Sohu Entertainment Zhuangao (Ha Mai/text) The Hollywood super IP sequel "Transformers 7" was released in June, with a cumulative box office of 650 million yuan in 40 days, not ranked among the top 15 in the annual box office list.
"Mission Impossible 7 (Part 1)" starring the famous Tom Cruise sold 226 million yuan in 6 days of its summer release.
Since this year, it has become a new normal for domestic films to "eat meat" and imported films to be "beaten".
summer file, this phenomenon is particularly prominent in the comparison of "The Disappearing She", "In the Octagonal Cage" and "Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang'an".
Box Office Landslide
This year, due to the rapid recovery of the film market after the epidemic and increased supply to theaters, the introduction of imported films has increased significantly, and the selection of schedules has become more comfortable.
However, these imported films, especially Hollywood blockbusters, have lost the sensational effect they once had and could not stir up the market. The box office of each film fell short of expectations after its release.
In the first half of the year, more than 20 Hollywood movies were released one after another, with a total box office of about 4.3 billion yuan, accounting for less than 14% of the country's total box office.
The best-selling "Fast and Furious 10" had a box office of 983 million yuan, ranking seventh on the annual box office list. The box office of "Man Jianghong", the best-selling domestic film, was 4.544 billion yuan, 4.6 times that.
"Transformers 7", "Guardians of the Galaxy 3", "Spider-Man: Across the Universe", "Ant-Man 3", "Mission: Impossible 7", "The Flash", "Super Mario Bros. The Movie", "Black Panther 2", "Dungeons and Dragons: Grand Heist Honor", "Shazam! IP works such as Wrath of the Gods, The Little Mermaid, and Raiders of the Lost Ark 5 also had no sound.
The massive "The Little Mermaid" only sold 26.51 million yuan, "Raiders of the Lost Ark 5" released in the summer holidays had a box office of 23.7 million yuan, and the DC superhero blockbuster "Shazam!" Wrath of the Gods has a box office of 41.21 million yuan, "Black Panther 2" has just surpassed 100 million yuan, and "The Flash", which has been boasting against the sky, stopped at 185 million yuan. "Transformers 7", which has a fan base in China, only reached 650 million yuan at the cumulative box office after 40 days of release.
It's not that Hollywood is completely dead, it's just that the coldness in the Chinese market is the most conspicuous.
In North America and other overseas markets, Hollywood IPs are still available, and some are still making a lot of money.
The cartoon "Super Mario Bros. The Movie", which only had a box office of 171 million yuan in China, sold 574 million US dollars in North America and 1.346 billion US dollars in the global box office, and its production cost was only 100 million US dollars, making a lot of money.
Others such as "Black Panther 2" with a global box office of 859 million US dollars, "Guardians of the Galaxy 3" with a global box office of 843 million US dollars, and "Spider-Man: Across the Universe" with a global box office of 663 million US dollars are also profitable projects.
The "Little Mermaid", which completely hit the streets in China, sold 294 million US dollars in North America, and the global box office was 554 million US dollars. Compared with the production cost of 250 million US dollars, it is not terrible on the profit and loss line.
But looking at the overall situation from the perspective of probability theory, Hollywood is indeed going downhill. Compared with previous years, the success rate of blockbuster films is obviously declining, and the ceiling of single-film box office is also falling.
This year, "Fast and Furious 10", "Ant-Man 3", "Crazy Elemental City", "Raiders of the Lost Ark 5", "The Flash", "Dungeon and Dragon: Glory", "Shazam!" The box office of many blockbuster films such as "Wrath of the Gods" is on the edge of the profit and loss line, and some are facing losses.
The box office champion of 2023, "Super Mario Bros. The Movie", has a global box office of 1.346 billion US dollars, while the previous year's champion "Avatar 2" has a global box office of 2.32 billion US dollars, "Spider-Man: No Home" has a global box office of 1.912 billion US dollars, and "Avengers 4" has a global box office of 2.8 billion US dollars.
