Reporter Ge Yiting from Shanghai
The twists and turns of the year are coming to an end, and the total box office of domestic movies in 2022 will be around 30 billion yuan. As of 18:00 on December 27, the annual box office was 29.55 billion yuan (including pre-sales and service fees), which is comparable to the level in 2014.
The 2022 Lunar New Year file (November 25-December 31) report card has also been announced, and the current total box office (including pre-sales) has exceeded 1.244 billion yuan. Among them, “Avatar: The Way of Water” ranked first with 753 million yuan. “One Piece: The Red-haired Diva”, which was released for 27 days, temporarily ranked second with 157 million yuan. The love movie “Want to See You”, derived from the TV series of the same name, performed well, with a cumulative box office exceeding 100 million yuan, jumping to the top of the list runner up.
In contrast, last year’s Lunar New Year box office was about three times that of this year’s, reaching 3.068 billion yuan. During the schedule, there were 7 films with a box office exceeding 100 million, and the genres were relatively diverse. Among them are suspense films such as “Manslaughter 2”, “Being Famous” and “Antique Bureau Middle Game”, as well as the cartoon “Lion Boy”, the romance film “Love Myth” and the crime film “Anti-Corruption Storm 5”.
At present, there are only two films breaking 100 million during the Lunar New Year schedule. The number of new films is small and there is a shortage of leading films. This also reflects the situation of the Chinese film market in the past year. As the number of infections in many places is approaching the peak recently, theater operating rates and attendance rates are fluctuating. On December 26, the operating rate of theaters across the country fell below 80%, and the fluctuating situation will continue until the Spring Festival.
The battered film market is not without good news. Judging from the data, the audience’s enthusiasm for watching movies has not been extinguished. In the past weekend, “Avatar 2” and “Want to See You” together pushed the movie market to exceed 100 million for two consecutive days. The Maoyan Professional Edition raised the forecasted total box office of “Avatar 2” a little, from 1 billion yuan to 1.1 billion yuan. According to forecasts, the total domestic box office of “Want to See You” is expected to exceed the 200 million yuan mark.
On December 27, with the announcement of the costume suspense film “Man Jianghong” directed by Zhang Yimou that it will be released on January 22 next year, the 2023 Spring Festival file will become quite interesting.
“Want to See You” is gaining momentum
“Avatar 2”, which has attracted much attention before its release and was placed on high expectations by the theaters to “quench the thirst”, did not quickly drive the film market to recover as expected. Discussions about the failure of Hollywood blockbusters in the Chinese market are once again in the spotlight. Recently, Yu Dong, chairman of Bona Films, participated in the 4th Hainan Island International Film Festival when he commented that “Avatar 2” is not suitable for Chinese audiences’ viewing habits, causing controversy.
Some viewers believe that the visual effects of “Avatar 2” basically meet expectations, and the alien ocean world shown in the film is realistic and imaginative. Although the technology has made great progress, it has not yet reached the visual revolution created by the first film. Criticisms on the story level are more common. The 3-hour film length poses a challenge to watching the movie. The plot setting is relatively old, boring and lengthy. These word-of-mouth controversies have had an impact on the market performance of “Avatar 2”.
The more important factors affecting the trend of the box office are the sharp increase in the refund rate and the decline in attendance due to the increase in the number of new crown patients. Going to the theater to watch a movie at this moment has become an “adventure” thing. Some movie fans ridiculed, “The continuous coughing in the theater is more exciting than the movie itself.” From the end of the year to the time before the Spring Festival, “Avatar 2” is expected to digest some of the consumers who did not enter the theater in the first place, and there is still a certain amount of box office. room to grow.
The love movie “Want to See You” released on December 24 became the last dark horse at the end of the year. Under the less than ideal market conditions, it won a box office of 87 million yuan in 3 days, which shows the attractiveness of this popular IP. The romantic drama “Want to See You”, which was broadcast at the end of 2019, was popular on the screen that year. The fantasy and suspense setting of time travel is quite innovative, and it has gained a group of hardcore drama fans.
