The 7 billion era of domestic animation movies.
Editor’s note: This article comes from WeChat public account “Make Movies Together” (ID: yiqipaidianying) , author / Wei Jianmei.
7.077 billion. After shouting for so many years, “the rise of Guoman”, Chinese animation films finally made a big step this year.
The appearance of “The Return of the Great Holy Journey to the West” (later referred to as “The Return of the Great Holy Saint”) in 2015 opened up a gap in domestic animation films, allowing everyone to see more possibilities. Subsequent works such as “Big Fish Begonia”, “Wind Whispering”, and “Large Protection Law”, although the market performance is not as good as the former, are all working quietly to continuously expand the boundaries of the animation field.
By this year, “Nazi’s Witch Child” (hereafter referred to as “Nazi”) has been a blockbuster, pushing the ceiling of the market to a new height of nearly 5 billion. “Fate” and “Luo Xiaohei’s War” have achieved over 300 million market performance. The Chinese animation film market has performed quite well this year.
Frequent explosions have inspired the industry. Of course, this also poses higher and more severe challenges for the future animated film market.
Big and small models appear frequently, Domestic animation ushers in dawn
For Chinese animation films, 2019 is bound to be a turning point that can be loaded into film history.
Although the year is not over, with the help of 34 films, the total box office of animated films has reached 7 billion, far exceeding the performance of previous years. At the same time, the number of lineups of the first echelon (over 100 million films) this year has reached 6, which has once again set a historical best in the trend of maintaining growth in recent years. Before the arrival of 2020, the movie market will also welcome the sister film “Mr. Miao” and “The Academy of Magic” two animated films, which will continue to add fire to this year’s animation market.
Note: 1. Box office data comes from cat’s eyes;
2. Scores take the average of Cat’s Eye, Amoy Ticket, and Douban three platforms;
3. Data as of 24:00, December 21st.
Large strides in the box office market, of course, Nezha is the number one hero. In fact, word-of-mouth of the movie had already begun to appear as early as during the screening period. By the official release, the film won 130 million box office on the first day, and then spread by word-of-mouth, setting off the first wave of movie watching in summer. Won the single-day box office championship in 28 days, and also led Chinese animation films to a new height of 5 billion, becoming the box office champion of the mainland film market this year, and surpassing movies such as “Avengers 4” and “Wandering Earth”, becoming second only Runner-up in the film history of “War Wolf 2”.
▲ Stills of “Where”
Of course, this 7 billion outstanding achievements alone contributed a great deal to “Nez”. But if you ignore “Nezhang”, the remaining 2 billion figures are actually better than the market performance of the previous two years. Besides “Nezhang”, this year’s animation film market has also seen a lot of explosions.
At the beginning of the year, the small outbreak of the co-production animation “White Snake: Origin” surprised the industry. In addition, “Snowman” and other co-production animations released this year. In fact, the domestic film market has always been full of co-productions, showing “Kung Fu Panda 3” and so on. In these works, although there is no lack of Chinese elements and expressions of the Chinese core, objectively speaking, Chinese participation is relatively low, and “White Snake: Origins” is the first one with deep participation in China and achieved excellent market performance. Animation works, which also let the audience see the strength of domestic creators.
▲ Stills of “White Snake: Origin”
The sixth major movie of “Bear Infest” series “Bear Infest · Primitive Era”, this year continues to maintain a steady upward trend of 100 million in each year in recent years, successfully achieved over 700 million results in the Spring Festival, and innovate. . After six years of precipitation, “Bear Infested” has also continuously accumulated and stabilized its audience, and has begun to occupy a stable position in the film market. It deserves to be the number one player in children’s animation works today.
▲ Stills of “Bear Infest · Primitive Era”
As another major animation IP created in China, “Luo Xiaohei” also launched a big movie this year, and took over “Nazi” in the summer, which also achieved a good market performance of over 300 million. Such an animated work with unique painting style and unique design can fill a gap in the field of animated films. Although the characteristics of fans are obvious, the subsequent market results also prove that the film also attracted the attention of non-fan audiences and successfully achieved a certain circle.
▲ Stills from “The Battle of Luo Xiaohei”
Judging from the type and volume of animated movies, these movies have already made great breakthroughs. Behind the explosion, of course, it is inseparable from the blessing of high-quality content. At the same time, the effect of the flight effect on the animated film market box office is particularly obvious. Take the six works with more than 100 million yuan this year. Except for “White Snake: Origin”, the rest of the works are produced during the summer, the Spring Festival and the National Day. It is under the combined force of these big and small explosions that the domestic animation film market has blossomed and flourished this year.
Child-oriented works still dominate the mainstream , and polarization is aggravated
In 2015, “The Return of the Great Saint” pushed the 300 million market space created by “Bear Haunting Snow Ridge Bear Wind” to 1 billion. Four years later, “Nezhao” doubled that number five times. The constant push up of the ceiling of animated films is naturally surprising. But at the same time, Market faults and polarization have also emerged.
