Per reporter: Bi Yuanyuan, edited by Dong Xingsheng
2021 is destined to be extraordinary. In the post-epidemic era, China's economy has taken the lead in ushering in a strong recovery, under the premise that the epidemic is under control, cinemas have opened steadily, and the total box office of the Chinese film market will once again lead the world in 2021. As of December 22, the total box office of Chinese films in 2021 was 46 billion yuan, more than double that of 2020. Although there is a certain gap from 2018 and 2019, in the case of the overall decrease in the number of films released, the explosion of single-film performance is the most exciting thing for the film market this year.
On December 28, the 34th Chinese Film Golden Rooster Awards event site Organizer provided a picture
This year's Spring Festival file, "Detective Chinatown 3" and "Hello, Li Huanying" double dragon dance, working together to promote the Spring Festival box office to create a new record, especially "Hello, Li Huanying" counterattacked all the way, and finally with a box office of 5.413 billion yuan once became the runner-up box office in Chinese film history.
Coincidentally, this year's National Day file, "Changjin Lake" created a miracle again, with a box office performance of more than 5.7 billion yuan, officially surpassed "Wolf Warrior 2" more than 50 days after its release, becoming the box office champion in Chinese film history, and winning the 2021 world box office champion. In 2017, "Wolf Warrior 2" only grossed 5.69 billion yuan after 90 days of release, and "Chosin Lake" took only 57 days — nearly two-thirds of the time — to achieve the achievement of "Wolf Warrior 2".
Behind a series of exciting box office figures is the persistence of countless filmmakers for many years. High-quality films such as "Hello, Li Huanying" and "Changjin Lake" also prove that the box office of Chinese films is far from reaching the ceiling.
However, behind this, the Chinese film market also has places that need to be reflected, for example, after being robbed of time by software such as short videos and games, the young users of movies are "lost", and the proportion of "older" audiences has increased significantly; everyone wants to become "Li Huanying", what is the "box office password" on the creative end? At present, going to the movie during the holidays has become a common way of entertainment consumption, the change of the film schedule has become the norm, the small film is fixed at any time, and the size of the schedule and the volume of the film are becoming more and more matched.
The changes in the market, "The Road to 2021 Strong Movies" has been elaborated. Jointly produced by Daily Economic News and Wanda Film and Television Group Big Data Center, "2021 Road to Strong Movies" was grandly released at the 34th China Film Golden Rooster Awards on December 28 under the joint witness of Zhang Pimin, chairman of the China Film Foundation, Ren Zhonglun, vice chairman of the China Filmmakers Association, and Yin Xiangjin, general manager of Wanda Pictures.
Action, science fiction, drama, and comedy have become popular themes in the billion-dollar club
Wanda member data shows that young users are "churning". The variety of major video websites, the rapid growth of offline stores, new forms of entertainment such as escape rooms and script killings have seized a large amount of entertainment time for young audiences. At the same time, the number of cinema films that attract young people is not impressive. In addition to a few typical youth and love themes, the quality films that make young people willing to spend money and spend time are really unsatisfactory.
However, from another point of view, the significant increase in the proportion of "older" audiences (especially over 40 years old) can show that the entertainment activity of "watching movies" is no longer exclusive to young people. Patriotic feelings, fathers and mothers' love, national anti-epidemic and other themes can well touch the emotions of middle-aged people, so that they are willing to enter the theater.
In 2020, under the haze of the epidemic, the number of head films with a box office of 1 billion yuan + magnitude and the box office have dropped sharply, resulting in a box office proportion of films that have not exceeded 100 million yuan to more than 10% (11%). In 2021, with the rebound of the film market in important periods such as the Spring Festival and National Day, as of the data statistics time (October 24, 2021), the number of films above the order of magnitude of 1 billion yuan and the box office have both recovered, contributing 63.4% of the box office to the market with a proportion of 2.1%, and the number of films that have not exceeded 100 million yuan and the proportion of box office have dropped to the average level of previous years.
According to incomplete statistics, a total of 337 films have grossed more than 100 million yuan in the past 5 years, an average of 67 per year. The number of over 100 million films fluctuated year by year after peaking in 2017 (91 films), and fell sharply to 27 during the epidemic in 2020. As of 2021, there are 47 films over 100 million, which is expected to be significantly reduced throughout the year, and many factors such as production interruptions or delays, and the absence of imported films have led to the film market still difficult to get out of the haze of the epidemic in 2021.
In terms of the types of over 100 million films, the number of drama films is relatively stable, and action, science fiction, drama, and comedy are the four major genres with the highest cumulative output of over 100 million films in the past five years.
Super Head Movie Update Focuses on the Chinese story more moving
Compared with the normal market in previous years, the minimum box office of the top 10 films in 2021 remained at the order of 1 billion yuan + and the magnitude of the head film increased to 5 billion yuan +, "Chosin Lake" (5.7 billion yuan + ) stood on the Chinese box office champion and the 2021 world box office champion; "Hello, Li Huanying" (5.4 billion yuan +) became the runner-up of the Chinese box office in 2021. The two films completely refreshed the record box office top three in 2019, and the film market ushered in a new super head work, but the box office of waist films ranked 4th to 6th place decreased compared with previous years.
