Produced | Tiger Sniff Commercial Consumer Group
The author | Miao Zhengqing
The title image | Visual China
"Dinosaurs" rode the dust in the summer box office war.
As of June 25, "Jurassic World 3", which has been in theaters for 16 days, has a box office of 709 million yuan, and among all the films that have been released in the summer program, its box office is higher than that of 2 to 4 box offices combined.
In stark contrast to Jurassic World 3, Fantastic Beasts: The Mystery of Dumbledore, which grossed 192 million, less than a third of Jurassic World 3.
The box office of "Jurassic World 3" is obviously not derived from word of mouth. On Douban, its rating is only 6.3, the lowest score for a Jurassic World IP series movie. But word of mouth does not affect the dinosaurs to make money, on the day of the release on June 10, "Jurassic World 3" showed an amazing gold attraction: the first day of the box office reached 102 million yuan.
The well-known "Jurassic World 3" became the first "king of the box office" in the summer program.
Dinosaurs dwarf a large number of overseas IPs. In 13 months since the release of "Fast and Furious 9" in China in May 2021, "Jurassic World 3" is the only imported film that has grossed more than 100 million yuan on the first day. In the current summer slot, the overseas IP that lost to the empty hands are also famous people: Harry Potter, Doraemon, Downton Abbey, elf hostel.
Dinosaur fever also appeared in the field of toys and foreign trade.
New consumer analyst Liu Chang found that dinosaur-related toys not only have a stable consumption base disk, but also showed a heating trend since the epidemic, and during the release of "Jurassic World 3", dinosaur toys on the e-commerce platform have increased significantly.
Information from Alibaba shows that simulated dinosaur products from Zigong and other places have been continuously exported to South America and other markets since 2019, and the "dinosaur" foreign trade fever has a strengthening trend after the epidemic. In Mexico, Brazil and other places, the sales growth rate of dinosaur toys and simulated dinosaurs originating from China is the most obvious.
The "golden lord" of dinosaurs is after 85?
People born in the decade from 1985 to 1995 are considered to be the main force in dinosaur consumption.
Two key factors have made this generation deeply loved dinosaurs. In 1993, Spielberg's Jurassic Park was released, the first dinosaur movie. Although this film was not officially introduced into China, in the "video halls" and "video tape rental stores" in Beijing, Shanghai and other places at that time, "Jurassic Park" was the most sought-after blockbuster.
"Jurassic Park" set off a dinosaur fever that continues to this day
Unlike many monster IP films at that time, "Jurassic Park" matched more peripheral products at the same time. A key backdrop is that Jurassic Park was seen as a big gamble by Universal Pictures, which spent $2 million to acquire the rights to the Jurassic Park novel — already a sky-high copyright in Hollywood at the time.
In order to return the cost, Universal Pictures began to contact major toy companies at the same time as the film was produced, and at first some toy companies were cautious, but when the movie was supplied, the relevant dinosaur toys on the market were sold out within a month - which made the toy companies realize that "missed the opportunity", so in the next few years, there was a wave of "dinosaur toy fever" in the North American toy circle.
These dinosaur toys were shipped to the Chinese market along with "videotapes". A person who is now a start-up play company and engaged in toy foreign trade in the 90s revealed that in the 90s, "dinosaur toys" were once the "hard currency" of the toy circle. Traders with bulk dinosaur toys in their hands can "walk sideways" in the circle. If this trader can get the official "Jurassic" toy directly from North America, it is even more regarded as "the road is very hard". In Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, there are many people engaged in dinosaur toy takeaway, and a large part of these people later "evolved" into toy foundry owners, toy brand CEOs, and subsequent founders of Tide Play companies.
Dinosaur toys and simulated dinosaurs began to boom in the 1990s, and China has become the most important producer of simulated dinosaurs
The dinosaur fever in the domestic market did not end in 1993. In 1995, a second wave of dinosaur fever arose in the country. At that time, Guangming Daily imported copyright from overseas and translated the first edition of a large set of popular science books "Dinosaurs". In Beijing, the Xinhua Bookstore on Wangfujing Street once had a "long queue at night" because of this set of books.
Elementary school students in Beijing at the time were proud to be able to bring the book "Dinosaurs" to the class. Those boys who can bring a copy of "Dinosaurs" are more likely to be surrounded by other students in the class (especially girls) during the lunch break: holding the "Dinosaurs" book and talking about dinosaurs to girls is the most popular "trend" at that time. (Of course, it's best to have dinosaur motifs on your clothes as well)
Another consequence of the shortage of "Dinosaur" books is that imitations are emerging in an endless stream: in the book wholesale market, there are nearly a hundred kinds of popular science books that imitate "Dinosaurs", and because the original "Dinosaurs" is expensive, some children with limited pocket money will buy "imitations". The dinosaur fever not only affected pirated books, but also affected the anime and games of the time.
In 1993, along with Jurassic Park, CAPCOM launched the blockbuster Dinosaur Kombat. In the game hall, this dinosaur-themed game once became the "arcade heat king" at that time. At that time, students would eat less snacks or even no lunch in order to go to the arcade to play a few dinosaur kombats.
