Author | July
26 films, with a total box office of 14.892 billion.
This is the answer sheet submitted by Hollywood's "Big Five" so far in the mainland market. Next, although Sony’s "Charlie Angels", "Game of the Brave 2: Fight to the Peak" and Disney's "Frozen 2" are still to be screened, it seems to be one more than the 18.997 billion of the 34 Hollywood "Top 5" movies last year. Great distance.
However, it is worthy of affirmation that last year's "Avengers 3"'s 2.39 billion box office "high" was broken by "Avengers 4" with 4.24 billion box office. However, this not only breaks the 2-25 billion volume of the inherent Hollywood head, but also widens the distance between it and the second echelon film: "Reunion 4" and the second echelon "Speed and Passion: Special Operations" and "Surprise" The difference between "Captain" and others is more than one box office of "Reunion 3". The polarization of
is not only reflected in the gap between individual films, but also in the gradually widening gap between Hollywood’s “big five”: the gap between the first and second echelons has widened from 2 billion last year to this year’s. 6 billion; the first Disney and the last, Warner Bros., have a difference of more than 8 billion box office this year, which is double the gap between Disney and Paramount last year.
In addition, although action movies such as "Avengers 4" and "Fast and Furious: Special Operations" have met the strong audiovisual "rigorous needs" of the mainland market, "Deadpool 2" and "Aladdin" and other "action + comedy" in the mainland The apparent coldness also shows that the differences between China and the United States have further widened. The integration and development of Hollywood's "big five" has deviated from the aesthetic standards of mainland audiences.
There is no doubt that these problems are enough to make Hollywood "Big Five" feel anxious. For Hollywood's "Big Five", the real difficulties facing the mainland market seem to have just begun.
The September watershed brought about by the Sino-US trade war,
, the trend of simultaneous releases in China and the United States has increased.
The "Avengers 4" key is not renewed has become a rare "precedent", once the industry defaulted as a signal that the Sino-US trade war has not negotiated in the film industry. For a while, the North American imported films that have not been finalized in the second half of the year may not be released in sync with North America, which seems to have been regarded as a convincing statement.
But judging from the schedule of Hollywood’s “big five” movies that have been released this year, from “Captain Marvel” in the first half of the year to the most recent “Terminator: Dark Fate”, many Hollywood “big five” movies have maintained the mainland and North America. The schedule is synchronized; "Avengers 4" and "The Lion King" were released in China earlier than North America.
Obviously, judging from the current release of Hollywood's "Top 5" films in the mainland, the issue of "whether it can be released in sync with North America" does not seem to be a problem, and even the trend of simultaneous releases in China and the United States has strengthened. Looking at the reasons, the domestic market has become more and more important in recent years. It has become an inevitable trend that Hollywood’s “Big Five” movies and other North American imported blockbusters will be released simultaneously in the domestic market. Although the uncertainty in Sino-US trade once caused market sensitivity, it is difficult to restrict the release of imported sub-ledger films in general.
In addition, from last year's "Venom" to this year's "Terminator: Dark Fate", the cooperation between domestic capital and Hollywood's "Big Five" has gradually deepened. With the increasing forces of many parties, the trend of simultaneous releases in China and the United States will only grow stronger.
However, due to earlier sensitive judgments about the uncertain prospects of Sino-US film negotiations, the number of Hollywood’s “top five” movies that were fixed in the second half of the year has indeed decreased significantly, especially the “absence of S-level large-volume movies” ".
Among them, September after the summer vacation is a more obvious watershed-only 5 Hollywood "Big Five" movies have been released since September, and there have not been more than 500 million films, and the box office has only 987 million.
According to the release calendar of the Maoyan Professional Edition, the next Hollywood "Top 5" movies will be released temporarily only "Game of the Brave 2: Fighting the Peak" and "Frozen 2", but these two are not in the traditional sense. S-level large-volume movies, Hollywood's "big five" in the second half of the market is difficult to improve.
