Text | Ling Hu Boguang
A few days have passed since the 2023 Spring Festival, and the box office controversy of the head movie is "The Wandering Earth 2" and "Manjiang Red", which has formed a public opinion event from inside the play to outside the play. Although this matter is very noisy, at present, a platform predicts that the total box office of "Ball 2" is 3.78 billion, while "Manjiang Red" is 4.56 billion.
This box office will fluctuate over time, but for now, the total box office of "Ball 2" has lost 700 million. But it doesn't matter, I believe that as long as you have seen the two movies, it is very clear that although "Ball 2" lost 700 million at the box office, its influence on Chinese films may only exceed 70 years.
Why do netizens care so much about the box office loss of "Ball 2", because it really determines the future of Chinese films.
"Manjiang Red" and "The Wandering Earth 2" box office battle? Why is there so much controversy
The analysis on the Internet is also overwhelming, some are serious analysis and some are fishing in troubled waters, the most important thing is that the two films have their own advantages, "Manjiang Red" is really not a bad film, "The Wandering Earth 2" is indeed too complicated. This data analysis is very complicated, and I am also worried that a lawyer's letter may be sent there.
This look at the box office is very simple, the overall audience of the Spring Festival file is unchanged, the time of the holiday is also unchanged, in the case of movie ticket prices are not too big gap, it mainly looks at the box office on the first day and the feedback of the audience's word of mouth, resulting in the theater to choose the film on the second day.
From this point of view, the two films appeared strangely on the next day, probably three points.
First, "Ball 2" obviously led "Manjiang Red" by 70 million at the box office on the first day, but the arrangement of films on the second day of "Ball 2" was sharply reduced, which is indeed somewhat out of line with the laws of the market, and it makes no sense that the box office won and lowered the ranking, right.
The word-of-mouth fermentation of Chinese films is all on the first day, you are screened before, the media is not reliable to watch the film, firstly, the number of people is too small to form a scale, and secondly, the industry cannot blow each other out of the circle. On the first day, as the audience watched the movie in large numbers, the film was first watched | the actors, fans, and young audiences, and they also loved to comment on the Internet.
The two movies have similar reputations, when "Ball 2" was obviously ahead at the box office, as a result, the movie theater "Manjiang Hong" was ranked higher in the next few days, and many netizens began to question all kinds of midnight stadiums, which is the fundamental reason why "Manjiang Hong" suddenly counterattacked "Ball 2" at the box office.
This is the most suspicious and controversial place among netizens, and it is difficult to find out without formal force intervention.
Second, the scale of netizens began to question is still small, and the two films were scored on a certain platform at the same time, but "Man" and "Nameless" have been obviously cared for, and more than a certain short review and film review are limited, even less than "Nameless".
This led to the first wave of doubts not fermenting out of the circle, not to mention that the quality of "Manjiang Red" itself is indeed not bad. Because this "Manjiang Red" was ranked and box office higher in the second and third days. The public does not care about these things, see that the box office is good, the arrangement is high (you can only watch this), not to mention the promotion of Shen Teng and comedy.
So on the fourth day, the total box office of "Manjiang Red" surpassed "Ball 2" in one fell swoop, but it intensified in public opinion.
The popularity of "Ball 2" in online public opinion, the degree of discussion is more than ten times stronger than "Man", and even forms a public opinion trend from top to bottom, from inside to outside. If in previous years, the Spring Festival file like "Li Huanying" counterattacked "Tang Detective 3", "Red Sea Walker" and "Tang Detective 2" and "Monster Hunt 2", the box office would have already counterattacked.
"Ball 2" and "Manjiang Red" no matter how huge the controversy in the public opinion field is, but the box office is really unable to counterattack, and the gap has only begun to narrow after the end of the Spring Festival in the past few days.
The most important thing is the third point, the quality of "Manjiang Hong" is not so bad, and it can even be said to be an excellent domestic commercial entertainment film. Director Zhang Yimou decided that the film scheduling and rhythm should be appropriate, and Shen Teng, the Chinese comedy superstar who did not lose to Wu Jing, guaranteed the laughs, and then the film never stopped suspenseful reversal to hang the audience's appetite, to the sublimation of national righteousness at the end.
