For filmmakers, the Spring Festival is war.
The vicissitudes of the situation are for the war. On January 13, the long-rumored "Chosin Lake sequel" was officially scheduled for the first day of the Chinese New Year, and three days later, two films announced their withdrawals one after another. Between the comings and goings, the battle situation is even more confusing.
Unpredictable, is for tactics. From Chen Kaige, Xu Ke, Lin Chaoxian dream assembly, to Zhang Yimou, Zhang Mo's "father and daughter soldiers", and then to Yi Qianxi's single choice of two beams, it has become a veritable box office responsibility.
The Modern Express reporter found that the Spring Festival file battle was very different from the past. If the 2016 Spring Festival file, the three points of "Macau Storm", "Mermaid", and "Journey to the West" are the "Battle of Chibi"; in the 2021 Spring Festival file, the double male pattern of "Hello, Li Huanying" and "Detective Chinatown 3" is "Chu-Han Competition".
Then the strong hand scuffle in the Spring Festival file in 2022 has played a fierce momentum of the "Eastern Zhou Dynasty": "The Watergate Bridge of Chosin Lake" (hereinafter referred to as "The Watergate Bridge") is strong and unstoppable; "Miracle Stupid Child" (hereinafter referred to as "Miracle"), "Four Seas", "Sniper" and other hot films, vertical and horizontal, each has its own advantages; "Happy Sheep and the Basket of gray wolves out of the future" (hereinafter referred to as "Basket out of the future") "Bear Haunting • Return to the Earth", in the children's parent-child market that soldiers must fight for, launch a "fire fight"...
The movies are wonderful, and the battles are also wonderful.
Strong hands
Since 2010, "Avatar" began with the concept of "Spring Festival Stalls", and after more than ten years of baptism, the Spring Festival Stalls have become a cruel testing ground. "If you look at the movies that dare to land on the Spring Festival file this year, they are either 'professional households' who have been deeply cultivating the Spring Festival file for many years, or they are cutting-edge directors who have produced blockbuster films before, in short, there are few brushes that they certainly dare not come." A film industry insider sighed that the Spring Festival in 2022 is as strong as a cloud.
As of about 15:00 on January 19, according to the data of Lighthouse Professional Edition, the number of people who want to see "Miracle" has exceeded 677,300, temporarily ranking first in the list of new films. The film is the new work of director Wen Muye, before that, his work "I am not a medicine god" once became a phenomenon-level film, coupled with the blessing of well-known actors such as Yi Yanqianxi, Wang Chuanjun, and Yong Mei, the position is stable.
It was followed by "Watergate Bridge", which was recently airborne in the Spring Festival stall. After the official announcement, the number of new wanted views of this movie in a single day reached 104,000, 71,000 higher than the second place, and it is likely to surpass the first place. Huang Jianxin, the film's director, said, "Whether it is the plot display, or from the difficulty of shooting, or post-production, "Watergate Bridge" is more than the previous work. ”
In the eyes of industry insiders, the strong rise of "Watergate Bridge" and the hegemony of the Spring Festival stalls cannot be shaken. Some film industry insiders predict that the total box office of "Miracle" will be between 1.775 billion and 2.6 billion, while the total box office of "Watergate Bridge" will range from 5.45 billion to 7.5 billion.
"Four Seas" with 427,000 people who want to see it, but also full of expectations. Over the years, "Han Han's works" have established their own Spring Festival file recognition. As a writer, Han Han is unique in storytelling, and the key elements such as motorcycles, islands, and youth rebellion have collaged extremely strong personal characteristics. The chances of sentiment winning are great.
Also highly recognizable is Happy Twist's "This Killer Is Not Calm", which is adapted from Yuki Mitani's "Magic Moment". Dare to challenge such a classic work, "ambition" can be seen. It is worth mentioning that the starring actors of this movie are Ma Li and Wei Xiang, and Shen Teng, as the key figure of Happy Twist, starred in "Four Seas". It can be seen that there is also a hard battle to be fought between these two comedies.
Surprise
There are many strong hands, and the pattern of "nations" has been formed. In the past years, the Spring Festival stalls have always had a "magic spell": the pre-screening popularity and the highest pre-sale films may not necessarily maintain the championship status. For example, last year's "Detective Chinatown 3", the first day box office exceeded 1 billion, is the second place "Hello, Li Huanying" more than 3 times, but since the fourth day of the Chinese New Year, the single-day box office has been surpassed.
