Rhino Entertainment Original
Text| Xiaofu Editor| Park Fang
Looking at the history of Chinese film, there may not be many films with such a "rich" experience as "Chinese Ping Pong: Jedi Strikes Back" (hereinafter referred to as "Chinese Table Tennis").
In a very short period of time, "Chinese Table Tennis" encountered most of the variables that may be encountered in the release of a theatrical movie. A single movie, but let us feel that we have seen the strange phenomenon of the entire Chinese film market.
A collection of "market weirdness"
What exactly did "Chinese Table Tennis" encounter?
Looking back at the film, from the beginning of the official announcement to the last finalization, it can be said that it has experienced nine twists and eighteen bends in the middle.
This story of "Chinese Table Tennis" is also divided into three stages.
In the first stage, in early September last year, a batch of new domestic films began to release materials one after another, and at the same time, news began to spread on the Internet that these films are expected to enter the National Day file. "Chinese Table Tennis" is also one of the films, but in the end, the film fell silent, leaving a place of speculation.
In the second stage, at the end of last year, with the liberalization of relevant policies, the market gradually thawed, and the much-anticipated 2023 Spring Festival file was also put on the agenda. Like several other new films for the Spring Festival, "Chinese Table Tennis" restarted its publicity work at the end of last year, and was renamed "Chinese Table Tennis Jedi Strikes Back" at the beginning of this year, announcing that it would be set for New Year's Day. Although the official announcement was late at that time, it did not open a significant gap with other films of the same period.
Since then, the publicity of "Chinese Table Tennis" has gradually increased, and it is even the first batch of films in the same schedule to open the industry's trial screening and watch films. It should be known that in recent years, in order to reduce the risk as much as possible, it is a routine operation for each film party not to watch the film in advance. If it were not for the strong enough confidence in the quality of the film, the film party would not dare to rashly bet on the risk of word of mouth leakage.
However, all these actions suddenly stopped after the Shanghai Pilot Screening. This unexpected pause directly led to "Chinese Table Tennis" not being able to catch up with the collective pre-sale rhythm of the Spring Festival file, and when it returned again, its content was fine-tuned, and the schedule was postponed to the third day of the Lunar New Year.
The third stage is actually the most "helpless" stage of "Chinese Table Tennis".
Due to the unexpected backwardness of the early rhythm, it is difficult for "China Table Tennis" to regain its advantages after the announcement and pre-sale after the emergency re-setting. At that time, the market market had been divided up by other films, losing the same running line, and "Chinese Ping-Pong", which rejoined the war, was unable to resist the fierce competition of the Spring Festival file, so it had to announce its withdrawal from the Spring Festival file and move to February 17.
Overall, the encounter of "Chinese Table Tennis" in this small period of half a year, from publicity, finalization to modification, re-filing, pre-sale, release, and re-filing, every step of this film seems to be half a beat behind. There are only a handful of films in the industry that can encounter so many changes, and "Chinese Table Tennis" always encounters changes at the most critical moments.
Therefore, in the eyes of Rhino Jun, "Chinese Table Tennis" missed the Spring Festival file, which is reasonable and understandable.
But compared to other films that have suffered changes, "Chinese Ping-Pong" is rescheduled so quickly, but it seems even more uncommon.
Taking over the baton and setting the file, it is the market that has changed
Objectively speaking, in this industry, it is difficult to say that it is rare that it cannot be released as planned due to some force majeure factors.
Especially in the past three years of the epidemic, practitioners and audiences have regarded the sudden appearance and sudden departure of movies as "commonplace". A large part of this is the cause of the epidemic, which may lead to the sudden airborne landing of the film, sudden change, and sudden withdrawal. There are also some factors other than the epidemic, which have led to project type restrictions in some schedules, as well as more common problems of difficulty in setting files and introduction.
Especially sports films like "Chinese Table Tennis" determine from the genre level that the stressors it encounters in the release process must be multifaceted. A similar encounter has already happened to "Winning the Championship" a few years ago.
It is easy to leave and difficult to come back, which is also the consensus in the industry.
First, the film market is constantly changing, whether it is actively changing files before release or resetting files after withdrawal, after losing the first target schedule, the film will face more pressure from the market.
On the one hand, this is because the right to set the file was not in the hands of the film party for a long time before, and it was easy to withdraw the file, but it was difficult to re-set the file. For example, many films withdrawn before screening, the influencing factors behind them may far exceed the market level;
On the other hand, even if the film party withdraws the right to choose the schedule, many potential rival films may have already laid out release plans in advance and lurk in future schedules. The market is always cruel and no one will wait for you.
Second, the budget is burning, and no film wants to change it three times or twice. Repeated fixation and repeated publicity are accompanied by not only the consumption of pre-screening heat, but also a more severe cost input test. It can be said that the longer the battle line is drawn, the greater the financial pressure on the film.
If under ideal conditions, I believe that all rescheduled films hope to be able to revive with full blood under the premise of minimum loss, and rely on their own judgment to choose the most perfect new release date. And this schedule, naturally, the sooner the better.
So now look back at "Chinese Table Tennis", after many variables, it can still quickly return to the market to arrange for release. Rhino Jun believes that it may be difficult to achieve this result by the film's own efforts.
The market is warming up, and everything is sunning
We can see the clue in many details.
First of all, the efficiency of several changes, name changes and even modification of content of the film is extremely high, which inevitably requires the close cooperation of multiple links in the industry.
However, as we all know, when it comes to finalization, file modification, and content approval, many decisions have not only stayed in the market dimension. In particular, "Chinese Table Tennis" also selected the most competitive Spring Festival stall of the year, with a seven-day public holiday sandwiched in between, and many changes and modifications had to be completed in a very limited time. There is no doubt that this is a battle that cannot be dealt with by the film side alone.
What is even more "paradoxical" is that on February 1, at the end of the fierce Spring Festival stall, six Spring Festival films rarely posted together to thank the audience, and collectively called "Chinese Table Tennis" that missed the starting line of the Spring Festival stall. After encountering an unprecedented public opinion war during this year's Spring Festival, the atmosphere of Internet topics was stirred up by the fan circle, so it is very rare for all members to speak out at the same time.
In these words, we not only read the signal of "unity" of domestic films, but also can't help but be more curious about how hard the "quality card" of this film that can receive the blessing of six films is.
From a long perspective, this has long been not a matter of "Chinese Table Tennis". The positive box office figures and the increasing number of moviegoers in the Spring Festival file, the return of the introduction of blockbusters, the lengthening and orderliness of the fixed cycle... Recently, we have seen too much good news, which indicates the recovery of the entire Chinese film industry and market.
And all this is to lay a positive foundation for "Chinese Table Tennis" to return to its place as soon as possible. From the inside out, it invisibly "escorted" this film.
Therefore, although "Chinese Table Tennis" missed the Spring Festival file and was able to return half a month late, it still stepped firmly on the recovery rhythm of the film market. Since the Spring Festival, the warmth of the market has gradually increased, and the schedule on February 17 is not early or late. And "Chinese Table Tennis" was selected to open on February 14, which can fully absorb the bonus of watching movies during the special schedule of Valentine's Day.
Three years on, it's time for the Chinese film market to recover.
The six films of the Spring Festival file serve as the vanguard, "Chinese Table Tennis" fired the second shot, as more and more fresh blood enters the market, all production links are carried out in an orderly manner, domestic films, imported films, various types and volumes of projects bloom, we predict that in this "spring file", there will be more films to warm up the film market together.
This warm spring is long overdue.