel free of any burden.
As long as you don't think too much, you can have a relaxing and happy time.
More importantly, "Thelma and Louise" picked the right time.
The only pure comedy on May Day.
The experience of choosing "Thelma and Louise" is like choosing a travel destination during the May Day holiday.
seems to have countless choices, but in fact, ordinary people don’t have many choices.
Either too expensive or too crowded. Either expensive or crowded.
If I don’t go, I feel like the vacation I’ve been waiting for so hard has been wasted.
Then choose one that I don’t really want to go to, but it shouldn’t be a bad experience.
is just like this, the "safest choice" for countless viewers, allowing another comedy to easily take the top spot in the seemingly fiercely competitive May 1st category.
03 The box office has changed
But this involves the last issue.
Why can "Thelma and Louise" be able to "do big things with small things"?
In other words, comedy, why can you always use small things to make a big difference?
Yes, at first everyone’s focus was on the blockbusters “Kowloon Walled City” and “Peacekeeping and Anti-Riot Squad”.
Especially "Kowloon Walled City".
It stands to reason that this is the best-looking No. 1 seeded player in the May Day box office championship for many people.
invested heavily, with an investment of 300 million, and built the Kowloon Walled City at a ratio of 1:1.
There are many stars, including Sammo Hung, Louis Koo, Aaron Kwok, Raymond Lam, Ng Yun Lung, Liu Junqian, basically all the new and older generations who can play.
has a good reputation, Douban 7.5, No. 1 live-action movie on May 1st. And it was screened many days in advance, so word of mouth spread even though it should have spread.
But in terms of size and box office, "Thelma and Louise" won too easily.
Not only is "Kowloon Walled City" likely to not be able to beat "Thelma and Louise" at the box office, but it is also a big question whether it can make back its money. If the Hong Kong action movies with the best reputation in recent years can't make back their money, what will happen to Hong Kong movies? Woolen cloth?
Are you still making action movies?
In the past, with a theme + production + cast like "Kowloon Walled City", the box office would not be low.
However, a fatal problem is that this kind of big-budget action movie has lost its former glory.
In the same way, the box office of a top-notch action blockbuster like "Peacekeepers" has a box office limit.
After all, instead of reflecting on why comedies like "Thelma and Louise" always win easily, why don't we reflect on why there are no other genres that are not enough to successfully break through?
No matter how passionate "Kowloon Walled City" is, no matter how hard it is and how exciting it is, theaters will arrange more movies to give it comedy.
Why did the theater choose "Thelma and Louise"?
Because comedy is also the safest choice for theaters.
"Not Short of Money" inspired the concept of "people die, money is not spent" has its own popular popularity, coupled with the crisp Northeastern humor style, a few resounding baggage and jokes, it is quite earthy. It's corny, but funny. In the end, it ends up that good brotherhood is stronger than gold. Life should be about enjoying yourself in time.
Regardless of whether the plot of the movie lacks basic logic, whether it is forced to sensationalize, or whether the characterization is basically zero.
But the audience loved this pot of Northeastern-style pork butchering.
You said that the movie has no logic, and the audience said that the movie is a fairy tale. Fairy tales can be illogical and unreasonable.
To put it bluntly, audiences go to theaters to simply relax and have a laugh, or to go out for a party with friends and family, looking for a movie that makes everyone happy.
Thelma and Louise is of course the best choice.
Even if some people say that it is as dry and tasteless as a primary school student's composition, if there are laughs, it is just for the sake of laughter. But compositions written by primary school students are the most popular ones. Does the audience care whether the humor is high-end or not? As long as you can laugh.
is just like the song "Old Wasteland" sung by my uncle in the movie. Audiences who have watched too many bad movies don't want to watch good movies, but ordinary comedies are more cost-effective.
Movies are consumer goods, and whoever can please the audience wins.
Paying money is the most honest thing.
So, never criticize the audience for their low level.
Comedy is a general trend that uses small things to make big things happen.
In the same situation, there are ", the killer is not too calm " released during the Spring Festival the year before last, last year's " Azolla ", and this year's "Hot and Spicy".
The audience's demand for emotional value is strong, and it is a trend for comedy commercials to continue to win.
Audiences are not as fond of going to theaters as they used to be.
Going to the movies has gone from a daily consumption to something worth thinking twice about before buying a ticket.
then the safest choice becomes the best choice.
It's a pity.
Almost all successful comedies in recent years tell the same story: be brave enough to be yourself and enjoy yourself in time.
It seems that as long as this happens, life will be a comedy.
But the problem is, if you don’t have money, how can you enjoy yourself in time? How to enjoy the moment without a million.
It seems that no matter how many comedies you watch, you can't solve the problems of life.
Some viewers said that there are almost no obscene scenes in this film, which is quite rare.
It seems that this audience treats comedy just like the old gem uncle who struggles to win the love of his son in the film. He is happy but also has a hint of humility.
This does not seem to be so comedy.
