Looking back, it took only 10 years from the single-box box office to 100 million to the single-day box office, and these two records are based on the Spring Festival.
Editor’s note: This article comes from the WeChat public account “ Making movies together ” (ID: yiqipaidianying), author: pills circle
Reviewing the development history of the “Spring Festival stall” is really inspirational. Its starting point is not high, and it was not even a clear date at first. It took many years to evolve, almost accompanying the development of commercial films in China. And it is now the first season of the Chinese film market every year. Not only do many films come together, but they are also the top films of major companies.
The words “accumulate less and become more” and “accumulate soil and become mountains” can best describe the development history of the Spring Festival. Due to the frequent explosion of the Spring Festival stalls in recent years, the public’s attention to it has also increased, and it has become a focus topic.
▲ Chinese New Year has become one of the focal points of media and audience discussions at the end of the year
The popularity of the Spring Festival file this year has reached the highest level in history. Since November last year, fans have begun a word of mouth battle for the most anticipated 2020 Spring Festival film. So, what changes and transformations did the Spring Festival stalls go to under the spotlight now? Let ’s talk about the 25-year history of the Spring Festival stall.
Origin: From Chinese New Year Films to Chinese New Year Files
In 1995, Jackie Chan’s Hong Kong film “Red Fan District” was introduced to the mainland under the name of “New Year’s film”, becoming the earliest film with the characteristics of the Spring Festival. It can be said that the Spring Festival stalls have gradually formed from the introduction of New Year films to the mainland.
▲ Stills from “Hongfan District”
The birth of the New Year’s film is also enough for the Spring Festival.Atmosphere.
The 1981 Hong Kong film comedy “Modern Bodyguard” was released in Hong Kong before the Spring Festival, becoming the first film in history to be called a New Year’s film. It is also from this time that the concept of New Year’s films by Hong Kong audiences is a light-hearted comedy. It is generally released before the Spring Festival after New Year’s Day to satisfy everyone’s festive atmosphere. This concept was also introduced directly in 1995. Mainland.
In the subsequent 1980s, New Year’s films became the darlings of the Hong Kong film market. From 1982 to 1984, New Year’s films became the box office champion of Hong Kong for three consecutive years. Along with it, there are also stars such as Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Xu Guanjie, “Fu Xing Zhao Zhao” and “Best Partner”. These classic comedy comedies that are often mentioned by the audience at the time were in the form of New Year films Released. However, New Year’s films do not exist every year. For example, there were no New Year’s films in 1985 and 1986.
▲ Comedies like “Best Partner” are the favorite movies that people watch during the New Year
By the 1990s, the development of New Year’s films was getting better and better. As Zhou Xingchi and Jackie Chan each ushered in their peak period, they are both representatives of nonsense comedy and kung fu comedy, so they carried the banner of New Year’s films. Such as “Gambling Saint”, “Escape from School”, “Happy Family”, “City Hunter”, “Glass Bottle”, these are the masterpieces of New Year’s films, and also the best box office movies in Hong Kong at that time.
▲ Two people in “Glass Bottle” have the same frame
Under the leadership of two legends, the New Year film has finally formed, and the New Year film has its own exclusive date. And soon, this schedule was also introduced to the mainland, affecting the Chinese market.
In the beginning, Jackie Chan’s “Red Fan District” had a strong impact on the Chinese film market. It was not only the highest-grossing Chinese movie in 1995, but also had a box office performance of 95 million yuan than the second place “Sunny Day” 50 million yuan nearly doubled. Commercial films “tortured” literary films for the first time in the Chinese market.
But soonThe filmmakers in the Mainland realized that New Year’s films and New Year’s films are a new world worth fighting for, and the mainland needs filmmakers to stand up and make the same excellent New Year’s films as Hong Kong films. The person who took over the banner at this time was Feng Xiaogang.
