In the summer of August, the online film market ushered in two refreshing works. The first is the action theme movie "Tough Guy Gun God" launched on the Youku platform, the film restores the "chicken eating game" (real-time battle gun battle game) that has become popular in recent years with live-action starring, and the cumulative box office has exceeded 15 million. The other is "Angry Scalper", which was launched on iQiyi, a remake of the Korean film of the same name, starring the well-known star Wu Fan, and has also received more than 8.5 million box office so far.
Since entering August, due to the impact of a new round of epidemic in China, a number of cinema films have been withdrawn, bringing more uncertainties to the already deserted summer market. At the same time, the network movie has ushered in a new "turnaround" in this summer file, according to statistics, as of now, a total of 7 works in this summer file have reached 5 million at the box office, of which the "Dragon Coffin Tomb" launched on July 9 has reached 16.16 million, becoming the first online movie in the summer file to break 10 million.
In the first week of August, the market once again ushered in two new works "Angry Scalper" and "Tough Guy Gun God", although the same action theme, but the two works have brought different points of view, and "Angry Scalper" and "Tough Guy Gun God" have chosen a different idea from some past online movies in creation.
The first is "Angry Scalper", a title that sounds familiar at first glance, but it is actually a remake of the Korean film of the same name released in 2018, and the original version starred Ma Dong-seok and Song Ji-hyo, two well-known Korean actors. Although it is not uncommon for online movies to adapt Hong Kong film IP and public IP, there are few cases of remakes of overseas IP, and "Angry Scalper" can be regarded as a new IP material for online movies.
Of course, judging from the cases of cinema movies in the past, remaking overseas IP has never been an easy task. From "Trouble Family", adapted from the Japanese movie "Family Suffering", to the domestic version of "Hide and Seek", which remade the Korean movie of the same name, it can be said that most of the remakes are unable to escape the fate of "throwing the street". For online movies, because the production volume and industrial standard are lower than those of cinema films, it is often difficult to reach the level of the original work in the remake process. Taking "Angry Scalper" as an example, as a remake work, the creator chose "frame-by-frame restoration" in the creative process, almost 100% copied the original work in the plot, and greatly discounted the freshness of the plot, so it was criticized by many audiences who had seen the original work. On Douban, the original version received a 6.4 rating, while the remake of "Angry Scalper" only received a failing score of 4.6 points.
Contrary to "Angry Scalper", another "Tough Guy Gun God" that was launched at the same time unexpectedly gained a high reputation among the audience. The film is regarded as a live-action version of the "chicken eating game", and with the help of this popular game setting, "Tough Guy Gun God" has embedded adventure, action, family and other genre elements in the film, which has won many praise from the audience.
Compared with some previous films adapted from game works, "Tough Guy Gun God" is not a real IP movie, first, because the film has not obtained the genuine authorization of any "eat chicken" game, in addition, the film actually only uses the shell of "live-action eating chicken", as for the core content of the film, it is to deform the common action and gunfight elements in the same type of movies, and integrate with the current fashionable entertainment methods.
It is worth mentioning that the reason why the film can get the recognition of some current audiences is that "Tough Guy Gun God" rarely shoots the fierce and cruel side of e-sports, and nests the themes of individual struggle and family affection well, such as the film uses a lot of scenes to show how the protagonist Xiao Han balances the game and family aspects, as well as various choices when dealing with family conflicts, in addition to the tense and exciting action scenes, it also allows the audience to get empathy from the protagonist.
In 2014, iQIYI pioneered the concept of "online movies" in the industry, which refers to works that have similar duration and story structure to cinema films, but are mainly distributed through Internet channels. In the early stage of development, online movies are often linked to low cost and shoddy production, and it usually takes only a few dozen days or even just a few days for a movie to be shot. Due to the relatively crude production, early online films also lacked a stable audience.
In order to seize the market as soon as possible in the early stage of development, online movies often have a lazy approach, that is, they tend to rub the IP popularity of classic movies or popular cinema movies. For example, in 2015 by Chen Kaige directed by the cinema film "Taoist Down the Mountain" was released, causing a lot of topics, taking advantage of the heat of the movie topic, a network movie called "Taoist Out of the Mountain" turned out to be a big movie, with the help of the IP influence of "Taoist Down the Mountain", this "Taoist Out of the Mountain" won more than 24 million sub-account box office, becoming a veritable "blockbuster" network big.
