The Beijing News interviewed theater managers, box office experts and audiences to analyze that superhero blockbusters are difficult to reproduce the movie-watching boom
Hollywood films are routine, and the audience naturally "does not pay"
In recent years, it has been clearly felt that there are fewer and fewer Hollywood blockbusters that can break through the box office of 10 billion yuan in the Chinese mainland film market, and it is an indisputable fact that Hollywood blockbusters are now "cold" in the Chinese market. The Beijing News reporter interviewed theater managers, box office experts and launched audience surveys, asking them to express their views. In their opinion, Hollywood blockbusters need to really create works that the audience loves to see, and now the audience's requirements and tastes are growing, they need not only a huge IP aura and visual effects stimulation, but also expect high-quality works to evoke emotional resonance and emotional impact, and for those movies with aging plots, stereotypical characters, and similar special effects "derived" from a mold, it will naturally dissuade the audience.
The routine of the plot causes aesthetic fatigue
In recent years, the box office trend of Hollywood movies has indeed been unsatisfactory. For example, some movies with high expectations, such as "Thunder Shazam! Wrath of the Gods", "Ant-Man 3", "Black Panther 2" and other traditional superhero movies, the box office can no longer be "hot", especially "Black Panther 2" and "Guardians of the Galaxy 3" released this year The box office is extremely unsatisfactory. Li Yulin, a cinema manager who has been engaged in theater work for many years, said that as early as three years ago, there was such fatigue in the film market, for example, more and more audiences in his theater were no longer interested in Hollywood blockbusters, and even some audiences complained in the theater's communication group that "this kind of blockbuster is too long and routine, some can know the result at a glance, plus it takes two and a half hours to sit, it is really tired enough", "Superhero movies before the epidemic such as "Captain America" series, "Avengers" series, "Aquaman", "Wonder Woman" etc., the Douban score is basically above 7 points, and the post-epidemic superhero movies such as "Black Panther 2", "Ant-Man 3", "Thunder Shazam 2" have scores below 6 points." Li Yulin also said frankly: "These movies will indeed have stable first-weekend box office revenue, to be honest, now many audiences are a little aesthetically tired of these super blockbusters, everyone is a little accustomed to the routine plot of Hollywood movies, it is really difficult to decide to go to the cinema to watch these films." Especially some Hollywood movies recently released have a bad reputation, such as "The Little Mermaid" Douban score is only 5.2 points, this score and the controversy behind the film is enough to dissuade the audience, plus now the price of movie tickets has been rising, if the film plot production is mediocre, coupled with low reputation, many people think that watching the beginning knows the end, which will naturally make the audience give up going to the theater to watch. ”
According to the current release of Hollywood movies, it can be found that in recent years, Hollywood movies have increasingly shown a trend of routine and pattern, and the audience can be seen complaining about it on many scoring platforms, such as everyone saying "you can guess what the movie is going to talk about when you look at the title" and "you can predict the result after watching it in less than five minutes". For example, "Guardians of the Galaxy 3" must end up with the Guardians winning the victory while adding various warm memories of the little raccoon "rocket"; "Fast and Furious 10" will definitely put the theme on Donald's mantra - "We are logging tired (family)", and according to fan statistics, "logging tired" has been chanted by the pros and cons a total of 140 times in the entire 55 minutes of the film. Box office analyst Luo Tianwen said frankly that this phenomenon is related to Hollywood's grasp of the innovation of original works, and now more and more are sequels to series of movies or works related to the IP universe, and there are few real and tangible original works introduced. Some works don't even pay attention to the plot logic of the movie, shooting for the sake of shooting, sequel for the sake of sequel, the audience can't see the novelty, and naturally feel that the movie ticket money spent is not worth it. It can be seen that Hollywood's creation of movies should not stay in the stage of endlessly consuming the aura of the past and consuming the enthusiasm of the audience, but should be conceived for the future creation. In addition, it is rare to see everyone discussing a good movie, it is a pity that "Dungeons and Dragons: Rogue Glory" is a high score of 7.6 on Douban, and many fans have a good reputation, but because of the poor publicity and the lack of warm-up of the IP, even if there is popularity, it only stays in the fans, and it is almost impossible to form a movie-watching boom.
