text | Mouyu
As the longest schedule of the whole year, the summer schedule is about to usher in the peak movie viewing period, and competition in the movie market has already begun.
According to Maoyan data, there are currently 79 films expected to be released in the summer, and the number is still rising. Offline theaters are bound to be very busy this summer.
However, despite the large number of movies, it is still rare to see a major hit. In the summer season dominated by mid-range films, Jackie Chan and Bona's new film " Legend " has undoubtedly become the most eye-catching presence in the entire schedule.
The cooperation between the first film company and the leading actors has attracted more market attention to "Legend". It is expected that this film can boost ticket sales and drive more viewers to offline theaters.
And this is not only the expectation of the market, but also the expectation of Bona. As Bona's first main-projection film in 2024, the final box office and reputation of "Legend" are self-evidently important to Bona, which has suffered losses for two consecutive years. It is also related to whether Bona can succeed in 2024. Ushering in the “Year of Explosion”.
Can the box office elixir still be "effective"?
"Legend", which is scheduled to be released on July 12, can indeed be called a rare big production this year.
One is the big ip, "Legend" is the sequel to "Myth", and ip itself has accumulated a certain degree of popularity and audience. "Myth" released in 2005 took in 120 million box office, while the total box office of the Chinese film market that year was only 2 billion. "Legend", as a sequel to a hit, has its own box office advantage.
The second is the head team . "Legend" is created by an "all-star cast", from the behind-the-scenes team led by "Myth" director Tang Jili, to the all-big-name actor cast led by Jackie Chan, to Bona President Yu Dong as the producer People control the overall situation and protect film production.
The third is the big scene . "Legend" continues the fantasy adventure style of the previous work. The plot involves mysterious holy places and ancient battlefields. The crew went to Zhaosu, Xinjiang for filming, from the snowy mountains at minus 30 degrees to the summer at 30 degrees above zero. While shooting all real scenes, the latest AICG technology was used in combination with deepfake. Digital stars accounted for 70% of the scenes, which shows the investment and dedication of the entire film. The
project itself is indeed a well-deserved major production. Especially after entering 2024, the film market will be in short supply of top masterpieces. To a certain extent, the market's expectations for "Legend" are also continuing to rise. However, whether "Legend" can achieve "steady happiness" at the box office and word of mouth this summer, the current situation is not optimistic.
On the one hand, the quality of the movie itself has not been fully trusted by the market. The problem mainly focuses on the plot.
"Legend" follows the screenwriter and director of the previous work, Tang Jili. As a famous director who has directed many classic film and television works, in fact, his influence in the film market is far less than that of the drama market. He serves as the director and screenwriter. The latest theatrical movie is " Pioneer " released in 2020. It is also a collaboration with Jackie Chan. The Douban score is only 4.4 points, and the cumulative box office is less than 300 million. The performance is not good.
In addition to the unstable level of director and screenwriter, Jackie Chan's box office appeal is also declining. In the past five years, there have been no classic blockbuster movies, and the box office is less than 300 million. It is essentially the same old Hong Kong action movie structure adopted by Jackie Chan. , can no longer keep up with the movie-watching tastes of young people, especially among the movie-watching group dominated by teenagers during the summer season. Jackie Chan's influence may not add much to the movie box office.
On the other hand, due to changes in the external market environment, "Legend" is facing greater competition pressure.
Although this summer's summer schedule lacks major productions, it does not lack films that have attracted high market attention, such as the two movies that were just announced on June 15.One is the drama film "Wild Child" starring Wang Junkai, which was released on the same day as "Legend" and has its own fans and traffic. The other is the comedy film " Successor Plan " starring Shen Teng and Ma Li, produced by " Charlotte Troubles " was created by the original team, just in time for the ten-year appointment of "Shen Ma". Judging from the box office appeal of the two, the film is aiming to win the summer championship.
In addition, the summer schedule is also faced with the diversion of the Paris Olympics. This global event will largely steal public attention from the film market and affect the spread of the film. "Legend" not only competes with nearly 80 films, There are also more entertainment and sports activities that attract national attention.
In addition to the fierce external competition, the entire movie market is currently showing signs of cooling off. As the outpost of the summer season, the Dragon Boat Festival stalls have failed, and the Dragon Boat Festival ticket warehouse has returned to the level of ten years ago. Market activity and audience enthusiasm for watching movies have continued. The decline is a very bad sign for the summer season.
