The Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon is coming to an end. Looking back on the eve of the Spring Festival, there are no super blockbusters. Most of the films are familiar faces and do not have premieres. Going into the theater is like opening a blind box. Various marketing strategies including "Jia Ling lost 100 pounds" were overwhelmingly launched, which once caused some viewers to have a rebellious mentality and it was difficult to have higher expectations for this year's Spring Festival.

　　As a result, as of 17:40 yesterday (February 17), the total box office (including pre-sales) for the 2024 Spring Festival period (February 10 to February 17) exceeded 8 billion! "It's Hot", "Flying Life 2" and "Bear Infested: Reverse Time and Space" are currently among the top three box office releases.

　　But behind the good sales during the Spring Festival stalls, there are also some strange features hidden.

　　The first is the unexpected and reasonable wave of "withdrawal".

　　After "Let's Shake the Sun Together", the final chapter of "Life Trilogy" directed by Han Yan, was first officially announced to withdraw from the Spring Festival, other films that had been crushed and struggled to turn around seemed to have seen a chance to breathe - they all chose to withdraw, including Ning Hao, Andy Lau's "Mr. Red Carpet" and two animated films without any ripples. The eight films released on the first day of the first lunar month have been cut by half, and the box office of these withdrawn films, without exception, has not exceeded 100 million yuan.

　　The influence of the main creators and IP of the two animated films is completely inferior to that of "Bear Infested" and can almost be ignored.

　　The comedy, which Ning Hao and Andy Lau have known each other for 17 years, actively alienated the audience due to its non-traditional commercial narrative and its focus on the various aspects of life in the entertainment industry. This "alienation" was Ning Hao's intentional choice, but the audience didn't buy it.

　　As for Han Yan's "terminal illness" work, the subject matter is too heavy, so choosing the Spring Festival stall is an adventure in itself. Today, the market slaps the company in the face and declares that the venture has failed.

　　It is helpless to fight again at another time, but it is a glimmer of hope. But it’s only the “first line”. The already swallowed publicity costs and how to win back the trust of the audience are all costs and challenges they have to face head-on.

　　In addition, there is another hidden weirdness in the Spring Festival show, which is the excessive pursuit of comedy effects.

　　It is no exaggeration to say that the eight films in the Spring Festival are all "comedies." "It's Hot" and "Flying Life 2" are all inspirational comedies with sports themes; "Article 20" uses the comedy of daily language to support the realistic background; "Mr. Red Carpet", "Let's Shake the Sun Together" and "The Bear" Films such as "Reverse Time and Space" are more or less mixed with comedy, and they also intentionally highlight their comedy in publicity. For example, Zhang Yimou said in an interview that the punchline of "Article 20" is Twice as much as "Azolla".

　　Comedy has always been the darling of the film market. Only heavy industry blockbuster series such as "Changjin Lake" and "The Wandering Earth" can slightly shake the dominance of comedy in the Chinese film market. Especially during the Spring Festival, comedy is the most convenient or even the only way to "family fun". Those who win "family fun" win the box office - the box office of the "Bear Bears" series of movies can remain around 800 million yuan all year round, because it allows one target audience (children) to create the box office effect of three or four movie tickets (family).

　　But what is worth being vigilant about is that this consistent comedy strategy makes the film show a trend of homogeneity in subject matter, content, and emotions. For example, this year's Spring Festival box office champion and runner-up: "Hot and Spicy" is about a woman who has been completely rejected, restarting her life through boxing; "Flying Life 2" is about a middle-aged man who has been ridiculed by the years, using racing to surpass himself. The laughter of both films comes from the collision between the protagonist and the surrounding world; in the second half, the comedy recedes and turns to more positive emotional values ​​such as inspiration, dreams, and self. Comedy is reduced to a packaging method.

　　The comedy of "Article 20", which is struggling to survive, basically comes from the personal style and language art of Lei Jiayin and Ma Li. They create laughter so that everyone will not be afraid of this essentially cruel and miserable story of "a good man is bullied and resists, but suffers misfortune". Comedy has become the sugar before a bitter medicine, making the propositions that Zhang Yimou is committed to exploring cast a fairy tale filter - after Zhao Liying's character jumps off the building, those problems are solved, which is the reappearance of contemporary "fairy tales".

　　To some extent, comedy weakens the artistic value and depth of the film's issues. The film's reputation is lower than Zhang Yimou's earlier "Qiu Ju's Lawsuit" with a similar theme, which is evidence of this.

　　Of course, there is nothing wrong with choosing comedy and catering to the market. Just using and borrowing comedy to achieve narrative purposes may make people aesthetically tired. It is difficult to be like last year's Spring Festival, which included industrial blockbusters like "The Wandering Earth 2", the costume suspense of "Man Jiang Hong", and " The espionage of "Unknown", the fantasy of "The Deep", etc.

　　In fact, it can also be seen from those withdrawn films that do not laugh loudly enough, are not pure enough, and are not resonant enough. The supply and demand situation of the Spring Festival movies in the Year of the Dragon is unbalanced. It seems that the audience has only one taste left, and that is "comedy + emotion" Combine videos. There is no standard answer to the question of what kind of Spring Festival stalls we need, but we can at least look forward to less weird looks and more colors. Text/Li Ruifeng (Chengdu Business Daily)