The 2023 movie summer file will set a number of new records——
The development momentum of Chinese films is strong
Core reading
Although many imported films participate in market competition, domestic films have obvious leading advantages, accounting for 87.58% of the market, indicating that the audience's trust and satisfaction with domestic films are increasing. The market structure of Chinese films has become more reasonable, and the foundation for sustainable development has become thicker.
Docking with the present has become the expression appeal of the summer film in 2023, which is also a conscious adjustment of film creation to follow China's social development. High-quality movie narrative is another key factor for this summer's movies to win audiences.
The 2023 summer movies have won audiences by relying on many advantages, showing the strong development momentum of Chinese films. This proves once again that a good quality film is the most important factor in attracting audiences.
In 2023, the Chinese film summer file will set a number of new records. As of August 8, the total box office of this schedule was 31.206 billion yuan, setting a new record high in the summer box office, and the number of moviegoers was 19 million, setting a new high for the number of summer moviegoers in previous years. A total of about 5 films will be screened this summer, with abundant supply, showing a diversified, multi-variety, and multi-genre situation, and the audience has new choices almost every week, and different groups have films suitable for their aesthetics. Although many imported films participate in market competition, domestic films have obvious leading advantages, accounting for 05.140% of the market, indicating that the audience's trust and satisfaction with domestic films are increasing. This summer, the box office of the two films "Disappearing Her" and "Desperate" exceeded 87.58 billion yuan, the box office of the two films "Fengshen Part I: Song of the Dynasty" and "In the Octagon Cage" exceeded 35 billion yuan, the box office of "Chang'an 20,18 Li" was nearly 10.<> billion yuan, and "Warm" and "I Love You!" " and more than <> other films with a box office of more than <> million yuan. It can be seen that the market structure of Chinese films is more reasonable, and the foundation for sustainable development is thicker.
The new results of this year's film summer show that the Chinese film market is accelerating its recovery, greatly boosting industry confidence, further consolidating the close connection between domestic films and Chinese audiences, and providing many enlightenments for future development.
Tell Chinese own story
Build an emotional connection and empathy with the audience of the moment
The new achievements have been made possible first and foremost by policy-level boosts. For example, the Ministry of Finance and the National Film Administration exempted the special fund for the development of the national film industry from May 2023 to October 5, 1, and provided many convenient conditions conducive to the development of the film industry, such as accelerating the approval process and optimizing the supply of weekend files, etc. These measures have enabled the film companies participating in this summer's file to have more marketing and publicity autonomy, and they have continuously optimized their marketing strategies, with the help of a variety of communication carriers, so that excellent films frequently "break the circle" and trigger social effects.
What plays a decisive role is still the work, and it is the many high-quality films jointly launched by the majority of filmmakers, attracting audiences to return to the theater. According to the statistics of the ticketing platform, this summer, about 2023% of movie audiences will enter the cinema for the first time in 3, and the proportion of multiple people watching movies has increased, and the proportion of audiences who purchase more than 24 tickets at a single time in "Octagonal Cage" and "Chang'an 23,<> Li" is about <>% and <>% respectively.
Telling your Chinese own story, establishing an emotional connection with the current audience and reaching empathy are the primary reasons why domestic films in the summer of 2023 win audiences.
Realistic works are the main body of this year's summer movies. This kind of work observes the current situation of social life and people's livelihood, profoundly expresses the social issues that people are concerned about, responds to the needs of the times, and touches the hearts of the audience. For example, I Love You! "Warm" focuses on the street dance theme loved by young people, "Disappearing Her" cuts to the social topics and hot events that the audience is interested in, "In the Octagon Cage" allows the audience to feel the moving charm reflected by the goodness of human nature and mutual help between ordinary people, and "Desperate" shows the social issues of telecommunications anti-fraud. Other realistic films, such as "Learning Dad", which puts parents' painstaking efforts in educating their children to the screen, are all focusing on hot topics in reality and arousing emotional resonance among the audience.
