“We were the election schedule, I am very insulted.”
Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “puffer Film Archives” (ID: htysda), Author: Wang Banxian.
“We were very insulted when we selected the schedule.”
As the director of “The Eleventh”, Chen Jianbin talked about the movie schedule in an interview. Frankly, the film was selected from various schedules, and the Qingming file was finally determined.
Indeed, this year’s Qingming file is very special, and it has become a place for small-cost movies to get together at the box office. In addition to “The Eleventh”, there are also nearly 10 titles such as “My Sister” and “Journey to the West: The Demon King” The film was released.
In the past, Ching Ming Festival was always a small time, because it was sandwiched between the Spring Festival and May 1st, and competitive domestic films were often released on a more lively schedule. So the Ching Ming file has become the world of imported films, and films such as “Top Player” and “Thunder Shazan” have achieved good box office results.
However, compared with previous years in the Ching Ming file this year, only one imported film is “Godzilla vs. King Kong”, and it has passed the peak of the box office. So for some domestically produced films with good quality, the Ching Ming file has become a suitable choice. On the one hand, there is no strong competitor of imported films. On the other hand, blockbuster films such as May 1st and National Day become more difficult to get together. Get the box office.
Combining the two, it is found that there are not a few film parties with this idea, so the Qingming file that has always been deserted is also lively. According to the current box office forecasts of the lighthouse and Maoyan, the 2021 Qingming file is expected to exceed 1 billion box office, and the number in the past was Less than 700 million.
The success of foreign blockbusters is weak, and Qingming files are occupied by domestic low-cost movies
Although the Qingming file is a small period, the box office numbers are always in the process of steadily increasing. According to the Beacon Professional Edition, the box office score of Qingming in 2014 was 360 million, and by 2019, this number has become 690 million, and the growth rate has nearly doubled.
However, most of the increased box office numbers are contributed by foreign blockbusters. The highest-grossing movie in the Ching Ming Festival in 2014 was “Captain America 2”, with a box office of 240 million during the period, accounting for a third of the entire period. two. The highest box office in 2017 and 2018 were also imported films, namely “King Kong: Skull Island” and “Number One Player”.
In addition to these films, there are some small-cost but high-profile overseas films seeking box office results during this period, such as “The Tuner”, which finally won 325 million box office results in China. The production cost of the film is about 4.5 million US dollars.
Obviously, “Godzilla vs. King Kong” wanted to replicate the performance of the past Qingming file foreign blockbusters. For this reason, it was released in China 5 days earlier than North America. However, in terms of box office trends, “Godzilla vs. King Kong” and “King Kong: Skull Island” is similar, but has the problem of subsequent power.
Compared with previous years, domestically produced films this year have attracted higher attention from the outside world. On the one hand, the overall quality of the film has increased. In the data of the Beacon Professional Edition, there were many thriller and ghost films in the films released in the Ching Ming file in the past years, but this year there are no such genres, mainly comedy films, literary films and animated films.
On the other hand, it is related to the changes in Chinese people’s movie-watching tastes. Dong Wenxin, general manager of Jinan Paragon Cinema, told Entertainment Capital: “The Chinese audiences are tired of watching Hollywood blockbusters that are not nutritious. Instead, they are domestic movies with social topics. It’s easier to get the box office.”
In this year’s Qingming file, there are many new movies with topicality. Among them, the movie theme of “My Sister” is closely related to the current turbulent trend of women’s thoughts. The film tells the story of a daughter who has lost her parents and faces the choice process of whether to take care of her younger brother. The original family and patriarchal family involved in the film are all topics that are constantly set off in social platforms.
The other “Eleventh Episode” is more luxurious in the cast lineup. In addition to Chen Jianbin’s directing and acting, Zhou Xun, Dapeng, Yu Qian, Chun Xia and other actors have joined. At present, “The Eleventh” has received a score of 8.4 on Douban, and has gained attention with the praise.
In addition, “Tomorrow will be good” in which papi sauce participated and the animated film “Journey to the West: The Demon King” both have a group of audiences in Douyin and the family circle.
For these competitive films, the Ching Ming schedule is the best choice at present, because the Spring Festival file, as the largest schedule of the year, has been the most competitive domestic commercial filmOccupied, the Spring Festival files on low-cost literary films can only be reduced to cannon fodder. The subsequent May 1st and National Day files have been pre-booked by some major productions as the big dates for traditional movies.
Take the May 1st file with a similar time. Among the currently scheduled films, there are “Above the Cliff” directed by Zhang Yimou, the female theme film “There is Her in the World”, the commercial blockbuster “Antique Bureau Intermediate Game”, etc. , And more pressure to compete with these films.
As a result, although the audience’s enthusiasm for watching movies is not enough in Qingming File, it is still a three-day holiday, and it is still on the weekend, so there is a phenomenon of nearly 10 movies being pushed.
Such a competitive situation has also pushed back the assorted comedy movie “All Come”, which was starred by Liao Fan, Tong Liya and others. At present, although “All Come” has not directly announced the news of the file withdrawal, the latest developments on the official Weibo remain in the trailer released a week ago, and ticket purchases are not available on the ticketing platform.
