The 2024 summer season (June 1st - August 31st) has just come to an end with a score of 11.633 billion, with a total of 284 million moviegoers and a total of 38.247 million screenings, breaking the record for the total number of summer screenings in Chinese film history. Although a total of 26 films exceeded 100 million yuan during the period, the highest number in the past six years, this summer's box office and movie attendance dropped significantly compared to the same period last year, and the box office was also not as good as before. "High scores, low box office" has become a trend this summer A major feature of the file.
From a purely word-of-mouth perspective, " stop and go ", " falls into the world ", " safely evacuates from the 21st century ", "hedgehog", etc. are all Douban-rated films with high reputations (several films have Douban-rated More than 7 points), and several failed "seeded contestants", such as " Strangers Under " and " Retrograde Life ", also had scores above the passing line, but the box office of these movies did not meet expectations. It also directly led to a sharp decline in the total summer box office results. But can the low box office issues be directly attributed to the film's quality? Of course not. Box office experts and theater managers interviewed by the Beijing News believe that from this year’s May Day and Dragon Boat Festival to the summer season, the inversion between word-of-mouth and box office has become increasingly obvious. This shows that the gap between the movie-watching tastes and evaluations of ordinary viewers and high-frequency movie-watching audiences is gradually widening. Nowadays, no matter how high the reputation is, it cannot determine the high box office.
Audiences are gradually becoming desensitized to word-of-mouth marketing
Looking back at last year's summer schedule, it was basically supported by domestic blockbusters such as "All or Nothing", "The Vanishing Her", "The Octagonal Cage", "Fengshen Part 1 ", "Chang'an 30,000 Miles" With a total box office of 20.6 billion, these films continue to trigger a movie-watching craze by virtue of their respective genre characteristics and ever-growing topicality. In fact, this summer, there is also no shortage of domestic blockbusters with rich genres and different themes. In addition to "Catch a Baby" starring Shen Teng, the fantasy film "Under the Stranger" directed by Wu Ershan and the suspense film directed by Chen Sicheng The film " decrypted " and the realist film "Retrograde Life" directed and starred by Xu Zheng and other "seed contestants" that originally had high hopes had a passing reputation, but the box office did not meet expectations, and some movies even had box office It is difficult to achieve more than 100 million yuan. This abnormal phenomenon has also triggered thinking in the industry.
box office analyst Luo Tianwen told the Beijing News reporter that the low box office of these movies with decent reputations this summer is increasingly reflecting a question - what kind of movies can really attract audiences into theaters. "This problem has become increasingly clear. Today's audiences (especially during the summer season) are still more accustomed to watching family-friendly movies with hot social issues and strong resonance. In addition, so-called story innovation, word-of-mouth marketing and other means It’s becoming less and less effective.” Luo Tianwen specifically mentioned that in recent years, the quality of word-of-mouth can indeed be quickly reflected in the box office of movies. The opposite of high word-of-mouth is the effect of bad reviews, but now high word-of-mouth can have a negative impact on box office. It’s also getting less and less helpful. In fact, the resistance that negative reviews can bring is not that great. After years of exposure to various forms of word-of-mouth marketing, well-informed audiences have actually become desensitized to the various tactics used in film word-of-mouth marketing. Therefore, practitioners should not blame too many box office losses on bad reviews, but The project itself did not interest the general audience.
"Retrograde Life" did not replicate the success of " I am not the God of Medicine " by the main creator Xu Zheng.
Li Yulin, a senior theater manager who has been working in theaters for many years, mentioned that the failure of some "seed contestants" of domestic films this year has become a major reason for the precipitous drop in the total box office of this summer's summer season. As of the time of writing, "Retrograde Life" (347 million ) "Decryption" (330 million) and "Under the Stranger" (118 million), but the total box office of the three films cannot exceed that of " silently kills " (1.350 billion). The situation of these films has broken away from the era of word-of-mouth marketing. Some rules.For example, the landmark film "I'm Not the God of Medicine", which had received both word-of-mouth and box office success in the 2018 summer season, returned to this year's summer season with the realism-themed "Retrograde Life" by its creator Xu Zheng. The situation has completely changed. "Retrograde Life" has a reputation of 6.8 points, which is acceptable, but the controversy it has caused is far from that of "I'm Not the God of Medicine", even last year's "The Octagon", which also had a realistic theme. , directly losing a lot of viewers.
Li Yulin once again used "Under the Stranger" as an example. The film failed to replicate the long-term success of last year's "Fengshen Part 1" directed by Wu Ershan at the box office. It can be seen that the evaluation of big IPs is not only based on its In terms of objective audience size, we should also pay attention to the circle of the audience and the difficulty of adaptation. Although "Under the Stranger" also carried out a series of fancy marketing, it was also a performance training camp and massive roadshow promotion. The reason why these promotional methods were effective last year was based on the success of "Fengshen Part 1" and its After the actors receive a lot of attention and word-of-mouth fermentation, the rich materials can be well received as a carrier to absorb the enthusiasm of movie fans, which will help the box office gradually rise; and "Under the Stranger" has a higher attention and fan base. It is really limited by the circle, and it cannot be compared with the public knowledge of "Fengshen Part 1".
The visual effects blockbuster "Decryption" did not achieve ideal box office results.
Many practitioners regard visual effects as the core competitiveness in the competition between the big screen and the TV screen. "Decryption" can also be regarded as this summer's visual effects blockbuster. It has been widely recognized in the industry in terms of photography, lighting, shooting composition, etc. Recognized; but it turns out that visual effects are not everything. Most of the criticism of "Decryption" is directed at the "mysterious" and "inexplicable" narrative, which shows that the narrative technique of interweaving dreams and reality in the film has greatly raised the acceptance threshold for ordinary audiences. Good visual effects still have to be consistent with the public The combination of acceptable narrative rhythm can work.
