Time Editorial Office | Time Lord
For people who love movies.
This year's Spring Festival ended with a box office of 6.761 billion, and the mainland film market will usher in a good start in 2023!
According to the data of Lighthouse Professional Edition, the 2023 Spring Festival file (January 21 Chinese New Year's Eve to January 27, the sixth day of the first day) finally received 6.761 billion box office, which is higher than the 6.04 billion box office of the 2022 Spring Festival file.
In the box office list of the Spring Festival file in previous years, this year is second only to the all-time high box office of 7.843 billion yuan in the 2021 Spring Festival file, becoming the second highest-grossing Spring Festival file in mainland film history.
In addition, this year's Spring Festival not only exceeded last year's box office results, but also 129 million moviegoers were 15 million higher than the same period last year.
The national average ticket price was 52.3 yuan, slightly lower than the average ticket price of 52.8 yuan in the same period last year.
As the first key period after the adjustment of epidemic prevention policies, this year's Spring Festival stall proves the huge potential of the mainland market and the enthusiasm of audiences to watch movies.
I don't know how many movies you went to see this Spring Festival?
The 2023 mainland film market is off to a good start
In this year's Spring Festival, "Manjiang Red" and "The Wandering Earth 2" formed a situation of "two strong leaders".
Directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Shen Teng and Yi Yangqianxi, "Manjiang Hong" won the Spring Festival box office championship with a score of 2.607 billion, greatly refreshing Zhang Yimou's box office record (previously, Zhang Yimou's highest-grossing film in China was "Above the Cliff" with a box office of 1.191 billion).
"The Wandering Earth 2" won the runner-up at the Spring Festival box office with a box office of 2.163 billion.
The two films won a total of 4.77 billion at the box office during the Spring Festival, accounting for 70.55% of the market, becoming the two winners of this year's Spring Festival.
The animated film "Bear Haunted, Accompany Me "Bear Core" won the third place at the Spring Festival box office with a score of 748 million. This is the best result of the "Spring Festival regular" "Bear Haunted" series in the Spring Festival file over the years, and it has also won the best ranking.
"Nameless" (494 million), "Deep Sea" (360 million), and "Exchange Life" (290 million) ranked fourth, fifth or sixth in this year's Spring Festival box office list.
Unlike the situation in recent years, when seven or eight new films were released in the Spring Festival file, "Chinese Table Tennis Jedi Strikes Back" temporarily decided to withdraw from the Spring Festival file, freeing up a lot of market space for the other six films.
This year's Spring Festival file has also shown many new characteristics under the good results.
First of all, the trend of this year's Spring Festival market is unusually stable.
From the first day of the Lunar New Year to the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, the single-day box office of mainland films and television was 1.357 billion, the second day of the first year of the new year was 1.112 billion, the third day of the first year was 1.125 billion, the fourth day of the first year was 1.101 billion, the fifth day of the first year was 1.072 billion, and the sixth day of the new year was 975 million.
Obviously, this year's Spring Festival file is completely hot in the early stage, and the phenomenon of cold in the later stage, especially the box office of the third year of junior high is even higher than that of the second year of junior high school, indicating that the audience's enthusiasm for watching movies has always been high.
Secondly, although the competition for this year's Spring Festival stall is fierce, there are no dark horses, and there are few people left behind.
It can be seen from the single-day box office list that the single-piece box office ranking on the second day of the Lunar New Year is consistent with the final box office ranking of the Spring Festival file, and the market has completed full adjustment in only one day.
This shows that on the one hand, because word-of-mouth spread fast enough in the Internet era, good movies will stand out once they meet the audience.
On the other hand, the overall quality of the new films in this year's Spring Festival is excellent, and there are basically no bad films.
Time Network audience ratings show that the highest evaluation of this year's new film in the Spring Festival file is "The Wandering Earth 2", with a score of 8.4 points.
"Manjiang Hong", "Nameless" and "Deep Sea" also scored 7.9 points, 7.5 points and 7.5 points respectively. Even "Exchange Life", which finished last at the box office, had an audience rating of 6.7 points.
Spring Festival new film time rating
Last year's Spring Festival, the winner "Changjin Lake Water Gate Bridge" Time Network audience score was 7.1 points, the runner-up "This killer is not very calm" Time Network audience score was only 6.6 points, and the score of "Four Seas" was only 6.4 points.
In addition, this year's Spring Festival file is "full of volume", which is the longest average length of the Spring Festival file in previous years.
6 new films were released, except for "Bear Haunted, Bear Core", which is only 96 minutes long for young audiences, the other 5 films are more than 110 minutes long.
Among them, the highest-grossing "Manjiang Hong" and "The Wandering Earth 2" are precisely the two longest films - "The Wandering Earth 2" is 173 minutes long and "Manjiang Hong" is 159 minutes long.
It's still the old saying: good movies, audiences never take long.
Films generally have a longer length, and the direct result is that the number of screenings in this year's Spring Festival file has decreased significantly compared with last year.
In the 2022 Spring Festival, a total of 3,150,200 movies were screened nationwide in 7 days.
In the seven days of this year's Spring Festival, a total of 2,653,100 movies were screened nationwide, nearly 500,000 fewer screenings.
In the face of a significant decrease in the number of screenings, the number of moviegoers rose by 15 million, which means that the average attendance rate has increased significantly.
Behind this data is the rise in audience satisfaction with Spring Festival movies.
According to the "China Film Audience Satisfaction Survey - 2023 Spring Festival Survey" released by China Film News, the audience satisfaction score of this year's Spring Festival was 87.1 points, a year-on-year increase of 1.8 points.
