Is there a set of effective methodologies behind the film?
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Entertainment Unicorn” (ID :yuledujiaoshou), author Lou Batty.
“Snowman” did not create an adventure at the box office like the little girl in the film.
This original animated film filmed by Oriental DreamWorks and American DreamWorks has been placed on the “Chinese-US joint film milestone”. As of today, “Snowman” was released in China for 15 days, Douban scored 7.5 points, and cat’s eye scored 9.3 points. As an animated film, domestic movie reputation has been recognized, and the cumulative box office has exceeded 100 million.
In overseas markets, “Snowman” was released by Universal Pictures. On the first day, it was launched in 4242 theaters in North America. It opened for three days and earned 20.61 million US dollars. It once reached the top of the North American weekend box office. But with the release of new films such as “Clown” and “Gemini Killer”, the box office of the film has gradually declined. Currently, it is released in North America for 19 days. The release range extends to 53 regions in the world. The total box office in North America is 47.87 million US dollars, and the global box office has accumulated 109 million. Dollar. The cost of the film reached 75 million US dollars. Considering the problems of the theater branching and the cost of issuing the hair, there may be some pressure on the film to recover the cost.
From a realistic perspective, “Snowman Romance” is the first original work of Oriental DreamWorks from a Sino-US joint venture to a wholly-owned Chinese capital with Chinese culture, and jointly filmed with the American DreamWorks. Chinese Story + Hollywood Performance, but apparently failed to reproduce the grand occasion of 2016 Kung Fu Panda 3.
Overview of Chinese and foreign co-productions in the domestic market in the past five years, both success and failure cases are available. “Kung Fu Yoga” “King Kong: Yeouido”, “Giant Shark”, “White Snake: Origin” and other co-productions have been approved by the box office, but there are also “White Ghost Legends of the Dead”, “Great Wall”, “Mystery Nest”, “The Mystery of the Dragon Card” “Waterloo”.
There is Is there a set of effective methodologies behind the film? Can Snowman Romance give an answer?
Chinese elements and Hollywood narratives,The success and failure of “Snowman”
As far as “Snowman” is concerned, it is quite obvious that the characteristics of the film are felt from this movie. “Snowman” tells a very simple story. The protagonists discover the strange creature snowman, help it return to his hometown, and understand the family, dreams, courage and other themes on the way to achieve self-growth. The general setting of the film is very clear. The motif is about family and growth. The partner and the journey are the auxiliary agents of self-growth and reconciliation. At the same time, the snowman as the core figure is not only the fundamental cause of the contradiction of the story, but also the function of selling and curing the film. .
The collaboration between Oriental DreamWorks and American DreamWorks has made this story two-faced. On the one hand, the core of the story of “Snowman” has a Chinese color, such as the Chinese expression of emotional expression. Family shackles, self-growth and local roots, the Chinese landmarks such as Leshan Giant Buddha and Qiandao Lake appear in the scenes of the movie, such as Chinese steamed buns and squid. This makes “Snowman” have the cultural attributes and feelings of domestic movies.
On the other hand, “Snowman” has Hollywood-style animation performances and technical production. The audience can easily feel the Hollywood features from the animated characters’ costumes, expressions, behaviors, emotional expressions, etc. The wonderful audiovisual effects and special effects images also reach Hollywood’s industrial standards.
But is it only because the two are enough to incite domestic box office or overseas box office? Although the production level and industrialization of “Snowman” is first-class, but is not satisfactory in storytelling.
It is analyzed by animated film. In the domestic animation film market, whether it is imported or domestic, IP recognition is very important, from the brand effect of the production company to the IP precipitation of the content itself, the size of the audience coverage. It is closely related to recognition. Disney, Pixar can occupy most of the imported animation, animation empireThe brand effect has played a role in escort; there are also a few works of various original animated films in the domestic market, Waterloo, and a few of the most popular works, “Where is the devil of the world”, “The Return of the Journey to the West”, etc. Most of them have traditional myths as the basis of resonance, and IP recognition has a natural advantage.
“Snowman” as an original animation work, although there are Oriental DreamWorks, American DreamWorks “double sword merger”, but not enough to attract the attention of the general audience. The content of the film tends to be a family-friendly type, but the snowman as a core role is completely unfamiliar to the domestic audience, and it is obviously not enough to cause the public to resonate with the emotions of the Leshan Giant Buddha and Qiandao Lake.
