Original title: There has been great progress in the market, art, industry and other aspects (introduction)
Chinese film achieves matrix development (theme)
Beijing DailyReporter Yuan Yuner
In the past ten years, the Chinese film market has continued to expand, the box office has repeatedly set new records, and the audience has developed a habit of watching movies. The domestic films represented by the main theme films have made strong efforts in the market, winning both the box office and word of mouth.
“It has not only achieved good box office results, but also won the support and love of the audience, it has not only spread positive energy, but also has artistic exploration. In the past ten years, Chinese films have not simply made achievements in a certain area, but have made achievements in the market, There has been great progress in art, industry and other aspects… It constitutes the development of our film as a whole, which is a matrix.” Yin Li, vice chairman of the China Film Association, said.
market
The dominant position of domestic films is stable
In the past ten years, Chinese films have ushered in an unprecedented period of development opportunities. A series of commercial blockbusters closely following the pulse of the times, closely following the needs of the audience, with exciting stories and mature production standards came into being, pushing the box office to a new height. In 2012, the annual box office of the Chinese film market was only 17.1 billion yuan. By 2021, this figure has become 47 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.75 times.
With a box office of 5.775 billion yuan, “Changjin Lake”, the champion of the Chinese film history box office, is undoubtedly the most prominent example of the prosperity of the film market. The film has the top configuration of Chinese movies from the front to the backstage, and the all-round presentation of the “Battle of Changjin Lake” not only brings shocking audio-visual experience to the audience, but also detonates the strong patriotic enthusiasm of the whole society. The success of “Changjin Lake” fully proves the huge market potential of Chinese films.
In the past two years, the annual box office of Chinese films has surpassed that of North America, becoming the global box office champion in a single market. Among them, domestic films contributed the most to the box office. In the box-office list of Chinese film history, nine of the top ten films are domestic films, “Changjin Lake”, “Wolf Warrior 2”, “Hello, Li Huanying”, “Nezha’s Devil Child”, “Wandering Earth” 》 firmly occupies the top five position. The dominant market position of domestic films was further consolidated.
The hot market is inseparable from the progress of hardware facilities. The number of theaters in my country has grown from 3,000 in 2012 to 12,000 in 2022, an increase of 300%. The rapid construction of special effects halls such as IMAX and China Giant Screen has improved the viewing experience and expanded the market size. According to Chen Jin, a data analyst at Lighthouse Professional Edition, in the past ten years, the popular schedules have gradually matured, and audiences have become more and more accustomed to entering the cinema during holidays, especially the movie viewing craze triggered by the Spring Festival and National Day stalls, and a number of box office “30” 100 million+” explosive works. In addition, genre films continue to mature and find stories that are more in line with the tastes of local audiences.
Art
The genre theme style ushered in a creative blowout
Main theme films are perfectly integrated with commercial elements, realistic themes resonate with audiences, animated films shine, and niche literary films show their quality… From the perspective of artistic expression, Chinese films in the past decade have ushered in creation in terms of genre, subject matter and style. Blowout, market richness and diversity are further enhanced.
If 2014’s “Taking Tiger Mountain by Wisdom” was a test of the main theme commercial blockbuster, then the main theme film in 2022 has completed many iterations and upgrades, and constantly innovates in terms of themes and techniques. “Operation Mekong”, “Wolf Warrior 2” and “Operation Red Sea” are the main theme of military action, featuring thrilling action scenes; “Revolutionary” and “1921” go back to history and tell the prodigious years of the ancestors; “Captain of China” and “Million Miles” Homecoming” and “Ordinary Heroes” focus on ordinary people from all walks of life, filled with the ideal feelings of dream chasers…
“Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage”, “White Snake: The Origin”, “Nezha’s Devil Child Comes into the World“, “The Lion Boy”, “New God List: Yang Jian” and other domestic animated films, let people appreciate the uniqueness of Chinese stories and oriental aesthetics charm. Zhao Ji, the director of “White Snake: Origin” and “New God List: Yang Jian”, said with emotion that after each movie is released, he can feel the audience’s love and tolerance. “In the past, audiences watched more foreign animations. In recent years, people have seen more and more excellent Chinese comics and began to develop this habit. After all, domestic animations are closer to our culture.” He said, “From a creative perspective Look, on the one hand, practitioners have undergone more professional education and training to create with updated film and television thinking; on the other hand, technological progress has gradually lowered the threshold for animation production.”
