Text | Mia
"The annual ticket snatching and transfer festival has begun again."
Due to the recurrence of the epidemic, the North Film Festival, which was forced to be postponed from August 14 to 21, 2021 to September 21 to September 29, 2021, finally kicked off the restart. At 12:00 noon on September 14, the North Film Festival was officially ticketed at Maoyan, and nearly 300 movies were "robbed" in 31 theaters, and many heavy fans have made strategies and schedules in advance, and even assigned their respective ticket-grabbing tasks with friends.
Popular films are expected to be seconds: the documentary "Imatoshi: Dream Machine" by the popular animation master Imatoshi, which has been lined up for 8 times, is still difficult to find; the "anime god work" "Akira" that successfully predicted the Tokyo Olympics 32 years ago; last year's North Film Festival hit, "Portrait of the Burning Woman", which was nominated for the Palme d'Or and Golden Globe, continued to be popular this year, with scalpers selling for 400 yuan on idle fish; and some film history classic restorations such as the 4K restored version of "Mulholland Road". Scalper machine robbery business is still hot: some scalpers said that each one plus 120 yuan to grab, but not to grab, no ticket refund.
The cat's eye data verifies this. The fastest-selling movie TOP3, Mulholland Drive (4K), sold out in 9 seconds, Imatoshi: Dream Machine sold out in 12 seconds, and Delusional Agent sold out in 12 seconds. Behind the fanaticism of movie fans, what kind of film festival screening business is it? Will this year's Beijing Film Festival press the accelerator button for industrial recovery?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > the soil for the survival of art films: how to open up the industry and market? </h1>
"My brother has wanted to watch Akira since he was 7 years old, save the kids."
Fancy small story ticket copywriting brush screen, starting today, a number of WeChat groups named "Archives" and "North Film Festival" have entered the most active period. Many of them have careers related to the film and television industry, including young screenwriters, directors, planners, publicity, etc. Watching 15-30 + films per film festival is their norm, and at most some people even rush 3-5 films a day. For them, the film is like three meals a day, traveling and "migrating" with film festivals such as Pingyao, FIRST, Beijing Film Festival, and Shanghai Film Festival. A true story is that Gou Yi once worked in a well-known film self-media and resigned because of the anger of "chasing the leader of the film festival and not approving the fake".
Movie fan K showed his own collection of thick stacks of ticket stubs, since 2015 began the annual tour of the North Film Festival, but also witnessed the change of the cooperative ticketing platform: the earliest was "Che Guevara", "thousands of thousands of dollars to charge money inside", and later became a ticket Taobao, this year is the first cooperation between Maoyan and the North Film Festival. "It's good not to collapse."
Some fans are keen on collecting around the festival. On the "Peripheral" page of the Maoyan North Film Festival, the main visual puzzle, the official LOGO ticket holder, badges, canvas bags, T-shirts and other peripheral derivatives are being sold. The improvement of this part of the "emotional revenue" needs to further improve the IP influence of the film festival, as well as its own aesthetic design.
"Tickets are more expensive and harder to grab." In the early years, it may be as low as 40 yuan a piece, and in recent years, most of the ticket prices have been concentrated in the range of 80-120 yuan. This year's 13-episode consecutive broadcast and more than 300 consecutive screenings of more than 300 minutes of Imatoshi TV animation "Delusional Agent" has reached a high of 320 yuan a piece. The ticket price is not only related to the copyright fee, but also related to the screening venue and version, and the 4K restoration version, IMAX and other ticket prices are more expensive.
Most tier 1 film festivals only accept premiere entries, and new films are weighed in many ways when registering. Based on the 28-year history of birth and industry influence, the only A-category film festival in China has its own advantages.
In general, due to the film selection strategy, the degree of synchronization with the popular new films of the international film festival and other factors, the tickets of the Shanghai Film Festival are hotter than those of the North Film Festival in the secondary trading market, and there have been deeds such as "Day Face" being hyped to thousands, "Sea Flower" being fried to 2500 yuan, and ""Thief Family" for a suite in Shanghai Inner Ring".
However, the North Film Festival has also formed its own unique ecology. Usually, the archive is the main position for the heavy fans mentioned above. Based on the collection of 30,000 libraries, the "China Film Archive" has gradually become a cultural landmark in Beijing from an academic institution, and the entire North Film Festival is also relying on the hardware support of the Film Archive Art Cinema and the Art Association, growing year by year.
According to the online name "Dr. Qi Ai", known as "Qi Ai Ge Ge" by film fans, the curator of the China Film Archive who has been responsible for the screening unit of the North Film Festival for many years - Sha Dan previously interviewed, the team will start to "invite films" from a few months ago, and the film list is usually composed of selected films from the three major international film festivals, this year there is "Hole" that enters the main competition unit of Venice; there is also a part based on the combing of domestic films in the collection; some show cooperation with film institutions in various countries to form cultural exchanges, such as "Greek Film Week" Etc.; the other part is a collaboration with the big five Hollywood, such as "Joker Returns" and so on.
For several years in a row, "Series Gluttony" has been the most anticipated highlight, such as the 2018 "Dark Knight" trilogy, the 2020 "The Matrix" trilogy, and this year's "Star Trek" trilogy. Looking at the entire film list, it is not difficult to find that it has also injected a lot of atmosphere of the times, such as this year's special exhibition "Celebrating the Centenary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China", and the "Ice and Snow Winter Olympics" unit that echoes the Beijing Winter Olympics.
In addition to the carnival, how does the film festival show open up the relationship between industry and industry? A large number of "films that can not be seen before" are screened intensively, spreading the culture of fan films, activating the market, accelerating recovery, and indirectly stimulating cultural consumption in related fields such as books, music, dramas, etc. Some small and medium-cost films can recover part of their costs through the screening of film festivals, broaden distribution channels, and open the road of overseas distribution.