The movie version of “Want to See You” was created by the original crew, directed by the director of the drama version Huang Tianren, starring Ke Jiayan, Xu Guanghan and others. It can be said to be an out-and-out “fan-oriented” movie. Although the word-of-mouth performance of the film was mediocre, when the original cast assembled, the familiar melody and famous scenes were reproduced on the big screen, which satisfied the expectations of drama fans. As the only love movie in the film market at the end of the year, it also has an advantage in genre, and it is more suitable for the romantic atmosphere of the New Year’s Eve. It is expected to perform well at the box office in the future.
Are there any new films for the Spring Festival?
Until the last moment, the film market is always full of variables. Since the beginning of this year, it is no longer a new thing for movies to be set at the limit and withdrawn at the limit. The film “Keep You Safe”, which was originally scheduled to be the number one seed in the New Year’s Eve file, with Dapeng as the director, screenwriter and starring, announced its withdrawal a few days ago. At the moment, there is no further news about films such as “Transparent Heroes” and “Dragon Horse Spirit” that were scheduled to be released on New Year’s Eve. Only the comedy “The Desperate Husband” starring Chang Yuan is still releasing materials, and it may be the only new year’s Eve film.
“Keep You Safe” starring Dapeng, Li Xueqin, Yin Zheng and others, tells the story of a cemetery salesman “dispelling rumors” for a deceased customer. On December 18, the film debuted at the 4th Hainan Island International Film Festival as the opening film. In fact, this is not the first time that “Keep You Safe” has adjusted its schedule. The film was scheduled to be released nationwide on April 29. Affected by the epidemic, the film and “Brother, Hello” and “Prosecutors” have been withdrawn from May Day. files.
The number of infected people in various places, the sense of security of watching movies in theaters, the attendance rate of theaters, and the box office trend of films being screened have all become factors for the film studio to hesitate. Since the beginning of this year, affected by factors such as changes in epidemic prevention and control policies, the number of supplies on the supply side has dropped sharply. The number of films released in theaters throughout the year is 392 so far, compared to 677 last year. The number of films and the number of viewers are both the second lowest since 2014, only slightly higher than in 2020 when theaters across the country were closed for half a year. Since the beginning of this year, only three films have broken the 2 billion yuan mark, namely “Shuimen Bridge of Changjin Lake”, “Lonely Walking on the Moon” and “This Killer Is Not So Calm”. Two of them are from the 2022 Spring Festival file.
Compared with previous years, when blockbuster films gathered and warmed up several months in advance, next year’s Spring Festival lineup was a bit deserted. The sci-fi movie “The Wandering Earth 2” and the cartoon “Bear Infested·Stay with me “Bear Core”” are the first to be scheduled for the Spring Festival in 2023. “The Wandering Earth 2” tells the story of the prequel. Judging from the trailers and materials released so far, the quality is guaranteed. Regarding the big movie “Bear Infested”, some viewers jokingly called it “the Spring Festival stalls with flowing water, and the iron-clad Bear Infested”. Since entering the Spring Festival file in 2014, the “Bears Infested” movie series will usher in the ninth next year. This series is aimed at family carnival audiences during the Spring Festival. So far, it has created a box office of over 4 billion yuan. Production standards have also been improved.
On December 27, a heavyweight film joined the fray, bringing new highlights to next year’s Spring Festival. The costume suspense film “Manjianghong” directed by Zhang Yimou announced that it will be scheduled for the first day of the Lunar New Year. Based on historical fiction, the film tells about an unsolved case that took place in the Shaoxing period of the Southern Song Dynasty. As the investigation deepened, a bigger conspiracy was involved. The film has a strong lineup, with Shen Teng and Yi Yanqianxi as the two male leads, and Zhang Yi, Lei Jiayin and other leading actors. In recent years, Zhang Yimou has been relatively productive, and “Sniper” directed by him during the Spring Festival last year also achieved good box office results. This time “Man Jianghong” is another costume suspense film after “Shadow”, and its quality is very exciting.
With less than a month to go before the Spring Festival in 2023, many uncertain factors influence the choice of the filmmakers. A blockbuster cannot save the film market. Can the Spring Festival next year create a good start for the film industry? We look forward to the release of more high-quality films and the recovery of the film market. We still need more high-quality films for those who are still willing to enter the theater for consumption. Viewers are provided with more diverse types of choices.
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The number of films released in theaters throughout the year is 392 so far, compared to 677 last year. The number of films and the number of viewers are both the second lowest since 2014, second only to 2020. Return to Sohu to see more
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