This is the highest score for the Spring Festival schedule since the survey began in 2015, and it ranks third in the satisfaction of all schedules in the historical survey.
Good content is still popular
Looking closely at the quality of the films in this year's Spring Festival file, the overall level is maintained well.
Specific to the single piece, there are also different types, and there are many highlights.
"Manjiang Red" soared into the sky
Zhang Yimou's "Manjiang Red" has won a full house of popularity at the box office and word of mouth.
"Manjiang Hong" does not look like a comedy script in the light or in the dark, but Zhang Yimou uses comedy techniques to intersperse key plots together, and then uses a large number of comedy stars to attract the audience to the theater.
In addition to comedy, more importantly, this film creates a "sense of suspense" very fully.
In the 159-minute film, the good and loyal people endure humiliation and steal life, and the servants follow each other; The cunning calculations of the treacherous and evil people attack each other, which constitutes the "face" of "Manjiang Hong" that touches people's hearts.
But these suspense reversals, in the end, are not just a gorgeous scheming show.
The "lizi" after the emotional sublimation of "Manjiang Hong" is Yue Fei, which is the ancient term called "Manjiang Hong", and it is a national feeling blocked by traitors.
"The Wandering Earth 2" Chinese science fiction starts again
"The Wandering Earth 2" is actually a prequel story.
For most viewers, The Wandering Earth 2 means top-notch special effects and audiovisual effects.
Compared with the cold doomsday scene of the first film, the special effects style of this one is more cool and magnificent, and the stunning "space elevator" scene is quite shocking.
In fact, the film is also interesting in paying tribute to the meme level and the brain-burning sci-fi setting.
The sci-fi setting of the second part, the discussion of the "Digital Life Project", and the relationship between Tu Hengyu and MOSS are even more chilling to study.
The IP of "The Wandering Earth" is very important to Chinese movies.
It makes the audience believe that Chinese filmmakers can also make sci-fi blockbusters that are not inferior to Hollywood, and that they are still telling our own Chinese stories.
For film peers, it has given many creators confidence and encouraged them to create more diverse sci-fi works.
"Bear Haunted, Accompany Me "Bear Core" plays steadily
This year is the "Bear Haunted" series of movies, which will be released for the sixth time in the Spring Festival file.
Over the years, the series of films has jumped from the fifth place at the box office to the third place in this year's Spring Festival file, which is also the best box office result in history.
Among young audiences and "family-friendly" moviegoers, this series has been without more opponents, and its performance is quite stable.
At present, the cumulative box office of the "Bear Haunted" series of animated films has exceeded 5 billion, becoming the first animated film series in China to exceed 5 billion.
"Nameless" has the strongest personal style
In this schedule, the most controversial movie in word of mouth is "Nameless", which ranked fourth at the box office.
In the short comment area of a domestic rating website of the film, there is a prompt at the top of the sentence "The current audience has a large difference of opinion, randomly display some short comments, please refer to it carefully".
In addition to the praise or criticism of the starring Wang Yibo, what has attracted more attention is the narrative and plot of this film.
Director Cheng Er adopts a non-linear narrative to show the complex and changeable struggle situation in turbulent times, and the structure of the film is like a broken puzzle.
This narrative mode comes from the director's personal aesthetics and creative habits, but it also makes ordinary audiences confused about the motives and plot development of some characters, and the threshold for viewing movies is high.
Although "Nameless" stands on the cusp of public opinion, it also proves that a more artistic film, if operated properly, will have a larger box office space.
"Deep Sea" is a new exploration of Chinese animation
The fifth new film in the Spring Festival file is "Deep Sea".
As a new work that took 7 years for director Tian Xiaopeng of "The Return of the Great Sage", this is an original animated film adapted from a complete farewell to mythology.
The breakthrough "particle ink" technology brings extremely brilliant and colorful lens expression to the film.
"The Deep" explores the "meaning of life" from the perspective of a little girl Betelgeuse.
No matter how childlike Tian Xiaopeng uses to depict the underwater world, it cannot hide that this is a story of fighting depression, fear, and pain, pointing directly to the girl's inner world.
The most moving thing is that in the deep sea world where nightmares and hopes are intertwined, there is always a glimmer of stars.
However, because the first half of this story is too long, there is a lack of "visual overload", the theme is relatively niche, and the word of mouth has a polarizing trend, and some people cry and some people feel nothing after reading it.
For the main creator, putting such a "non-family-friendly" animated film in the Spring Festival file is undoubtedly a very bold choice.
For Chinese animated films, whether it is technology or theme, "Deep Sea" has taken a brave step and is worth encouraging.
Time Jun wants to say that although "Nameless" and "Deep Sea" are not box-office leading films, they are both long-term works.
In the "post-Spring Festival file", these two films may attract more fan-type audiences into the theater.
"Exchange Life" is a warm family sketch
At the bottom of this year's Spring Festival box office is "Exchange Life", which was once optimistic that it will become a model of comedy with a small and broad like last year's "This killer is not very calm".
But unfortunately, there is no dark horse in this year's Spring Festival stall.
Under the shell of fantasy comedy, this film is just a warm family sketch, and Zhang Xiaofei failed to continue the box office miracle of "Hello, Li Huanying".
The movie "Chinese Table Tennis Jedi Strikes Back" directed by Deng Chao and Yu Baimei announced that it would be adjusted to a small-scale screening on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year after being changed to the third day of the Lunar New Year, which is basically equivalent to withdrawing from the competition of the Spring Festival file.
Looking forward to this film and opening its own "Jedi Strikes Back" on February 17.
The 2023 Spring Festival file has made a good start for the film market throughout the year.
I hope that in the new year, we can all walk into the theater more often and see more good movies.