The author | Gu Han
Editor| Li Chunhui
Some IPs fade over time, and some IPs become more fragrant as they get older. Born in the late 1990s and entering China for more than 20 years, Harry Potter recently proved with its impressive record that it definitely belongs to the latter kind:
"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" 4K restored version of the mainland re-screening after the epidemic, the box office broke 100 million in less than 2 days, 8 days broke 200 million; the mobile game "Harry Potter: Magic Awakening" the whole network reservation volume exceeded 10 million, the first day of the launch of the download volume exceeded 5 million, in a number of app stores topped the first, there are more than ten related topics and other hot searches; Universal Studios Beijing, which has an HP theme park, the opening day tickets were robbed within 1 minute, and then red or black, continued to occupy a place in the field of public opinion.
The enthusiasm of fans to pay for their feelings is frighteningly high, but there is a saying that if this enthusiasm is awakened after more than ten years of sleep, it is obviously not possible to achieve this grand situation.
Before the recent Renaissance, after the novel and the film were over, and between the gaps in the "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" series, it has always remained active in one way or another, condensing old fans and attracting new people. This is crucial, and even more rare.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="47" > not easy to accompany</h1>
In fact, in addition to the re-screening of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" after the resumption of theater work, in the first half of this year, the "Lord of the Rings" series has also appeared in mainland theaters again for a long time. However, the trilogy that had to be screened at the previous film festival only earned 60 million, 50 million and 30 million at the box office, respectively.
To calculate, the two works are similar in type, the age of shooting and production is similar, and there is no obvious difference between technology and art. If anything, it must be that the "Lord of the Rings" series, which has won 17 Oscars in total, is higher. The gap in the box office is not in the film itself.
One possibility is that the two IPs mean different things to the audience. The Lord of the Rings may be an epic enlightenment for many people, stunning and refreshing at first sight. Harry Potter is the companion of many young people today in the process of growing up, emotionally closer, and it is easier to make people feel soft.
Growing up with a generation is easy to say, but it is not easy to achieve. Compared with the Lord of the Rings, it is more obvious that some of Harry Potter's "karmic meetings" can be seen.
Created by Tolkien, the Lord of the Rings series tells the story of Middle-earth's Third Age, when the Lord of the Rings Jihad, in pursuit of freedom, united against the Dark Lord Sauron. The Harry Potter series was directed by J. Miller. Created by K. Rowling, it tells the story of harry potter's learning and adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
One is a serious epic, one is a children's literature, one is a modern masterpiece, and one is a contemporary bestseller. Different positions and positions lead to different outcomes.
The setting of "Harry Potter" is to "embed" the wizarding world into the modern society in reality, compared with the "Lord of the Rings" with deep connection with Western cultural history and the setting is completely overhead, the threshold for reading and acceptance is lower, and the powder can be grabbed from the doll.
More specifically, the protagonist of The Lord of the Rings grows rapidly during a difficult journey to protect the ring. "Harry Potter" is written from the protagonist's 11th age to 17 years old, covering all stages of growth from family to school, from childhood to adolescence, and finally leaving the ivory tower with adult protection, which naturally provides readers with the experience of growing up with the characters.
In terms of volume, there are 3 novels of "The Lord of the Rings" and 1 prequel of "The Hobbit", all of which were written in the 1940s and 1950s of the last century, and were first translated and published in China in 1998. There are seven Harry Potter novels, published between 1997 and 2007, introduced to China in 2000, and from the fifth in 2003, the time difference between the translation and the original version has been shortened to about three months.
In terms of film and television adaptations, the main and prequels of "The Lord of the Rings" have filmed trilogies, which were released in 2001-2003 and 2012-2014 respectively. There are 8 full-length versions of Harry Potter, which have been released in 2001-2011, and the sequel "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" has been released since 2016, and it is expected that there will be 5 films, and 2 of them have been released.
It is not difficult to see that Harry Wave's unique advantage is not only the strength of volume and rhythm. In the context of globalization, the ambitions of his novels and films are not limited to local, but to be sold overseas and create global momentum. While the author writes, the movie comes out, and overseas fans can also nervously and excitedly "chase more", which is an important source of companionship.
At that time, "Harry Potter" was a best-seller, and the pirated version of the snatched ip and the copycat version of the IP were once rampant
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="20" > developed as ip bonus points</h1>
Of course, the reason why harry potter's story has been told globally in just a few years is largely due to its successful IP development, especially the series of movies.
On March 5, 2021, WikiMili summarized the 50 most profitable IPs in the world based on the financial data of listed companies and the global third-party authoritative data statistics platform, and Harry Potter ranked tenth. Of the total IP revenue of about 32.2 billion, box office revenue accounted for the first place (9.194 billion), followed by derivatives sales (7.343 billion), and book sales accounted for only third place (7.743 billion).
So, how does the film and television adaptation add points to the Harry Potter IP?
One is to start early enough. In 1999, shortly out of her publishing trough, Rowling sold the film and television adaptation rights to the first four films in the series to Time Warner. In 2001, the first film "Philosopher's Stone" was released. At this time, the novel has just come out to the fourth part, which is exactly the middle turning point of the whole story, which is a good opportunity to enter the pit.