Dinosaur Kombat is one of the most popular "dinosaur" games of the 90s, image source: screenshot of the game
Under the influence of movies, books, and games, the early 90s became a dinosaur boom. For people born in 1985-1995, dinosaurs were a key role in their childhood. When this generation grew up, the traces of the dinosaurs left on them still existed and continued to evolve into a strong desire to consume.
In 2013, the 3D version of Jurassic Park was released in China, which was a reset version of "Jurassic Park" in 1993.
Beyond many people's imagination, the movie exploded, when the total box office of "Jurassic Park 3D" reached 349 million yuan, more than many new films. The release of the movie has brought a wave of dinosaur consumption fever, in 2013 ~ 2015 dinosaur-themed cafes, restaurants emerge in an endless stream, dinosaur series toys began to increase in sales on the Tao e-commerce.
It is worth noting that people born in 1985-1995 were in the "18-28 years old" in 2013, and this age group is generally regarded as a key cycle of movie consumption, food consumption, and toy consumption. And in 2022, people born in 1985-1995 have entered the "27-37-year-old", and for many people born in 1985-1990, they have become parents: and this is becoming the core factor of a new wave of dinosaur consumption fever - when the generation that likes dinosaurs the most begins to become parents, their interests begin to affect children.
Dinosaur opponents are left with only Ultraman?
Fantastic Beasts: The Mystery of Dumbledore has a Douban score of just 5.9. A veteran Harry Potter enthusiast said that the reason why Fantastic Beasts: The Mystery of Dumbledore hit the streets was "poor plot".
But the box office hit the street, does not affect Harry Potter to continue to make money. In the Chinese hipster play circle, Harry Potter is one of the most important IP in the past 3 years: Bubble Mart and 52TOYS have Harry Potter IP products. And toy big brother Lego regards Harry Potter as the core.
Harry Potter is one of the ip with the highest repurchase rate in the tide play circle
The head of product development at Youchao Play told Tiger Sniff in April that Harry Potter is the core IP they will focus on developing in 2022. "The tide play repurchase rate of Harry Potter IP fans is very high, and it can even be said that the tide play circle is the highest."
Compared with Harry Potter, dinosaur IP has different characteristics: in the entire dinosaur IP world, people are more willing to remember and buy "dinosaur varieties", and there are tens of thousands of toys around a single dinosaur breed, which means that "IP" is extremely decentralized.
One of the benefits of decentralization is that dinosaurs broke through the consumer circle: it could penetrate into more sinking places, whether it is the old city of Shanghai or the outskirts of a five-tier small city, the term "T-Rex" is almost a "lingua franca". But Harry Potter is not.
From 2015 to 2016, relevant people from Huayi Brothers said that they had done market research and found that many international super IPs had a significant decline in market popularity in the third line and deeper. A metaphor often mentioned by the Huayi brothers at that time was: In the sinking city, Wang Baoqiang was more effective than Pitt.
A well-known hipster play company has tried to sell Harry Potter blind boxes to third- and fourth-tier cities in the northwest, and found that in these places, the "consumer buying popularity" of related products has fallen by more than 70% compared with Xi'an.
In a deeper world, the one with the same popularity as the dinosaurs is Ultraman. In November, the founder of a tide play company told Tiger Sniff that Ultraman and Dinosaur had a very similar IP penetration path — officially introduced to China in the 1990s. (In 1993, "Cosmic Hero Ultraman" was officially introduced to the Chinese market by Shanghai Oriental Television) The people born from 1985 to 1995 have become the most far-reaching generation of Ultraman. Compared to dinosaurs, Ultraman had another advantage: it was broadcast through television stations (the traffic centralized port at the time), and quickly affected a wider circle.
You may not be able to name the Ultraman brothers, but you probably know "Ultraman"
It is worth noting the promotion path of Ultraman's peripheral products. Similar to the dinosaur boom in the North American market in the 1990s, Ultraman has quickly become a key IP in the toy industry since it appeared in Japan in the 1960s. After Ultraman was officially introduced to China in the 1990s, China's toy foreign trade practitioners quickly docked relevant resources and regarded Ultraman Toys as a "printing machine".
Compared with dinosaurs and Ultraman, Harry Potter came late and toys appeared slowly: the first official Harry Potter movie was not released until 2001, and Harry Potter had an extremely complex "copyright license" to license toys and games more streamlined and standardized. (In North America, Europe and other places, Harry Potter's copyright protection is better than that of the dinosaurs in the early years) But the explosive "proliferation" of content IP and toy IP often leverages the "gray area" - in the years of the rise of dinosaurs and Ultraman, a simpler copyright cooperation model and authorization mechanism have allowed the corresponding IP to expand to more places more rapidly.
But Harry Potter also has advantages that dinosaurs and Ultraman can't replace, such as high repurchase attributes. In the case of the core IP movie for many years without a new work, Harry Potter's fan base is still huge. Cultural researchers who have studied the three major IPs of Harry Potter, Twilight And Narnia Legend said that Harry Potter's user base is mostly distributed in first- and second-tier cities, with higher education and strong purchasing power. In a sense, compared with dinosaurs and Ultraman, Harry Potter has a stronger "high customer unit price" attribute.
At present, for the tide play and film and television circles in 2022, how to find a strong IP under the "weak consumption" situation is the key. During the 618 period, the tide play circle did not explode, and in the absence of "retaliatory consumption", it is the top priority of the tide play company to find a more vital IP as soon as possible.
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