2023 is almost over, and "If You Are the One" has reached its final chapter. A few days before the release of
's new movie, the film studio released a special episode of "Memory Killing", in which the leading actors reunited after more than ten years apart. Fan Wei teased his old friend that "his beard has turned white." The sixty-six-year-old Ge You also sometimes forgets his lyrics, which inevitably makes people feel that the hero is in his twilight years.
On December 30, "If You Are the One 3" was released and received a box office of 24.85 million on the first day. This is about one-tenth of the single-day figure of the day's box office champion "Twinkle, Twinkle, Twinkle", and the same film schedule as "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop!" "There is also a box office difference of more than 25 million."
"If You Are the One 3" received rave reviews on Douban before its release.
The pre-sales and first-day box office were lukewarm. Is the story not working or have times changed?
The first part of "If You Are the One" was released at the end of 2008. The film earned a box office of 325 million, breaking the mainland box office record.
Many unfavorable events such as snowstorms, earthquakes, and financial crises occurred one after another that year. Director and screenwriter Feng Xiaogang originally intended to let people "relax at the end of the year." After the movie came out, the love story between Qin Fen (played by Ge You) and Liang Xiaoxiao (played by Shu Qi) triggered a national craze for dating. Many lines and scenes in the series were also praised by fans in the years that followed.
At the end of "If You Are the One 1", Ge You used a different terminal to see the future
"If You Are the One 3", which was released yesterday, sets the story in 2031 and continues from the end of the second part. Qin Fen and Liang Xiaoxiao separated for many years before they even finished their honeymoon after receiving the certificate. In order to relieve Qin Fen's lovesickness, Lao Fan (played by Fan Wei) helped Qin Fen customize a smart human named Xiaoxiao.
In fact, as early as 1996, Feng Xiaogang had explored this avant-garde theme. Feng Xiaogang was one of the screenwriters of the sketch "Robot Funny Words" collaborated by Guo Da and Cai Ming in the Spring Festival Gala that year.
Twenty-six years later, Feng Xiaogang once again took on this genre. Judging from the current market feedback, the audience does not seem to buy it that much.
On the day of its premiere, the attendance rate of "If You Are the One 3" ranked last among new films released at the same time. In the short comments on Douban, the evaluations of the first batch of viewers also showed polarization. Some people think that this work brings a perfect ending to the series, while others bluntly say that the new story is a bit "continuous" if the plot is put aside to talk about the story. The Beacon Professional Edition shows that Media’s box office forecast for the film is around 150-257 million, which is not even as good as the box office of the first film fifteen years ago.
It is worth noting that "If You Are the One 3" adopts a branch distribution model. This model is a major exploration in the domestic film industry this year. As the name suggests, means that different theaters screen different films according to differentiated user needs, rather than uniformly screening the whole country.
Earlier, "Twinkle Twinkle Star" and "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop!" Several New Year's Eve films, such as "Goldfinger" and "Shuke Beta", were also reported to have branch releases, but later all plans were canceled or halted. "If You Are the One 3" is a rare "large-scale" and "big IP" among them. The producer involves China Film and Huayi Film Company, two major film companies.
According to the China Economic Herald, the details of the film's separate distribution have been circulated on the Internet. Screenshots posted online show that more than 8,000 theaters have signed up to participate in the screening of "If You Are the One 3". The film studio has also set requirements for the scale of the film schedule, such as strictly limiting the proportion and time of the theater's film schedule in the first week of release.
If the content of the screenshots is true, "If You Are the One 3" may be suspected of abusing the influence of the film, which undoubtedly goes against the original intention of "market dominance and flexible negotiation" of branch distribution. In addition, there are more new films in the Lunar New Year this year than in previous years, and there are also phenomenal dark horses "Twinkle Twinkle Star" (Huayi participated in the investment), and big-name "Goldfinger" and "Stealth" competing on the same stage. specifies "hard film scheduling requirements" before the film quality is unknown, which is a risk for theaters.
Compared with the data in the pre-sale stage, the popularity of "If You Are the One 3" is accelerating in the past two days. With the film's release and word-of-mouth spread, I wonder if its box office will open low but then go high.
The king of the Lunar New Year movies, and the release of Huayi Brothers
"If You Are the One 3" that is highly bound to him is Feng Xiaogang's return to the Lunar New Year movie after four years. He himself is also the founder of the concept of "domestic Lunar New Year films." In 1997, Feng Xiaogang's "Party A and Party B" kicked off the Lunar New Year season of domestic films. During the New Year celebrations in the following years, he brought many films such as "See You or Die", "Big Shot", and "Cell Phone". Feng's comedy gradually became a style, which was both well received and well-received.
The last time Feng Xiaogang appeared in a Lunar New Year film was "Only Yun Knows" in 2019. This literary romance film only received 159 million in box office and a Douban score of 6.3. In the following years, Feng Xiaogang did not have any films released.
