The summer season from June 1st to August 31st this year is halfway through. As of July 20, the box office of the summer season has reached 3.8 billion yuan. Compared with the 7.381 billion box office of last year's summer season, the half-way box office is not inferior.
The summer season of movies is gradually on the right track, the confidence of the industry has also increased, and the focus of the audience has shifted from looking forward to the return of the movie market to specific movie distribution and content.
Several small events in the recent summer film market still reveal some strange phenomena, some embarrassment and entanglement, and some noteworthy creative directions in the film market.
Event 1: Is film scheduling so superstitious now?
For the entire summer movie market, August 4th shouldn't be a special day. It's a Thursday, and it's not a weekend peak at the box office.
However, because this day is the Qixi Festival in the traditional sense, it is recognized by the film distribution market as the Valentine’s Day, which is regarded as a special date for the release of key films.
According to statistics, the new films selected to be released on August 4 include "Meet You", "We Look Like Love", "Forgetting Each Other", "The Long Farewell", "Her Love", and "We Met Songhua Lake", a total of six films The film, even Gu Tianle's new film "Tomorrow's War", which was officially released on August 5, also chose to be screened on August 4, which means that all seven new films are crowded into this non-weekend schedule, and the schedule depends on the situation of getting together is very obvious. .
In addition to being crowded into the so-called Chinese Valentine's Day period, some films also have very strange marketing on that day.
For example, "The Battle of Tomorrow" will hold a special screening event on the same day. The 13:14 session of the day is called the "Love of a Lifetime" session, the 17:20 session is called the "True Love Comes" session, and the 19:20 session The session was called "Love You Still", and the 20:20 session was called "Guardian Love".
"We Look Like Love" also set up the so-called special session of Chinese Valentine's Day, of which the session at 13:14 was called the "Lifetime" session, and the session at 19:19 was called the "Long Changjiu" session. The 20:20 session is called the "Love You Love You" session, and the 21:21 session is called the "Still Love You" session.
The number of movie screenings in the theater is the result of a comprehensive evaluation by the theater based on the number of its own theaters and the number of films. Many theater managers call the weird screenings of the above-mentioned films a "superstition" and say that they will not arrange films according to these weird marketing.
Schedule dependence is a worrying issue in the current film market.
Taking the film market in 2021 as an example, the annual box office of the movie is 47 billion, of which the box office of the Spring Festival 6-day box office exceeds 7.8 billion, the National Day box office is nearly 4.4 billion, and the box office of the two 13-day box office is 12.2 billion, accounting for 4% of the annual box office. one-third stronger.
The movie market is overly dependent on specific schedules, resulting in an unbalanced development of the movie market. High-quality blockbusters are crowded into specific schedules, and strong competition results in a waste of resources; no movies are available for most of the year, which not only consumes the audience's viewing interest and habits, but also wastes resources. It also results in waste of resources, losses and even bankruptcy of terminal cinemas in the market.
The second incident is the embarrassment of literary films and the power of blockbusters.
There are many new films in the summer, and the different treatment received by the two films reflects the embarrassment of the current film market. One is that only 1% of "Hidden in the Dust" has been released, and the other is that it has not been released but is considered to be 80% by all parties. The film-packed "Moon Alone".
"Hidden in the Dust", which is currently being released, is a film about the rural areas of the northwest. It tells a series of related stories such as the marriage of a rural woman, Gui Ying, played by Hai Qing, who has a very unfortunate family of origin. After marriage, they experience four seasons and live a natural life. The simple working life has yielded a bumper harvest of food, as well as understanding and love.
As a local narrative film with humanistic care, "Hidden in the Dust" is considered by many film critics to be the best film in 2022.
However, this well-received film currently has less than 1% of the market ranking, and the film's box office is less than 10 million after more than two weeks of release.
When the film market was just getting warmer, "Hidden Into the Dust", a literary film, unexpectedly encountered embarrassment in the market.
"Walking to the Moon Alone", which will be released on July 29, tells the story of the Moon Shield plan deployed on the moon by humans in order to resist the impact of asteroids and save the earth.
When the meteorite hit early and all the staff were evacuated urgently, Duguyue, the maintenance worker played by Shen Teng, missed the evacuation notice from Ma Lanxing, the team leader played by Ma Li, because of an accident, and landed on the moon alone.
Unexpectedly, the Moon Shield plan failed, and Duguyue became "the last human being in the universe", and began his life of shattering pots on the moon...
The comedy partners of Shen Teng and Ma Li, and the temperament of a commercial blockbuster, make "Alone on the Moon" the first blockbuster in the summer.
In the external publicity, the film also emphasized that the "content" of the film is relatively high, and it is a film starring the real Shen Teng.
After the film's schedule was confirmed, some theater managers were guessing how much the distributor would require the theater to arrange for the film. Some predicted that it would exceed 80%, and some even expressed a gaffe for 100% of the film.
The expectation of the high volume of films shows the industry's expectations for "Moon Alone".
After the film market has experienced a long period of sluggish operation, it really needs a blockbuster with appeal to drive the market.
The film market does need diversified content production, but the most urgent thing at the moment is to let the theaters whose market terminals are about to "run out of food" harvest the box office. This is a helpless move for the sustainable development of the film market.
Event 3, can domestic animation look forward to it?
Every summer, domestic animation films are indispensable. In this year's summer, there are two domestic animations worthy of attention, including "New God List: Yang Jian" whose schedule has not yet been finalized, and "Shan Hai Jing Zhi" scheduled for August 13. Goodbye Monsters.
As a new masterpiece in the "New God List" series, "New God List: Yang Jian" is a step further on the basis of "New God List: Nezha Rebirth".
The preview released in the early stage of the film shows the imaginative scene of Penglai Xiandao, the spectacle buildings with unique oriental characteristics are row upon row, all kinds of spaceships shuttle among the clouds, and an unprecedented ancient fairy tale spectacle comes into view. The sense of fantasy is blowing, and it is a feast for the eyes.
The "street fighting" scene between Yang Jian wearing a bucket hat and monsters also indicates that this is a dangerous world, and Yang Jian under the "New God List" system is about to embark on a thrilling adventure.
The domestic animated film "Farewell to Monsters" directed by Huang Jianming announced that it will be released on August 13.
The film tells the story of the Kunlun doctor Bai Ze and the unicorn boy Yi, who embarked on a journey of redemption and adventure together in order to unlock the secret of the black spirit.
The film draws inspiration from "Shan Hai Jing" and reconstructs a Shan Hai Jing universe with oriental charm.
In the summer vacation years ago, Hollywood animation works occupied a large proportion of the market.
Since the strong appearance of "Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage" and "Nezha's Devil Child Comes into the World", the new IP created by domestic animation based on traditional Chinese culture has become more and more appealing, and Guoman gradually has a large-scale work. What kind of performance can "New God List: Yang Jian" and "Farewell to Monsters in Shanhaijing" perform in this summer season, this is indeed something worth looking forward to.
(The author is Ni Zifang, a contracted art critic in Shandong Province)