Behind the “champion”, Chinese animation still has a long way to go.

Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “drugs” (ID: youhaoxifilm ), author Chen Wei, Jiang Yuqi, editor Yi Dong.

As of August 12th, the “Golden Boys of the World” (hereinafter referred to as “Where”) has exceeded 3.6 billion yuan, ranking fifth in the mainland box office list, from the front of the “Red Sea” Action (36.5 billion) is only one step away.

At the same time, “Where” has also completed a historic transcendence on another list: At the latest exchange rate, the total box office of “Which” has exceeded $510 million, surpassing “Your first name. ” is a representative of many Japanese works, becoming the most popular Asian animated film since statistics. From the “Journey to the West” in 2015, after breaking the monopoly on the list for the first time, it took only four years of “Where” to complete the task of climbing to the top. Marvel.

The Japanese film media “Pictures.com” reports on the release of “Where the Devil’s Angels Come into the World” in China

Although “Where” has broken records and the domestic record-breaking performance has caused widespread attention from foreign media, there will be opportunities to spread to more regions and open up larger overseas markets in the future, but Poison ID (WeChat ID: youhaoxifilm) Found that compared to the previous Asian animated film box office champion “Your name. The local box office accounted for about 2/3 of the global box office. The current box office of “Where” is completely supported by the mainland market, and the overseas income is almost negligible – “Journey to the West” The same is true for animated movies. Like many excellent domestic live-action movies, although these animated films have a low score at the box office, they never find a suitable way to go to the sea.

Also rooted in the background of oriental culture, how can Japanese animation succeed in creating a global show? Will Chinese animated films have the opportunity to sail overseas in the future?

“Where” is the top name in Asia, and the top ten in Japanese animation is 18 seats

For a long time, Japan was the absolute overlord of Asian animated films.

Asia Animation Global Box Office Ranking

So far, among the top ten in the global box office list of Asian animated films, Japan has firmly occupied 8 seats, and Ghibli has accumulated 5 seats, of which Miyazaki’s work has won 4 seats.
  After the transformation of Ghibli Studio into Co., Ltd. in 1985, a total of 21 animated feature films were released (“Wind of the Valley” was released before its establishment, so it was not counted), including Miyazaki from “Princess Mononoke”. The four works directed by “Spirited Away”, “Hal’s Moving Castle”, “Goldfish on the Cliff” and “Princess Mononoke” are all in the top ten. Milin Hongchang was transformed from the original artist to the director’s debut. People Aliette won the tenth with $149 million.

The “Pokemon” theatrical version, which set off a spectator in the turn of the century, also took a seat in the top ten. The original “Pokemon” (now officially translated as “Pokémon”) It was a role-playing game that Nintendo launched in the console, and was later moved to the TV screen, and the popularity was further high. In order to further expand the heat, the first theatrical version of “Super Dream’s Counterattack” directed by Tang Shanbang Yan landed in the big screen in 1998, sweeping 7.5 billion yen in the country, becoming the popular animated film at the box office next to “Princess Mononoke”. .

The first theatrical version of “Super Dream’s Counterattack”

A year later, “Super Dream’s Counterattack” won an amazing $85.74 million in North America, and it still holds the highest box office record in Japan’s animation North America. Subsequently, the second “Rocky’s Birth” fell to 6.4 billion yen and 43.76 million US dollars in the local and North America, but the world still reached 134 million US dollars. In the global box office of the above two theatrical editions, North America accounted for 52.4% and 32.6% respectively, which is closely related to its deep accumulation as the world’s second best-selling series of video games.

In 2014, the “80-year-old birthday of Fujia F. Fuji” was launched, and the “Doraemon: Come with me”, which achieved a quasi-global release, also entered the list with a score of $183 million. As one of the most well-known anime images in Japan, Doraemon has produced more than 39 theatrical editions since its inception in 1969, but most of them have only been released in Japan and East Asia, but the Chinese market has been introduced continuously in recent years. 5 works.

The 3D special edition launched in 2014, “Doraemon: Come with me” finally broke through the ceiling of the theater version of 4 billion yen and doubled it, especially after introducing the nostalgic trend in the country. The next 530 million box office, more than their local achievements. After successfully expanding its reach to the mainland cinema, this well-known IP has clearly gained more box office space.

“Doraemon: With me”

The best Japanese movie in the rankings is “Your name is the same as the “Pokemon” theatrical series. 》. The film is directed by the popular Japanese animation master Xin Haicheng. After the release in 2016, the film won 576 million box office in mainland China. So far, it is still the box office record of Japanese film in China. Xin Haicheng’s new work “The Son of the Weather” also hopes to introduce the mainland this year. If the film’s mainland results are brilliant, there may be opportunities to rank among the rankings.

Since the release in 2016, “Your name. “The title of the list has been occupied for 3 years, Now with the domestic movie market of more than 3.6 billion yuan, “Which” has dropped to the top of the list with nearly 510 million US dollars, becoming the first successful break Asian animation of Japanese dominance. Coupled with the “Study of the Journey to the West” ($153 million) in the summer of 2015, the domestically produced animated films also occupy two seats in the top ten.