For movies that have decided to fight in the Qingming file, publicity is a link that cannot be ignored.
Cry or laugh, the bipolar route of the new film announcement of Qingming file
With the exception of “Godzilla vs. King Kong”, the marketing of new films in the Qingming Festival this year has taken a polarizing path, with some films focusing on “cry” and others focusing on “laugh”.
Among them, “My Sister” surpasses other movies in terms of topicality on social platforms due to its inherent advantages in themes. On the marketing route, the film party also took a moving and tearful route. The two trailers currently on the line both use the original family and female reality themes as promotional points, and the later released tidbits focus on the cry of actor Zhang Zifeng, guiding users to establish a sadistic and tearful impression of the film.
However, “My Sister” is not a pure family ethics film, but a mixed youth film. In the film, Zhang Zifeng’s sister is a student, and she has a campus relationship scene with Liang Jingkang.
Affected by the themes of the movie and the publicity points, “My Sister” currently has 480,000 people who want to watch on Maoyan, of which 84.4% are women, and most of them are 20-24 years old. Such wanting to see data is also related to Zhang Zifeng’s favorability among young users.
Dong Wenxin told Entertainment Capital: “The pre-sales of “My Sister” at the university in Jinan or the theater near the university town are very good. The golden field accounted for 40%, and the attendance rate is also good.”
Play the tear gas route with “My Sister””Tomorrow will be good” starred by papi sauce, in terms of marketing route, is very similar to “Sad More Than Sad Stories” of the year, and both broadcast the audience “crying” clips on Douyin, such as “hear this line The girl burst into tears in an instant”, and the main entry is #Tomorrow will be good too piercing heart#.
From the effect point of view, Douyin users still eat this set. The girl’s teardrop video has more than one million likes on Douyin, and it is on the list of movies on the Douyin theater line, “Tomorrow will be good” With a popularity value of 600,000, it is second only to “Godzilla vs. King Kong” and “Hello, Li Huanying”.
However, outside of the Douyin platform, “Tomorrow Will Be Good” was not popular, and even received some bad reviews because of the lines in the promotional materials involving women’s age anxiety. Currently on Maoyan, the number of people who want to watch the film is 154,000, and the user portraits and “My Sister” are highly overlapped. They are mainly young female users and are direct competitors.
Judging from the film arrangement on April 2, “My Sister” accounted for 16.3%, while “Tomorrow Will Be Good” accounted for 6.3%. Whether “Tomorrow will be good” can perform beyond expectations is inseparable from the actual ticketing ability of Douyin movie marketing.
In addition to “My Sister” and “Tomorrow Will Be Better”, there are two other competitors in the Qingming file that focus on “laugh”, which is a comedy route.
Take “Eleventh Time” as an example. As the second film directed by Chen Jianbin, “Eleventh Time” continues the black humor line of “A Spoon”, and the propaganda poster shows a “Laughing Field” The slogan, and in the promotional materials, the funny tidbits of the starring actors are also the selling point. For example, Zhou Xun fried dough sticks, Zhou Xun Sapo, and Zhou Xun hit Chen Jianbin’s soleplate.
In addition to comedy, “The Eleventh” also emphasized the quality of the film and spread the word of mouth. With a score of 8.4 on Douban, it hopes to attract audiences to watch the film. However, this kind of comedy and word-of-mouth publicity method also has the risk of blurring the plot. Dong Wenxin said: “The Douban score cannot represent the mainstream movie audience. “The Eleventh” is a good word of mouth, but the market is not hot.”
And “The Eleventh” and “One Spoon” belong to the same genre of movies, and the threshold for viewing movies may be higher. Some viewers left a message in the Douban comment area to compare it with “One Spoon”, and The box office of “One Spoon” is around 20 million.
The last film in the Ching Ming file that can be beaten is “Journey to the West: The Demon King”, which also took the comedy route and aimed at the family audience. The offline cosplay gameplay is also more suitable for children. The overall filming The lowest among the five films.
According to the situation of film arrangement and pre-sales, it can be seen that for the films released in Qingming file, most of the market is in a wait-and-see state, except for “Godzilla vs. King Kong” which has a relatively stable one-third of the film arrangement. , The changes in other movies are relatively large.
Among them, the “Eleventh Episode” has the heaviest wait-and-see mood. According to Maoyan data, there are still 20% of the 4.2 films scheduled, and by 4.3 it has become 8.3%. And “My Sister” is generally optimistic, the first day of the release and the second day of the golden show surpassed “Godzilla vs. King Kong.”
Unsurprisingly, the Ching Ming file will be a competition between “My Sister” and “Godzilla vs. King Kong”. Dong Wenxin even thinks that the score of “My Sister” in the Ching Ming file will surpass that of “Godzilla vs. King Kong.”
According to the forecast data, this year’s Qingming Festival’s box office scores will have a chance to break through 1 billion, and this year’s Qingming Festival will have a lively ending.