The just-concluded summer movie season seems to be lively.

After a lapse of two years, the box office of summer movies finally broke through the 9 billion yuan mark, returning to the "average daily 100 million yuan" echelon.

"Lonely Walk on the Moon", "Life Events" and "Jurassic World 3" ranked in the top three, contributing 60% of this summer's box office.

In this summer season, we can also glimpse a lot of new phenomena. Science fiction films get together, realistic themes are high, and short video marketing has shown miraculous effects.

'Lonely Walk on the Moon' reigns supreme

  According to statistics from the State Film Administration, from June 1 to August 31 this year, the domestic summer movie box office reached 9.135 billion yuan, making the summer movie return to the "average daily 100 million yuan" echelon.

Compared with the box office performance of 7.381 billion yuan last summer, it increased by 23.8% year-on-year.

At the same time, a number of core indicators such as the number of moviegoers and attendance rates also rose steadily.

This year's summer movie audience was 233 million, an increase of 14.8% over the same period last year, and the attendance rate also increased from 5.4% last year to 6.5% this year.

From the overall data, the domestic film market is recovering in an orderly manner.

This summer, a total of 97 films were released.

Among them, "Lonely Walking on the Moon", "Life Events" and "Jurassic World 3" ranked the top three with 2.896 billion yuan, 1.708 billion yuan, and 1.059 billion yuan respectively, contributing 60% of this summer's box office.

Judging from the films that entered the top ten at the box office, it covers science fiction films, family films, suspense films, cartoons, literary films, romance films and other types, with rich and diverse themes.

  "Lonely Walk on the Moon", which was released on July 29, drove the national single-day box office to break through the 300 million mark. In the end, the film came out on top this summer with a box office score of 2.896 billion yuan.

Not only that, "Walking on the Moon" has also become the second place in the annual total box office after the Spring Festival movie "Water Gate Bridge of Changjin Lake" so far.

Compared with "Chinese Doctor" and "Eight Hundred", which won the box office champions in the first two years of summer with 1.32 billion and 2.015 billion respectively, the performance of "On the Moon" is already very bright.

However, if compared with previous summer box office champions such as "Nezha's Devil Child", "I'm Not a Medicine God", and "Wolf Warrior 2", "Lonely Walk on the Moon" only delivered moderate results.

Moreover, the industry has generally high expectations for the film of "guaranteed 3 billion and optimistic 5 billion". Now it seems that it is just unsatisfactory.

  Although "Lonely Walk on the Moon" has an obvious head effect, "Life Events" followed by it still made a strong breakthrough with a box office score of 1.708 billion yuan.

As a small-to-medium-budget film focusing on the funeral industry and filmed in Wuhan dialect, "Major Events in Life" was originally planned to be released in the Qingming Festival, but it was later released on June 24 in the summer program, but the film received unexpected market feedback.

"Life Events" has a novel theme and unique perspective. In the interweaving of laughter and tears, it reflects the thinking about family affection and the ultimate concern for life.

The popularity of word-of-mouth has made the box office of "Life Events" rise steadily, breaking many records of family films.

  "Jurassic World 3", which was released on June 9, is the first blockbuster of this summer, and it has driven the national single-day box office to break 100 million again after a lapse of 103 days.

Although "Jurassic World 3" finally broke the 1 billion mark at the box office, it did not cover up the loneliness of imported films in this summer.

In the summer of 2019, 5 imported films including "Spider-Man: Heroes Expedition" and "Fast and Furious: Special Action" were among the top ten at the box office.

Among the top ten films at the box office this summer, domestic films accounted for 82.7% of the box office, and only two imported films were "Jurassic World 3" and "Minions Big Eyes: The Prequel of Despicable Me".

Top reality movies

  From this year's summer box office top ten list, you can also glimpse a lot of new phenomena.

First of all, three science fiction films, "Lone Walk on the Moon", "Tomorrow's War" and "Mozart in Outer Space", were released together, reflecting the progress of China's film industry.

"Lonely Walking on the Moon" is created by the domestic special effects team that produced "The Wandering Earth". The special effects shots in the whole film account for more than 95%. Among them, the image of the King Kong mouse, which is deeply loved by the audience, has achieved a lifelike level with as many as 50 million hairs. .

