Facts have proved that if a new film wants to have the last laugh, it still has to rely on public recognition. The only thing that can give the film certainty is content that is closer to the audience's interests.
Author | Shire
Editor | Lone Pigeon
In this May 1st period, the film market did not usher in the heated discussion as imagined, there was no controversial news, and there was no leading blockbuster. Despite this, the box office data is generally improving, and it is doing big things quietly.
According to statistics from the National Film Administration, the national movie box office for the May Day period in 2024 was 1.527 billion yuan, second only to the 1.674 billion yuan in 2021, ranking second in the same period in film history. Among them, " Peace Corps ", " Thelma and Louise " and " Kowloon Walled City: The Siege " ranked the top three in the box office list, with 406 million yuan, 392 million yuan and 355 million yuan respectively.
In terms of reputation, "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City" is not very high on Douban with a score of 7.5, but it is "way ahead" in the same period, because "Thelma and Louise" and "Thelma and Louise" and " There is nothing a hot pot can't solve" "Just passed the passing line," "Peacekeeping Riot Squad" only scored 5.5 points.
And just between the Qingming Festival and the May 1st Festival, there are many theater movies with ratings exceeding 8 points, such as " Youth Diary ", " Under the Day ", etc. It can be seen that the holiday movies are to pursue Mainly popular and commercial, it is generally difficult to make artistic achievements in terms of quality, and there are even fewer that can balance art and commerce.
In terms of marketing, this year's May Day new films have paid special attention to screening, but the results have been different. Some have successfully gained word-of-mouth, while others have failed. At the same time, similar to the Spring Festival release, there is also a withdrawal phenomenon: the suspense comedy movie "Nothing That Can't Be Solved by a Hot Pot" starring Yang Mi and Yu Qian was announced to be withdrawn on May 5 and will be re-released at an appropriate time. This is a hot topic in recent days, but it is a bit "tragic".
Facts have proved that successful marketing experience is worthy of reference, but it is difficult to be copied. In the final analysis, the fate of a film is determined by its own quality.
One kind of screening, three fates
Before the holiday, a total of 11 movies were originally targeted to be released on May Day, but three of them chose "strategic retreat" before going into battle, and only 8 were actually released in the end. The reason is related to word-of-mouth reputation.
Screening is a conventional means of promoting a film, but if the quality is not good, it can also become a double-edged sword. For example, this time, the three movies "小青", "Nothing That Can't Be Solved by a Hot Pot" and "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City" were all screened before their official release, but then they went to different fates - —Withdrawal, sinking and counterattack.
"Xiao Qian" was the first to be withdrawn, but it had a bad start during the screening stage. Although the film is the first work released by Light Animation, Light Animation has always chosen a conservative promotion strategy, only releasing two batches of screenings in advance, and its first round of screenings specifically avoided cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. As a result, after a lot of manipulation, the film became unpopular and had to be withdrawn and replayed another day.
Regarding the reasons for the withdrawal, Enlight Media gave this answer to the public: First, the May 1st slot was too crowded and the marketing cost was too high; second, the related marketing of "Xiao Qian" has not been fully launched, and the market popularity needs to be increased. In a nutshell, it means "I don't think I can beat it." The two movies
"Rescue" and " Stuntman " also have similar reasons for running away. "Rescue" is a backlogged film, made to "dedicate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China", and its popularity has passed. As for "Stunt Man" starring "Commander Gao", as an imported film, it probably felt that it had no advantage in the schedule, so it was rescheduled for release on May 17.
The most "injustice" highlighted is "Nothing That Can't Be Solved by a Hot Pot". The film was the first to be screened in the May Day Festival. It adopted a step-by-step approach and was divided into "three steps": it first screened 200 times in 20 second-tier cities across the country, and then launched 500 screenings in 50 cities across the country. It was screened on a spot basis, and finally opened 2,000 on-demand screenings across the country.
In order to be relevant to the keyword "hot pot" announced, the film crew also collaborated with Haidilao to launch a "hot pot spot" that provides hot pot coupons for watching the movie. Unfortunately, with the expansion of screenings, the content of the film not only failed to support publicity, but also had the opposite effect, exacerbating negative reputations such as "abrupt rhythm" and "mysterious". After its official release, the box office rose slowly, reaching 53 million yuan before the film was withdrawn.