The situation of the summer release seems to be a bit unfavorable for "Legend". The biggest variable at present is the quality of the film. If the film itself can surprise the audience, before the opening of the Paris Olympics, it may be able to usher in a box office explosion and drive the entire film industry. The movie market is recovering,
and whether "Legend" can finally achieve outstanding box office results is not only related to whether the producer Bona can get out of the predicament of continuous losses, but also a turning point for Bona in its breakout year, which is worth looking forward to in the industry and attention.
In 2024, can Bona usher in a new round of outbreak?
In 2022, when the entire film market was extremely bleak, Bona Pictures suffered its first annual loss since its listing. After adjusting its development strategy, Yu Dong confidently stated: 's performance in 2023 will increase significantly, and after 2024 It is the year of the explosion of .
Unfortunately, Bona's performance in 2023 did not achieve substantial growth as Yu Dong expected. According to Bona's 2023 annual report, during the reporting period, the company's revenue reached 1.608 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 20.06%, and the net profit loss reached 553 million. The main reason for the decline in performance is that the box office performance of the two main projection films "无名" and "Explosion Point" was not as good as expected.
not only failed to achieve performance growth in 2023, but in the first quarter of 2024, Bona's revenue was 439.9 million. Although it participated in the investment in the Spring Festival box office runner-up " Flying Life 2", due to the lack of a main film release, the operating income A decrease of 16.10% compared with the same period in 2023. Despite a bad start, the importance of "Legend" released in the summer is self-evident, and Bona's emphasis on it is also evident. The heavyweight production team and cast, coupled with the application of the latest AI technology, strive to be able to provide the market with Bring bigger surprises.
However, the difficult situation in the summer season has made the box office performance of "Legend" more uncertain. Even if "Legend" can become a hit in the summer season, it will only be a turning point for Bona. 's follow-up guarantees the continuation of high-quality films. Output is the key to whether Bona can usher in an explosive year. .
After two consecutive years of losses, Bona has re-adjusted the schedule of reserve film projects, retaining projects with themes that the company is good at, suspending projects that do not meet market demand, and actively developing new themes and new types of projects, adhering to the " Bona" Based on the principle that "every product produced must be high-quality ", Bona has nearly 15 projects under development.
In addition to the already scheduled "Legend", the movie to be released is also " Dream of Red Mansions: A Good Marriage " directed by Hu Mei. The combination of classic IP and well-known directors has brought high market attention to the film, but Judging from the current public trailers and materials, the audience's evaluation is not good. Another costume movie to be released, "Ah Mai Joins the Army" brings together well-known actors such as Zhang Tianai and Huang Xiaoming. However, since the movie has been backlogged for nearly five years, the situation is also uncertain. Not optimistic.
In contrast, several movies in production have more blockbuster potential, such as "Operation Dragon", the sequel to " Operation Red Sea ", which is still directed by Lin Chaoxian, starring Huang Xuan and Yu Shi, and is called by Yu Dong. The domestic film with the largest investment in 2024 is no less than Hollywood.There are also the animated film "The Body War" directed by Tsui Hark, the spy film "Kashmir Princess" directed by Liu Weiqiang, and "Boyhood" directed by Chen Kaige, etc., which are all making steady progress.
2024 is about to pass halfway. Judging from Bona’s performance in the past half year, it may be difficult to usher in the outbreak year in 2024. Objectively speaking, it is mainly affected by the external environment. The epidemic in 2024 evaporated Bona’s cash flow. dropped, which caused Bona to have a problem. In the first half of this year, Bona only released one participating film.
At present, Bona's cash flow is all welded in "Operation Dragon". Due to the audience and market's pursuit of blockbusters, some small and medium-sized films have been suspended or postponed. Bona will also face the problem of continued production cuts in the future.
However, in addition to film investment and film distribution, Bona's cinema business has achieved outstanding results. As of 2023, the company has a total of 108 self-owned cinemas with a total of 892 screens. Its market share is constantly increasing, and it has become It has become Bona's main source of income. In 2023, theater business revenue will reach 1.217 billion, accounting for more than 75% of Bona's annual revenue. At the same time, the development of the drama market and the promotion of commercialization of film and television IP will become new growth points for Bona Pictures.
Objectively speaking, Bona's breakout year may be slightly delayed, and there is still some way to go before it can regain the film company's market value of 80 billion. However, the long-term development strategy of diversified business will definitely provide Bona with a more comprehensive development strategy. increase.