Besides these headpieces, there are more works in the market where the box office stays at tens, millions, or even 100,000 or less. It is worth mentioning that due to the introduction of the “Interim Regulations on Domestic Movies Rerun” at the end of last year, the number of re-animated movies has also decreased significantly this year. “Business experience” can be described as interrupted.
![Chinese animation movie]()
Stills from “Heroes of Gourmet Adventure”
However, due to the box office volume and production cost of the animated movie itself, series such as “Steel Dragon”, “Pigman”, “Sail Movie” and “Submarine Story” have been maintained at the box office for ten years, It is not as good as the market influence of “Nazi” and “Bears”, but it can also be called the “outstanding” in animated films.
But judging from this year’s market performance, the sequel works such as “Pigman · The Incredible World”, “The Purcell Movie 7: Crazy Machine City”, “Submarine Story: Alien Baby Project”, etc. For the first few, the box office and word of mouth fell. Perhaps in an environment where the market is maturing and the audience ’s aesthetics are becoming more mature, the audience also has higher expectations for the content creation of children ’s works.
In fact, most of the animated films are not well-received, and many films do not even report specific ratings. In addition to the content of the video, Child-oriented positioning will actually let the movie “block” some viewers.
Recalling the past, from the popular “Pleasant Goat” series in the past few years to the later rise of “Bear Infested” series, domestic animation films are more such children’s works to occupy the mainstream of the market. Starting from “The Return of the Great Saint”, those explosive works that go beyond children’s animation and win a larger market space are all animation works targeted at audiences of all ages. This year, Nezha surpassed “Bear Invasion” to occupy animated films, even the entire Chinese film market.Mainstream. Nonetheless, Children’s Animation is still the absolute number leader in the current film market.
In fact, compared with children, works of all ages have higher requirements on content and cost, which also means that film creation has to be more difficult. Therefore, there are inevitably all-age works in the market such as “Jiangnan”. However, it is also true that those works that are resistant to content are more worthy of the market’s excess returns.
Blasting paving, The road to the animated film market is long and obstructed
For a long time, domestic animation films were once in a weak position. On the one hand, unlike live-action movies, the production of animated films often has long cycles, complicated processes, and large investment funds. In the past when China’s film industry was still underdeveloped and lacked animation talents, high-quality animation works rarely appeared;
On the other hand, Chinese society does not have a deep animation complex like Japan and other state-owned countries. On the contrary, many viewers even have an “exclusion” mentality, thinking that this type of work is exclusive to children, and the lack of domestically produced high-quality works As a result, those audiences who are accustomed to accepting outstanding foreign animation works have gradually formed the inherent impression that domestic animations are “low, low quality”. In this context, domestic animation film companies have always been “difficult to survive”, making it difficult to finance, profit, and produce.
▲ Stills from “The Return of the Great Holy Journey to the West”
The detonation of high-quality works such as “Return of the Great Saint” and “Nezhang” has not only changed the traditional impression of Chinese people and even the world on Chinese animated films, but also greatly affected the entire industry and the creators behind it Encouraging, let the audience see the new look, new level of Chinese animation films, and the unlimited market potential behind it.
In the profit-oriented commercial market, the emergence of explosions will definitely trigger an investment boom. This is undoubtedly a good development opportunity for the animation industry that has been in the “cold palace” for a long time. However, it should be noted that the film industry is not a”Efficient” investment industry, the advent of film and television winter is believed to have made many entry players feel, and animated films, especially an industry that cannot be sloppy, requires strong creators, perseverance and resistance to loneliness in order to obtain success.
The success of “Nezhao” was completed by the director Jiaozi and his creative team’s nearly 5 years of hard work. “Return of the Great Saint” took the director Tian Xiaopeng 8 years, and the “Bear Infant” series also has 7 years of market accumulation. Therefore, in the face of the current achievements of animated films, creators and investors must maintain rationality and do not rush for quick success.
In fact, the box office value brought by a blockbuster work is short-lived, and the longest is the market value opened by the movie. With the emergence of explosive works such as “The Return of the Great Saint” and “Nazi”, director Tian Xiaopeng, dumplings, or October culture behind them, color strip houses, cocoa beans and other animation companies have gradually become the audience’s minds. “Word of mouth”. As a result, many viewers started to pay attention and look forward to follow-up works such as Jiang Ziya, Deep Sea, and Da Sheng Nao Tian Gong. This is the true meaning of an explosive work.
Under such good momentum, I believe that in the future, the status of domestic animation films in the minds of Chinese people will gradually be reversed, from “niche” to “mass”, and will grow into the main type of film market.
Of course, the real rise of Guoman is far from being achieved by one or two explosive works. It needs a relay of high-quality works. As Dumpling said: One day when we no longer mention the term “Guo Man Rise”, Guo Man may really rise.