It is worth noting that the non-realistic films released this summer also strive to establish an emotional connection with the current society and the current audience, reflect the current social emotions, and express the ideal pursuit of contemporary people. During the release of the animated film "Chang'an 30,000 Li", the audience shared their viewing experience on social platforms, and the children chanted Tang poems in the theater. The film expresses people's spirit of unremitting pursuit of ideals and how young people realize their ideal ambitions in life, which is a common point across historical time and space. Today's young audiences experience such ideological and emotional development trajectories in the film, and gain inspiration and inspiration in realizing their own ideal values. The costume film "Fengshen Part I: Song of the Dynasty" expresses the theme of young people's self-search and self-establishment, and triggers young audiences to think about self-worth.
Docking with the present has become the expression appeal of the summer film in 2023, which is also a conscious adjustment of film creation to follow China's social development. In the common pursuit of building Chinese-style modernization, only by basing the perspective of film creation on the current Chinese society can we better promote the creative transformation and innovative development of China's excellent traditional culture, truly tell Chinese stories, and convey Chinese spirit and Chinese values. In this context, film creation reflects a deep cultural confidence, and the audience's acceptance and love of domestic films is also a manifestation of the continuous improvement of cultural confidence.
Establish the aesthetic style of Chinese films
Recapture the traditional strengths of dramatic storytelling
High-quality movie narrative is another key factor for this summer's movies to win audiences. The achievement of common feelings is ultimately based on the narrative of the film, and only when the narrative is accepted can the audience feel the thoughts and emotions that the film wants to express. The film narrative here refers to the creator's use of the unique audiovisual language of the film to tell the story and shape the characters. Most of this year's summer movies are dedicated to solid dramatic narratives, using video language to create strong narrative momentum and portraying vivid and unique characters. This kind of dramatic narrative is in line with the reception habit of Chinese audiences who are happy to listen to stories, and it is also the traditional advantage of Chinese art and Chinese film. In recent years, high-quality dramatic narratives have become a common pursuit, which is prominently reflected in the 2023 summer movies.
Suspense narrative is the fundamental place to create dramatic tension and embody narrative wisdom. In the summer movies of 2023, the suspense narrative once again exerts its narrative advantages. Films such as "Disappearing Her" and "The Last Truth" are suspense genre films, and the most important means to create narrative tension is "multiple reversals of the truth". This kind of film narrative method is an innovation in the creation of previous films of this genre, which can bring a stronger suspense experience to the audience, attract the audience's attention and think about the development of the story, so as to effectively realize its theme transmission. Although films such as "In the Octagon Cage", "Warm" and "Chang'an <>,<> Li" are not deliberately creating a suspense type, they all use suspense narratives to amplify the plot tension.
Making full use of video language for narrative is also the narrative feature of the 2023 summer movies. Image language is a unique narrative language of film art, and it is necessary to rely on dramatic logic to serve the story with pictures and sounds. If it is separated from the logic of drama, no matter how impactful and brilliant the image, it cannot carry an effective narrative. In the development of Chinese films, there was a stage of "emphasizing images over narrative", and now, Chinese films have returned to the narrative ontology, and creators have more consciously and actively let the image language serve the narrative. This is prominently shown in the 2023 summer movies. For example, "Heat" uses multi-camera and multi-scene photography, rapid editing and other means to capture the street dance movement, and better presents the exhibition match, combat and explosive sense of street dance, and the overall audio-visual style is young, fashionable and dynamic, attracting more young audiences. However, the film does not show off the audio-visual, and its audiovisual as a whole is arranged around the overall narrative logic. Many other films also choose the image language suitable for their own expression according to their respective subject content.
The 2023 summer movies have won audiences by relying on many advantages, showing the strong development momentum of Chinese films. This proves once again that a good quality film is the most important factor in attracting audiences. Combining the theme of "Chinese Stories" that expresses the spirit and value of the times, and constantly adhering to integrity and innovation on the basis of continuing the fine tradition of film creation, film creation can reach a higher level.
Film is an important carrier for telling Chinese stories well. Only by having films with the power of cultural people and resonating with people's social practices and thoughts and emotions at the same frequency can they be loved by the audience.
(People's Daily The author is Zhao Weifang, director and researcher of the Film and Television Research Institute of the China Academy of Arts)