Finally, the four characters and some forces behind it for the pre-sale of the movie, the control and evaluation after the release, the lock, after winning at the box office. On the fourth and fifth days, all kinds of smears did not understand what was at home, slept for three hours, etc., and the network controversy caused by this became chaotic later, and it was difficult to distinguish between true and false.
Because "Ball 2" is indeed 3 hours long, it is true that the amount of information is too high and there are certain difficulties in understanding.
This kind of reason has led to the phenomenon that the current Internet public opinion is one-sided, but the box office of the two movies has never been able to catch up. However, from the perspective of "Ball 2" surrounding more than 100 million and various activities, even if "Ball 2" loses at the box office, the value of this IP industry may have just begun.
A Chinese science fiction epic, one a suspense sketch? Why netizens "don't want to lose"
The first reason is that in the first Spring Festival stall of the "post-epidemic era", Chinese audiences, especially young audiences who pay attention to pop culture, do not want Chinese pop culture to continue like this.
"Ball 2" because of its huge cost (1.1 billion on the Internet, but I speculate that the cost is 600 million plus publicity is up to 7800 million), but its profit line is also relatively high. "Manjiang Red" is rumored to be 500 million, and this film is typical of big directors + big stars + top traffic. It's easy to see where the production fee is spent, and the film obviously has a gambling agreement, which leads some people to come up with a box office that is far beyond the profit line.
"Ball 2" has the blessing of the previous work and its own excellent quality, under normal circumstances, it will most likely copy the results of four years ago, and the Spring Festival file will eat all. This is unacceptable to "Manjiang Hong", so they have worked hard from many aspects, engaged in a lot of extreme operations, and must be fast and ruthless, I think it can compete with the human limit operation of the lunar crisis in "Ball 2".
Since it is a ruthless operation, how can it not be noticed? Not to be eaten back?
First, the current young audience is not easy to fool, and second, the quality of "Ball 2" and the recent drama version of "The Three-Body Problem" are excellent, attracting the tide of sci-fi fans, this group is generally young, sharp-brained, strong combat effectiveness, the intensity of this wave of public opinion on the Internet may not be expected by "Manjiang Red".
You see the crowdfunding goal of 100,000 around "Ball 2", a month, and the result exceeded 100 million in just one week, scared the company to come out and quickly ended (still just a platform), you see how high the spending power of these sci-fi fans and young people is, and they are all groups that can speak on the Internet and have a big voice.
These groups also united all young people except fans because of last year's four-character incident.
"Manjiang Red" "dealt with" the public who would be admitted to the cinema by a festive poster, a few earthy slogans, a few rebate red envelopes, and well-known stars. Chinese movies were not without false propaganda, water army, criticism, box office theft, and ghost fields before, but why are netizens so real this time?
If "Manjiang Hong" encounters not "Ball 2", but "Tang Detective 3" with poor reputation quality, it may have passed, and no one will question who let your movie mud in the same period can't support the wall. You're right, Nameless.
The post-epidemic era is really different, the capital carnival that originally made money is at the ebb tide, and young audiences are very disgusted with this set, and it is very dazzling when you catch up to show your face. Now the opponents are different, one is a suspense comedy entertainment film circling around the compound, and the other is a Chinese science fiction epic that has only appeared in 20 years.
These young audiences have long been unbearable for this kind of low-cost filming, high-cost star + publicity, reuse of traffic and other means to manipulate the market to make money, otherwise last year's four-character incident would not have been so big. In the past, the audience did not have a choice, but now with the Chinese science fiction epic, how will you choose?
"The Wandering Earth 2" lost at the box office, but word of mouth won? Much more than that
The second reason is that the audience is afraid that if "The Wandering Earth 2" loses at the box office, the Chinese epic film will lose, and the conscience of Chinese films will lose. The future is all films like "Manjiang Hong", and it can also be extended to the capital, traffic, social injustice and so on that netizens attack later.
