The total box office exceeded 8 billion yuan, setting a new record, and four films became market winners.
Spring Festival movie box office reputation is "hot"
Our reporter Yuan Yuner
The 2024 Spring Festival stall will achieve another great success. Maoyan Professional Edition data shows that as of 21:00 yesterday, the total box office of the Spring Festival stalls exceeded 8.023 billion yuan, surpassing the record high box office performance of 7.842 billion yuan for the 2021 Spring Festival stalls. The total number of moviegoers reached 163 million, and the total number of screenings was 3.937 million, which also set a new high in the total number of moviegoers and total screenings during the Spring Festival in Chinese film history.
The top four box office hits during this year's Spring Festival are "Hot and Furious", "Flying Life 2", "Bear Infested: Reverse Time and Space" and "Article 20". Among them, "Hot" directed and starring Jia Ling won the top spot with a box office of 2.715 billion yuan.
There is almost no suspense in the championship battle
"Whether it is the types of films released, the audience's willingness to watch movies, or the adjustment of movie theater schedules, this year's Spring Festival has delivered a satisfactory answer." Feng Henan, marketing director of the Beijing Lumière Cinemas Vanke Store, said that this year's Spring Festival releases will start with It mainly focuses on comedy and animation, and focuses on family entertainment. It lacks visual effects blockbusters like "The Wandering Earth" and "Operation Red Sea", so the industry's overall expectations were not that high initially. But I didn’t expect that after the Spring Festival movie opened on the first day of the Lunar New Year, the market attention has been rising, and the movie-watching craze has once again set off a nationwide craze.
Many excellent works were released together and won high reputation and attention, which is the main reason for the excellent performance of this year's Spring Festival. The current Douban scores of "Hot and Spicy", "Flying Life 2" and "Article 20" are all above 7.5 points, and "Hot and Spicy" is as high as 8.0. According to the results of the Chinese Movie Audience Satisfaction Survey, the audience satisfaction score for the 2024 Spring Festival stalls was 85.9 points, ranking second among the nine Spring Festival stalls since 2015. Four of the eight new films scored over 85 points.
From the central to local governments, cultural subsidy policies have been introduced to benefit the people, and the film producers' ticket subsidies have been combined to make movie ticket prices much cheaper than in previous years, attracting more viewers to the cinema. According to Maoyan Professional Edition data, the average ticket price during this year’s Spring Festival is 49.2 yuan, which is lower than last year and the same period the year before last. "What we have been paying attention to in recent years is the decline in the number of moviegoers. This year's Spring Festival moviegoers set a new historical record, which makes us particularly gratified." Feng Henan said.
On the second day of the Lunar New Year, the movie "Hot Hot" topped the schedule rankings in many indicators such as the single-day box office, and it has firmly locked in the championship position ever since. In previous years, the Spring Festival war usually had to wait until the third day of the Lunar New Year to be decided. This year, "Hot and Spicy" is gaining momentum, and there is almost no suspense in the battle for the Spring Festival championship.
The performances of "Flying Life 2", "Article 20" and "Bear Infested: Reverse Time and Space" are also worthy of recognition. Director Han Han beat last year's "4 Seas" with "Flying Life 2", and Zhang Yimou gave a stable performance in "Article 20". With its excellent production and a wave of nostalgic "emotional killing", the animated film "Bear Bears: Reversing Time and Space" not only maintained the basic box office, but also attracted many new audiences, and its box office and influence have been upgraded again.
Sincerity and warmth are the magic weapon to win
“The overall reputation of this year’s Spring Festival is the highest ever, and each of the six key films has its highlights and breakthroughs,” said film critic Jing Runcheng. The level of film creation for the 2024 Spring Festival has reached a new level. On the one hand, many films are based on family comedy elements, which are highly suitable for the Spring Festival movie-watching atmosphere. On the other hand, they reflect the observation and thinking of social and personal destiny and growth, and are rooted in Realistic and warm to the audience.
Jia Ling lost 100 pounds in "Hot and Spicy". Her efforts to transform herself have also helped her continue the box office myth created by "Hello, Li Huanying" in 2021. Jing Runcheng lamented that the success of "Hot and Spicy" once again proved that "sincerity is the greatest nirvana." There are many cases of body shaping and muscle enhancement in film and television works, but it is indeed rare for people like Jia Ling to direct and act in her own body and bear all the pressure. "Jia Ling in "Hot and Spicy" is sincere enough and relies on her strength to speak for herself. The Le Ying she plays not only becomes thinner, but also becomes stronger. This powerful vitality is the most infectious."
"Flying Life 2" is much better than "Flying Life", which has become the consensus of the audience and the industry. The film critic "French Film" commented that "Flying Life 2" is more concise, the content involving racing is both professional and popular, the comedy elements also revolve around racing, and the overall creation is more organized. The film also adds realistic issues of pursuing fair rules, which also makes the final more passionate.
"Article 20" directed by Zhang Yimou combines legal education with comedy. It is not only Zhang Yimou's "funniest" work, but also the work with the strongest comedy effect during this year's Spring Festival. Jing Runcheng said that filming on the rule of law is easy to be dull, but Zhang Yimou set up three story lines from "small family" to "everyone". "The editing and actors of this movie are a big plus. Every scene has a familiar face to the audience. The scene with Zhao Liying at the construction site, the love between Lei Jiayin, Ma Li, and Liu Yaowen's family, and Lei Jiayin's highlight moment at the end are all very moving."
Four films withdrawn in an effort to make a comeback
Although several winners achieved both box office and word-of-mouth success, some films chose to withdraw from the schedule due to unsatisfactory performance, triggering heated discussions among audiences.
On February 14, the romance film "Let's Shake the Sun Together" directed by Han Yan announced that it would withdraw from the Spring Festival schedule. Subsequently, "Mr. Red Carpet", "Huang Pi: The God of Wealth Cat from Heaven" and "Bajie: Under the Canopy" were officially announced to be withdrawn on February 16 and 17 respectively. In the Spring Festival period, which originally had 8 new films released, only 4 films were left to "run" the entire schedule.
"The reasons for the withdrawal of these four films need to be analyzed in detail. "Huang Pi: The God of Wealth Cat descends from the sky" and "Bajie: The Lower World of the Canopy" no matter which schedule they go to, there is a high probability that they will be 'cannon fodder.'" Film critic Zhu Qingtian said bluntly , but on the one hand, the quality of "Mr. Red Carpet" and "Let's Shake the Sun Together" is not bad, and the box office failure is largely due to poor promotion and distribution. On the other hand, the cost of the two movies is relatively high. For example, "Mr. Red Carpet" publicly disclosed The cost is as high as 260 million yuan, and the film studio needs to make a comeback through secondary distribution.
Feng Henan said that the withdrawal of the film is a commercial behavior, and there was a similar behavior in "China Ping Pong: The Last Strike" directed by Deng Chao last year. "The cancellation should be a helpless move by the film studio, because "Mr. Red Carpet" and "Let's Shake the Sun Together" basically have no films scheduled now, which is equivalent to no box office." The cruel competition in the Spring Festival period is evident.
"There is no precedent for a film that has been released to achieve good results in the second round of release. We still hope that "Let's Shake the Sun Together" and "Mr. Red Carpet" will have a chance to turn around." Zhu Qingtian is also worried, with four consecutive films withdrawing. , may leave a bad impression on the audience. (Beijing Daily)