Different from the comedy and soft science fiction of "Lone on the Moon", "Tomorrow's War", known as the "first domestic mecha film", has taken the route of hardcore science fiction films.

The film was prepared for 10 years before and after, and it took 5 years for post-production alone.

"Mozart in Outer Space", which combines various elements such as science fiction, comedy, and parent-child, is Chen Sicheng's latest exploration outside the "Tang Detective" series. The film finally won a box office of 223 million.

  Long before the epidemic, there were signs of a recovery in Hong Kong films.

In the summer of 2019, three Hong Kong films, "Heroes of Fire", "Anti-drug 2" and "Apostle Walker 2", were among the top ten in the box office.

This year, Hong Kong films also showed a great sense of presence. The two films, "The Detective War" and "Tomorrow's War", ranked fourth and fifth at the summer box office with 712 million yuan and 623 million yuan respectively. Old Hong Kong stars such as Gu Tianle and Liu Qingyun still have a strong market appeal.

  The most favorable type of film in summer is animation film.

In the summer files over the years, hits such as "Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage" and "Nezha's Devil Child Comes into the World" have been born.

Last year, "White Snake 2: The Robbery of the Green Snake" earned 562 million yuan at the box office, ranking third in the summer season.

This year, although 13 animated films have been released, most of them are small and medium-sized. Only 10 animated films have box office of over 10 million yuan, and many data are the lowest values ​​of animated films in the past five years.

Among them, the two animated films "New God List: Yang Jian" and "Minions with Big Eyes: The Prequel of Despicable Me" entered the top ten of the summer box office with 334 million yuan and 184 million yuan respectively.

"New God List: Yang Jian" took three and a half years to create from the light-following animation that created the "White Snake" IP, and this film only reserved three and a half days from the official announcement to the official release, so " Airborne", which obviously had a negative impact on "New God List: Yang Jian".

  The top of reality-themed films has become a bright spot in this summer's season.

In addition to "Life Events", there is also the suspenseful film "Broken Bridge" directed by Li Yu. The box office performance of 230 million yuan is very outstanding for this film that tends to be literary and documentary style.

Of course, as the starring Wang Junkai's contribution to the box office is indisputable.

The most gratifying thing is the turnaround of the small-budget literary film "Hidden in the Dust".

Although the cumulative summer box office of more than 40 million did not make "Hidden in the Dust" into the top ten list, but looking back at the box office results of only 349,000 on the first day of the film's release, you can see what an incredible miracle it has created.

  "Hidden in the Dust" is a local story that happened in the northwest countryside. The film was directed by Li Ruijun. Except for Hai Qing, a professional actor, the rest were mostly relatives of the director.

Such a niche literary film once dropped to 0.1% in theaters.

However, after "Hidden in the Dust" was launched on the video platform on August 9, it was out of the circle with its real, delicate, romantic and poetic qualities.

The Internet not only did not eliminate the box office of "Hidden in the Dust", but instead led the audience to go to the theater to buy tickets, even two or three, which made the box office of the film rise against the trend.

As of the end of the summer vacation on August 31, "Hidden in the Dust" has achieved a box office of 44.42 million and began to lead the single-day box office.

Short video marketing works wonders

  The average movie ticket price of 39 yuan also makes this year the most expensive summer file.

Compared with the average movie ticket price of 36.3 yuan in the same period last year, this year has increased by about 7%, and it has increased by about 11% compared with the same period in 2020.

Judging from the data of previous years, the box office of the summer vacation from 2015 to 2019 exceeded 10 billion yuan, and the total box office of the summer vacation this year was basically the same as that of 2014.

It seems that it will take time for the domestic film market to return to the tens of billions schedule.

  From the perspective of the industry, the great uncertainty of the movie's release has brought a significant negative impact on the box office.

Before the epidemic, there was a gap of more than two months between the official announcement of the film and the official release, which can reserve sufficient pre-release time for the film.

But now, "airborne" has become the norm, and it is difficult for publicity and distribution work to penetrate deeply.

