During the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, the immersive theater " New World " Drama Manor located in Shanghai Film and Television Park ushered in a wave of viewing enthusiasm. The number of ticket-buying audiences increased by 117% year-on-year, and the total box office increased by 203% year-on-year.
started from "Sleepless Night" 8 years ago, and Shanghai took the lead in immersive entertainment in the country. With market adjustments and changes in audience tastes, immersive performing arts are constantly updating and iterating to find their own loyal audiences.
Thinking about change is the consensus of many immersive performing arts practitioners. A reporter from Liberation Daily and Shangguan News learned that as the originator of domestic immersive performing arts, the Shanghai version of "Sleepless Night" premiered on December 14, 2016. As of April this year, it has performed more than 1,900 times and attracted more than 1,000 viewers. 580,000 people, with total project income exceeding 490 million yuan. This summer, "Sleepless Nights" plans to launch a new cabaret performance. "Cabaret" originated in France in the 18th century. It integrates song, dance, comedy and other elements into a warm, direct, simple and cheerful style. The audience can get close to the stage and enjoy the performance while enjoying food and wine.
In October last year, "New World" was upgraded to "New World: The Banquet of the Broken Cage". With ten story lines, more than 40 professional actors, and a six-hour performance, it depicts the unity of people from all walks of life in Shanghai. The historical picture of the Anti-Japanese War. During the special Dragon Boat Festival performance, the production team also prepared rice dumplings for the audience at the dinner party in the play. In the daily performances every week, there are traditional cultural elements in both the scene design and the actors' performances, such as the guzheng played in the calligraphy and painting hall and the "Book of Songs" recited in the banquet hall.
The combination of indoor and outdoor scenes ensures that the audience will never tire of "playing" and is happy to play
The combination of indoor and outdoor scenes ensures that the audience will never tire of "playing" and is happy to play
From "Sleepless Night" to "New World", Shanghai's immersive performing arts experience It marks an important transition from introducing foreign classic plays to cultivating local original forces. Today's Shanghai is not only the "performance dock" for immersive performing arts across the country, but has also gradually transformed into a source of creation. During the Dragon Boat Festival performance, "New World" Drama Manor welcomed audiences from Nanjing, Zhuhai, Beijing, and Liaoning. Some young viewers dragged their suitcases to the Shanghai Film and Television Park as soon as they got off the plane. The staff observed an important change: as the user group gradually expanded, many children were added to the audience. The youngest of them was only six years old. Under the guidance of their parents, they roamed the entire manor with great interest and explored Shanghai in 1945. A considerable number of viewers returned to the manor to "refresh" it after their first experience. Some viewers said, "Not only is it fun and interesting, it can really make people remember history."
In recent years, immersive entertainment such as escape rooms, interactive dramas, and live-action scripted killings have flourished across the country, and immersive theaters, in particular, have become particularly popular. Different from the traditional framed stage, the audience becomes a character in the play and is integrated into the plot in the immersive performance project. The multi-line storyline and open dramatic ending are deeply loved by Generation Z who have a strong need to "express themselves", and have gradually become a popular offline entertainment method for the new generation of consumers.
On the other hand, immersive performing arts projects also face more difficult challenges than ordinary performances. A large immersive space means high costs and "filling" a large number of experienced actors. Once the spatial volume is reduced, immersion becomes a "slogan" and is not enough to attract a well-informed young audience. In addition, audiences are increasingly demanding plots. The story must be logical and full of twists and turns, the actors interact appropriately, and the costumes and props must not be shoddy. Only in this way can local audiences be attracted to it and tourists can be attracted to it as an alternative to tourist attractions.
Fierce market competition has led to continuous upgrades and iterations of immersive performing arts projects in Shanghai. "Legend of the Pearl" on the cruise ship and "" in the old building have now "disappeared" on the performance ticketing website. "Forensic Qin Ming - The Corpse Whisperer" ended its more than two-year residency at Shanghai's 1862 Fashion Art Center in April and will appear at the Shenzhen Yuehai Street Cultural and Sports Center, which is the first new performing arts space created by Shenzhen Poly Theater.The immersive interactive drama " money world " was launched in Shanghai in 2019. After three version updates, it will move to Chongqing and Beijing in 2023. The organizer stated that in order to adjust the mechanism and refresh the experience, "Money World" is currently "closed" again.
At present, the online feedback from the first batch of viewers has an increasing influence on the purchase intention of latecomers, and good reviews and word-of-mouth have become more and more important. This is why a Sino-foreign cooperation immersive project that just landed in Shanghai this year was "paused" after the preview to adjust the details based on audience feedback.
Every creative team is welcoming changes. The staff of "New World" said that they will continue to polish the work in the future and continuously upgrade it from multiple perspectives such as actors, scripts, mechanisms and scenes, and are committed to leading the audience into a more realistic and shocking Shanghai story. Online, "New World" has reached a cooperation with the production team of the interactive film and television game "Room 13" to prepare to create a new online interactive film and television game "Codename: New World", transferring the offline "performance + game" model It is an online "film + game" model to further expand the influence of the "New World" IP.