Compared with last year, although only 10 films were released after September, the performance of non-S-rated large-volume films is not much different from this year, but the large-volume S-rated "Venom" and "Aquaman" have successively reached 1.87 billion and 2.012 billion respectively. It breaks the inherent volume of single-player super-English films, which is a great moveThe popularity of Hollywood's "Big Five" in the second half finally achieved a box office of 5.418 billion.
In addition, on the whole, although the number of Hollywood’s “top five” films has decreased significantly in the second half of the year, its domestic market performance in the first half of the year has been exerted to a certain extent: a total of 18 films were released in the first 6 months, and the cumulative At the box office of 11.492 billion, compared with the 18 films in the same period last year, the box office performance has increased by 8.4%.
However, what cannot be ignored is that "Avengers 4" accounted for nearly 40% of the box office, which played a certain degree of "saving the market" effect on the cumulative box office in the first half of the year. Aside from "Reunion 4", Hollywood's "Big Five" films did not achieve much box office growth in the first half of this year.
Hollywood’s "big five" are polarized
there is a big gap between the first and second echelons.
Although there are less than 50 days left in 2019, Hollywood’s “Big Five”, which has officially completed its internal reorganization, seem to be showing a gradual industrial pattern, with a clear boundary between the first and second echelons.
So far this year, the cumulative box office of Hollywood's "big five" in the mainland market is from highest to lowest-Disney, Universal, Sony, Paramount, and Warner Bros. The already-released "Charlie Girl" and the upcoming "Game of the Brave 2: Battle for the Peak" are Sony's works, but due to physical limitations and the return of domestically produced films in the Lunar New Year, it seems that they still cannot shrink from the first echelon Disney There is a gap of billions between them; and Disney also has a classic animation "Frozen 2" to be screened, maybe it can try to sprint 9 billion results.
Compared with last year, the order of Hollywood's "big five" is Disney, Warner Bros., Sony, Universal, and Paramount. With the exception of Disney’s increase in the market, the other four companies have seen a decline to a certain extent, resulting in the market gap between Hollywood’s “big five” becoming more and more obvious than last year: Disney, which is firmly in the first place, and the second echelon’s box office performance The difference is getting bigger and bigger, from less than 3 billion last year to more than 6 billion this year.
It is worth noting that Warner has undergone major changes, falling from the second place close to Disney last year to the bottom of this year's "low yield and low income". Unlike last year, Warner launched a number of large-scale movies such as "Top Player" and "Aquaman", each of which has achieved good box office results. This year Warner only released one large-scale movie "Thunder Shazan!" "However, the mainland market was cold and failed to exceed 300 million. The remaining animation and documentary are all small and medium-sized films, and it is difficult to get more box office.
This also shows Warner's internal problems in content production. Compared with last year, this year’s output in terms of content is slightly "weak". Except for "Joker" and other classified films or thrillers that are difficult to introduce into the domestic market, the main films have basically been introduced into the domestic market. Neither the number of films nor the content can meet the needs of domestic audiences.
At the same time, Hollywood’s “Big Five” has a relatively obvious polarization trend this year-Disney, the top one, and Warner Bros., the bottom, have a difference of more than 8 billion in box office performance this year, which is double the gap between Disney and Paramount last year. Fan.
In addition, whether it was last year or this year, the top five of Hollywood’s “top five” were included in Disney's pocket. Even this year, Disney occupied two of them, widening the gap with the other four.
In the 10 films released by Disney this year, there is also a more obvious polarization phenomenon: in addition to "Reunion 4", only "Captain Marvel" broke 1 billion, and 5 films have a volume of 100-500 million. , 3 films are 500 million to 1 billion volume; "Dumbo"'s lowest box office of 147 million has not yet reached the fraction of "Reunion 4".
Let's take a look at the polarization between the top five films of Hollywood's "Big Five" this year. The No. 1 "Reunion 4" broke through the previous year's Hollywood head film's original volume of 2-25 billion, and the difference with the fifth place "Captain Marvel" was more than 3.2 billion; this data was only " There is a small gap of nearly 1 billion between "Reunion 3" and "Number One Player".
At the same time, the first "Reunion 4" has accumulated 4.24 billion box office, which is a distance of 2.8 billion from the second "Fast and Furious: Special Operations"; this data was only the first "Reunion 4" last year. There is a small gap of 378 million between "3" and the second place "Aquaman".