I don't know if you have found that the popular culture touted by young people in recent years is similar to "Ball 2", but the theme and cultural core are different. That is to use the advanced industrialization of the new era, to package Chinese culture, to establish its own modern pop culture system, stand up and go out again.
This ancient work, like the Twelve Hours of Chang'an, is increasingly demanding the restoration of the Tao. The game "Black Myth Wukong" and "A Hundred Faces and Thousands of Faces" are similar, and then the animated version of the animated "Three-Body Problem" is scolded, "Chinese Wonder Tan" is praised and so on.
Therefore, whether it is "The Wandering Earth" or "Black Myth Wukong" and "Chinese Wonder", young audiences support them to prove one thing, serious research technology, serious work can make money. Not only can you make money, but you can also make a lot of money!
Because of history, China has been seriously beaten backward in modern times, and there is no need to go back to the history after the reform. This has led some of us, especially cultural workers, to not get rid of two kinds of thinking:
The first is landlord thinking, although the land is now publicly owned and there are no landlords, but they always want to become new landlords in all walks of life. When you enter his territory, you have to give him money, and when you make money, you do not invest in research and development, but try to "open up land" in various ways and try to get more "land". Or get the money in hand and "retire after success".
The second is to think with it, not to create things by themselves, to think about taking foreigners' all day, to do business, not to think about their own research and development, either to pick up the leaks of national enterprises, or to miss the experience of foreign enterprises. In the end, it is packaged and transformed into a new force, and then make money.
This kind of thinking is reflected in cultural consciousness in the theory of foreign countries, cultural aesthetics is that the other party is good and you can't, and there are more exaggerations.
They never want that if I can establish a mature and healthy cultural industry industrial chain, not only can I make money, but also how many Chinese can live better in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, they will never think that these can not only make a lot of money, but also be famous in history. "The Wandering Earth", which has been done, "Genshin" proves that you can indeed earn money by doing things seriously, not only can you earn Chinese money, but also earn foreigners' money, not only earn more than being a landlord, you can also stand up dignified.
The above is a bit abstract and a little too macroscopic, but I'm sure you know it's not an exaggeration.
Chinese films can't go out because of platforms and other reasons, so they can't make much money in foreign countries. But the restrictions of the game platform are not so serious, and the most successful game outside China is still "Genshin", with a turnover of 37.752 billion in 2022. To tell a joke, the "Korean Wave" touted by Chinese netizens is popular all over the world, but in fact, overseas income is comparable to "Genshin".
Why do netizens care so much about the box office of "The Wandering Earth 2"? We really "have enough"
Finally, even if you don't talk about the macro and only return to the movie, let's think about how terrifying it will be if in the future "Manjiang Red" such a big director + well-known actors guarantee word of mouth + traffic stars to raise the publicity of the farcical movie. This is exactly the phenomenon that everyone fears that bad money drives out good money.
In the future, everyone will go to the cinema to watch sketches, who will pay attention to the industrialization of Chinese science fiction films? With Chaplin's time cameras, it should be possible to shoot "Manjiang Red", but definitely not "The Wandering Earth", these young audiences know best what films can go to the world and compete with foreign films.
This has been elevated to macro narratives such as cultural export, and everyone knows which film symbolizes the cultural values of domestic audiences at the level of film culture after the improvement of China's industrial science, and can even go abroad. A certain media in the United States is scolding "Ball 2", why not scold "Manjiang Red", right!
Finally, some people may think that "The Wandering Earth 2" has influenced the title party of Chinese movies for 70 years.
From the perspective of world film history, Guo Fan's "The Wandering Earth" series is to Chinese films and China's electrical industry, almost the same as George Lucas's "Star Wars" is to American films and the American film industry.
"Star Wars 1" was released in 1977, 46 years is close to 50 years, you look at the popularity of various derivative works of "Star Wars" in the United States and the world, there is no problem in continuing for 20 years or even more. "Ball 2" plus the future "Ball 3" will not collapse, and its influence on Chinese movies and pop culture may be more than 70 years.