"Black Panther 2" returns to Chinese mainland theaters, both box office and word-of-mouth lose
After three years, Marvel is back, but the mainland audience has changed
Compared with the popularity of "Avengers 4" when it was released in 2019, "Black Panther 2: Long Live Wakanda" (hereinafter referred to as "Black Panther 2"), which is currently being released, can be described as bleak-less than 7,000 people have been released for five days. Wan's cumulative box office and Douban's score of 5.5 are the low point of Marvel movies.
"Black Panther 2" is the first Marvel movie to return to the big screen in mainland China after nearly three and a half years.
Now it seems that there may be a sense of "time has passed"-Marvel is back, but the audience has changed.
"Black Panther 2" box office data is poor
The last time mainland audiences saw a Marvel movie on the big screen was "Spider-Man: Far From Home" which was released in June 2019.
The Marvel movie "Black Panther 2", which returned after more than three years, was released on February 7, with more than 63,000 screenings on the first day. Cosmos Movies is close to the DC movie "New Batman" (20.95 million yuan on the first day) in March last year; the box office dropped by nearly 45% the next day after its release, and finally relied on the advantage of screenings to barely hold on to the third place in a single day; The cumulative box office of the day is less than 70 million, which has just reached half of the box office of "Black Panther 1" on the first day.
The reason, first, is obviously related to the poor quality of the film, which scored only 5.5 on Douban.
The death of Chadwick Boseman, who starred in Black Panther in "Black Panther 1", obviously had a huge impact on "Black Panther 2"-in the end, the filmmaker made a decision not to be replaced by other actors, and the script was revised for this reason. After undergoing five major revisions, it finally presented the plot version in which the black panther sister Su Rui became the second-generation black panther. Now it seems that this modified plot has completely deviated from the original and is not accepted by the audience.
Second, "Black Panther 2" has already been released in the United States in November 2022, and it will be officially launched on streaming media on February 1 this year, and film resources have already flowed out on the Internet.
It will be released in the mainland on February 7th, which belongs to the late period of the Spring Festival. This year's Spring Festival films, "Manjianghong", "The Wandering Earth 2", "No Name", "Exchanging Life", etc., are of good quality, and the popularity has even continued to this day. The official announcement key extension.
This undoubtedly squeezed the market space of "Black Panther 2".
Third, Hollywood movies have been released in China in recent years with a bit of "aesthetic fatigue". Most of the movies released are those IP movies, and sequels have been continued, but there are not many new ideas.
With the development of domestic film visual effects, it is difficult for those Hollywood films that pursue visual effects but weak stories to be recognized by domestic audiences.
Fourth, the overall creative level of Marvel movies has declined.
In the past three and a half years, the released Marvel movies include "Black Widow", "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings", "The Eternals", "Spider-Man: No Return for Heroes", "Doctor Strange 2", "Thor 4", etc. Douban scores are basically all Not high - "Black Widow" scored 6.2 on Douban, "Shang Qi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" scored 6.0, "The Eternal Race" scored 5.8, "Spider-Man: No Return" scored 6.6, and "Thor 4" scored 5.4 , "Doctor Strange 2" is 6.3.
This shows that Marvel movies have faced a dilemma of creative exhaustion in recent years.
Appreciation tastes of mainland audiences have changed
Marvel has created a huge and complex top-level movie universe with nearly 30 works, and has also cultivated many fans in the mainland.
Released in April 2019, "Avengers 4: Endgame" achieved a box office of 4.25 billion yuan, and it still ranks first in the history of Chinese film imports.
Objectively speaking, the past Marvel movies are obviously more attractive: the ratings of the four "Avengers" were 8.3, 7.5, 8.1, and 8.5; the ratings of the three "Captain America" were 7.1, 8.0, and 7.9; The ratings of the first "Iron Man" were 8.4, 7.7, and 7.9; the ratings of the two "Guardians of the Galaxy" were 8.1 and 8.4.
While the quality of Marvel movies has declined in recent years, the appreciation tastes of mainland audiences have quietly changed.
According to the "2022 Chinese Film Market Data Insights" report released by Maoyan Research Institute, the average viewing age of the top ten imported sub-account films from 2017 to 2019 is 28 years old, and the average viewing age of the top ten imported sub-account films in 2022 Has reached 30.3 years old.
That is to say, the main audience group of split-account movies has not changed in the past three years, which means that the main increase in young audiences is obviously missing.
The report also clearly pointed out that it is difficult to attract the new generation with the feeling of importing blockbuster films, and the reduction of preferred genres accelerates aging.
At the same time, from 2017 to 2022, large-scale domestic productions have risen rapidly, and the feelings of family and country continue to be born. Explosive works such as "Changjin Lake", "Wolf Warriors" and "The Wandering Earth" have gradually formed the Chinese characteristics of local commercial blockbusters. Recognized by domestic audiences.
Criticized by Hollywood bigwigs
Even Hollywood big shots have criticized Marvel movies in recent years.
For example, the 2019 director Martin Scorsese once said: "Marvel movies cannot be called movies, they are more like a product of theme parks. I tried to watch Marvel movies, but I couldn't watch them. It’s not a movie. Although Marvel movies are well-made and the actors are very attentive, they still look like images seen in a theme park. Movies should be works that actors work hard to convey their true feelings.”
At that time, this speech caused heated discussions, but it was also recognized by many filmmakers.
Coppola, the director of the "Godfather" series, publicly supported Martin Scorsese, "because we hope to learn something from the movie, get some inspiration, learn some knowledge, get some inspiration. I don't know who can learn from these Anything from cookie cutter movies.”
Coppola believes that there is only one Marvel movie as a prototype, and the Marvel movies released after that are just wearing a different shell over and over again. The core is still the original plot.
Coppola said: "The real good movie is that when you make a movie and create art, you have to personalize the work and have something that other directors don't have. Now Hollywood is not a 'studio movie', but a 'Marvel movie'." Movies'. These movies are repackaged to look different, but have the same 'prototype movie'."
"Black Panther 2" is a foregone conclusion.
On February 17, another Marvel film "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Frenzy" will also be released in mainland China simultaneously in North America. It remains to be seen whether the Marvel movie will turn around.
However, judging from the current general trend, Chinese audiences prefer works that can resonate with the current local life.
Text/Reporter Xiao Yang
Beijing Youth Daily