"Titanic", "Avatar 1, 2" and "Avengers 4" ranked the top four in the box office of global film history, representing the three bright moments of Hollywood.
"Titanic" was released in 1997, with a global box office of more than 1.8 billion US dollars, heralding the beginning of the era of Hollywood blockbusters.
"Avatar" was released in 2009, with a global box office of more than 2.7 billion US dollars. It is the product of new technological revolutions such as 3D and giant screens.
"Avengers 4" was released in 2019, with a global box office of 2.8 billion US dollars, which is the pinnacle of Hollywood blockbusters, serialization, and superheroization.
Path dependency
Through industrialized process management, Hollywood has turned the highly risky film industry into an industry with a stable input-output ratio, selling their films to the world.
But twenty years have passed, the world is constantly changing, and the audience has grown in batches. Things that were originally considered new are no longer attractive, and Hollywood's mature product line has not been updated much, and has even become old and outdated.
Professional managers with high salaries are responsible for the performance of the studio, the producer-centered system, and big productions sold all over the world. All these require Hollywood not to take too much risk to innovate. IP manufacturing and sequel production have become the most important options. In the process of sequel production, it is also not possible to take too much risk to innovate, because failure cannot afford it.
This has resulted in many films being made for filming, many stories being made up for making up, and many scenes being upgraded for upgrading. Hollywood hopes to retain the audience through visual spectacle time after time.
"Mission: Impossible 7", which is currently in theaters, is an example.
In order to prove the breakthrough of the series and keep up with the times, the story is made into a struggle against the artificial intelligence "smart body", but the "smart body" cannot be seen or touched, so an agent is set for it, and in the end it is still a human-to-human fight. In order to upgrade the scene, Cruise traveled all over the world. In order to escalate the action scene, cruise jumped from the top of the mountain on a motorcycle to jump from the train, and fought the villain on the top of the speeding train.
All of these seem very hardworking, very dedicated, and very sincere, but all of them rely on a floating, unbelievable story. Instead of visual effects serving the story, the story serves the visual effects, which seems so routine and so futile.
"Fast and Furious 10", "Transformers 7" and so on are similar problems.
"Fast and Furious 10" has completely disregarded the laws of physics in order to upgrade the scene, and the snapshot has become a science fiction film.
Skydiving, speeding to scatter helicopters, galloping to slide dams, Boss Tang, who has the aura of the protagonist, is omnipotent and will not die no matter what he does. In order for this series to continue, in order to continue the theme of family, the dead can be resurrected, the bad guys can be cleansed, and the story can do whatever it wants, which is completely out of touch.
"Transformers 7" gathered Autobots and Big Macs for a big scene, and fought against the ultimate villain, Cosmos. The plot of the movie is still a set of sermons about unity, great love, and saving the world. It also intersperses the chicken soup family relationship between the hero and his younger brother. The audience seems to be watching a hodgepodge movie of "Transformers", "Iron Man" and "Fast and Furious".
Let's look at the few original movies that do not rely on IP. Pixar's original animation "Crazy Element City", which was once regarded as the king of animation, completely applies the framework of "Crazy Zootopia", only changing the background and characters, and talking about the growth of girls.
Looking deeper, this movie is about a love story between a second-generation Asian immigrant girl and a wealthy white man. The topics of women and race are politically correct. But the film did not achieve the same success as "Zootopia" after its release.
Political correctness used to be a window for Hollywood to open a new situation, but now it seems to have become a curse.
Because of embracing gender equality and racial equality, "Frozen", "Zootopia" and "Black Panther" have achieved great success.
As a result, there are more and more films featuring women and minorities in Hollywood, such as "Wonder Woman", "Mulan", "Black Widow", "Shang-Chi", "Full House", "Metamorphosis" and "The Little Mermaid".