At present, can the industry's unanimous optimism about "Watergate Bridge" "destroy the six countries" and sit firmly in the first place? Or are other movies that can take advantage of the "combined momentum" to launch a surprise attack and then catch up? There are many uncertainties. But what is certain is that the vast world provides a frontier for these films. According to the National Film Administration, by the end of 2021, the number of mainland film screens has reached 82,200, an increase of 8%, ranking first in the world.
Whether it is "combined vertical" or "continuous horizontal", other films want to break the existing pattern at least two points. First of all, the film length of "Watergate Bridge" is not yet known, but if it still continues the nearly three-hour duration of "Chosin Lake", then from the perspective of scheduling, the first heat will occupy more scheduling time. This will make its box office advantage accumulated at least in the first few days more obvious, but in the second half of the Spring Festival, other movies do not rule out the possibility of counterattack.
Second, this year's Spring Festival is earlier than in previous years, and most of the film markets in February and March undertake the space for Spring Festival films. Judging from the information of the films that have been scheduled so far, in the two months after the Spring Festival, in addition to the new films in the Valentine's Day slot, there are few blockbusters released, which makes the well-known films have a very rich time to catch up.
Third, according to official data, in recent years, the number of moviegoers in first- and second-tier cities across the country has decreased year by year, accounting for 34.7% of the box office in low-tier cities in 2019, and rising to 39.4% in 2021. As the film market sinks more, "Miracles" and "Four Seas", which pay more attention to the daily lives of small people, may be more popular with audiences in low-line cities.
Destiny
In fact, what many viewers want to see most is the fateful showdown between "Watergate Bridge" and "Sniper". Since the day of their birth, the two works have inevitably been compared together.
First of all, their subject matter collides with a full heart. The story of the former continues from the previous game, telling the story of the soldiers of the Seventh Company who blocked the enemy army at the Watergate Bridge, the task was arduous, and the story was colder, more cruel, and more bloody. The latter focuses on the little-known "cold gun and cold gun movement", telling the story of the Chinese Volunteer Army and the elite sniper squad of the US army in a situation where the armaments of the enemy and ourselves are disparityed.
Then there is the lineup, the fifth generation of two famous directors Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou in the Spring Festival stall "narrow road to meet", let people inevitably not think of the imagination. The former, with the help of Xu Ke and Lin Chaoxian, formed a fantastic director group. The latter, who went into battle with his daughter Zhang Mo, and how the two generations cooperated, were all key variables affecting the war situation.
There is reason to believe that as Zhang Yimou's sincere work of entering the Spring Festival file for the first time, "Sniper" has made a "lying salary and tasting courage" kung fu. It is reported that Zhang Yimou led the production team to many places, not only shooting in the field in the weather of minus tens of degrees Celsius, "can't wait for the real snow and don't shoot." Seeking truth and refinement, just so that the Chinese sharpshooters presented on the big screen can be more real and shocking.
Looking at the popularity, "Watergate Bridge" has completely surpassed "Sniper", and the former held a huge press conference at the end of 2021, with many fans. The latter, on the other hand, has only released three sets of posters, a trailer and a director's special. Therefore, more than half a month ago, when the news of the airborne landing of "Watergate Bridge" began to come out, there were voices that had made a decision to withdraw for "Sniper".
So how was Sniper chosen? On January 14, the film released a new trailer and a new poster with the words "Do it to the end." This sentence is the theme of the movie, and it seems that it can also be seen as the determination of the film's creators to "break the boat". The world is undecided, and everyone has the possibility of winning.
In fact, no matter who will be out of the wings in this Spring Festival, the appearance of the two pieces has a very important significance - in this festival of universal celebration, with thousands of lights dedicated to the most lovely people, welcome the heroic martyrs home today in the prosperous world!
It must be contested
Counting the Spring Festival stalls in the past years, the animated movies of parent-child orientation have always been a place where soldiers must compete. This year's Spring Festival stalls are naturally no exception. The reporter noted that among the 9 movies currently scheduled, animated films occupy half of the country. Among them, the leaders are the two classic animation IPs: "Happy Sheep" and "Bear Haunting".
