The most high-grossing series of Hong Kong films in recent years is "Anti-Corruption Storm".
There were five films in the series, with the highest rating being "Anti-Corruption Storm 1" with a score of 6.1, and the rest failed.
So why can a series of films with such poor quality still make the fifth film? In fact, the answer is not complicated, just understand the market.
"Anti-Corruption Storm" is completely an assembly line product tailored for the schedule and the market, not a movie.
This also reflects from the side that Hong Kong movies have indeed come to an end, and can only be like Wang Jing's "Macau Storm", piling up feelings and customizing scheduled movies, which is essentially the embodiment of Hong Kong flavor.
However, it can also be seen from the "Anti-Corruption Storm" series of movies that Hong Kong films do have two brushes in commercial operation, which can accurately grasp the rules of market trends.
"It's a holiday, I always have to do something, watch a movie."
This psychology of people has created a box office blowout of scheduled movies, so sometimes it is not the audience garbage, but the audience wants to find something to do, and the movie is a way to save money and be fast.
Since you have chosen to watch a movie, it is natural to watch a film that you are satisfied with, and without understanding the plot, the actors, directors and feelings are the biggest plus.
If you only know a star and a half about a movie, which movie has a big publicity, it will attract such an audience, which is the brand effect that promotes impulse consumption.
The "Anti-Corruption Storm" series is this kind of scheduled, Hong Kong-style movie that triggers the audience's impulsive consumption.
The "Anti-Corruption Storm" series is starred by Gu Tianle, and each sequel adds a Hong Kong star to alleviate the audience's aesthetic fatigue.
Such as Lin Jiadong in the first part, Zhang Zhilin in the second part, Zheng Jiaying in the third part, Lin Feng in the fourth part, Xuan Xuan, Huang Zongze and Xie Tianhua in the fifth part.
The purpose of this is very simple, Gu Tianle is the most box office actor in this batch of Hong Kong stars, and partnering with other veteran Hong Kong stars can sell a wave of feelings and attract audiences into the cinema.
This is the commodity factor of the "Anti-Corruption Storm" series.
Because many viewers are familiar with Hong Kong stars such as Gu Tianle and Zhang Zhilin, coupled with the fact that the ticket price of "Anti-Corruption Storm" is not expensive, they chose "Anti-Corruption Storm" driven by personal preferences and feelings.
After the product is formed, the next step is to familiarize yourself with the characteristics of the customer.
The producers behind the "Anti-Corruption Storm" series know too well the characteristics of the audience.
They know that audiences watching the "Anti-Corruption Storm" series of movies like gimmicks and are susceptible to advertising, and the star effect and advertising become extremely important.
They add a lot of stars to each of them, and make some big gimmicks.
For example, the first real case is adapted to reveal the money, sex, and power behind the tens of billions of corruption cases; the second part is a storm that rises again and people's hearts are unpredictable.
The third part is that the tens of billions of black money arriving in Hong Kong from the mainland are unknown, poking open the money laundering fog in the name of the people; the fourth part is more direct, playing the trick of "prison storm".
In addition to the comprehensive upgrade of the scene in the fifth part, it returned to the old routine of feelings, Gu Tianle and Xuanxuan's "Qin Hunting" CP, Xie Tianhua and Huang Zongze's "stealth sniper" CP.
This kind of publicity is in the middle of the audience's attention transfer, interest is volatile, aesthetic awareness is strong, and it is easy to be affected by the appearance and packaging of the product.
The goods and the audience were taken down, and then the goods were packaged with "Hong Kong flavor".
What is the taste of Hong Kong? Hong Kong flavor is utilitarianism, that is, the audience can double what they want to see.
If you want to see handsome guys, you will plug Gu Tianle and Zhang Zhilin into the movie, if you want to see beautiful women, you will stuff Chen Jing and Cai Shaofen inside, if you want to see big stars, you will always bind Gu Tianle, and if you want to see the explosion scene, you will blow up several buildings.
There are handsome men, there are beautiful women, there are big scenes, there are thrilling actions, and all the commercial elements that have sold well can be added to Riga, and the plot and logic of the movie become less important.
From "Anti-Corruption Storm 1" to "Anti-Corruption Storm 5", it is a pile of such elements, and an ordinary independent commission against corruption has become an omnipotent Flying Tiger team.
The goods, the audience, and the packaging are all done, and the next step is naturally to consider environmental factors and find a suitable schedule.
"Anti-Corruption Storm 1" was released on August 16, 2014, this time point belongs to the end of the summer vacation, first, there are not many Hollywood blockbusters to enter, and second, there are not many domestic blockbusters besieging.
Films that pose a threat to it include "Four Famous Catches 3", Lu Yang's "Embroidered Spring Knife", and Hollywood's "How to Train Your Dragon 2" and "Daredevil 3".
The audiences of these films are different, and "Anti-Corruption Storm 1" is the only Hong Kong film to choose from in this period, and it is casual and casual in its own acres and three points.
"Anti-Corruption Storm 2" was released on September 14, 2016, and the summer vacation has just ended shortly after the gap.
This node is a cold period, itself there are not many movies released, instead of colliding with the suspense film "The Pursuer", "July and Ansheng" without box office appeal, and "Journey to the West 3" by Dog tail continues to sable.
Among these films, "Anti-Corruption Storm 2" became the best choice to relax in the cinema, and the 200 million box office is the best proof.
"Anti-Corruption Storm 3", "Anti-Corruption Storm 4" and "Anti-Corruption Storm 5" all follow this law in the selection of schedules, and the box office is also rising, 440 million, 790 million, and 400 million in eight days.
When the above steps are ready, the east wind will blow up, and the promotion should also be flowered.
The promoters of the "Anti-Corruption Storm" series of movies have been using the feelings of Hong Kong films and the CP bundled with Gu Tianle to attract audiences.
This type of movie is a hammer deal, and there is no connection between the upper and lower films except for the same title and the character name, and it can be sold by working the product method.
Unfortunately, in recent years, Hong Kong films have been such product-style films.
Do not pay attention to quality, only care about whether it can induce the audience's impulse consumption, between elegant and vulgar, they chose vulgar impatience, but also let the road to the comeback of Hong Kong movies collapse and collapse.
Gu Tianle and Wang Jing are the representatives of such product films.
For example, Gu Tianle's "Sweeping Poison 2", "Sweeping Poison 3", "Searching for Qin", Wang Jing's "Chasing the Tiger and Catching the Dragon", "Ace Of Tease", "New Heaven Slaughtering Dragon".
Perhaps in the eyes of these older generation directors and actors, the concept of Hong Kong cinema has long been blurred.
What they are doing now is squeezing out the last shred of value available to Hong Kong films, after all, there is no successor to Hong Kong films after them.
The transformation of Hong Kong films cannot rely on them, but on learning to live in literary films.
On this point, the young generation of directors in Hong Kong have done a good job and produced many good works, such as "Turbid Water Drifting" and "Hand Cigarettes".
Although the money will be made less, but Hong Kong films can have a long history, in the current state of the older generation of Hong Kong actors, Hong Kong commercial films have little time to make money, so this road is preferable.