But political correctness is becoming less and less effective. Although "The Little Mermaid", which turned the protagonist into a black man, sold well in North America, where the atmosphere of political correctness is strong, it was not popular in other overseas markets, and there was a lot of ridicule.
and even "Transformers 7" have replaced the protagonist with a black man. This operation has confused many overseas movie fans.
Political correctness belongs to the United States, not to the whole world.
Hollywood is stuck in the path dependencies on which it depends.
Empathy is missing
But the pattern of the world is constantly changing, the political influence and cultural influence of countries around the world are constantly changing, and the tastes of audiences are also constantly changing.
Taking China as an example, the strength and influence in all aspects are far from what they were 20 or 10 years ago, and the mainstream audience in China has also been upgraded.
Once upon a time, Hollywood blockbusters could provide enjoyment of visual effects and social value, but now, visual effects bombing can no longer bring freshness to the well-informed Chinese audience, and serious nonsense makes people tired.
The provision of social value is based on the ability to trigger topic discussions. Obviously, this is the strength of domestic films. In addition, the emotional value that domestic films can provide has never been seen in Hollywood blockbusters.
China is going strong, which is the basis for the great success of the main theme movies and hard science fiction movies such as "Wolf Warrior 2", "Changjin Lake", "Wandering Earth" and "Lonely Walking on the Moon".
"Nezha", which is based on Chinese mythology, has sold more than 5 billion yuan, which has greatly raised the box office ceiling of animated movies.
"Man Jianghong", which is based on historical figures, sold more than 4.5 billion yuan, breaking the box office ceiling of costume films.
The daily box office of "Three Thousand Miles of Chang'an", which is based on the material from the Tang Dynasty, won the championship in the summer file, and is heading for more than 1.5 billion.
"Fengshen", which is based on Chinese mythology, is about to be officially released, and it attracts a lot of attention.
Among modern and contemporary themes, "Hello, Li Huanying" captures the most simple love of the Chinese people, and it resonates with true feelings.
"I'm Not the God of Medicine" and "In the Octagonal Cage" are based on real people and real events, focusing on vulnerable groups, which is a portrayal of part of the social reality.
"She Who Disappeared" is filmed with emotional deceit and sinister heart, which caters to the prevailing marriage anxiety and trust crisis.
These emotional values that can resonate with the audience are very unfamiliar to Hollywood.
While Hollywood was still producing blockbuster sequels, Chinese directors were already studying how to keep up with changes in audience tastes and meet their psychological needs through topic selection, rhythm, reversal, and tear gas.
Not only China, Japan, South Korea, India and other mainstream film markets, local films are also on the rise, and Hollywood will naturally fade.
Japanese animations such as "One Piece", "Detective Conan", "Doraemon", "Demon Slayer: Blade", "Slam Dunk" and "Journey to Bell Bud" can not only occupy the domestic box office charts, but also export to all over the world.
South Korea has produced a series of action crime movies with local characteristics such as "Crime City" and "Co-assistance", which beat Hollywood blockbusters at the box office.
The Indian film industry has also enjoyed the main theme bonus due to the rise of the country.
In 2022, India's GDP surpassed that of the former colonial power, Britain, and became the fifth largest economy in the world.
last year's Indian box office champion "RRR" sold 167 million US dollars worldwide.The film tells the story of two Indian national heroes fighting against the British against the background of British colonialism. Because it can arouse the audience's surging patriotic emotions, it is described as "the Indian version of "Wolf Warriors".
This year, the action film "Patan", which sold nearly 129 million dollars worldwide, is about a patriotic agent who is passionate about stopping the opponent's attack plan on the motherland.
Hollywood movies represent American culture and export American values.
In the present and future when the world pattern is becoming more and more multipolar rather than unified, the cultural product of film should naturally also become global diversified, with a hundred flowers blooming, each with its own characteristics, and each leading the way.
After all, the United States is strong, and Hollywood movies have dominated the world for a long time.
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