In this summer season, the publicity period of "Tomorrow's War" has two weeks, "Lone on the Moon" and "Broken Bridge" are only 10 days, and "New God List: Yang Jian" is as short as three and a half days.

  The lack of preheating in the early stage can only be made up by word-of-mouth after the release. Therefore, the long-tail effect brought by the quality of the film becomes crucial.

After the release of "Life Events", word of mouth was fermented. The box office of the next weekend was higher than that of the first weekend. It has not fallen out of the top ten at the box office for two months after its release. The key has been postponed twice.

"Hidden in the Dust" is also a representative of a good meal that is not afraid of being late.

At first, the film almost became cannon fodder for the "one-day trip to the cinema"; it took nearly 30 days to go from 10 million to 20 million at the box office; from 20 million to 30 million, it took only 8 days; from 30 million to 40 million, and it will be reached in 3 days.

Originally, Maoyan Pro predicted that the box office of "Hidden in the Dust" was very low, and now, the box office prediction has jumped to 112 million yuan.

"Hidden in the Dust" draws the magical box office curve of "high-rise buildings from flat ground".

The popularity of "Hidden in the Dust" is still rising, and the film has announced an extension to September 30.

  Short video marketing has shown miraculous effects in this summer season. Among them, the counterattacks of "Hidden in the Dust" and "Tomorrow's War" are inseparable from the efforts of short video platforms.

The biggest marketing stunt of "Hidden in the Dust" at the beginning of its release was being nominated for the best film at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival, but the audience was not impressed by this supreme honor.

Since then, the Douban score of "Hidden in the Dust" has risen from 7.8 points to 8.5 points, making it the highest-rated Chinese-language film on Douban this year, but this is still weak for the film's box office boost.

The outbreak of "Hidden in the Dust" was secondary dissemination on short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou after the film was launched on streaming media, which brought a direct boost to the film.

According to Maoyan statistics, "Hidden in the Dust" has reached 2.1 billion views on Douyin, and has been on Douyin's hot search list for many times.

Big V bloggers posted their thoughts after watching, Dong Yuhui introduced in the New Oriental live broadcast room, the film's official Douyin account has received nearly 10 million likes, and there are many "tap water" Amway, this niche film has not been "hidden into the dust" , but through the short video platform to break the circle.

  The box office recovery of "Tomorrow's War" is inseparable from Louis Koo's hard work.

The production cost of this hardcore sci-fi film is as high as more than 400 million yuan.

As the film director and starring, Gu Tianle ran around to canvass for the film. He has always been low-key and became very active.

Offline, he went to 10 theaters in one night, and even shouted to female fans, "You can call my husband after watching the movie"!

Online, he did live broadcasts, connected with Internet celebrities, and went to Zhihu Hupu to interact with netizens.

Koo Tianle, who has always been low-key, "tears" in the intensive publicity activities.

Two weeks after its release, Gu Tianle began to participate in publicity activities such as the post-screening meeting of the film and the live broadcast of the Oriental selection. On August 11, Gu Tianle entered the New Oriental live broadcast room and chatted with Yu Minhong and Dong Yuhui about the story behind "Tomorrow's War", 200,000 films. The coupons were sold out.

Later, Gu Tianle connected with Mai's Internet celebrity Xiao Yang, who has 90 million fans. Because he was not familiar with it, he also found the wrong person and made a joke.

But in just ten minutes, another 100,000 movie coupons were sold.

  However, "The Battle of Tomorrow" came out of the circle on August 13th. On that day, the official Douyin account of the film released a short video. Gu Tianle was full of sorrow. He watched the box office 20 times a day, and he was suspected of wiping his tears with a tissue.

Although Gu Tianle later clarified that he was actually wiping away his sweat, the video of Gu Tianle's "Tears Collapse" for the box office of "Tomorrow's War" still formed a viral spread, which instantly formed a public opinion situation of "distressed Gu Tianle", which attracted countless netizens to break the defense. Spontaneously promoted "Tomorrow's War", "You have one vote, I have one vote, and Principal Gu will continue to build the school." Although this move has been questioned as "miserable marketing" and "tragic marketing", some people analyzed that Gu Tianle's "crying" ”, which made the film sell two hundred million more.