(Observer News) The july film market ended in a sustained slump. According to the data of Lighthouse Professional Edition, as of 21:45 on July 31, the national film box office in July 2021 earned a total of 3.221 billion yuan, compared with 5.756 billion yuan in the same period of 2019, a contraction of more than 2.5 billion yuan, a decrease of 44%. The total number of games was 11.3013 million, and the total number of people was 88.159 million.
The monthly box office TOP3 films are: "Chinese Doctor" 1.238 billion yuan, "1921" 417 million yuan, "White Snake 2: Green Snake Robbery" 344 million yuan. From the data point of view, this year's summer file is not short of movies, a total of 48 movies were released in July, but the box office exceeded 1 billion yuan only one work "Chinese Doctor", and even 25 movies box office are less than 500,000 yuan.
The decline in the summer box office, of course, has been affected by the recent domestic epidemic in many places, and many theaters have suspended business or strictly controlled the attendance rate. The most critical thing is that the domestic film file lacks the head of high-quality content to revitalize the market, especially many movies like "Chosin Lake" that were originally scheduled to be released in the summer have also been postponed due to the epidemic, resulting in the disillusionment of the hope of "bailing the market". In addition, the Hollywood blockbusters that were necessary for the summer program in previous years were affected by the global epidemic this year, and most of them were released online, which also reduced the supply of domestic cinema films.
Box office situation in July Picture from Lighthouse Pro Edition
At the tail end of July, two new films were released to help drive the market recovery: Director Chen Musheng's posthumous work "Anger · "Serious Case" replaced "Chinese Doctor" to win the weekly box office championship, with a cumulative box office of 564 million yuan; the youth campus film "Midsummer Future" starring Wu Lei and Zhang Zifeng currently has a box office of 238 million.
After the release of two new films on July 30, the market soared by 134% month-on-month, and the national single-day box office rebounded to more than 150 million, setting a record for the best Friday performance of this year's summer file, and also made the dismal box office in July finally grind through the 3 billion yuan mark.
However, although the weekly box office rebounded slightly, the overall box office downturn in July could not be reversed. Lighthouse data shows that in the first half of the summer program of 2021 (usually referring to July), the domestic box office revenue was 3.226 billion yuan, and if you exclude 2020 affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the same period in the past three years (2017 to 2019), this figure was 5.05 billion yuan, 6.964 billion yuan and 5.756 billion yuan, respectively.
In addition, the data shows that the total number of tickets issued in July was 151 million, a decrease of 7% compared with 2019; the total number of shows was 23.2479 million, 109% higher than in 2019; and the average ticket price was 36 yuan, 1.4% higher than in 2019. That is, the number of screenings in July this year has doubled compared with 2019, but the box office revenue has been reduced by 44%.
Of the 48 films released in July, 25 grossed less than 500,000 yuan, accounting for 52%; only 6 had a box office revenue of more than 100 million yuan, while only "Chinese Doctor" exceeded 500 million yuan. The box office revenue of many cinema films is even less than 5,000 yuan. Among them, "Fragrant Red Cuckoo" released on July 9 has a box office of 4110 yuan; "Angel in Orange" released on July 10 has a box office of 3193 yuan; "Watch Under the Big Tree" released on July 16 has a box office of 2948 yuan; and "The Semi-Agricultural Era of Bayi Village" released on July 23 has a box office of only 2905 yuan.
From the perspective of single-film box office, in the July box office TOP10, only 1 "Chinese Doctor" with a monthly box office of more than 1 billion yuan was once given high hopes, and "1921" with a strong star lineup was the runner-up of the box office in July, and the box office performance was thrown away by the first place.
From the perspective of genre, the main force of the summer program in previous years - animation youth films did not perform as expected, and this year's domestic animations such as "New Big Head Son Small Head Daddy 4", "City of Figurines", "Jigong's Descending Dragon in the World" have failed to carry the banner, and box office revenue has not reached 100 million yuan. Although "White Snake 2: Green Snake Robbery", which has a slightly topical degree and explosive appearance, has gained a good reputation, it is currently less than 450 million at the box office. Youth film seed players "Burning Wild Boy's Sky" and "What to do when the second brother came" not only did not meet expectations at the box office, but also suffered Waterloo, and the Douban score of both movies was 4.5.
The decline in the summer box office has a certain relationship with the recent domestic epidemic in many places, many theaters suspending business or strictly controlling the attendance rate.