It is foreseeable that as the Chinese audience gradually changes their prejudice against the subject matter of animation, and more and more companies and capitals begin to focus on adult-oriented domestic animated movies, they will be able to win high box office in the future. The domestic animation works will become more and more common, which will push more new faces from China to the list.

How do Japanese animated films open up overseas markets?

Although on the leaderboard, ChinaThe animation has occupied two seats and topped the championship, But when it comes to real overseas influence, domestic animation and Japanese animated movies are obviously not in the same breath.

“The Return of the Journey to the West” has achieved amazing results of 956 million yuan in China, but only South Korea ($11.48 million), Russia ($53,100), and the UAE ($39,600) overseas. Portugal ($34,800) and other places have box office statistics, and the long-formed North American release (originally scheduled July 29, 2016) is not exactly the following. From this calculation, the overseas income of “Journey to the West” is only 0.2% of the total box office. Domestic achievements of over 100 million US dollars have not helped the sea.The Journey to the West The reason why St. Returns is famous on the list is that it is more convenient for the domestic market.

“The Return of the Journey to the West”

A similar situation occurred in another animated film “Dayu Haitang” which was sold in China. One year after the national release, “Dayu Haitang” entered the top 10 of the week when it opened paintings in South Korea, and finally ended with a score of 385,000 US dollars, Russia (128,000 US dollars) and Italy (20,000 US dollars for the first weekend) ) is close behind, but the total of the above areas only accounted for 0.62% of the global harvest of Big Fish. In comparison, “Your name. For Japanese movies, the proportion of overseas box office can often reach more than 30%.

Japanese animation can be widely recognized overseas, and the influence of IP is an important addition.
  The “Doraemon” and “Pokémon” in the above list all rely on TV version animation, comics, games, derivatives, etc. to cultivate a large number of users and fans in the world, so that the film is released. In addition to being able to stably harvest a part of the box office, it is also more convenient to use marketing to create marketing and momentum.

“Pokémon Dream” AR Game

“Dream A Dream: With Me” When I was released in China, I used the six-segmentIn the same year, this memory helped him to become the champion of the year of the year, and eventually won the 530 million yuan in the mainland box office. Coincidentally, in recent years, several Japanese animated films with good performances in the Mainland, including “Naruto: Bo Ren Chuan” (100 million at the box office), are many big IP movies with nostalgic cards. In contrast, Japanese animated films such as “Game Life Zero” (12 million at the box office) have a high score of 8 or more, but they have not succeeded in the circle because of limited IP influence.

Not only anime characters and other IP can help the animation movie box office,Many Japanese animation masters have a strong box office appeal. Although Xinhaicheng’s works have not been released in China on a large scale before, the “second speed of five centimeters” and “Yi Ye Zhi Ting” have long been very hot on the network side, so when “Your first name. When it entered the country with the label of “Xin Haicheng’s new work”, it immediately caused widespread concern.

Your name is labeled “New Haicheng New Works”. 》

In the European and American markets, many awards can also be used as a stepping stone for Japanese animated films to enter the local market.

At the beginning of the establishment of Ghibli, the performance of several works was unstable and swayed many times. The results overseas were also good and bad, and did not have much influence. The real opening of overseas market space for Ghibli is actually “Princess Mononoke”. In 1997, “Princess Mononoke” directed by Hayao Miyazaki swept through 19.3 billion yen in Japan, which greatly increased the box office ceiling for a single animated film. In addition, “Princess Mononoke” also won the nomination for the best director of the 28th Animated Anne Award for Hayao Miyazaki, which in turn led to overseas popularity.

On this basis, “Princess Mononoke” landed in the North American big screen in 1999, gradually expanded from 8 theaters to 129, and set the best performance of Ghibli at the time of 2.38 million US dollars. After three years of continuous expansion, the footprints are spread across East Asia, Europe, South America, etc. The “Phantom Princess” global box office reached 160 million US dollars, of which the local share fell to about 92% for the first time.

Princess Princess has a global box office of $160 million

Wait until 2001, when Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece “Spirited Away” refreshed his history with 30.8 billion yen, and the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film Award became the highlight of Asian animation. At the same time of receiving a huge amount of international attention, the scale of overseas exhibitions of Spirited Away has been further enlarged, not only in the North American region for the first time to break through the tens of millions of dollars, but also in many markets such as France, Germany and Britain. As a result, the local proportion of Spirited Away searched to 84%, and after entering the domestic theater this year, it broke into the top three of the introduction of the day, thus stabilizing this ratio at around 2/3.

Of course, in addition to the influence of IP, creators, and the work itself, proper business operations are also an important reason why these animated films can successfully enter different markets.

The director of the Primary School Hall, known as the “father of Pikachu”, once revealed to the drug lord that “Pokemon” will conduct a lot of research work before entering any overseas market. . “When you push animations to big markets like China, you’ll often look at some of the most popular works in China, or some that are hot in China but not so good in Japan. The effect of the work, and then analyze the reasons. When we brought Pikachu into China, we also did a lot of investigations, including today still doing this.”

