According to data from the National Film Administration, the total box office of movies in this summer season (June 1-August 31) was 11.643 billion yuan, a decrease of nearly 9 billion yuan from 20.619 billion yuan in the same period last year; and the number of moviegoers in thi

According to data from the National Film Administration, the total box office of movies this summer (June 1-August 31) was 1.643 billion yuan, a decrease of nearly billion yuan from the 20.619 billion yuan in the same period last year; The number of moviegoers in this period was 2.285 billion, a decrease of 219 million compared with the 504 million moviegoers in the same period last year. Judging from the data, it has dropped by nearly 40%, and the box office performance is basically the same as the summer box office in 2014. "After ten years of hard work, it was knocked back to its original shape", and there was a lot of noise from all walks of life.

Is that really the problem? Is it true that ten years of hard work have failed?

Let’s look at another set of data comparison. The total box office in the summer of 2023 is 0.619 billion . The top five movies at the box office:

" Desperate " 3.849 billion, " The Disappearance of Her " 3.523 billion, " " in the Octagonal Cage" is 2.207 billion, " Conferred Gods Part 1 " is 2.634 billion, and "Chang'an Thirty Thousand Miles" is 1.824 billion.

has a total of 4.037 billion , accounting for 68% of the summer box office. There are no external films on the list.

The total box office of the 2024 summer season is 1.643 billion. The top five films at the box office are:

" " 3.254 billion yuan, "Silent Kill" 1.35 billion yuan, "Alien: Death Ship" 642 million yuan, " "There's a Canteen in the Clouds" was 499 million yuan, and "Deadpool and Wolverine" was 427 million yuan.

totaled .172 billion , accounting for 53% of the summer box office.

The data doesn’t lie. The popularity of a schedule basically depends on the performance of hot movies. The hot movies in 2023 are well-deserved; but in the 2024 summer schedule, the three most popular titles that had high hopes did not perform well. They are:

" Retrograde Life " , directed by Xu Zheng, with a box office of 356 million yuan; " decryption " directed by Chen Sicheng, with a box office of 332 million yuan; " Under the Stranger " directed by Wu Er Good, with a box office of 118 million yuan - , these three blockbusters that were supposed to be among the top five, ended up adding up to only 806 million and .

Success in a big stage requires strength from the waist and even more drive from the head.

Let’s make a hypothesis. After deducting the total box office of the top two movies this summer and the three missing movies, what is the total box office of the remaining movies in this summer? 6.233 billion. In this way, comparing the box office of other than the top five summer movies in 2023, we can see that the base is still solid.

Apparently something went wrong with this year’s locomotive.

Regarding this, I specifically consulted a friend who has been working in a film management company and is considered an expert in the industry. According to his opinion, the main reason for the performance of this summer's summer season is the lack of films with mass communication.

The traditional strong comedy genre is still very popular. Continuing the popularity of "It's Hot" and "Article 20", "Catch Me" performed well.

The other three major companies in the same period chose creative and production methods that had not been tried before and took an innovative route.

Xu Zheng gave up comedy and chose the neorealist route, Chen Sicheng bravely ventured into industrialized film production, Wuershan changed his comics to . Judging from the results, the performance of

is very average.

1. "Retrograde Life": The criticism has been infinitely magnified

Some netizens commented on "Retrograde Life", "Poor people spend money to go to the cinema and watch the rich play themselves" . This evaluation is superimposed on Xu Zheng's own criticism, and it is Infinite zoom.

In 2018, Xu Zheng participated in and starred in " I'm Not the God of Medicine ", which was a great success. It is estimated that from that time on, the seeds of realism began to sprout.

"Retrograde Life" is the fourth film directed and starred by Xu Zheng. The first three films were all in the "囧comedy" series.

As fate would have it, Xu Zheng’s journey as a passerby originated from the “囧” series, but it also suffered setbacks from the “囧” series.

In 2020, when other films were withdrawn and prepared for release, "囧Mom" turned to short video platforms for broadcast. The commercial operation was a great success, but it also annoyed theater colleagues and was labeled as a businessman.

From that time on, it seemed that Mercury was going into retrograde for a long time.

When "Retrograde Life" is released, Xu Zheng will have to face new evaluations other than his work.

"Consumption suffering" and "the rich harvest the poor in the way of the poor", controversy accompanied the release of the movie. A movie that needs empathy to promote word-of-mouth has no emotional value at all, and it is inevitable that the box office will not meet expectations.

Xu Zheng once said: "I think every director shoots content that they want to solve internally. Even if he is a horror film director, he is solving his own problems."

As an actor, Xu Zheng needs to change himself. As a director, Xu Zheng also has new expressions. However, this time his sentiments for the literary youth were not widely recognized.

It can be said that "Retrograde Life", which he spent four years honing his sword, started Xu Zheng's new journey.