In sharp contrast to "Nothing Can't Be Solved by a Hotpot" is "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City" which has tasted the sweetness. Its popularity was originally at the lower end of the same period of works. The reasons are: first, as a backlog of films, there was a lack of pre-heating in the early stage; second, Hong Kong films have limited promotion and distribution in the mainland, and the box office trend in the mainland has been weak in recent years.
This film is also the latest movie to be screened on May 1st, but it is large-scale and is known as "screening in one hundred cities" and has achieved unexpected results. The audience was attracted by the old Hong Kong flavor and martial arts scenes in the film, and their viewing experience improved, making them feel like they had gotten a big deal. After its official release, "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City" successfully counterattacked, reaching the "top three at the May Day box office" and becoming a "dark horse".
At this point, it is not difficult for us to find that in order to achieve breakthrough effects through point screening, the film itself needs to be of excellent quality. For those works with shortcomings in content, it is better to remain mysterious than to test the waters.
Box office does not mean everything
"Peacekeepers" and "Thelma and Louise" are two relatively popular movies on May Day this year.
The popularity of these two movies is easily reminiscent of last year's May Day: " King of the Sky " pre-sale box office, but as the schedule deepens, "Unfamiliar Place" has Achieved lead in film schedule and attendance rate. The same goes for
this year. As the May Day season draws to a close, "Thelma and Louise" has surpassed "Peacekeepers" in both its box office share and film schedule share. The box office gap between the two is getting smaller and smaller, and it is quite possible that "Peacekeepers" will overtake it - "Peacekeepers" Team" predicts a total box office of 638 million yuan in the mainland, and "Thelma and Louise" predicts a total box office of 811 million yuan in the mainland.
"Peacekeeping Riot Squad" and "King of the Sky" are very similar. They are both military-themed and starring Wang Yibo, but there is a gap in the box office performance of the two. There is only one pre-sale box office. The pre-sale of "Sky King" exceeded 100 million yuan last year, and the pre-sale box office of "Peacekeeping Riot Squad" this year just passed the 20 million yuan mark.
Last year, a search on Weibo for "Wang Yibo fans reserved the venue" yielded a lot of relevant information. However, when searching for the same topic this year, only a handful of information popped up. The main reason for
is that the quality of the video cannot support greater popularity. "King of the Sky" scored 6.5 on Douban, while "Peacekeeping Riot Squad" only scored 5.5. Many netizens commented that its "character portrayal is superficial", "the story is fragmented, the connection is blunt, and the logic is poor."
As a film with the theme of overseas peacekeeping, "Peacekeeping Riot Squad" coincides with the current conflicting international geopolitics. However, judging from the discussions triggered by the film, it did not bring international security issues out of the circle. The film has become a hot topic on Weibo, and most of it is related to the actors, such as "Wang Yibo practices boxing without sleeves" or "Huang Jingyu shares childhood dreams with children", but has limited traction with ordinary audiences.
"Thelma and Louise" and "Unfamiliar Place" are both "the only comedies on May Day". Their advantage is that they can exert force in the middle and later stages of the schedule.
Last year, "Unfamiliar Place" held the box office crown for three consecutive days, and finally won the "May Day box office championship" with a box office performance of 549 million yuan. The same is true for this year's "Thelma and Louise". The box office began to decline on May 2, and then it topped the box office for three consecutive days.
The reason for this high-spirited trend is mainly because comedy has a wider audience.
The comedy nature of "Thelma and Louise" is very obvious, and it brings together many well-known comedians such as Jia Bing, Xiao Shenyang, Yu Yang, Li Jiaqi, and Li Qi. The story in the film mainly revolves around the personal dilemma of middle-aged men, highlighting the brotherhood of "one hero and three gangs".The male protagonist played by Jia Bing, after learning that he was terminally ill, took his three good buddies and spent their last days squandering money. After squandering the money, it turned out that the hospital had misdiagnosed it.
After watching it, some people felt that the film was very funny, while some viewers refused to buy it, thinking that "misdiagnosis" has been overused. Although word of mouth is polarized, "Thelma and Louise" still has a unique advantage in the May Day slot. Because comedies are naturally compatible with holiday schedules, their relaxed attributes and pleasant atmosphere can easily attract a large number of audiences, especially those who only follow the crowd into theaters during holidays throughout the year.
Most of these movie-watching groups want to have fun and watch a movie without thinking about it, so comedy movies have become their best choice. As long as the quality of the movie is not particularly bad, the box office will generally not be too bad. As a standard civilian comedy, "Thelma and Louise" has a Douban score of 6.1, which can be considered a stable reputation.