When can domestic animation movies open overseas markets?

It’s not difficult to see the overall gap between animated films’ overseas influence and overseas box office harvesting ability,Although the current “Where” has already airborne the box office, the Chinese animation industry In particular, the animated film industry still lags behind many in Japan. The emergence of “Where” can become the first in Asia at the box office, but there is still a long way to go for Chinese animated films to truly have the influence and status to match the rankings. It can be achieved by relying on a few explosions such as “Where”.

Chinese animated films have not succeeded in going abroad. As early as nearly 60 years ago, “Da Tian Temple” won the 1962 Czechoslovakia Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Short Film Special Award, 1978 London International Film Festival Annual Outstanding Film Award, 1982 Ecuador 4th International Children’s Film The third prize, etc., proves that many foreign fans can accept excellent Chinese style animation.

《大闹天宫》

It’s a pity that Chinese animated films are more of a product of the planned economy. After the market is fully marketed, by production costs, operating pressures, liquidity and talent training mechanisms, etc. The development of the Chinese animation industry fell into a relative stagnation period at the end of the last century.The development has become slower.
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There is no suspense in “Where”, but most animated filmmakers are still worried about money
  For a long time, I have not been able to create such a high level of work.

Even in the first decade of the 21st century, China has actually produced a number of good animations, but perhaps because the producers are short-sighted, lack long-term planning, or because of the lack of patience in capital. The animation industry that has just picked up has been slow to go further.
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  . The basic animation and IP are not done well, let alone the derivatives industry based on IP. Therefore, when the explosion of “Journey to the West” and “Where” appeared, the industry failed to follow up on the development of derivatives.

Industry’s sensitivity to derivatives development is low

Because of this, there is no adult-oriented animation IP in China that has a long-lasting and wide audience influence. I hope to use a business operation to push a work abroad and let foreign audiences It is obviously not realistic to contribute to the box office.

Reviewing Japan, the animation industry has developed rapidly in the past few decades
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  In particular, after the large number of capitals entered the market in the 1980s and 1990s, it directly led to the transformation of the industrial structure and the upgrading of the talent training model, which led to the birth of a large number of IPs with great influence in the world, such as “Dragon Ball” and “Pokemon”. These IPs not only sell comics and movies, but also generate derivative businesses worth tens of billions of dollars.
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Global mad sells $90 billion, how does “Pikachu” mature into the first IP?
  It has created a lot of extra income for the film, stabilized the audience, cultivated more potential audiences, and laid the foundation for its long-term vitality and influence on a global scale.

China is not without IP that is worthy of in-depth development. For example, “Journey to the West” and “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms” and other works with a huge worldview structure have influenced the creation of classic dragons such as “Dragon Ball” and “Most Travel Notes”. To prove that the story itself is of value for animation development.
  After the release of the news of “Where” and “Ginger Teeth” will be released, some netizens have sorted out the Chinese mythology system and found that only the contents of the “Feng Shen Bang” system can be derived. An animated universe similar to “complex”.

linkage between “Ginger Teeth” and “Where”

Considering the influence of Chinese classical culture abroad, especially the influence of many Chinese myths and Chinese classical literature in various parts of Asia,If a company is willing to be like Japan and the United States I am going to do some longer-term planning, rather than the benefits of the moment. In fact, I have the opportunity to use these IPs with certain recognition to open the markets of East Asia and Southeast Asia, and then slowly radiate to other regions.

This is not just a hypothesis and conjecture. In the past few years, including “Under the One Man” and “Foxboy Little Matchmaker”, many of them have integrated Chinese traditional culture (such as Yijing and Martial Arts). Guo Man’s works have been exported to Japan and other regions and have received a lot of praise. The comics under “One Man” also landed on the comic book “JUMP+” of “Junior JUMP”. This proves that if the content is good enough, Guoman also has the opportunity to grow and develop into a representative cultural brand.

The comics of “Under the One Man” also landed on the comic book “JUMP+” of “Junior JUMP”

Although China is currently the second largest film market in the world, but the domestic box office growth rate has gradually slowed down, whether it is a live-action movie or an animated film, the imaginable box office space is actually relatively limited. of. Even for animated films, the audience is smaller than a live-action movie and the ceiling is lower.The outbreak of “Where” will benefit from the market environment, schedule, marketing If many factors help, it is difficult to copy it widely in other works. Opening up more yuan markets has a strong practical significance for the growth of the film box office.

So although “Which” topped the list of the most popular Asian animations, it was a shot in the Chinese animation industry and Chinese animated film practitioners, but on the stage of the world animated film, this ” The things represented by the first “are still very limited. Chinese animated films are not without opportunities to sail overseas, and even say that it is necessary to work hard in the direction of internationalization. However, from “The Return of the Journey to the West” to “Where”, it is only the beginning, telling the story and doing a good job in industrial construction. It is the way to go next.