In addition, the number of traditional Hollywood movies with 400-800 million volume has also decreased significantly.The number of films decreased from 6 last year to 1; and 18 films that did not reach the traditional Hollywood size of 400-800 million appeared this year, an increase of 10% over last year.
At the same time, there have been 6 films with a volume of less than 100 million this year, an increase of nearly 3% compared to last year's share; this year there are 13 films with a volume of between 100 million and 100 million, an increase of nearly 4% compared to last year's share. Obviously, the tail effects of Hollywood's "big five" movies have been enhanced.
The aesthetic difference between Chinese and American audiences
audiovisual just needs.
Judging from the current situation, whether it was last year or this year, the focus of Hollywood’s “big five” in the mainland market is still on action movies and cartoons: this year, of the 26 movies so far, there are only 6 movies that do not involve action or animation elements. , And only 6 out of 34 films last year.
And judging from the box office rankings of Hollywood’s “top five” movies, action and animation movies are also more popular than last year-from last year to this year, the 1 billion movies are all action and animation genres.
However, not all the action and animation genres of Hollywood's "Big Five" can be sold in the mainland market, such as "X-Men: Black Phoenix" and "Terminator: Dark Destiny" and other films are not satisfactory. These films focus on IP feelings, which often gives domestic non-IP fans a higher threshold for viewing movies, and it is very easy to appear "unacceptable" phenomenon.
Actually, from last year to this year, "Avengers 3", "Number One Player", "Avengers 4", "Fast and Furious: Special Actions" and other Hollywood "top five" movies have a strong performance, can really arouse the enthusiasm of domestic audiences. All of the films have exactly one characteristic-a strong audiovisual experience.
is precisely because the "Reunion" series, "Speed and Passion" and other films have done enough work on the "theatre" and "immersion" of the audio-visual experience, which invisibly reduces cultural differences and IP feelings The threshold for viewing movies has also met the "rigorous demand" of domestic audiences for strong audiovisual Hollywood movies, and naturally has a larger box office release space in the domestic market.
In fact, the strong audiovisual Hollywood films are still a rigid demand in the mainland market, which is one of the major manifestations of the difference between China and the United States. Other performances also show that the differences between China and the United States are further widening.
Take Disney, which also has advantages in the mainland market, as an example. Last year, blockbusters such as "Avengers 3", "Black Panther", "Star Wars 8" and "The Incredibles 2" performed extremely strongly at the global box office, but only "The Avengers" "3" is a big hit in the mainland; this year's high-profile "Aladdin", "The Lion King", "Toy Story 4" and other "blockbuster movies" have also performed flat in the mainland.
In addition, this year's "Deadpool 2", "Aladdin" and "Thunder Shazan!" "All have more or less "action + comedy" colors, and have very good box office results in the North American market and even the global market. However, these films did not impress more domestic audiences, and the box office in the Mainland failed to exceed 500 million.
Judging from the performance of comedy films in the domestic market in recent years, domestic audiences have improved their awareness of comedy, and comedy alone can no longer sell, and "comedy+" genre films that can resonate with reality have begun to receive more attention. Obviously, "Deadpool 2" and other films have not kept up with the aesthetic changes of domestic audiences to comedy. In addition, the comedy content of films such as "Deadpool 2" has a certain degree of cultural differences between China and the United States, which undoubtedly increases the threshold for domestic audiences.
Therefore, even if it is Hollywood's "top five" action and animation genres that are relatively easy to sell in the domestic market, and the development of films that deviate from the aesthetic track of mainland audiences, it is still easy to get cold in the mainland.
For Hollywood's "Big Five" films, "solidifying contradictions" has become a new anxiety. When the traditional "Hollywood" became the past, and when the importance of the Chinese film market became more and more important, Hollywood blockbusters were full of anxiety amidst the polarization.
In the future, the living space of Hollywood's "Big Five" in China is still an extremely interesting topic. But from the current point of view, it is no longer realistic for the "Big Five" to return to the past.