Cover image from pexels
In 2015, “The Return of the Great Saint” pushed the 300 million market space created by “Bear Haunting Snow Ridge Bear Wind” to 1 billion. Four years later, “Nezhao” doubled that number five times. The constant push up of the ceiling of animated films is naturally surprising. But at the same time, Market faults and polarization have also emerged.
Besides these headpieces, there are more works in the market where the box office stays at tens, millions, or even 100,000 or less. It is worth mentioning that due to the introduction of the “Interim Regulations on Domestic Movies Rerun” at the end of last year, the number of re-animated movies has also decreased significantly this year. “Business experience” can be described as interrupted.
Stills from “Heroes of Gourmet Adventure”
However, due to the box office volume and production cost of the animated movie itself, series such as “Steel Dragon”, “Pigman”, “Sail Movie” and “Submarine Story” have been maintained at the box office for ten years, It is not as good as the market influence of “Nazi” and “Bears”, but it can also be called the “outstanding” in animated films.
But judging from this year’s market performance, the sequel works such as “Pigman · The Incredible World”, “The Purcell Movie 7: Crazy Machine City”, “Submarine Story: Alien Baby Project”, etc. For the first few, the box office and word of mouth fell. Perhaps in an environment where the market is maturing and the audience ’s aesthetics are becoming more mature, the audience also has higher expectations for the content creation of children ’s works.
In fact, most of the animated films are not well-received, and many films do not even report specific ratings. In addition to the content of the video, Child-oriented positioning will actually let the movie “block” some viewers.
Recalling the past, from the popular “Pleasant Goat” series in the past few years to the later rise of “Bear Infested” series, domestic animation films are more such children’s works to occupy the mainstream of the market. Starting from “The Return of the Great Saint”, those explosive works that go beyond children’s animation and win a larger market space are all animation works targeted at audiences of all ages. This year, Nezha surpassed “Bear Invasion” to occupy animated films, even the entire Chinese film market.Mainstream. Nonetheless, Children’s Animation is still the absolute number leader in the current film market.
In fact, compared with children, works of all ages have higher requirements on content and cost, which also means that film creation has to be more difficult. Therefore, there are inevitably all-age works in the market such as “Jiangnan”. However, it is also true that those works that are resistant to content are more worthy of the market’s excess returns.
Blasting paving, The road to the animated film market is long and obstructed
For a long time, domestic animation films were once in a weak position. On the one hand, unlike live-action movies, the production of animated films often has long cycles, complicated processes, and large investment funds. In the past when China’s film industry was still underdeveloped and lacked animation talents, high-quality animation works rarely appeared;
On the other hand, Chinese society does not have a deep animation complex like Japan and other state-owned countries. On the contrary, many viewers even have an “exclusion” mentality, thinking that this type of work is exclusive to children, and the lack of domestically produced high-quality works As a result, those audiences who are accustomed to accepting outstanding foreign animation works have gradually formed the inherent impression that domestic animations are “low, low quality”. In this context, domestic animation film companies have always been “difficult to survive”, making it difficult to finance, profit, and produce.
▲ Stills from “The Return of the Great Holy Journey to the West”
The detonation of high-quality works such as “Return of the Great Saint” and “Nezhang” has not only changed the traditional impression of Chinese people and even the world on Chinese animated films, but also greatly affected the entire industry and the creators behind it Encouraging, let the audience see the new look, new level of Chinese animation films, and the unlimited market potential behind it.
In the profit-oriented commercial market, the emergence of explosions will definitely trigger an investment boom. This is undoubtedly a good development opportunity for the animation industry that has been in the “cold palace” for a long time. However, it should be noted that the film industry is not a”Efficient” investment industry, the advent of film and television winter is believed to have made many entry players feel, and animated films, especially an industry that cannot be sloppy, requires strong creators, perseverance and resistance to loneliness in order to obtain success.
The success of “Nezhao” was completed by the director Jiaozi and his creative team’s nearly 5 years of hard work. “Return of the Great Saint” took the director Tian Xiaopeng 8 years, and the “Bear Infant” series also has 7 years of market accumulation. Therefore, in the face of the current achievements of animated films, creators and investors must maintain rationality and do not rush for quick success.
In fact, the box office value brought by a blockbuster work is short-lived, and the longest is the market value opened by the movie. With the emergence of explosive works such as “The Return of the Great Saint” and “Nazi”, director Tian Xiaopeng, dumplings, or October culture behind them, color strip houses, cocoa beans and other animation companies have gradually become the audience’s minds. “Word of mouth”. As a result, many viewers started to pay attention and look forward to follow-up works such as Jiang Ziya, Deep Sea, and Da Sheng Nao Tian Gong. This is the true meaning of an explosive work.
Under such good momentum, I believe that in the future, the status of domestic animation films in the minds of Chinese people will gradually be reversed, from “niche” to “mass”, and will grow into the main type of film market.
Of course, the real rise of Guoman is far from being achieved by one or two explosive works. It needs a relay of high-quality works. As Dumpling said: One day when we no longer mention the term “Guo Man Rise”, Guo Man may really rise.
Cover image from pexels