A big rise will inevitably face the risk of a big fall, and high expectations will naturally be accompanied by disappointment.

2. "Decryption": a less successful innovation

Let's first look at a set of data comparisons:

TV series "The Conspiracy" scored 9 points on Douban,

movie "The Wind" scored 8.4 points on Douban,

movie "Decryption" scored 6.3 points on Douban,

Judging from word of mouth, "Decryption" is not satisfactory.

"Decryption" is the last part of the Mai family's spy trilogy, and it was already very difficult because of the gems that preceded it.

This time, Chen Sicheng, who wrote and directed himself, stepped out of his comfort zone and entered a new field. Industrial means are used to create the dream described in Mai's novels, and the sound and picture special effects are very high-quality. The core of the content - the story, adopts a typical three-act plot design, closely following the fate of the characters and the great era, which is very Hollywood . uses abstract dream effects instead of emotional narration. This attempt does not seem to be successful. From the post-screening reviews, we can see too many evaluations of "incomprehensible", "bland", and even "pretentious". This is the core of the content that the audience cannot understand.

Many practitioners around me believe that "the quality of the movie "Decryption" directed by Chen Sicheng is very good. However, it may not necessarily meet the movie-watching tastes of today's young people, especially those born after 2000."

After the summer release, more people are also discussing the question "What kind of movies do Chinese audiences want?"

I think that Chinese audiences need to experience emotional identification from the story, or strong social topics to participate in. And special effects are no longer the most important, otherwise, Marvel movies would not become weaker in the Chinese market.

"Decryption" has also done a lot of articles in the emotional line, showing the concepts of love and returning home to protect the family, but the foreshadowing and conflict are not enough, the audience cannot perceive it, and naturally cannot get it; as for the topic of the contradiction between genius and the surrounding, For Chinese audiences who are familiar with "Oppenheimer" and "The Imitation Game", it is far less impactful and profound.

Obviously, director Chen Sicheng has big ambitions. He stepped into the "industrial revolution" and said in the interview that he will continue to try in the future. This is a good thing for industry . The

hardware is here, and I hope the software will follow suit soon, telling Chinese stories well and touching the hearts of the audience.

3. "Under the Stranger": Last year's Fengshen gradually picked up after the first weekend, but this year's Stranger dived on the third day.

Find the reason from marketing, and see the results from word of mouth. During the marketing period of the

movie, a marketing campaign linked to the movie and TV series was adopted. Because the web series version had a good reputation and broadcast performance before, the movie obviously also hopes to take advantage of the strong fan base of the original work. However, this process ignored the original work’s support for the work. of loyal defense.

The original party attracted the first wave of box office and also released the first round of reviews.

From the casting of Feng Baobao to the combat value and the plot scenes, fans of the original work have received a wave of comments.

shows in word-of-mouth that Douban only has .4 points, while and the online drama version have as high as 8.1 points.

Should the comic adaptation be faithful to the original work? The answers will naturally vary depending on subjective aesthetics. But the original party does not accept the magic modification, which has been proved by the results.

Because this kind of public opinion quickly fed back to the theater performance.

Comparing the two works directed by Wu Ershan, "Fengshen Part 1" and "Under the Stranger", they are both IP adaptations, with similar special effects, stories, and actors.

’s ticket sales were all around 40 million on the first day, but last year’s Fengshen gradually picked up after the first weekend, while this year’s Yiren dived on the third day.

failed to maintain its reputation, dragging down attendance. It was not strong enough and lacked marketing points, so it could not win back the market. It failed to replicate Fengshen's trajectory of first declining and then rising, and it sank all the way.

To be fair, the movie is very good-looking, combining kung fu, suspense and comics, and the character setting is also deliberately appealing to young audiences. But everything is a double-edged sword. If you please young people, you may lose the adult market. And the lack of foreknowledge of the closure of the original fan circle doubled the pressure.

As for the last two episodes of "Under the Stranger", I have always felt that it was quite suspenseful to cut the trilogy into separate parts and release them.

Of course, this is also a topic for director Wu Ershan and the marketing team in the next few years.

Generally speaking, in a mature large market, it is impossible for only one or two types to outperform. Some failed attempts are not a problem with the innovation itself, but contribute valuable experience.

At present, comedy movies seem to be the only pass in the market. Shen Teng plus comedy is equal to a box office guarantee. And Shen Teng left comedy to film " reverse scale " , but it seemed that it didn't work immediately.

But in the long run, if we can really start from this failure, after the short-term difficulties, the future will be promising. After all, movies are cultural products that keep pace with the times, and filmmakers should always be on the road to innovation.

"You need to take more into consideration the needs of the people. What kind of subject matter do people want to watch to relieve the pressure in their lives? All your subjects must be created and photographed from the perspective of ordinary people. I think this is very important.", Film A friend who manages the company said so.

(Movie Rotten Tomatoes Editorial Department: Bang Bang )