In the past, literary and documentary films, which were regarded as niche and lacked box office potential, have achieved artistic expression and gained surprising box office by virtue of their high reputation in the past decade. In 2016, “A Hundred Birds and the Phoenix” still needs the producer to “kneel down and ask for the arrangement”. Now, with the help of developed social networks and short video platforms, even the most niche works can find their audience. Such is the “out of the circle” of films such as “Kang Rinpoche”, “The Last Night on Earth”, “The Moon in Hand” and “Love Myth”. Beijing International Film Festival, Shanghai International Film Festival, Pingyao International Film Festival, FIRST Youth Film Festival and other large-scale festivals and exhibitions also provide young filmmakers with a stage without threshold, allowing them to see the possibility of realizing their film dreams.
industry
Establish a mature and efficient production system
In the script stage, there are “script doctors” to give advice, use virtual production to improve efficiency before shooting, post-production is escorted by top domestic special effects companies such as MOREVFX, and publicity means to play various tricks… Whether it is the initial preparation of film creation, Whether it is on-site shooting or post-production, distribution and marketing, a mature and efficient industrial production system has been established for Chinese films in the past ten years to better promote the development of the industry.
This summer’s phenomenal film “Walking on the Moon Alone” surprised the audience. The visual effects of the original domestic film have been completely comparable to that of Hollywood blockbusters. Liu Hongtao, chairman of Happy Twist Films, admitted that as early as the start-up stage of the film, they knew that this would be a serious film industry work and would face huge challenges. At each stage before the film was released, the main creative team consciously aligned with the international level, created with innovative and systematic thinking, and finally reached a new height of domestic science fiction films. The kangaroo “Gangzi” in the film has nearly 50 million hairs all over his body. The crew made full use of motion capture, facial expression capture, high-precision rendering and other technologies to present a figure that is lifelike and close to real body movements, facial expressions and hair textures. Role.
“Now the technical level of Chinese films has basically reached the level that as long as they can be imagined and made, this is a huge progress.” Liu Hongtao said that this progress is inseparable from the improvement of the audience’s appreciation demand and the struggle of Chinese filmmakers.
From the first step of the domestic sci-fi blockbuster “The Wandering Earth”, to the follow-up “Assassination of the Novelist”, “Mozart in Outer Space”, “Lonely Walking on the Moon” and “Tomorrow’s War”, each one is based on the previous one. Moving forward, making a step further in production, and at the same time providing experience for the next one… The industrialization level of Chinese films is steadily advancing in the practice of each work and the “facilitation” between practitioners.
Expert Reviews
warm realism
see light and hope
Three key words sum up this decade.
The first is the continuous expansion of main theme movies, which has formed a positive interaction with the audience, and occupied the market while conveying the mainstream values. New mainstream movies can only meet the needs of audiences if they continue to expand and diversify in terms of subject matter, genre and style.
The second key word is warm realism. Realism is the foundation of Chinese film. Without the foundation, the development of Chinese film will lose its basic direction. Warm realism means that when facing reality, one must see light and hope, such as “I’m Not the God of Medicine”, “Send You a Little Red Flower”, and “Youth in Youth” are relatively excellent works of this kind.
The third keyword is scheduling optimization. After ten years of development, both the industry and the audience have a clear understanding of the schedule, and the summer vacation, National Day and Spring Festival have become important ticket warehouses every year. In the future, we will continue to optimize the schedule, plan in advance, and supply a wide variety of films in a variety of genres like a supermarket to diversify the market.
In the past ten years, we have made audiences develop the habit of going to the cinema to watch movies. In the future, we will focus on cultivating the movie viewing habits of the new generation of post-95s and post-99s audiences.
——Rao Shuguang, President of China Film Critics Association