The production company behind "If You Are the One 3" returning to the Lunar New Year release is Feng Xiaogang's old friend Huayi Brothers. As early as "Party A and Party B", Feng Xiaogang established a cooperation with Huayi's Wang brothers, and a series of Feng's New Year films made Huayi brothers a lot of money. In 2009, the company Huayi Brothers was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and became "the first stock in China's film and television entertainment".
Some data can confirm Huayi's high reliance on Feng Xiaogang . The "Tangshan Earthquake" in 2010 earned Huayi Brothers 205 million yuan, accounting for one-fifth of the company's total revenue; Huayi Brothers' 2011 interim report shows , "If You Are the One 2" contributed approximately 110 million yuan in operating income, accounting for nearly 80% of its film business and one-third of the company's total revenue. At that time, Wang Zhongjun said, " is not a shame. It just shows that Feng Xiaogang is our core competitive product. "
In 2015, Huayi Brothers, which continued to bet on Feng Xiaogang, further tied it to him. Huayi spent a huge sum of 1.05 billion to acquire 70% of the equity of Feng Xiaogang's company Dongyang Meila. The two parties signed a five-year gambling agreement: the annual after-tax net profit will be no less than 100 million yuan, and will grow by 15% annually. However, in the following five years, Feng Xiaogang did not complete all of his gambling goals, and had to make up a total of 235 million yuan to Huayi Brothers.
Even though the influence of Feng's movies is now less than before, Feng Xiaogang still supports Huayi's revenue. According to its financial report for the first half of 2023, Feng Xiaogang's online drama "Echo" is the film and television project that generates the most revenue for the company at this stage, and its revenue even exceeds the main control of "Love Is Delicious" and the participating investment "The Wandering Earth 2" ( No specific data was disclosed).
Feng Xiaogang is still Huayi's trump card, but it needs new brothers
Huayi Brothers was once the darling of capital. During the bull market in 2015, Huayi Brothers' market value peaked at 79 billion yuan. At that time, it was also the film and television company that loved to capitalize on stars. Almost half of the stars in the entertainment industry were signed by Huayi.
In 2018, the well-known "Yin Yang Contract" incident broke out and became an important node in Huayi Brothers' transition from prosperity to decline. Hidden risks caused by a series of unreasonable large-scale acquisitions and the capitalization of celebrity income have exploded. Starting from 2018, Huayi Brothers' revenue has declined year by year. From 2018 to 2022, Huayi Brothers’ cumulative losses exceeded 7 billion yuan in five years.
2023’s semi-annual report shows that Huayi’s revenue in the first half of the year was 339 million yuan, with a net loss of 143 million yuan. It is worth noting that the film and television entertainment business accounts for 97.04% of Huayi's revenue, and the remaining two main sources of income are brand licensing and live entertainment (2.09%), and Internet entertainment (0.23%). But in fact, Wang Zhongjun integrated Huayi's business into the above-mentioned three carriages nearly ten years ago, and proposed "de-filmization" at an earlier stage. Unfortunately, the opposite happened.
In the film market in the first half of the year, Huayi did not have many outstanding performances, and he did not participate in blockbuster projects such as "The Lost Girl" and "All or Nothing". As mentioned above, Huayi is only a participating investor in "The Wandering Earth 2". According to its announcement at the end of January, as of January 29, the company's operating income from the film ranged from approximately 4.8422 million yuan to 6.2893 million yuan. Based on this ratio, Huayi Brothers' final revenue from this project is about 10 million yuan.
According to industry insiders quoted by Chinese entrepreneurs, is limited by financial difficulties, and Huayi Brothers has been quiet for a while. High-quality IP may ignore Huayi Brothers . One of the reasons for poor investment may be "lack of money", and Huayi Chairman Wang Zhongjun has previously been rumored to sell paintings and houses to repay debts of 4.7 billion a year.
Until the National Day holiday, Huayi's "Expedition 4", which was invested and controlled by Huayi, had a box office of 1.011 billion. The "Predecessor" series is another love IP that Huayi Brothers has focused on creating in the past ten years and is directed by young director Tian Yusheng. The series has brought in a total of more than 3 billion in box office so far, but its Douban score has been hovering around the passing line.
Except for old partners such as Feng Xiaogang and Guan Hu, Huayi Brothers has not discovered many young directors like Tian Yusheng. However, Huayi has clearly realized the importance of fresh blood in recent years. According to Chinese Entrepreneur reports, in 2022 Huayi Brothers' "H Plan" will begin to tilt more toward young directors. In 2023, the "Universe Exploration Editorial Department" controlled by it is a typical case of investing in new directors.
In late November, Huayi Brothers stated on the interactive platform that it had abundant project reserves. Among them, "Crossing the Angry Sea" was released a month ago, and "Twinkle Twinkle Star" is scheduled to be released on December 30. At the same time, works such as "Dog Formation", "749 Game", and "Mermaid 2" have entered post-production, and multiple projects are in preparation. In addition, many drama series and online film and television works have been launched or completed.
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