Picture source @Visual China
Text | Mouyu
Most of the new domestic works in recent years look familiar. On January 11, Jia Ling, who had disappeared for more than a year, posted on Weibo to inform the audience that she had lost a hundred pounds to film a new movie.
Some fans immediately realized from the bits of information revealed that Jia Ling's new film "Hot and Spicy" is a remake of the Japanese film "100 Yuan Love".
Jia Ling, who once exported "Hello, Li Huanying" to Hollywood, began to remake works from other countries for her next work. Some practitioners said that Jia Ling may encounter "script problems."
"Being able to film "Hello, Li Huanying" proves that Jia Ling is an excellent creator, but she is also limited by the lack of good scripts and good content to continue creating."
In fact, Jia Ling is not the only one who remakes movies. . In 2023, remakes of excellent foreign films have become a trend. A large number of stories from various regions and countries have been adapted on the land of China, making 's Chinese theaters this year a "window to the world" for global movies.
According to incomplete statistics from Mouyu, remake movies in 2023 will be the highest in history in terms of box office influence, time span, types of movies involved, and the number of regions where movies will be remade.
In addition to the difficulty of finding good scripts, it also reflects some deeper problems in the film market.
What's different about the 2023 movie remake?
There are two pieces of data about domestic remake movies in 2023 that deserve market attention. One is the breakthrough in the box office record of remake movies in the middle of the year; the other is the number of remake movies in the second half of the year.
In the summer season, "The Disappearance" produced by Chen Sicheng achieved a box office of 3.523 billion this summer, breaking the cumulative box office record for summer feature films in Chinese film history. The original holder of this record was a record of 3.1 billion The box office record of "I'm Not the God of Medicine".
This is also the best result that remake has achieved in the domestic film market.
It is worth mentioning that this is not the first remake film produced by Chen Sicheng. Prior to this, "Manslaughter" and "Manslaughter 2", also produced by Chen Sicheng, achieved box office of 1.333 billion and 1.121 billion respectively.
This has given the market confidence that with "remakes" as its core, the film industry seems to be able to once again find the same stable income output model as the "big IP + traffic stars" IP movies around 2015. The
model can be "excellent foreign stories" + "domestic realism issues", or "foreign well-known IP" + "Chen Sicheng supervision". The specific model has not yet been determined, but positive feedback from the market has arrived in the second half of the year.
Around November, there was a continuous explosion of remake movies in domestic theaters.
On October 27, "Second Hand Masterpiece" from Bad Monkey Pictures, starring He Wei and Guo Qilin and produced by Ning Hao, was released in theaters. It is a remake of the 2009 American film "The World's Greatest Father". The original Douban score is 7.4 point.
On November 1, "Rescue the Suspect" starring Zhang Xiaofei and Hui Yinghong and directed by Zhang Yimou's daughter Zhang Mo was released in theaters. It is a remake of the 2007 Korean movie "Seven Days". The original Douban score was 7.5.
On November 10, "Priceless Treasure" starring Zhang Yi and Pan Binlong and directed by Zhang Dapeng, the director of "Who is Peppa Pig", was released in theaters. It is a remake of the Korean movie "Guarantee". The original Douban score is 7.8.
On December 8, the new film "The Secret" starring Xu Guanghan and Zhang Junning, a remake of the Spanish classic suspense film "The Invisible Guest", was released in theaters. The original Douban score was 8.8. It is worth mentioning that the original "The Invisible Guest" had previously been released in mainland theaters and earned more than 170 million at the box office.
Before their release, these remakes had performed well due to the success of their predecessors and their strong creative lineup. But in the end, the Douban score was fixed at around 6 points, which did not stimulate more discussion in the market.
In terms of box office, the lowest-rated "Rescue the Suspect" finally earned 569 million at the box office due to the excellent marketing of the heroine "Zhang Xiaofei". The box office results of the other three works all stayed at more than 100 million, and the box office has not yet reached 200 million.
However, follow-up movie remakes are still gaining traction. In January, "What's in the Zoo", a remake of South Korea's "Secret Zoo" was released, and in February the Spring Festival movie had Jia Ling's "Hot and Spicy" as its finale.
Some practitioners said that the current attitude of the film industry towards remakes of movies is very similar to the previous attitude towards IP movies. investors have seen the controllability of risks brought by the hit cases and mature stories, but most audiences are resistant, especially the more famous the remake of the original work, the less optimistic it is.
"It's nothing more than copying other people's stories to make money."
Is remake a good business?
The creative organizations/creators that have long been involved in remakes in China and have case value are Kaixin Mahua and Chen Sicheng.
After becoming an instant hit with "Charlotte" in 2015, Happy Twist's follow-up movies were adapted based on the original work.
Including "Charlotte's Trouble", Beijing Happy Twist's "Li Cha's Aunt", "The Shy Iron Fist" and "Donkey Gets Water" produced by Beijing Happy Twist are all adapted from the Happy Twist's play of the same name. "The Richest Man in Xihong City" was adapted from the American movie "Brewster's Millions", which set the company's highest box office of 2.547 billion yuan during the same period. The follow-up was based on the success of the remake of the movie on the one hand, and also due to the shortage of suitable drama scripts on the other. Happy Twist began to try more to remake movies from other countries.