Unclear selling points will discourage viewers
This summer, there are many domestic films with excellent casts and outstanding Douban ratings, such as "Stop and Go" (8 points) starring Hu Ge, Gao Yuanyuan, Ge You, Wang Junkai "The Hedgehog" starring Zhu Yilong (7.4 points), " negative negative is positive " starring Zhu Yilong (7 points), and "Safe Evacuation from the 21st Century" starring Zhang Ruoyun (7.6 points), each starring a big star. In addition, there are also "Falling World" (7.9 points), which has the best reputation among domestic animations this year, and "Grandma's Grandson", Thailand's annual box office champion (9 points). However, the box office performance of these films, which are known as "dark horses of word-of-mouth", is regrettable. The three films "Stop and Go", "Hedgehog" and "Safe Evacuation from the 21st Century" each have their own selling points and have ups and downs in their plots, but their box office is hovering around 100 million. The box office of "Mind the Negative" stopped at 70 million, and the box office of "Grandma" "The Grandson" has been fermented by word-of-mouth, and the box office has only exceeded 80 million as of the deadline. It seems that many of the rules that have been verified by the market in the past have been disenchanted this summer. Highly rated and highly praised films cannot follow the corresponding box office trajectory. The reasons behind it are also worth exploring. When
was interviewed by a reporter from the Beijing News, many viewers mentioned a question. Nowadays, ordinary viewers generally do not buy tickets because of what kind of stars are starring in a certain movie. They pay more attention to the type of movie. and whether it is a hot topic. For example, audience member Wang Zihai told the Beijing News reporter that the poster style of "A Negative Makes a Positive" looks a bit punk and a bit literary. Combined with the mathematical formula-like title, it is difficult to judge what it is about. What is the content of the movie? "I am skeptical whether this movie can make me go to the theater without regrets. Moreover, movie tickets are not cheap now, and time is precious. Its selling point is not clear, and it failed to make me Finally, I chose this movie. "In addition to the unclear selling point, some movies lack clear labels in communication, which makes it difficult for the audience to talk about the movie. Many of the viewers in the sample survey did not know what "The Fall" is about. Some viewers who have watched it also reported that the film lacked deeper content to attract adult audiences.
Some viewers believe that the film "A Negative Makes a Positive" has "unclear selling points" both from the title and the poster.
Regarding the characteristic of "unclear selling points", Luo Tianwen suggested that the main creator should find the core selling points of the film from the initial planning, "label" the work in the most concise and attractive way, and try to be able to recommend the film in one sentence. "It can be seen that it is difficult to do this in these high-reputation movies, such as "Stop and Go" and "A Negative Is a Positive". It is difficult to understand the story it tells without actually watching the movie. Another example is "The Hedgehog" "Although it has the blessing of big stars, it is difficult for viewers who do not understand the original work or the characteristics of the story to know what this movie is about. Another example is "Safe Evacuation from the 21st Century", although it has its unique narrative logic, time and space transformation, and picture composition. The use of color and color have opened the eyes of many viewers, but it is slightly weak in subject matter and topicality, and it is difficult to arouse the emotional resonance of the general audience. In addition, the overall market of the schedule is relatively cold, and naturally it is impossible to achieve great sales. "
The quality is good and you can't just admire it alone.
Li Yulin also mentioned the phenomenon that the tracks that can provide attractions to ordinary audiences have become increasingly clear. One is spectacle, which is often reflected in suspense crime films, such as this year's "Silence", last year's "The Lost Girl" and "Desperate". Domestic audiences and domestic creators alike have great enthusiasm for the suspenseful crime track, and there is still no downward trend in genre films. Not only "Silence", the low-budget "Rebirth" also easily exceeded 200 million box office, and the previous Dragon Boat Festival "Sweeping Gangs: Never Give Up" also scored 192 million. In the most unstable summer season, the suspense crime genre has almost become the most stable investment project.
Compared with previous years, although this summer's summer season has many well-received works, and many works have also attracted a lot of attention due to the topic of being out of the industry, the conversion to actual box office is still very limited. Earlier, Mao Yu, deputy director of the Central Propaganda Film Bureau, pointed out that compared with a large country with a population of 1.4 billion, our country's film companies are still very weak and the film industry is not mature enough. Film companies with complete industrial chains, meticulous professional division of labor, sound distribution networks, strong financial support, risk resistance capabilities and strong cultural influence are still on the road to growth. The film industry relies too much on box office revenue, and diversified films with small and medium-cost investments have difficulty finding their audience. Most theaters are used to waiting for rice to be served, and they don’t know how to get out of the theater. They are still waiting to see how to implement precise policies for branch distribution.
Although these summer high-reputation films did not meet expectations at the box office, their rich and diverse genres and themes still met the needs of different audience groups; their contributions to artistry and innovation in narrative techniques were also very significant. It deserves encouragement from both inside and outside the industry. How to attract audiences into theaters to enjoy good movies is still a permanent topic we focus on. Luo Tianwen said, "A high reputation cannot be separated from the audience, and a good quality cannot be self-respecting. When it comes to production and promotion, the film industry should still insist on putting content as king, use every method to serve the content, strengthen empathic interaction with the audience, and jointly assist in making the film more popular." Many movies have entered the hearts of the audience and created a hot box office.”
Beijing News reporter Zhou Huixiaowan
Editor Huang Jialing
Proofreading by Li Lijun
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