When it comes to the "most stable" film brand in the Spring Festival file, some people will think of Han Han, who is about to march the Spring Festival, and some people will think of the "Tang Detective" series directed by Chen Sicheng, but in fact, the animated film "Bear Haunting" series is the hidden king.
In addition to 2020, which was seriously affected by the epidemic, the "Bear Haunting" series has never been absent from the Spring Festival in the past 9 years, and has gained good word-of-mouth and box office results. This year's Spring Festival file, "Bear Haunting • Return to Earth" in addition to stabilizing the parent-child basic disk, but also conforms to the audience's aesthetic orientation, adding science fiction elements, is expected to further broaden the audience.
A few days ago, the film took the lead in opening the first round of on-demand screenings in the country, with a attendance rate of 52.2%, an average of 82 people per game, and the attendance rate and average number of people ranked first in the same period of movies, which was the first shot fired in advance for the Spring Festival file.
IP adaptation is a double-edged sword, and the sequel animation film is "dancing on the shoulders of giants", which will be crowned with higher expectations while getting more market attention. Whether the "Happy Sheep" that has returned to the film market after 7 years can meet the expectations of the audience is the first challenge it has to face in this Spring Festival file.
"Basket Out of the Future" abandons the classic sheep-wolf prairie chase in the animated series, and instead focuses its perspective on sports themes. Previously, the newly launched animated series of "Happy Sheep" series "Sports Hero Biography of the Basket Out of victory" unexpectedly came out of the circle among young people, and the animated film "Basket Out of the Future" created on this basis was also expected more.
The reporter noted that as of 15:00 on January 19, the film ranked fourth in the list of new films to be seen in the Spring Festival file, and it is also the most anticipated animation film, and more than 180,000 people have marked this movie as wanting to see, which also means that parent-child animation movies have a broad audience.
It can be seen that the seemingly calm animation double male competition is also very promising. Happy Sheep and Bears, who is the "top card" in the animation industry? It's really exciting.
Wait and see
"Look up Wu Yue Qin Qi Chu, blink of an eye Liang Tang Jin Han Zhou." After more than ten years of spring festival stalls, the competition between blockbusters has become more and more intense.
Moving the time forward first, it is not difficult to find that in the Spring Festival file of the past few years, visual effects blockbusters, commercial blockbusters, and family movies are mostly the first choice of the audience. In 2018, the Spring Festival file "Detective Chinatown 2" won the slot championship with a box office performance of 1.91 billion, in 2019, "The Wandering Earth" won the slot championship with a box office performance of 2.031 billion, and in 2021, "Detective Chinatown 3" won the slot championship with a box office performance of 3.555 billion.
And this situation may be variable in the upcoming Year of the Tiger.
The movie "Hello, Li Huanying" released in the Spring Festival file in 2021 came to the fore with sincere emotions, and the long tail effect was obvious, and finally achieved a total box office performance of 5.413 billion, successfully surpassing the Spring Festival slot champion "Detective Chinatown 3" and ranking third in the total box office list of Chinese films; and the movie "Changjin Lake" released in the National Day file in 2021 has become a phenomenon-level movie, and the strong feelings of home and country have touched countless audiences. In the end, with a cumulative box office of 5.775 billion, it set a new record for the highest box office of Chinese films.
These achievements and changes are enough to show that films with the theme of "people, home and country" have gradually become the audience's first choice for watching movies, and the main theme of the film in the Chinese film market has a broad future and world.
Looking at the 9 films that have been fixed in the Spring Festival file in 2022, the themes and genres are in full bloom, including "Watergate Bridge" and "Sniper", which focus on the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, "Four Seas", which focuses on the relationship between father and son, and "Miracle", which reflects the development opportunities of individuals under the change of the times, etc., and they invariably constitute the story of "people, home and country".
This change reflects the aesthetic upgrade of the Spring Festival file, and also highlights the changes in the Chinese film market in recent years, which contains the changes in the creative tendencies of thousands of Chinese filmmakers and the conscious viewing choices of hundreds of millions of viewers.
Can the Spring Festival file in the Year of the Tiger once again confirm that the main theme of the film is gradually becoming a mainstream film and creating a new history? We'll see.
Modern Express + reporter Prince Yang Li Yisuan