Rising ticket prices and poor freshness, "abandoned"
Li Yulin, the manager of the theater line, also mentioned that he has been paying attention to the situation, because his theater is close to universities, and students have always been a major moviegoer in the theater. Affected by the epidemic, the theater has been constantly opening and closing, many students are not as fanatical about Hollywood blockbusters as before, firstly, because movie ticket prices have risen, now watching movies is not as simple as in previous years for 19.9 yuan can be watched; and many students' viewing habits have also changed, such as online screenings and the impact of short videos, "Zhang in the WeChat group has reflected to us that she will first look at the relevant trailer introduction materials clips on the short video platform before watching the movie. If these few minutes don't satisfy her desire to watch, she won't choose to go to the cinema. For example, "Black Panther 2" has been released for a long time, firstly, there are resources on the Internet, and secondly, the introduction and analysis of the film abound, she heard everyone say that 'you don't have to go to the theater to see it' and don't choose, and the audience who 'abandon watching' like this is not a minority. ”
Box office analyst Luo Tianwen also expressed a view that the gap between the introduction time and the foreign release time is too large to be "not fresh", which is also the reason why many people will not choose to go to the theater to watch the movie. For example, the Marvel movie "Black Panther 2" produced and released by Disney has a box office of 1 million yuan, far less than the 06 million yuan of the previous "Black Panther", because "Black Panther 6" was released in the United States on November 62 last year, and it was only released in Chinese mainland on February 2 this year. However, he mentioned that the schedule difference is not the main reason for the box office sluggishness, such as the Marvel movie "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Frenzy", which is also produced and released by Disney, which was released in North America simultaneously on February 11, and received 11 million yuan at the box office in Chinese mainland this year, compared with the box office gap of the two previous works of the series "Ant-Man" (2 million yuan) and "Ant-Man 7: The Wasp" (2 million yuan): "This is because the IP of "Ant-Man" is actually not as appealing as "Avengers" , and the film has a situation that the publicity is not in place, many movies are set close to the release time, there is no time to warm up the materials step by step, coupled with the film is in a relatively cold schedule in the late Spring Festival file, naturally can not get too high attention, in addition, the film's mediocre reputation quickly fermented, and the length of 17 minutes, which does make some audiences prohibitive. ”
Hollywood blockbusters are still a necessary addition to the market
"In the past, many fans like to call Hollywood blockbusters 'popcorn movies', in their brilliant visual effects and brand influence to get a hearty viewing experience, and these movies with a lot of routines and modes, this year has no longer conformed to the new pattern of the domestic film market, now fans are more inclined to tell a story well, warm and moving works, such as "Keep You Safe", "The Cloister Pavilion" and "Thunder Shazam 2" were released at the same time this year, and the box office trend of the first two main types of domestic films was significantly better than the latter. Because today's Chinese audiences prefer to watch their own stories, especially the kind of real works that evoke real emotional resonance. Film market expert Jiang Yong analyzed the changes in today's market audience, and he admitted that for Hollywood blockbusters, the audience is not as enthusiastic as before.
According to data, from 2017 to 2019, Hollywood's box office in Chinese mainland reached an average of $28.2021 billion, and by 9, the figure was $30 million, and the intuitive feeling is that the market share of Hollywood blockbusters in the mainland has plummeted, from 35%-12% to 3.3%, and there are even fewer works that can occupy the top of the annual box office list. But in Jiang Yong's view, Hollywood films still have a necessity, "However, what we need to see is that despite aesthetic fatigue, after all, Hollywood films still have some fixed audiences, such as "Guardians of the Galaxy 10" and "Fast and Furious <>" performed well at the box office on the first day, and the subsequent box office trend decreased There are also working days or other factors." Although some audiences will have aesthetic fatigue for such films, in fact, this kind of Hollywood blockbuster, whether it is visual effects or genre, is just needed for theaters, and such films still have the necessity of existence, and it is also a necessary supplement to the domestic film market. ”
Written by/Beijing News reporter Zhou Huixiaowan