On January 21, eight new films released on the first day of the New Year of the Tiger officially opened for pre-sale. According to Maoyan Professional Edition, as of 11:50 on the 22nd, the total box office (including movies) of the new films in the 2022 Spring Festival reached 61.14 million. Judging from the current pre-sale situation, the eight new films have been divided into obvious levels, and the pattern of "one super and many strong" has begun to appear.
In terms of live-action films, "The Water gate bridge of Chosin Lake" (hereinafter referred to as "Watergate Bridge") is undoubtedly in the first echelon, and as of press time, the pre-sale box office is 21.78 million, which is ahead of all other films. Wen Muye's "Miracle Stupid Kid" and the comedy "This Killer Is Not Calm" pre-sold 9.44 million and 8 million respectively. Han Han's "Four Seas" and Zhang Yimou's "Sniper" lagged slightly behind, taking 6.24 million and 5.09 million respectively.
In terms of animated films, the two old IPs of "Bear Haunting and Returning to Earth" and "Pleasant Goat and the Basket of gray wolves out of the future" have won 5.86 million and 4.61 million box office with on-demand screenings and pre-sales, respectively, leading the new IP "Little Tiger Dun Big Hero" that has not yet been screened and born on Douyin. "Bear and Goat Wars" has already been played on January 15, and the second round of screenings will be launched this Saturday and Sunday.
Eight new films pre-sale box office results are remarkable. However, compared with last year, the publicity period of this year's Spring Festival stall seems to be a bit calm. The topic on Weibo is no longer the "strongest Spring Festival file", but replaced it with the "strongest New Year file".
The main reason for this feeling is the shortening of the publicity time, which is behind the frequent changes in the schedule of films. Last year, the "strongest Spring Festival file" set the film list early, the pre-sale was opened two weeks in advance, and the audience accumulated a year's willingness to watch the movie, and the head film "Detective Chinatown 3" won nearly 1 billion box office during the pre-sale period.
Looking back at this year, it was not until the day before the pre-sale began, that is, 12 days before the official release of the movie, that the lineup of the 2022 Spring Festival file was finalized. In the previous month, the ever-changing schedule information made this Spring Festival stall seem confusing.
First of all, the withdrawal of various types of films, including comedy and animation such as the "necessities" of the Spring Festival. On January 5, Happy Twist's comedy film "Super Family" withdrew from the Spring Festival file on the grounds that "the post-production workload is huge and cannot be completed on schedule". On January 6, "Cherry Pills: Fantasy Notes" withdrew from the Spring Festival file, and director Xue Xiaolu said that "the film is still in intensive production."
The withdrawal of the rest of the film is silent. At the beginning of the month, the comedy film "Drama like Life" was withdrawn. In the middle of the month, the two "big dinosaur" children's animations of "I am a Tyrannosaurus Rex" and "Jurassic Paradise" quietly disappeared. "My Heart Flutters", which has not been released for nearly half a year, insisted that it did not leave silently until the day before the pre-sale.
It is also worth noting that "Manslaughter 2", "Lion Boy", "Love Myth", and "Embracing You Through the Cold Winter", which were released as early as December, have successively announced the key extension and extended the release to the Spring Festival file. From the perspective of theme types, suspense, all-age animation, love and anti-epidemic are all areas not covered by the new films in the Spring Festival file. However, judging from the current row of films in the New Year, the scheduling rate of the above films is not too competitive.
Compared with the withdrawal and key postponement, what caused uneasiness for nearly a month was the schedule of the super blockbuster "Chosin Lake" sequel "Watergate Bridge". Since the official announcement of the production of "Watergate Bridge" last year, there have been rumors that the film will be scheduled for the Spring Festival in 2022. At the end of last year, the Golden Rooster Festival press conference announced that it was "fixed for 2022", and film critics predicted that the Spring Festival file would be "double seal pro-door", and the market was constantly receiving relevant signals. But it wasn't until Jan. 13 that "Watergate Bridge" was finally announced. At this time, it has been less than a month since the spring festival stall battle officially started.
Last year, "Chosin Lake" grabbed 70% of the box office of the National Day file, and the Spring Festival contestants had to pay attention to "Watergate Bridge". The frontal confrontation with "Watergate Bridge" is Zhang Yimou's "Sniper", both films are based on the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, which is more attractive to male audiences. Before "Watergate Bridge" was finalized, "Sniper" had no competitors in the male audience market. After the "Watergate Bridge" landed, many people predicted that "Sniper" would also withdraw to deal with it.
But the filmmakers ultimately chose to "hold their ground.". In an interview with CCTV News, Zhang Yimou also talked about the difference between "Sniper" and "Chosin Lake": "Chosin Lake" shows a grand narrative in a panoramic way, while "Sniper" chooses to cut into the small sight and focus on a small war without a name. He also said that literary and artistic works should "bloom with a hundred flowers, and the audience wants to see different ones and reflect them from all angles." ”
Compared with last year, the list of contestants in the 2022 Spring Festival stall came a little later. Spending a lot of time speculating on the lineup, to some extent reducing the focus on the film itself. "Miracle Stupid Child", "Four Seas", "This Killer Is Not Calm" and "Sniper" have been sticking to the 2022 Spring Festival file from beginning to end, but the intensive publicity of these films seems to have only started this week.
However, the repeated epidemics in some cities have cast a layer of uncertainty over the film's promotional activities. Under the repeated epidemic situation, the gathering activities are inevitably affected, first and foremost is the premiere of the film. According to the interface entertainment, in the new Spring Festival films, the premiere of "Watergate Bridge" has not yet been determined, and the publicists of "Four Seas" and "This Killer Is Not Calm" said that the premiere of most of the new Spring Festival films has been cancelled.
Fortunately, the repeated impact of the epidemic seems to be only publicity activities, and movies can still be carried out normally. Similar to 2021, many places have issued the "local New Year" initiative, which makes the significance of big cities for the Spring Festival stalls more important. In recent days, the locations of new cases are not lacking in densely populated cities such as Tianjin, Xi'an and Beijing.
Thankfully, the pandemic has yet to deal a fatal blow to theaters. According to the lighthouse professional version of the cinema business map, on January 22, the operating rate of theaters in Shaanxi, Henan and Tianjin was below 20%, the operating rate of Shanxi cinemas was less than 60%, and the theaters in the rest of the region were operating normally.
In previous years, the Spring Festival file data shows that the top three box office will achieve nearly 80% of the box office. If "Watergate Bridge" continues the super head status of "Chosin Lake", then the Spring Festival slot will stage a "seven into two" competition. There are still 10 days to go before the official start of the Spring Festival slot, and it is still worth looking forward to how the major film parties will use their own clever tricks to heat up the market, improve the pre-sale box office and the scheduling rate to compete for the slot position.