In addition, the film festival screening also spreads through the word of mouth of the core population, bringing a good publicity effect. For example, the high reputation and nearly 100 million box office of "Thief Family" are inseparable from marketing events such as "a ticket is difficult to find at the Film Festival", and "Everything About My Mother", which entered the main competition unit of the Temple of Heaven Awards this year, has been fixed for the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the screening of the North Film Festival will become one of the opportunities for early word-of-mouth fermentation. In addition to the industrial significance, it also reflects the cultural significance: for example, "Fire Girl" is one of the few Korean films that can be seen on the big screen since the "ban on Korea" was loosened.
Is it possible for art films not to lose money or even to make money? In fact, if you focus on the vertical circle layer enough, you can also form a brand effect and enhance commercial returns, and the "full attendance" during the North Film Festival is enough to verify this. Many films released at the Beijing Film Festival will continue to be screened in the archives after that, and compared with commercial films, art films and film history classics can release the long-tail effect. The "Art Federation" led by the museum, together with the elephant screening that opened the "crowdfunding on-demand" mode, together constitutes the main living soil of domestic art films.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="20" > the opening of "Chosin Lake" and the closing of "Lyceum Grand Theater": "1.3 billion cost blockbusters" and "Lou Ye movies" Will be lucky? </h1>
As soon as the news that the Beijing Film Festival officially announced "Changjin Lake" as the opening film and "Lyceum Grand Theatre" as the closing film came out, it immediately appeared on the hot search, realizing the "publicity warm-up" of the two new films that will be released soon. The opening and closing films in turn promote the rise of the film festival's influence, which is not only a judgment of the market outlet, but also conveys the value concept and taste of the film festival.
The reasons for choosing these two films are not difficult to understand. His official micro wrote: "The overall recovery of Chinese films, the main theme of the film has also completed the evolution from exploration to formation ... "Chosin Lake" has a magnificent war background as a basis, a positive commemorative significance as the foundation, and a large cost investment of famous directors and stars of large factories as a guarantee, whether it is industrial strength or the main creative choice, it can represent the high level of Chinese war films in recent years. ...... If "Chosin Lake" represents an industrial strength, then "Lyceum Grand Theater" shows a personality and authorship. ”
As official organizers, the North Film Festival and the Shanghai Film Festival always adhere to the guidance of mainstream values. "Chosin Lake", which praises the Volunteer Army to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, has enough weight to become the opening film in terms of both the theme and the team. In addition, Yi Qianxi, who served as the youth promotion ambassador of this year's Beijing Film Festival, is also the star of "Chosin Lake", reflecting the possibility of official activities and main theme films embracing the young market. Compared with the Shanghai Film Festival, the opening film chose the centenary gift film "1921" directed by Huang Jianxin, chairman of its jury.
This year's Beijing Film Festival has added a special "Retrospective Exhibition of Gong Li's Works" to pay tribute to Gong Li, the chairman of the jury, and "Lyceum Grand Theatre" is starring Gong Li, Oda Chejang and others. In addition, the film's international lineup, as well as the honor of being shortlisted for the Venice Golden Lion Award, as a closing film, reflects the North Film Festival's inclusive attitude of "bringing in" and "going out".
The official announcement became the opening and closing films, and gaining public attention was only the first step. "Chosin Lake", which has been scheduled for release on September 30, and "Lyceum Grand Theatre", which is scheduled to be released on October 15, will soon be tested by the market of "National Day File" and "Post-National Day File".
In this year's summer file, "Changjin Lake", which was originally regarded as the "savior of the city", was withdrawn due to the epidemic and changed to the National Day file. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the cost of filming reached 1.3 billion yuan. "Chosin Lake", "My Father and Me", "Railway Hero" three major theme giants gathered in the National Day file, "Chosin Lake" is considered to be the most stalled ticket crown selling seed player. CICC's latest research report predicts that the box office with service fees in the 2021 National Day file is expected to reach 41.01/45.10/4.932 billion yuan in three cases of conservative/neutral/optimistic, respectively, an increase of 3.4%/13.7%/24.4% over the 2020 National Day file.
Even more worrying is "Lyceum Theatre". In 2019, the opening film of the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival "Domestic New Film Exhibition" was changed from "Lyceum Theatre" to "Shakuhachi: One Sound and One Life", and the screening originally scheduled for the afternoon of November 19 was also cancelled. The film was originally scheduled to be released on December 9, 2019, but suddenly announced its withdrawal two days before its release.
The four words of "Lou Ye film" seem to have gone through twists and turns most of the time, and the representative figure of the sixth generation of directors once became an "underground director", and only 3 of the 10 works in 25 years have been released. The strong author's style is favored by fans on a niche scale, but it also means that the box office performance will not be too advantageous. Previously, "Clouds Made of Rain in the Wind" went through three years of censorship and deletion due to sensitive topics such as the demolition of urban villages, and suddenly withdrew from the Internet a few days before its release in 2019, the filmmakers responded with "do their best", Chen Guanxi finally changed to "voice starring", and the box office of the film was 64.999 million. Earlier, "Tuina" won multiple awards and grossed 12.721 million.
From the perspective of the schedule environment, the "Lyceum Grand Theatre" that chose the post-National Day file still faces the residual pressure of the National Day blockbuster, but if it is properly publicized and misplaced competition, it is not ruled out that it will become "Lou Ye's personal highest box office record".
After the public appearance of the North Film Festival, will "Chosin Lake" and "Lyceum Grand Theater" usher in good luck? The answer was soon revealed.