Source of this article: Times Finance Author: Zhang Xuemei
Picture source: pexels
"Whether the full-year box office (this year) can reach last year depends on the summer season." Yu Dong, chairman of Bona Pictures, said in a recent interview with the media.
According to Yien data, the national film market achieved a box office of 21.65 billion yuan (including service fees) from January to May 2024, a year-on-year decrease of 2.3% in 2023.
Since June, the movie market has officially started competition for summer movies. Maoyan Professional Edition data shows that there are currently more than 80 films scheduled for the summer season. However, the box office of the Dragon Boat Festival, which kicked off the summer season, shrunk by half compared to the previous year, and the films released next shouldered the burden of the summer season's box office.
Among them, " Successor Plan " by "Shen Ma Group", " Retrograde Life " directed by Xu Zheng, " Under the Stranger " directed by Wu Ershan, and the sequel to "Myth" starring Jackie Chan "" Legend ", " Customs Front " starring Jacky Cheung, Marvel's "Deadpool and Wolverine", Universal Pictures' " Despicable Me 4", etc. have become popular films to be released.
From the perspective of film producers, Wanda Films, Ruyi Pictures, and Light Chaser Animation are performing steadily, while Bona Pictures and Huayi Brothers, which performed relatively weakly in last year’s big period, are also making efforts in the summer period.
A chain theater executive predicted to Times Finance that the 2024 summer season will officially enter the "Fight of the Gods" from June 28, and the box office will be about 80%-90% of the same period last year. His theater has begun to take measures to divert traffic. audience.
The summer season got off to a bad start
Compared with the box office of over 900 million yuan in 2023, this year's Dragon Boat Festival film of less than 400 million yuan made the summer season have a slow start.
Maoyan Professional Edition shows that the box office for the 2024 Dragon Boat Festival (June 8-June 10) totaled approximately 383 million yuan, a decrease of more than half compared to last year, and the third lowest box office for the same period in the past ten years (higher than 2020 0 box office and 178 million yuan box office in 2022).
Compared with last year's "The Lost Girl", which earned more than 500 million yuan at the box office during the Dragon Boat Festival, this year's Dragon Boat Festival lacked blockbuster movies. "I Don't Want to Be Friends with You" won the box office with 71.5073 million yuan.
Zhao Meng, an executive at a certain theater chain, told Times Finance that the recovery trend of the overall film market this year is not obvious because a large number of stock films will be released in 2023, resulting in insufficient supply of high-quality films in 2024.
Due to the long time span and the large number of moviegoers, the summer season is particularly important in the movie box office. The 2023 summer season (June 1-August 31) ended with a box office of 20.62 billion yuan, accounting for 37.55% of the annual box office, which is approximately equivalent to an average daily revenue of 224 million yuan. As of noon on June 21, this year’s summer box office sales exceeded 1.3 billion yuan (including pre-sales).
However, in Zhao Meng’s view, this year’s summer season officially begins with the release of “Customs Front” on June 28. “The supply of films is weak between June 1 and June 28, but after June 28, High-quality movies are released every week until the end of August. "
Times Finance According to statistics from Maoyan, as of June 21, there are nearly 50 movies to be released in the summer season.
Among them, many movies are quite explosive. Shen Teng and Ma Li bring the comedy "Succession Plan". This is the second collaboration between directors Yan Fei and Peng Damo after " The Richest Man in Xihong City ". "The Richest Man in Xihong City" earned over 2.5 billion yuan in 2018 Box office; "Retrograde Life" is directed by Xu Zheng, based on the life of a deliveryman. In 2018, the reality-themed work " I am not the god of medicine " directed by him has a box office of over 3 billion yuan; Wu Ershan brought "Under the Stranger" , his director's " Fengshen Part 1 " won a box office of over 2.5 billion yuan in the 2023 summer season.
Zhao Meng revealed that he heard from the film studio that the film "Decryption" directed by Chen Sicheng and starring Liu Haoran is also tentatively scheduled to be released on August 2. "Judging from the film lineup, this year's summer season is good, and the overall box office is estimated to be around 16-18 billion yuan."
The "2024 Summer Film Outlook" report released by China International Capital Corporation on June 18 predicts that the 2024 summer season will The total box office may be between 85% (17.5 billion yuan) and 105% (21.7 billion yuan) of last year’s box office.
It is reported that the theater chain where Zhao Meng works has already planned activities for the summer theme month. "The activities run from June to August and are carried out around the summer rights card activities, focusing on setting up different settings for seniors, families, and students to watch movies." Group marketing activities and ticketing activities include but are not limited to lottery draws, ticket collection and other activities to attract consumption and increase member income generation. At the same time, we will carry out film marketing, theme theater and other activities with key films, and use the summer movies to do a good job in revenue generation and product promotion. .”
