文|Linghu Boguang
2023 has completely passed, and the total box office of the Chinese film market is 54.915 billion yuan. I won’t talk about the specific data, but the overseas box office is not very good. Although there are no specific statistics, according to the data of "The Wandering Earth 2", it is only 100 million yuan. After the whole year of movies, it is probably only a few hundred million at most, maybe even 900 million. Not even a fraction.
So the question is, Chinese movies are so popular, why can’t they go out?
Ten million or thirty million dollars? The overseas box office of "The Wandering Earth 2" is not bad
Take the Chinese commercial blockbuster "The Wandering Earth 2" as an example. According to current media data, "The Wandering Earth 2" has been launched in 39 countries and regions. So far, the overseas box office has exceeded 100 million yuan. RMB, the North American box office exceeded US$5 million, and the global box office exceeded US$603 million.
However, as Gong Geer mentioned in his speech, the media reported that the overseas box office of "Ball 2" has exceeded 30 million US dollars.
Regardless of whether it is true or not, 20 million is a lot for ordinary people, but for the box office, it can easily reach hundreds of millions. Even 30 million US dollars is not too much, after all, it is still less than 200 million yuan. Although it has been quite successful for Chinese films, it still cannot be said to go global.
There are many reasons why Chinese films cannot go abroad. Most of them are cultural barriers.
It’s not that the quality of the movie is bad. The quality of “Ball 2” is inferior to many Hollywood science fiction movies in recent years, both in terms of plot concept and special effects production. I remember someone mentioned it when Ball 2 first came out. In China, the English name of "Wandering Earth" is wandering earth, and the original meaning of the word wandering in English is wandering, wandering, and strolling, which is not a good literal translation of wandering.
So for foreigners, the words wandering and earth are a very far-fetched combination. At first glance, you would not think of any connection between this movie and the pushing away of the earth. For a movie, the translation is the most direct first publicity. At this point, The Wandering Earth undoubtedly lost a lot of points overseas, and more of its box office relies on secondary publicity on the Internet.
The name "The Wandering Earth" is more appropriate to use exodus in Western culture, because exodus itself has a strong religious color (Exodus). The story of Moses opening the Red Sea has three common origins: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. And it is involved in the religions of most Western countries. This is the cultural foundation.
In fact, domestic movie translations are very excellent, and for many people they are the first driving force for watching movies. If we want to do a good job in cultural propaganda, we should not speak from a superior perspective and say things like "you don't need foreign approval" or "just like it", but rather from the perspective of cultural equality. It is important to do a good job in localized publicity and have a deep understanding of Western local culture, so that excellent works can be spread around the world.
Because excellent works can resonate with people across geographical and time barriers, but poor publicity is the biggest murderer behind it.
Cultural barriers, too main theme? Why Chinese movies can’t go global
In addition, many people think that values are also a big factor. When I see foreigners, I don’t understand that astronauts over 50 years old have to die. They feel that they should be with their families at the last moment. Back then, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero" were both filmed by Chinese people, with yellow faces and martial arts themes, so the results were quite different. One core is reason and emotion, and the other is family and country, which Westerners do not understand.
The latter is still free riding on the former, taking advantage of the fact that foreigners are interested in this subject after seeing the former, and even use the slogan "soft science fiction" when promoting it. Even if the same movies are released and the competition is fair, foreigners will not be too interested in works that are incomprehensible and full of oriental sentiments.
When we talk about this issue now, we always talk about Western targeting, and we will not promote it for you.There must be this factor, but to be honest, I feel that not to mention the United States, European countries are not monolithic. Publishers in many countries consider it purely from the perspective of commercial interests, rather than specifically targeting China.
Because science fiction can be said to be Hollywood’s signature theme, it has a larger potential audience. In fact, the most popular overseas Chinese movies have always been kung fu movies. Jackie Chan’s movies have a huge influence to this day. There are currently only three Chinese science fiction movies in China. Four parts, no system has been formed.
One thing to say is that the current failure of Chinese blockbusters in overseas distribution is largely due to the fundamental lack of overseas distribution channels for China Film. In the past, China Film Group relied on imported films and batch films to make huge profits, resulting in the lack of systematic channels for overseas distribution. On the other hand, "The Promise" has to take the blame a little bit. Since The Promise, Chinese films have lost their value to overseas distributors.
Of course, Hollywood's aggressive attack is also a very important factor, but this is too complicated and cannot be explained immediately, because Hollywood's advantage in the global film market is the result of more than half a century of continuous impact. of.