The first appearance at Hogwarts was rated first by the ITV documentary 50 Wonderful Moments of the Harry Potter Series
The second is uniqueness. For more than two decades, Harry Potter's live-action films and televisions have had and only had a Warner version, avoiding the loss of IP value caused by copyright chaos and mutual dismantling (here pulling on the domestic ghost blowing lights and tomb robbery notes series). During the period, there are many changes in the main creators behind the scenes, but the actors are basically unchanged, which is convenient for fans to substitute.
The third is the participation of authors. Rowling retained certain rights when selling the copyright. For example, the all-English team is at the request of Rowling herself. Professor Snape's actor, Alan Rickman, also mentioned in an interview that when he first took over the film, the novel had just come out of three or four films, and it was Rowling who "revealed a little bit" to him to help him better shape the character.
However, the author's participation should also be moderate, and the "Fantastic Beasts" series written by Rowling herself has a rollover situation.
Fourth, it is well-made. In terms of actors, a group of drama bones escort small actors with little performance experience. Many actors do not lower their self-standards because they are IP adaptations, but under the drive or worship of their own juniors, they are happy to play a little role in the green leaves. On the other hand, the United Kingdom has a deep theatrical tradition, good actors have undergone stage training, from the lines to the shape are "secondary two" just right, can drive the audience into the play.
Ralph Fiennes's Voldemort's cruel elegance did not lose its sense of joy (crossed out), leaving many famous scenes
Secondly, the "Detail Control" crew made the magical world a real sense. From key scenes such as Hogwarts and Diagon Alley, to chocolate frogs, butter beer and other foods that are repeatedly cue in the book, they are all restored. The plot of the sixth film, which begins with the protagonists visiting the magic shop owned by the Weasley twins, is finally presented in the movie for only a few minutes, and the crew has carefully designed the packaging of the goods to fill the shelves.
I have to say that it is the careful design and strong "cargo" of the film version that makes many things in the book, such as magic wands, broomsticks, and school uniforms of the four colleges, have a specific and recognized three-dimensional image, which lays a very solid foundation for the development and sales of derivatives such as clothing and toys.
Book adaptations inevitably leave regrets, and Harry Potter is no exception. However, in general, the series has become a classic in similar films with a first-mover advantage and a high degree of completion, which has withstood the test of time and can play a role in continuously pulling new people into the pit.
More importantly, the film's presentation of the characters and the wizarding world has been recognized by fans. Fans are willing to maintain their feelings for the work by revisiting the movie, punching in the filming location, cosplay, collecting the surroundings, and creating a double creation.
The actors have also been more or less empathized by book fans, and many HP casts are often open on social media, offline comic shows or other related occasions. Daniel and other core protagonists, not to mention, whether I am willing or not, under the enthusiasm of the public, it is still a walking sign of the HP series.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="48" > is reasonable</h1>
Looking back now, the Harry Potter IP caught up with the opportunities of the beginning of many centuries. For example, at that time, Chinese films had just ushered in the marketization, the Marvel series had not yet arrived, local blockbusters were still groping for growth, and the eight harry pottery films had entered the top ten of the mainland box office in the year of release.
For example, at that time, the Internet also began to spread, and the early more representative Ha fan forum "Vitality Bar" averaged thousands of daily visits between 2003 and 2007. In the heyday of Baidu Tieba, many large and small Tieba bars related to Harry Potter were also prosperous.
The online community provides a platform for exchange and discussion, translation and handling, and fan creation, and this deep participation also gathers scattered readers and audiences and transforms them into a sticky fan group. Even after the forum decayed, the fan culture continued in other new products. The vitality bar user of that year, "Ha Fan Crazy", is now a big V with five million fans on Weibo, and continues to share information about Harry Potter actors and derivative series.
Of course, in the final analysis, the reason why the Harry Potter IP can continue for many years and attract countless gold is that Rowling has created a sufficiently complete and detailed world view, with many characters and a vast map. The main transmission is the part illuminated by light, but beyond that, there is a huge space in the shadows to explore.
On this basis, Rowling herself launched the stage play "Cursed Child" (the story of the descendants) and the derivative film "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" (the story of the previous generation), and the fandom creations of netizens are even more varied and brain-opening.
Have you ever heard of "Voltay" CP?
More importantly, this worldview does not depend on the protagonist and the main story, and if it is only to follow the trend, the threshold is actually not high. After chewing on the super long original, it does not prevent you from wearing a wizard's robe or co-branded costume to take a beautiful photo. The recent popularity of mobile games and Universal Studios is largely the result of "fun together". Many passers-by enter the pit, looking at the art style or academy setting of "Magic Awakening", and even some people continue the frontier with their former roommates and old classmates in the game.
In the words of Lin Pin, a ph.D. in the Department of Chinese of Peking University and a lecturer at Capital Normal University, "Rowling's writing maintains a delicate tension between realism and fantasy." The wizarding world is mysterious, but school life is experienced by most people, and the subtle superposition of the two effects "makes Hogwarts a lasting attraction and calling for generations of readers.".
The golden years of the beginning of the century passed quickly, the society changed rapidly, life was stressful, the post-90s did not want to grow up, all day nostalgia; the post-00s drama addiction, keen on cos, is no secret, but the widely used wealth code.
For generations up and down, the Harry Potter IP provides a different world isolated from reality, so core fans will be so indignant at the abuse of the Death Curse in the game. And this also shows that as long as the secondary two complex is not extinguished, the magical world will remain vivid in people's expectations.