Many films in the summer file staged a counterattack at the box office
Original title: Many films in the summer file staged a counterattack at the box office
Our reporter Wang Jinyue
The summer movie market is booming. According to data from Beacon Professional Edition, the total box office in July reached 8.7 billion yuan, setting a new box office record in Chinese film history in July. Among them, films such as “In the Octagonal Cage”, “Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang’an”, and “The First Part of Fengshen” have staged box office and word-of-mouth counterattacks one after another, and the innovative themes and genres have also been well received by the audience. It can be said that the spirit of innovation and word-of-mouth effect are the “engines” that detonate this year’s summer film market.
The box office counterattack is staged again and again
“This year’s summer vacation is so popular, the most unexpected thing is that there are so many films staged a counterattack at the box office.” Chen Jun, the manager of the studio, said with emotion.
At the beginning of the summer season, the suspense film “The Missing Her” stood out in the market and became a dark horse at the box office. Under the tremendous pressure of the film, the film “In the Octagonal Cage” directed by Wang Baoqiang was released on July 6, with a box office of 64.54 million yuan that day, which was lower than the 90.45 million yuan of “The Missing Her”. But on the second day, “In the Octagonal Cage” made a counterattack, overtaking “The Missing Her” with a box office of 135 million yuan that day.
It is worth mentioning that the animated film “Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang’an” was released on July 7, and the first day of the film accounted for only 17.9%. But on July 11, the film also achieved a box office counterattack, with a box office of 43.4 million yuan that day, surpassing “The Missing Her” and second only to “In the Octagonal Cage”. After that, the word-of-mouth of “Thirty Thousand Miles in Chang’an” continued to ferment, and the box office continued to rise. At present, the total box office has exceeded 1.6 billion yuan, which is amazing.
Also counterattacking is “Fengshen Part 1”, which was released on July 20. Only 17.8% of the films were scheduled for the first day of release, and only 49.11 million yuan was earned at the box office that day. The next day, the comedy “Super Family” starring Shen Teng and Allen was released, with an absolute advantage of 36.8% of the film schedule, and “Fengshen Part I” was in a very disadvantageous situation. However, due to the rapid collapse of the word-of-mouth of “Super Family”, “The First Part of Fengshen” achieved a counterattack on July 23, occupying the first place with a box office of 130 million yuan that day. Since then, the film has firmly occupied the top box office of the day, and it was not changed until the release of “Megalodon 2: Abyss” yesterday.
Innovative quality helps the film counterattack
“The reason why this summer file is so hot is that the quality of the film is strong enough, the genre is innovative, the culture has a vision, and the dissemination is hot. In a word, it meets the taste requirements and expectations of the audience.” China Film Archive Film Culture Research Director Zuo Heng analyzed.
“Behind the counterattack of popular films is the strong sense of innovation and service spirit of Chinese film creators.” Jiang Yong, a film market research expert, told reporters. He took “In the Octagon” as an example. The film was adapted from the real “Bonn Fighting Incident”, but when the creator adapted the story, he did not blindly cite the story to the fighting competition, but focused on the reality of the film. “In the Octagonal Cage” is like a combination of “I’m Not the God of Medicine” and “Wrestling! Dad”. The film talks about the difficulties that ordinary people can encounter in real life. , Wang Baoqiang got the key to victory.”
Jiang Yong believes that the innovative spirit of “Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang’an” is also very strong. “The biopics we have seen in the past, such as “Mozart” and “Van Gogh”, are all single-person biopics, but “Three Thousand Miles in Chang’an” uses a biographical film of Li Bai and Gao Shi, which is rare. .Coupled with the form of cartoons, it has almost never appeared before. And the length of the film is 168 minutes, which is even rarer in cartoons.”
Xu Yuechun, director of the Literary Criticism Center of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, was deeply impressed by the innovative spirit of “Fengshen Part I”. Director Wu Ershan honed his sword for nine years and adopted the “trilogy” method of filming to present the impact of the “Battle of Shang and Zhou Dynasties” three thousand years ago on the later Chinese civilization and ethics. “The First Part of Fengshen has truly achieved integrity and innovation. The so-called “keeping the integrity” means to artistically display the Chinese people’s ideas, moral concepts and value orientation; This is also the two pillars of the film’s success.” Xu Yuechun said.
Word of mouth is becoming more and more important
“Through the counterattack phenomenon of this summer’s film, it can be found that the word-of-mouth effect of the film has become more and more important.” Jiang Yong analyzed.
Whether it’s “In the Octagonal Cage”, “Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang’an” or “The First Part of Fengshen”, in addition to the excellent film quality, these films also have a feature, that is, they are very topical in society and can fully mobilize the audience. The enthusiasm and participation in the discussion made the film’s reputation continue to ferment.
Wang Baoqiang’s inspirational spirit of working hard for six years to film “In the Octagonal Cage” touched many audiences. After “Three Thousand Miles of Chang’an” was released, the 48 Tang poems in the film quickly became the focus of the film’s publicity, which greatly increased the film’s publicity effect.
In Jiang Yong’s view, on the day of the release of “Fengshen Part I”, the situation was very bad. However, the film crew adopted various publicity methods in a timely manner, especially after releasing the “fragment of Wen Taishi’s return from Beihai after many years of hard work” that appeared in the last egg of the film, which quickly ignited the interest of netizens, “Because in the second part In the movie, the battle between immortals is finally about to appear.”
The box office counterattack phenomenon of many films in this summer also provides a model and thinking for the creation of Chinese films in the future. Zuo Heng believes that future filmmakers should not only continue to consolidate the industrialization, typification and cultural thickness of films, but also focus on the future technical standards, future cultural forms, and future aesthetic tastes of films and pursue the audience group with the greatest common divisor. “But more importantly, we must continue to cultivate and discover the new power of Chinese films, give full play to the spirit of innovation, and make the most creative young talents one of the priorities of our work.”