A completely original animation work, it is difficult to get through the domestic animation market. In overseas markets, the number of Chinese elements that can be added to a movie cannot be determined, and the “Hollywood Standard” that can be used as an advantage option in China has become a routine exercise. The advantages of special effects technology have disappeared, and the content of the story has become a more core competitiveness.
This Warner Bros. may know earlier than the two DreamWorks/Fields. In 2019, Warner Bros. and the chasing animation co-production animated film “White Snake: Origin”, the domestic box office reached 451 million, whether in an animated film or a co-production film. The field is a successful work. The reason for success is not difficult to understand, on the one hand, the industrial technical support brought by the co-production, on the other hand, the film content is born out of Chinese folklore, the animation adaptation is innovative, but the IP itself has a wide range in China. understanding.
It may be concluded that IP awareness at this stage is a prerequisite for resonating with the audience, and Resonance serves as a link to connect the Chinese story with Hollywood industrial technology, so that the two can complement each other. A successful co-productionAnimated films, content cognition is as important as story quality.
Besides animation,Success criteria for co-productions Is it a false proposition?
To further expand the scope, the animation market needs to be co-produced, so what are the conditions for successful Chinese and foreign filmmaking in the increasingly mature film market?
Refer to the relatively successful co-productions in recent years–the photo of the “Kung Fu Yoga” Spring Festival filed by Taihe Film Co., Ltd. in 2017, the box office reached 1.748 billion; Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures and Tencent Pictures Co-produced “King Kong: Yeouido” domestic box office more than 1 billion; 2018 Chinese culture and Warner Bros. “Dragon Shark”, domestic box office more than 1 billion – the box office ceiling of the film seems to be gradually rising, but the film The road to success behind it is metaphysical.
Take the giant tooth shark in 2018 as an example. The production cost of Megalodon is 130 million US dollars. As a major investor, Chinese culture has invested more than half. The film has a global box office of 530 million US dollars and a domestic box office of 1.051 billion. It has been “the best shark film sold after the Great Jaws” by the domestic media, but it has a fresh index of nearly 46% on rotten tomatoes, and it is on the film of Metacritic. He scored 46 points. In 2019, the film entered the most sequel to the Golden Plum Award/Remake/Spoof movie nomination. In China, the film scored 5.7 points. Obviously there is an inversion between the box office and word of mouth.
There are many people in the industry who have analyzed the success of this film. On the one hand, the film was released in the second half of the 2018 summer file, and in the “I am not a drug god”, “Xihong City’s richest man” and other explosions Driven by the market, the market is in the domestic box office eruption period. On the other hand, the movie released at the same time is “A Good Play”, “Love Apartment”, etc. From the content, the thrilling theme and visual effect of “The Megalodon” are in line with the masses of the masses. The Chinese-style emotional core in the film, starring Li Bingbing, and Chinese tourists playing in Sanya Bay have given the audience a sense of substitution.
But this undoubtedly reflects a certain degree of particularity, the schedule factor is not stable, is inThe summer file “Giant Shark” got the box office space, but in this year’s National Day “Snowman Romance”, it encountered a strong enemy, and the various Chinese elements in the film, the market has a certain stereotype for a long time, Chinese actors, elements, and brands that appear in Hollywood movies will become a “bad film” when they are slightly inadvertent.
Even IP recognition can’t be used as a guarantee for co-productions. In 2016, Zhang Yimou’s “Great Wall”, from the production cost to the main lineup, reached the top in the country, and the film did not exist. The problem of degree, the big guide to hold the Chinese elements and Hollywood industrial technology also achieve a certain degree of integration, but the film Douban score of 4.9 points, from the story content to the starring acting have been spit a wave. The film has a domestic box office of 1.173 billion, with a global income of 334 million US dollars. Compared with its production budget of 150 million US dollars, it is regarded as a box office loss with a loss of 75 million US dollars. This movie has also become the largest reef in the co-production wave, neither To please the domestic market and not get overseas recognition.
From “White Snake: Origin” to “Snowman”, from “Great Wall” to “Magic Shark”, the film has success and failure, and behind these two very different fates, it is difficult to sort out the turning point. Root knot. Perhaps it is still a story at all, a story to tell who to listen to, which elements to mix, which market to take care of, have their own logic and trade-offs. The success of the film has not yet appeared a reliable rule, but it reveals at least that the “middle school” of the Chinese story and the Hollywood narrative cannot give a satisfactory answer.