's follow-up movies produced by Zhejiang Happy Mahua include "Half Comedy" adapted from the drama "If, I'm Not Me", and "This Killer Is Not So Calm" adapted from the Japanese movies "Magic Moment" and "Super Family" Adapted from the Russian movie "Super Family", "Walking on the Moon" is adapted from the Korean comic book of the same name.
Initially, Happy Twist's baggage honed over time in the drama stage, coupled with the acting skills of outstanding drama actors such as Shen Teng and Ma Li, changed the ecology of domestic comedy movies that are not funny. These two were also regarded as the secrets to winning in the "Happy Twist" mode.
But later on, the confidence in the content of the dialogue drama caused problems with the quality control of "Happy Twist". In addition, the excessive binding with Shen Teng in the early stage caused the brand effect of Happy Twist to give way to Shen Teng's personal brand effect. "Han Teng" "Quantity" has become the standard for audiences to judge whether Happy Twist movies are worth watching.
A film critic told Mouyu that the "story" of Happy Twist has always been their advantage. Their ability lies in their ability to continue to dig out stories with dramatic tension for adaptation. This capability of existed before Happy Twist entered the film industry. For example, "Charlotte" can unearth elements from the 1986 movie "Peggy Sue Is Getting Married."
In terms of content, the remake also provides the value of a good story. Since Happy Twist is good at this, the remake will not be more helpful to the film and television adaptation of Happy Twist. This year's "Super Family" received a Douban score of 3.6 and a box office of only 300 million, despite Shen Teng's large participation.
"At least on Douban, the average movie adaptation of the Happy Twist drama is higher than the remake."
Chen Sicheng is exactly the opposite of Happy Twist.
Starting from "Tang Detective", Chen Sicheng's films have borrowed a lot of elements from many other excellent movies. Many tricks and plots are not original to him, but they can be well integrated into his own stories and form the so-called "Tang Dynasty". Exploring the universe”.
This situation became more prominent after Chen Sicheng became a behind-the-scenes producer. Even if kept changing directors, the movies produced by him could always maintain a qualified water mark and at the same time ensure a good harvest at the box office. can be sure that Chen Sicheng has developed a methodology that can continue to extract outstanding film elements from other countries and transform and remake them based on localized hot spots. However, once
breaks away from the excellent story foundation, its original director's "Mozart from Outer Space", even if it stars Huang Bo, cannot escape the bad reputation of the story as "fake and empty".
Some practitioners pointed out that the current remakes are actually very different from IP movies.The most obvious point is that due to market resistance, most remake movies will not use the fame of the original work in promotion. Instead, they will try to downplay this and only take the essence of the "story". This is completely contrary to the logic of IP movies.
Compared with the IP market, which has been cold in recent years, practitioners engaged in licensing the adaptation rights of film and television works in foreign regions revealed to Mouyu that compared with domestic ip, the current price of is high and difficult to realize, and the adaptation rights of film and television works in most regions are difficult to realize. It is more economical and affordable, which is one of the reasons why the remake of the movie is so popular.
A special period when remake movies are popular
Now is the best time for remake movies.
A practitioner engaged in film venture capital said that if the film is adapted from the original work and verified with excellent market data, it will be an extra point for investors.
From the perspective of the industry model, film has always been a high-cycle, high-investment and high-risk industry. It’s common for a movie to take a year from project to release. Therefore, if there is already a verifiable data out there, it will make investors more reassured. This is also the reason why IP movies have become so popular before.
Even now, the country no longer believes in the value of IP to box office, but for investors, this is still an effective reassurance.
Among the domestic films this year, even if they are not remakes of films from other countries, most of them are adapted from literary works such as "The Mistake on the River" or comic works such as "The Lighting Store".
Compared with finished movies, the reliability of data of other types of works is still one step behind after all. Therefore, remake movies are still the most popular and guaranteed in the market.
It is worth mentioning that the original works of many remakes of movies this year are not high-rated movies, most of which are around 7 points. Some practitioners revealed to Mou Entertainment that this is actually a phenomenon where remakes are maturing. means that production companies no longer have superstition on the scores of the original works when looking for works. Rather, it depends more on the story itself, which models are more suitable for localization and can tell a story that Chinese people like.
"Compared with previous film and television works that have high ratings but are not suitable for telling in China, such as "Midnight Diner", the current remake will put localization first."
asked whether remake movies will become like IP movies in the future. Many film and television companies have not given a definite answer to a trend in the Chinese film market in the future.
Bian Xiao, who is engaged in film and television promotion work, believes that this is a special period.
On the one hand, film and television content creation has a lag, and stories that are currently filmed are often released a year later. Two years after the epidemic was suspended, most film and television companies are actually unsure of the preferences of audiences in the current film market.
"At this time, the classic story of is at least an option that cannot go wrong. "
On the other hand, when companies are hesitant about market preferences, the market's feedback is extremely enthusiastic. Since the film market has recovered rapidly this year, many hit films have been released one after another, continuing to stimulate the market, and many film and television companies have taken advantage of this to turn losses into profits.
In this case, everyone has no time to slowly research and create , so remake is the best choice. “‘She Disappeared’ is just a fire to stimulate the market.” Bian Xiao added.
As for what will happen to remake movies in the future, we need to wait until the market gradually returns to normal in 2024 to know.
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