Last week, the National Film Administration issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Prevention and Control of the Epidemic in Cinemas", and the attendance rate of cinemas in low-risk areas should not be higher than 75%, and cinemas in medium- and high-risk areas should not be open for the time being. According to the surging news, as of August 7, the number of suspended theaters nationwide reached 3,088, and the box office of suspended theaters accounted for 20.2% of the annual market. Among them, 73 cities chose to close their theaters in the city, involving a total of 2,066 cinemas.
However, the main reason for the box office plunge is not the closure of theaters, because most of the cities that currently close theaters are not important ticket warehouses for film production. According to Tuopu statistics, the anti-epidemic efforts in first-tier cities are relatively good, and 9.3% of theaters in first-tier cities are closed. With the increase of the ticket warehouse, the proportion of suspended theaters has gradually increased, reaching 37.6% in fifth-tier cities.
The lack of high-quality blockbusters to revitalize the market is the root cause of the cliff-like decline in the box office in July this year.
Compared with the same period in 2019, the single-month box office performance of "Nezha's Devil Boy Descending" and "Sweeping Poison 2 Heaven and Earth Showdown" exceeded 1.3 billion, and the box office of "Lion King", "Galaxy Tuition Class" and "Spider-Man: Hero Expedition" was between 700 million and 900 million, and in 2018, 4 films had a box office of more than 500 million, and there were also big hits such as "I Am Not a Medicine God" 3 billion+.
In contrast, the first half of this year's summer file can be said to be "all-round dud", and even the color strip house that always won a good box office in the summer file in previous years with a "conscience national comic" directly withdrew the "Rushing Out of the Earth" originally scheduled for Release on July 30.
Comparison of 2018, 2019 and the same period in July 2021 Click to view a larger image
What is even more dashing to the hope of "saving the city" is that due to the impact of the epidemic, a number of movies originally scheduled to be released in the summer, led by "Chosin Lake", have also announced the postponement of the withdrawal of the block.
"Chosin Lake", produced by Bona, was only ten days from the finalization to the withdrawal of the file, and was originally scheduled to be released on the mainland on August 12. The film was once considered a shot in the arm to save the sluggish summer season, with pre-screening media predicting a box office of 4-4.25 billion yuan. Once "Chosin Lake" becomes a hit as expected, it will be able to re-mobilize the audience's enthusiasm for watching the movie and heat up the market, which will also play a role in pulling the box office performance of many fixed mid-waist films, and the box office throughout August is expected to come out of the upward curve. In just over a week, on August 5, Bona announced the postponement of the release of "Chosin Lake" due to the repeated epidemic.
Since then, another live-action children's movie originally scheduled to be released on August 13, "Pipilu and Rusisi's Canned Villain", has also been withdrawn. Released on the same day, "Five Splashing Teenagers" also announced on August 9 that its release was postponed due to the epidemic.
According to the Securities Daily, a senior distribution team leader said that the serious shortage of head content supply caused the current summer slot to be deserted, and there are three deeper reasons: First, last year, due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, many blockbusters were cut off, such as the upcoming "Chosin Lake" was affected by this for nearly a year, and only restarted filming in November last year, and most of the movies released now are still left over from 2019; second, the current cycle of project filing and film filing review is lengthened. As a result, many movies did not have enough time to complete the publicity, such as the upcoming "My Father and Me" released in the National Day file, which was delayed until June this year; third, the cold winter of film investment and financing continued, and many blockbusters were difficult to raise enough shooting funds.
Click to see a larger image
In addition, this year's summer file is all domestic films, and it is difficult to see the figure of "overseas legion". In July 2019, there was "The Lion King" (810 million at the box office) and "Spider-Man: The Hero's Expedition" (730 million at the box office), "Skyscraper Rescue" (600 million at the box office) in 2018, "Despicable Me 3" (990 million at the box office) and "Transformers 5" (350 million at the box office) in 2017.
However, due to the impact of the epidemic this year, most of the Hollywood blockbusters necessary for the summer program have been released online, which has also reduced the supply of domestic cinema films.
If there is no stronger blockbuster set next, "Fury Case" may become the biggest winner of the summer slot at the moment. Maoyan Pro predicts that the film will become the next film to gross more than 1 billion in the summer file.
Some insiders believe that although the summer file fluctuates and the recovery slows down, for the film, the National Day file, the Spring Festival file and other large periods can still be expected. "Chosin Lake", "Mozart in Outer Space", "Fengshen Trilogy" and other head blockbusters are expected to bring a hot film market, and under the support of domestic good films, the film market still has a strong explosive force.
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