The flowing Spring Festival stalls are haunted by iron-clad bears. Why has this bear become the biggest winner of the Spring Festival stalls in the past ten years?
During the Spring Festival, when fans quarreled and called the “Sura Field”, there was a movie that was always making a fortune out of the spotlight. Yesterday, “Bear Infested: Stay with Me “Bear Core”” broke through 1 billion yuan at the box office 10 days after its release, becoming the top box office box office of the Spring Festival animation in mainland film history.
Looking back at the past ten years, except for the withdrawal of the show due to the epidemic in 2020, this bear has never missed the Spring Festival show, and the box office has almost been rising all the way. Counting this year, the cumulative box office of the “Bear Infested” series of big movies has exceeded 5 billion yuan.
In the Spring Festival stalls with flowing water, iron bears come and go. What is the origin of this bear?
Zhu Xiaofeng, manager of Huanyao Cinemas in Xintiandi, Hangzhou, said that the box office performance of “Bear Infested” has been very good all the time, and the theaters don’t need to worry too much. “Although the main audiences are children, they are usually watched by the whole family. Only 7%-8%, most of the shows are not in prime time, but the attendance rate of each show is over 60%, and the 3D version has even higher attendance rate.”
“I entered the theater with the mentality of watching cartoons with my children, and finally gained the viewing experience of a blockbuster movie.” This is the feeling of many parents after watching “Bear Infested”.
Released last year, “Bear Infested: Return to Earth” added elements such as mecha bombardment, interstellar travel, and doomsday technology, and was dubbed by netizens as “the best domestic science fiction movie” of the year. In terms of animation technology, this year’s “Bear Infested: Keep Me “Bear Core”” still continues the style of sci-fi + animation, and adds AI elements. The mecha battle nearing the end, accompanied by the carnival rock BGM, adults will not move after watching it. Do not open your eyes.
Of course, this series can go to the big screen, relying on the foundation laid on the small screen. The producer of the “Bear Infested” series of IP is Huaqiang Fantawild, which is the investor and operator of the “Fantawild” theme park. In 2007, the first Fantawild theme park was put into operation in Wuhu, and they began to have spare money to produce content.
The role of the bear first appeared in their animation “Zodiac Across the Rivers and Lakes”. Unexpectedly, it left a deep impression on the children, so it was taken out separately and made into an animation. The three bears also became two, and they were named bears. Big, bear two. In 2012, “Bear Infested” was broadcast on CCTV, which quickly broke CCTV’s ratings record for the same time period, and soon surpassed the popular “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf” in the limelight.
The “Bear Infested” series has met two noble people from the very beginning. One is Zhang Zhao, the late former chairman of LeTV Pictures, and the other is “Father of Bear Haunted” Ding Liang.
As a rising star in the film and television industry, in 2013, LeTV Films was in the limelight. Not only did it sign Zhang Yimou, but it also launched the “Little Times” series, which finally won 1.05 billion yuan, ranking third among private film companies. Zhang Zhao, the director at the helm, is keenly aware that when giants are obsessed with big productions, “small but fine” movies have more opportunities.
In 2014, Huaqiang Fantawild and LeTV Pictures cooperated to release the first big movie “Bears of the Bears”. Zhang Zhao, who is already proficient in local network marketing, led the team to “spend a small amount of money to do big things”, focusing on the early education centers, youth palaces, parent-child parks and other channels within three kilometers around the theater for precise delivery.
That year, under the siege and interception of competitors such as “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf”, “Ba La La Little Demon Fairy”, “Despicable Me”, “Bears In The Haunted” relied on a cost investment of more than 10 million yuan. , and finally earned 247 million yuan at the box office, becoming one of the films with the highest return on investment that year.
Ding Liang is the chief designer of Fantawild Theme Park. He liked art since he was a child. Because of his good academic performance, he finally gave up the Academy of Fine Arts and entered Zhejiang University, majoring in power system automation. Being an animation director is not a waste of his artistic talent, and Accumulation in science and engineering.
In Ding Liang’s career, the animated film “Toy Story” released in 1995 had a great influence on him. As early as 2011, Huaqiang Fantawild stopped its 2D animation production line and turned to 3D animation produced by computers. It also began to build its own animation industry platform and continue to polish and upgrade related technologies.
This is also the key to the fact that the “Bear Infested” series has not lagged behind in special effects. Lin Yongchang, the director of “Bear Infested: Bear with Me” said in an interview that more than 1,700 shots in “Bear Infested: With Me” Bear Core” involved special effects production. In order to make a scene of “The Battle of the Submarine Monster” show a better effect, more than 80 layers of material were superimposed on the 40-plus-second shot, and it took more than two months to render.