Observing the TOP10 films in the past 5 years, it is not difficult to find that before 2018, the Chinese film market was still dominated by commercial blockbusters and word-of-mouth comedies, such as domestic action films "Wolf Warrior 2", "Shy Iron Fist", "Predecessor 3", etc., and the content of overseas imported films was relatively diverse.
After 2019, the market began to shift significantly. The first is imported films, superhero science fiction films monopolize overseas imported films TOP5, on the one hand, the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020 fuses the imported film market, resulting in the "supply of domestic imported films" and the narrowing of the scale of imported sub-accounts. The imported sub-accounts that once accompanied the Marvel Universe to its peak came to an abrupt end after "Reunion 4" created a box office peak of 4.25 billion yuan; on the other hand, small-cost batch films lacked IP content support or necessary publicity, and due to the scarcity of blockbusters, it was difficult for small films to break through with the help of large-cap dividends, and the batch films also disappeared.
On the other hand, domestic films seem to have gained a new creative inspiration and attracted the attention of the Chinese people with richer content themes. From the "I Am Not a Medicine God", "Send You a Little Red Flower", "Chinese Doctor", which focuses on the theme of realism, to the "Detective Chinatown" series, which brings the industrialization of Chinese cinema to the world, to the domestic war themes of "Eight Hundred" and "Changjin Lake", and the trilogy of "My Motherland and Me", "My Hometown and Me", and "My Father and Me", which are closely related to the theme of gifts, the trilogy shows Chinese's own "film story" from the perspective of paying attention to reality, revolutionary history, home and country feelings and other macroscopic creative angles. Especially after experiencing the epidemic, the spirit of uniting the whole country to fight the epidemic has made the patriotic feelings of the Chinese people more high, the comprehensive resumption of the market after the epidemic, the domestic genre can be described as a full bloom, and Chinese films focus on Chinese stories, which is more moving.
The explosive theme dimension is richer, and the two 5 billion+ give the world film confidence
Blockbuster movies can be defined as films with a box office of more than 1 billion yuan, from the statistics of the number of films with a box office of 1 billion yuan + films in the past 5 years, the number of explosive films has decreased overall, and it has concentrated on a small number of oligarchic films, forming a very small number of super blockbuster films with a box office of more than 3 billion yuan.
The types of super blockbuster films with a box office of more than 3 billion yuan are diverse, from the traditional comedy action film "Wolf Warrior 2" and "Detective Chinatown" series, etc., gradually derived animation, science fiction, war such as "Nezha's Devil Boy Descending", "Wandering Earth", "Changjin Lake", etc., and the traditional comedy "Hello, Li Huanying", which mainly plays the warm card, enriches the emotional connotation in the type of comedy, so that the comedy gets stronger emotional resonance and theme sublimation.
5.7 billion yuan+! "Changjin Lake" not only updates the box office champion in Chinese film history, but also the world box office champion in 2021. "Chosin Lake" carries not only the honor and disgrace of the Bona Film family, but also like the scrappy warriors in the film, creating records one after another, and continuing to give confidence to the Chinese and even world film markets. "Changjin Lake" has pushed the Chinese film industry to a new height.
The 2021 Spring Festival super dark horse "Hello, Li Huanying", the main mother-daughter emotion, with its own grounded comedy style and the actor's wonderful interpretation step by step counterattack, the box office of 5.4 billion yuan +, becoming the most important "big dark horse" in the Spring Festival file.
Comedy has always been the most popular genre of the Spring Festival file, comedy is also more in line with the "tone" of the Spring Festival file, and the "Tang Detective" series of comedies main detective and reasoning is different, "Hello, Li Huanying" has a more universal emotional base, grounded starring cast and better understanding of the plot design, in the Spring Festival such a traditional and celebratory holiday, "Hello, Li Huanying" in the ontology content has been more competitive than the same period of competitors.
Holidays drive movie consumption The slot effect is increasing year by year
The box office contribution rate of the holiday slot in 2021 is close to 70%, and the film release schedule is increasingly dependent on the holidays in the whole year, whether it is the Spring Festival, the 7-day holiday of the National Day, or the long summer and New Year slots, going to see movies during the holidays has become a common way of entertainment consumption. Secondly, in the post-epidemic era, the change of film schedule has become the norm, and small films are fixed at any time, and the volume of the schedule and the volume of the film are becoming more and more matched.
In its 1-day various special slots, Chinese and foreign Valentine's Day and Children's Day, which are mainly consumed by women and children, the film box office has risen year by year, on the other hand, the Singles' Day slot has shrunk year by year.
In 2021, the total box office of the Spring Festival file reached a new high, with an output of 7.84 billion yuan in 6 days, 160 million people watched the movie, and the average ticket price of the movie this year also rose to nearly 50 yuan, and the Spring Festival movie has become the entertainment "standard" of the Chinese public in the New Year together with the Spring Festival Gala of the Chinese New Year's Eve.
Judging from the Spring Festival films in previous years, the top three films at the box office have almost accounted for 70% of the box office, and the box office proportion of the first three films in 2021 has reached 87%. Among them, "Detective Chinatown 3", which experienced the "darkest moment" in 2020, shined in 2021, accounting for 45% of the box office of a single film, which was also unexpected by all parties.
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