Evolution: from comedy to diversity
In 1997, Feng Xiaogang’s “Party A and Party B” became the first New Year film in the Mainland, setting a precedent for the New Year in the Mainland. With a budget of only 6 million yuan, this film captured 36 million yuan at the box office, which is the pinnacle of commercial comedy. It was also from that time that “Feng’s Comedy” gradually became popular.
▲ “There is no food left in the landlord’s house”
Because of the concept introduced in Hong Kong, mainland audiences also regard the New Year’s Eve as an exclusive date for comedies. Its easy-to-watch atmosphere and easy-to-understand storyline can get everyone involved. The stars played comedies and the Easter eggs at the end of the film and the audience, which added a strong Chinese New Year atmosphere. And Feng Xiaogang made good use of the audience ’s psychology to make his movie into a civilian comedy, reflecting the life characteristics of the little people.
From the results, Feng Xiaogang has undoubtedly achieved great success. From 1999s to 2001, he directed “Let’s See Everyone”, “Endless”, and “Big Titan”. Three new year films have successively become box office champions of domestic films. Feng’s humor complements the atmosphere of the Spring Festival.
▲ Stills from “Big Wrist”
Everyone thought that the habit of watching Chinese New Year comedies in the Spring Festival can continue for many years. Another master stood up and broke the balance, making comedy no longer the only “color” of the Spring Festival. He was Zhang Yimou.
At the end of 2002, “Hero” was born, which became an important turning point in the choice of films for the Spring Festival. That year’s movie market is undergoing huge changes. As a result of WTO accession, the country has allowed private companies to participate in movie investment, and large sums of money have poured into the movie market, allowing commercial blockbusters to gradually become mainstream.
▲ Not only the theme of the Spring Festival, “Hero” has a profound influence in all aspects
Hero is the representative of the first Chinese commercial blockbusters. Its cost is as high as 30 million US dollars, and its box office also made a historical record of 250 million yuan. It is not only the annual box office champion, but also the first film in the history of Chinese cinema to exceed 100 million.
On the other hand, although “Hero” was released on the eve of New Year’s Day in 2003, its popularity continued until the end of the Spring Festival in 2003. It broke the unique pattern of the Chinese New Year comedy family during the Spring Festival. It not only extended the film theme to the action and martial arts, but also pushed the low-cost Chinese New Year films to the production mode of commercial blockbusters.
Since then, New Year’s films have started to appear in more and more diverse genres, starting to change in subject matter and style. Whether it is Zhou Xingchi’s “Kung Fu” or Zhang Yimou’s “Man City Full of Golden Armor”, they are all based on action movies. In addition, the choice of seasons is from New Year’s Eve to the end of the Spring Festival, maintaining the popularity of more than a month.
▲ “Kung Fu” has a lot of comedy elements, but it is very different from the past Chow Xingchi movies
The widened schedule has slowly brought the Chinese New Year stalls into shape.
Hollywood blockbusters help shape Spring Festival stalls
The reason why the Chinese New Year stalls have evolved from before New Year’s Day to after the Spring Festival is related to the original movie-watching habits of Chinese audiences. For many years, the period from New Year’s Day to the Spring Festival has been a deserted period for cinemas. After all, everyone is busy celebrating the New Year. The “New Year” form of the New Year stalls is pleasing and has a festive atmosphere, which opened up this market.
But the Chinese New Year is always before the Spring Festival. After the Chinese New Year, Chinese people are busy celebrating the New Year and it is difficult to pay attention to the movie. Therefore, the box office for the seven days of the Chinese New Year is also difficult to rise. Yuan, the box office for the 7 days of the Spring Festival was 110 million, accounting for only 2.6%. This is in stark contrast to the box office that now accounts for about 9% of the year.
It ’s because of the market.Stalls generally hold Bao in the screening period before the Spring Festival, which has formed the habit of screening before New Year’s Day. At that time, if a movie was chosen to be released during the Spring Festival, it would simply be “not wanting to live”.