Facts have proved that if a new film wants to have the last laugh, it still needs to rely on public recognition. Because the only thing that can give a film certainty is content that is closer to the audience's interests.
The three box office tiers
As far as the box office is concerned, the new films released on May 1st can be mainly divided into three tiers. The first echelon of
is "Peacekeeping Riot Team", "Thelma and Louise" and "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City" that rank among the top three.
The most unexpected one is undoubtedly "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City". The film is the only action crime film released on May Day this year. It has a distinctive style and the tone of a "modern martial arts film", making many kung fu fans excited. The film recreates the notorious Kowloon Walled City in the 1980s, with many fierce battles taking place in the walled city. The fighting scenes are tough and punchy, and the space planning and scene construction are also painstaking. After
opened the score, "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City" scored a high score of 7.5, and it was tied with the animated film " Spy Play House Codename: Bai" as the top new film in the May 1st Film Festival. In the end, word-of-mouth feedback fed into the box office, allowing "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City" to take advantage of the momentum and rank among the top three.
Currently, "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City" ranks second in terms of box office share and film schedule share, both of which have surpassed "Peacekeepers". The total box office in the mainland is predicted to be 754 million yuan. If this momentum continues, it will most likely overtake "Peacekeepers" at the box office in the future, making it a veritable seed player.
The second echelon is the two animated films that performed stably, "Spy's Playhouse Codename: White" and "Howl's Moving Castle".
Both movies are popular works among fans. "Spy House Code: Shiro" is adapted from the popular IP of Japanese cartoonist Tatsuya Endo. It revolves around a "pretend family" who saves the world, and focuses on cuteness and two-dimensional elements. This IP has previously launched two seasons of dramas, both of which have achieved good reputations. This is the first theatrical version to be released, and it had a successful box office run, earning 231 million yuan. The total domestic box office is expected to be 319 million yuan.
's re-release of "Howl's Moving Castle" is a work by Hayao Miyazaki that came out in 2004. It has accumulated many fans in the past 20 years and has a Douban score of 9.1. As Hayao Miyazaki's classic film, it is natural that many people are willing to pay for it, so theaters have also given it a lot of space for film scheduling. The film scheduling ratio is 7.3, which is higher than the other three new films. "Howl's Moving Castle" lived up to expectations, ranking fifth with a box office of 120 million yuan, and the total box office in the mainland is expected to approach 200 million yuan.
The third echelon is "Nothing That Can't Be Solved by a Hot Pot", "Journey Across the Moon" and "Pigman Movie: Interstellar Action" which are in a state of anxious bite.
None of these three movies has a box office of over 100 million. Among them, the more regrettable one is the romance film "Journey Across the Moon". As the only romance film in the schedule, many netizens believe that the setting and performances of this film are quite "smart" and do not fall into the stereotype of domestic romance films that are sensational and bloody. Its Douban score of 6.8 points is a relatively fair evaluation of it.
The main problem of "Nothing That Can't Be Solved by a Hot Pot" is the difficulty in reconciling farce and suspense.The suspense must conform to realistic logic, while the farce must be performed "flying", so watching the whole movie will give people a strong sense of fragmentation and it is difficult to stimulate the audience's emotions.
The film scored 6.5 points on Douban, but it has now dropped to 6.2 points. At this pace, it seems that there is still room for "exploration".
"Pig Man Movie: Interstellar Action", which became "cannon fodder", actually has a lot of background and is a well-known local IP in Guangdong. The "Pig Man" movie twice won the box office championship of May Day domestic animated movies in 2021 and 2023.
"Pigman Movie: Interstellar Action" is the ninth animated film in the "Pigman" series. Although it has the halo of IP, as a youth-oriented animation, "Pigman Movie: Interstellar Action" is destined to be difficult to make a big splash. Especially when faced with the two overseas "strong rivals" "Spy's Playhouse Codename: White" and "Howl's Moving Castle", it is even more helpless.
The May Day stall plays a connecting role in the film market throughout the year. The May Day box office performance is gratifying, which can warm up the summer season and drive the capital allocation in the second half of the year. From this perspective, the results of this year's May 1st batch are quite gratifying. If this momentum continues, there is a high probability that 2024 will become a "good harvest year" again.
Unfortunately, there is still a lack of heavyweight films in this schedule, and there is no national-level movie viewing phenomenon. The overall response is relatively flat. I hope that there will be works in the next summer season that will surprise the audience.
