Many literary and artistic films entered the market in March. I thought that the movie "Chasing the Moon" starring He Saifei, Yuan Wenkang and others would bring surprises to the market, but the reality is exactly the opposite. The film was released on March 8 and only earned 749,000 yuan at the box office in three days of release, which was really unexpected.
The topic of "traffic" has not been translated into film schedule and box office
Logically speaking, "Chasing the Moon" does not lack selling points. The film is adapted from the novel "The Past" by writer Ai Wei. The original work won the Novelette Award at the 8th Lu Xun Literature Award. Director Qiao Liang has been working in the field of TV dramas for many years, and his creative techniques and styles have become increasingly mature. In terms of actors, the film focuses on powerful actors such as He Saifei, Yuan Wenkang, Tu Ling, and Xu Ge. From the performance point of view, they are all very good.
"Chasing the Moon" had no shortage of "traffic" topics before its release, especially He Saifei. For her role as "Teacher Qi" in the film, she won the Best Actress at the 36th Chinese Film "Golden Rooster Award" in 2023. Major video platforms have recently repeatedly played her various interview videos. But unfortunately, all this did not translate into real film schedules and box office. According to Maoyan Professional Edition data, the film's first day of release on March 8 accounted for only 1.3% of the film schedule, and the attendance rate was only 2.7%. Such a low attendance rate directly led to the second day's film schedule dropped to 0.1% , the single-day box office that day was less than 100,000 yuan. It is not an exaggeration to say that the release of "Chasing the Moon" is a "one-day trip". At the same time, many netizens reported that they wanted to watch it but found that there were no theaters showing the film nearby. Reporters found on the "Taopiaopiao" ticketing platform that there were only 35 theaters in Beijing that had "Chasing the Moon" scheduled for March 11. Among them, there were only a few within the Fourth Ring Road such as Beijing Broadway Cinema Center (Wanguocheng Branch). Most of them are outside the Fifth Ring Road, and the screenings are arranged in the morning or noon, with only one or two screenings per day. With this arrangement, the box office of the film can be imagined.
The film is not lacking in attractions and commercial elements.
Although "Chasing the Moon" can be classified as an art film, it actually has many attractions and commercial elements. Judging from the theme of the film, the film tells the theme of "reconciliation" between two generations that has been very popular in recent years. In the film, after Mr. Qi learns that he is terminally ill, he returns to his hometown to find his two sons, hoping to reach reconciliation with his family and share the warmth of family affection at the end of his life. Similar movies include " Mom!" directed by Yang Lina in 2022 and starring Wu Yanshu, Xi Meijuan , etc. "", the film received a good box office of 77.13 million yuan that year, proving that there is no lack of market for movies with this type of theme.
The story of "Chasing the Moon" is not bad either. In addition to the smooth story, the film also brings an unexpected surprise. For example, in the film, Teacher Qi has been guiding the troupe's performance as a consultant. No one expected that she would steal love, use sleeping pills to make the original heroine miss the stage, and finally made the troupe leader beg her to come to the rescue. For another example, at the end of the film, Teacher Qi, who has always been proud and arrogant, when he learned that someone was going to assassinate his eldest son who owned a karaoke bar, he chose to "strike first" and stabbed the opponent with a knife alone, and then chose to call the police. These reversal of the plot greatly increase the enjoyment of the story, and the whole film is not boring at all.
Of course, the most exciting thing about "Chasing the Moon" is He Saifei's performance. "Chasing the Moon" can be said to be He Saifei's one-man show. As the writer Ai Wei described, He Saifei has a "temperament of suddenly losing control of her emotions." "I think she is very consistent with the motherly atmosphere in the novel "The Past"." Indeed, He Saifei Almost every scene in the film is full of tension, but her performance is very precise and delicate. She has both the confidence and sternness when facing the younger members of the troupe, and the pain and grievance that is almost pleading when facing the eldest son's face-to-face reproach. Many netizens reported that they had the urge to go to the movie because they saw the preview of He Saifei's performance.
There is still a lot of homework to be done on how to market literary and artistic films.
Although "Chasing the Moon" has many artistic highlights, it still has not broken the "curse" of being cold in the literary and artistic film market. There are many reasons, but one thing that is particularly obvious in this movie is that the audience who wants to watch the movie and the theaters showing the movie are not well matched.From the perspective of the target audience, most of the audiences who like "Chasing the Moon" are of relatively high cultural level. They are better able to understand the female-related topics involved in the film. This requires theaters in urban centers to schedule more films. , but the opposite is true. This has caused a "dislocation" between the theater and the audience, and they cannot find each other.
The issue of scheduling literary and artistic films has been reported and called for by the media for many years. Experts from all walks of life have also given many suggestions, such as setting up special art cinemas in theaters to screen excellent art films for a long time, because such films often have One characteristic is that the box office may not be high a few days before the screening, but as word-of-mouth ferments, the stamina is very strong. If the market can survive the first few days, there may be surprises later. This requires relevant departments to have a sense of co-ordination, introduce some policies, coordinate with relevant theaters, and give excellent literary and artistic films a chance to perform.
From the perspective of the film studio, there is still a lot of homework to be done on how to do marketing and publicity to attract more audiences to watch in theaters. For example, after He Saifei won the "Golden Rooster Award" for Best Actress last year, "Chasing the Moon" took advantage of the popularity of the "Golden Rooster Award" and if it could be released as soon as possible, the effect might be different. These marketing techniques need to be constantly explored and summarized. They must not only learn from the experience of successful people, but also fit the characteristics of specific films to achieve targeted and precise marketing. Only in this way can the audience's curiosity and viewing needs be stimulated.
(Source: Beijing Evening News reporter Wang Jinyue)
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