Bona Pictures, Huayi Waiting for a Turnaround
The summer season is not only an important engine for the annual box office, but also a key opportunity for various film and television companies to generate revenue. In the past five years, there has been a clear trend of reshuffles among film companies, which can also be seen from the summer schedule.
In 2019, Enlight Pictures won more than 5.5 billion yuan in box office with "Nezha: The Devil Boy Comes to the World" and "Galaxy Tutoring School", becoming the biggest winner of the summer season; Bona Pictures followed closely behind with "Heroes of Fire" It won over 1.6 billion yuan in box office. In 2021, Bona Pictures' "Chinese Doctor" won the summer box office championship, the light-chasing animation "White Snake 2: The Rise of the Green Snake" ranked third; Huayi Brothers' "Future Summer" ranked fifth at the box office.
In 2022, high-grossing summer movies will come from companies such as Happy Twist, China Film, Alibaba Pictures, Light Chaser Animation, and Hengdian Pictures. In 2023, Bona Pictures, Enlight Media, and Huayi Brothers are no longer among the top five major producers of summer box office films.
This year, companies that have temporarily fallen behind, such as Bona Pictures, Huayi Brothers, and Enlight Media, have chosen to make efforts during this period. As of noon on June 21, "Sweep the Crime·Never Give Up" produced by Enlight Media is currently leading the summer season.
2024 is the 25th anniversary of the establishment of Bona Pictures. Since 2022, Bona Pictures (001330.sz) has been losing money for two consecutive years, with a total loss of more than 600 million yuan. It was able to briefly turn around in the first quarter of this year.
"We need to fight for a turnaround," Yu Dong said. During the summer season, all companies need to produce quality films to jointly boost the entire market. This summer, Bona Pictures is the main producer of three films, namely "Dog Formation", "Legend" and "A Dream of Red Mansions: A Beautiful Marriage".
Among them, the other main producer of "Dog Formation" is Huayi Brothers. From 2019 to 2023, its cumulative losses exceeded 6 billion yuan. In addition to "Dog Formation", Huayi Brothers also has another film "Laifu Hotel" to be released in the summer. Times Finance asked Huayi about the company’s stock videos and revenue-increasing plans, but had not received a reply as of press time.
Marvel vs. Domestic Films
As regulars in summer movies every year, this year, among the production companies of popular films, Wanda Film, Shanghai Ruyi, Maoyan, Happy Twist, and Light Chaser Animation still have a place. In April, Ruyi Group completed its acquisition of Wanda Films. After the merger of the two forces, they may become the biggest winner of this summer season.
Among them, Shanghai Ruyi and Wanda Films are among the producers of more than 5 popular films, including "Succession Plan", "Retrograde Life", "White Snake" and "Silent Kill". In addition, Alibaba Pictures and Maoyan have also participated in the production of more than three movies, and Happy Twist and Light Chasing Animation have participated in "Successor Plan" and "White Snake" respectively.
Tencent's China Literature and Xinli Media are involved in the production of films such as "Under the Stranger", "Customs Front" and "Succession Plan". "Decryption" is expected to be released in August and will be produced by Chinese Films, Maoyan, Alibaba Pictures and others. Among them, Chinese films have moved from distributors to producers. He was responsible for the overseas distribution of films such as "Detective Chinatown" and "Wolf Warrior 2".
At the same time, Marvel brought "Deadpool and Wolverine" and Universal Pictures brought "Despicable Me 4" to compete with domestic films. As an overseas film company with strong appeal in the mainland, Marvel's total box office in the mainland has exceeded 20 billion yuan, of which "Avengers 4" and "Avengers 3" took over 4 billion yuan and 2 billion yuan respectively. The predecessor to "Despicable Me 4", "Despicable Me 3", grossed more than 1 billion yuan at the box office during the 2017 summer season.
Since 2023, the movie market has gradually recovered, but the audience’s requirements for movies have also become higher and higher, and the head effect is obvious. This has also led to the frequent withdrawal of some non-headline films due to poor box office performance.At the Shanghai Film Festival that just ended, director Huang Jianxin also mentioned that in the past three years, the age of Chinese movie audiences has increased from 21 to 27.5 years old.
It is worth mentioning that after a short period of film shortage, various film and television companies will continue to make efforts. Among them, Enlight Media is working on the sequel to "Nezha", "Nezha: The Devil Boy Makes the Sea"; "Jiangyuan Lane" produced by Huanxi Media, China Film and other companies has entered the promotion period; Bona Pictures has returned to the main theme that it is good at, directed by Lin Chaoxian "Operation Dragon" enters the post-production stage.
As the first film companies continue to produce films, the vitality of the film market will further explode.
(At the request of the interviewee, Zhao Meng is a pseudonym in this article)
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