And no one expected that the Chinese habit of not entering the theater during the Spring Festival was broken by Hollywood. In 2009, “Avatar”, which was supposed to be released in North America before the New Year’s Day in China, was forced to postpone until the Spring Festival in 2010 for various reasons. What never happened was that “Avatar” actually set off an upsurge of watching movies in the Spring Festival, which has always been unpopular, so that the unpopular theaters during the Spring Festival were full of curious audiences who wanted to see 3D. In the end, it not only continued to be popular in China for more than a month, but also scored a record 1.328 billion yuan at the box office.
▲ Stills from “Avatar”
Since then, Hollywood blockbusters have frequently rescued movie theaters during the Spring Festival, and the concept of Hollywood Spring Festival stalls has gradually come into being. In 2012, the wave of watching Hollywood blockbusters reached its peak during the Spring Festival. Two Hollywood blockbusters, “Detective Sherlock Holmes 2” and “Mission Impossible 4”, won the box office of 411 million yuan within 7 days of the Spring Festival, an increase of 24.9% over 2011. Hit a record high. At that moment, people forgot about the larger Lunar New Year stalls. They looked at this 7-day Chinese New Year stall, which, although not long, was extremely intense.
▲ Stills from Mission: Impossible 4
The Spring Festival stalls have already taken shape, and they are still very popular, igniting the Chinese people ’s enthusiasm for watching movies during the Spring Festival, but it is Hollywood that makes money after all. Many filmmakers realize that it is better to eat such a fragrant piece of cake by themselves. Therefore, in 2013, Zhou Xingchi took his long-awaited new work “Journey to the West · Demon Spell” on the big screen on the New Year’s Day, and smashed 530 million box office and more than 20 Chinese film box office records in 7 days. Among them, the single-day performance of 122 million yuan has become the first discourse movie with over 100 million single-day box office in Chinese film history.
Looking back, from a single-piece box office to 100 million yuan to a single-day box office to 100 million yuan, it took us only 10 years, and these two recordsAll are built on the Spring Festival stalls.
Under the leadership of “Journey to the West · Demon Spell”, the box office of the Spring Festival in 2013 reached 780 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 89.7%. Since then, the audience has been completely ignited by the Spring Festival stall. In the end, the box office result of 1.246 billion yuan in “Journey to the West: Falling Devil” also made the Spring Festival file a logical hit, surpassing its predecessor’s New Year’s Eve, and since then everyone has stopped mentioning the New Year’s Eve. The concept is to identify the short and refined large-scale period of the Spring Festival.
▲ “Journey to the West · Falling Devil” breaking the monopoly in Hollywood
The results of the Spring Festival stalls are constantly improving from the box office to the number of moviegoers. The box office for the Spring Festival in 2014 doubled again compared to the previous year, reaching 1.45 billion. During the next three years (2015-2017), the box office for the Spring Festival increased from 1.81 billion yuan to 3.42 billion yuan. By 2018, the number of moviegoers reached 144 million, setting a historical record.
In 2019, “Wandering Earth” countered the blockbuster Spring Festival stalls as a dark horse, and finally led the Spring Festival stalls to gain 5.859 billion yuan, although it only increased by 1.5% compared to the previous year. Box office results have been saturated, but looking back, this result was 780 million 6 years ago, and now it is just a fraction. This is not only the victory of the Spring Festival stalls, but also the victory of the filmmakers’ unremitting efforts to create good works.
▲ Double harvest at the box office
The total box office for the Spring Festival this year will definitely continue to grow, and it will break through the 6 billion yuan mark. Many blockbusters with different themes also make our Spring Festival film selection more abundant. Looking back at the 25-year history of the Spring Festival stall is actually looking back at the history of the development of Chinese film culture.
From the birth of the concept, to the diversification of the subject matter, to the selection of the dates, and finally to the annual box office record is refreshed. Our film culture is undoubtedly constantly enriched, and our cultural soft power is undoubtedly continuously improved. The success of the Spring Festival stall is the success of the entertainment consumption era. It not only promotesIt has stimulated the film industry and cultural industry, and it has also contributed to the development of our country.