Generally speaking, overseas distribution of Chinese films should take its time, there is no rush, no hurry.
is as good as "Interstellar", no one in foreign countries watches it? China needs more "The Wandering Earth 2"
When this movie was released, many Chinese netizens compared it with "Interstellar". If the core of "Interstellar" comes from the prophets in "Exodus", The Chosen People, God, and the Ten Commandments. So the core of "The Wandering Earth 2" comes from Dayu's control of floods and Foolish Old Man's removal of mountains, which is in the same vein as the most powerful works in Chinese history and culture.
If we talk about editing, soundtrack, visual language, storytelling, and grasp of the market, "Interstellar" is undoubtedly the master of current American science fiction. In terms of spiritual core and narrative structure, whether it is the amount of content and information, whether it is innovative, whether it is the value organization form, or its impact on the paradigm of subsequent science fiction works, "The Wandering Earth 2" has achieved a pioneering move to create a new genre. .
Isn’t this movie about world unity? We cooperate with the people of the world instead of leading them. It is also said in the movie that unity comes at a price, so what is the price? It is human nature. Human nature is inherently different but has commonalities. The diversity of human nature is the price, and the commonality of human nature is the basis for cooperation. Let alone compete with
, many Chinese netizens feel that it is not worthy when compared with foreign science fiction films.
My point of view has always been that the output needs to be strived for at present, but it does not need to be too high-level and online. "The Wandering Earth 2" does have a lot of problems in terms of the movie itself. The content is lengthy, the amount of information is complex, there are some problems with editing, etc. But as long as "The Wandering Earth 3" and future Chinese science fiction works are better and serve Chinese audiences well, what's important?
You don’t have to think about overseas competition these years, or you don’t have to think about it until this round of competition between China and the United States comes to an end. What role will the American and Western cultural circles play in the context of the United States fully considering China as a competitor? This is self-evident.
Even if we don’t talk about this Western suppression, we are really too weak in terms of cultural output. Hollywood has frequently produced bad movies in recent years, but they can still spread around the world. However, the distribution and promotion of our high-level film and television works are difficult. , sometimes it’s not just us being cute, foreigners are just as arrogant.
They self-righteously define the quality of our domestic works, not based on quality but relying on inertial thinking. Including TV series, the peak of Chinese-language originals still cannot be promoted. Sometimes it is very realistic and gold can be hidden in the dark. The high ground of cultural output is very important and must be occupied.
We did start late. When others were engaged in cultural export, food and clothing were still a problem for us. We could not become fat with one bite. It is unrealistic to want to directly surpass the circle after starting so late. Some even took long detours in order to cater to Handan toddlers. , but there are always people taking it step by step.
However, when "Huan Zhu Ge Ge" was very popular, it became popular in Asia, Japan and South Korea. Which country seems to have banned it because the ratings were too high. Sometimes even if there is a popular movie that can be exported, others will not let you "enter" ", now they are in the position of "output", and we are in the position of being affected. If it is really reversed a few years later, I feel that they will probably have corresponding measures to prevent being affected. They know the occupation before us. The Importance of Highlands.
html In 2023, will Chinese films have no cultural output? But soon
Before the game between the East and the West reaches the final result, it will be very difficult to achieve a cultural breakthrough with a certain film and television work alone. Therefore, we still have to base ourselves on the domestic market and insist that what is national is what belongs to the world. There is a huge domestic market You can be invincible by relying on the market, and then consider entering the international market.
makes cultural works that our audience likes. If others like it, others will naturally like it. Many of our TV series are also very popular in Southeast Asia. The reason is that China’s politics, economy and national power have reached Southeast Asia. Our platform and rules have also reached Southeast Asia.
Therefore, our popular culture has successfully spread to Southeast Asia and has become more and more popular.
This is really not a compliment, or let’s talk about idol dramas. Domestic movies have done very well in Southeast Asia this year. "Unknown" broke the 20-year box office record for Chinese-language films in Thailand, "Hot" broke the box-office record for "Unknown", and "Desperate" broke the box-office record for Chinese-language films in Malaysia, etc.
In fact, the overseas performance of domestic films this year is much better than that of Korean films, really.
Only by making more money can Chinese movies continue to produce the next excellent movie! Our domestic films still have a long way to go, especially in the international market. It is still difficult to make big money in the international market. The influence of Chinese films in the international market still needs to be improved!
Only when it starts to make a lot of money in the international market and domestic films truly enter a virtuous circle can they truly rise. The domestic market alone is not enough. Now is the first step. We still have a long way to go.
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