The success of "Taoist Out of the Mountain" has also made many mainstream network players follow suit, and cinema movies have become the "hardest hit area" of the early network rub IP. After the release of "Taoist Out of the Mountain", a number of adaptations that have not been authorized by theAine film IP have appeared on the Internet, such as "Nine-Story Magic Tower", "Ao 囧", and "Rescue Miss Wu". In addition, a number of Hong Kong film IP works, including "Destiny Gambler God", "Roulette God", "Princess and Ancient Puzzle Boy" and so on, are also emerging in an endless stream.
For the online film industry, the phenomenon of rubbing IP in the early stage of development will undoubtedly hinder the healthy development of the industry, damage the overall image of the network, and have a negative impact on the industry ecology. This kind of rubbing IP in the online film industry was quickly resisted by the audience and industry insiders. At the end of 2016, a total of more than 60 online movies involving vulgarity, plagiarism and other bad behaviors were collectively removed from the shelves, and this phenomenon was also regarded as the beginning of the official comprehensive rectification of the "Internet University".
Under the supervision of policies and the guidance of the platform, production companies have begun to consciously enhance copyright awareness, and more and more companies tend to buy classic IP copyrights through formal channels for remakes. In 2017, Qishu Youyu and iQiyi released a list of more than 20 super online movie IP films, announcing that the "Four Famous Catches" series, "Notes from the Tomb Robber" series, "Forensic Qin Ming" and other big IPs will be adapted into online movies, which is also seen as a landmark event for the development of online movie IP to become compliant.
As some head companies have joined the ranks of "genuine licensing" IP development, it has undoubtedly played an exemplary leading role in the industry and strengthened the copyright awareness in the industry, and more and more large IP works that have obtained genuine authorization have emerged since then. For example, in 2020, "Qimen Dunjia" and "Qiannu Ghost: Human Love", adapted by well-known Hong Kong film IP, were launched and became the annual blockbuster online movies. In order to stimulate the potential of the IP of "Qiannu Ghost", "Qiannu Ghost: Human Love" spent nearly half a year to sort out the copyright chain of the 87th version of "Qiannu Ghost", and finally bought the right to adapt online movies, and the film also became a phenomenon-level work in the online film market.
Looking back at the IP development process of the online film industry, it can be said that it has experienced the initial rubbing IP, to the later remake of the classic Hong Kong film IP and the public IP, until today, the source of IP is becoming more and more diversified, some companies will target overseas IP that has been affirmed by the market, while other head companies have begun to create their own original IP.
Taking "Big Snake 2", which was launched at the end of 2019 as an example, the film, as a sequel to the 2018 online movie box office champion "Big Snake", is one of the most representative original hits in the online movie market in recent years. Previously, the first "Big Snake" had topped the position of the top of the online movie box office in the past years with a box office of 50.78 million yuan, and maintained this record for nearly two years, while the sequel also received a high box office of 32.5 million.
As the original IP of the online film industry, the reason why the "Big Snake" series can achieve such great success is inseparable from director Lin Zhenzhao's genre thinking. As the director of this film and one of the founders of ZhongleLe Pictures, Lin Zhenzhao has been focusing on online film creation for many years, and in view of the widespread and homogenization of the IP phenomenon in the online film market, Lin Zhenzhao came up with the idea of creating an original "monster film". In the process of film creation, Lin Zhenzhao combined various genre film elements such as monsters, thrillers, adventures, etc., bringing great visual enjoyment to the audience, and the success of the "Big Snake" series at the box office also allowed the industry to see the potential of original IP.
In recent years, there have been more and more original online movies that have been commercially successful and recognized by public word of mouth, and market data also shows that original online movies have great potential. Taking this year as an example, in the 33 online movies that broke through the 10 million in the first half of the year, the presence of original works has been significantly improved, and the original IP has occupied almost half of the head hits.
In the first half of the box office TOP5, "The Legend of the Hunter of Xing'anling" and "Blood unknown river" 2 movies on the list, while "The Legend of the Hunter of Xing'anling" also ranked first with a box office of 43.7 million. A number of original works of various genres, including "Black Hero", "Let Me Get Over", "Uncle Nine Return 2" and so on, have also received good box office results. According to statistics, among the 33 online movies that grossed more than 10 million in the first half of the year, the number of original works reached 22, accounting for 67%.
How to rationally develop IP has always been a problem that has been concerned by the film and television industry, after experiencing early barbaric growth, now the development of IP in online movies is gradually standardized, and the sources of IP materials are also showing a diversified trend, and more and more companies have begun to exert their originality to get rid of excessive dependence on IP. Driven by the dual drive of originality and big IP, online movies are also expected to continue to move towards the road of high-quality products.
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Author | Mike Lee
Editor-in-Chief | Peng Kan
Typography | Li Kexin