Rhino Entertainment Original
Text|Xiaofu Editor|Park Fang
This year, the first part of the online movie with an account of 20 million was born.
As a member of the online movie Spring Festival file, "Sniper King: Assassination" was launched on the third day of the Lunar New Year this year. As of February 14, the cumulative box office of the film has reached 20.758 million yuan. This makes "Sniper King: Assassination" not only the fastest online movie to reach tens of millions of box office this year, but also the new crown of this year's online movie Spring Festival file and online movie box office annual list.
Compared with the two popular "Weird Tales of Yin and Yang Town" and "Big Snake 3: The Battle of the Dragon and Snake" at the beginning of last year, "Sniper King: Assassination" is written "mediocre" from the title to the genre. In the online movie market, action movies should be one of the most productive types of works on the market, and I am afraid that action movies with "sniper" related themes alone can easily screen out dozens of them. Just two weeks before the film went online, a similar title "Sniper: Reverse War" was broadcast.
But it was this little-known "Sniper King: Assassination" that took the lead in winning the "first place" in this year's online movie market.
Atypical action tablets
The action genre is not new, but it is better than the wide range of audiences.
With a universal genre theme, an online movie is a small part of the success.
It has to be admitted that although the industry has been seeking to upgrade and expand the creative space, today, the action theme is still the most popular theme in the online film market. At the genre level, "King of Snipers: Assassination" already has a certain advantage.
However, the main plus point is the content itself.
"Sniper King: Assassination" is very clear about what the target audience needs, the direct profoundness of online movies, the refreshing excitement of action genres, and a little comedy element needed in the Spring Festival file, we can find it in this film.
Perhaps the most impressive thing for the audience is the characterization. The arrogant and wild female sniper Anna, the agent with a strong sense of justice Artai, and the "outlaw doctor" Dr. Pan, three typical flat characters have produced a very interesting chemical reaction, so that many viewers can watch with relish even if they understand the routine.
The story line of the entire film is simple and crude, and even the reversal is expected, but under the relatively smooth narrative, the audience can quickly immerse themselves in the story without bothering their brains. For an online movie, reaching this level is enough to serve the vast majority of the target audience.
There are also fight scenes that have been praised by many audiences, which are also worthy of praise. With the pompous character design, "Sniper King: Assassination" also adopts an exaggerated visual style in the action design. Using a magnifying glass as a sight to cross the Yang at 100 steps, "parachuting" on a helicopter, converting a wheelchair into a submachine gun launcher, as well as double fencing, shooting with a gun close to the face... The various whimsical action designs make "Sniper King: Assassination" even have a taste of a B-grade film.
The unhurried lens language and martial arts design make these action scenes present in one go, quite refreshing.
However, while affirming this film, it is still difficult to ignore the strong sense of déjà vu in many places. From well-known games to classic animations, "Sniper King: Assassination" is mixed with a large number of other mature work elements, and only stays in a relatively rudimentary rigid stage, resulting in excessive imitation traces in the film.
(The heroine's style in the film is highly similar to the character Ida Wang of "Resident Evil")
Not to mention that budget constraints have led to the level of content presentation of "Sniper King: Assassination", simple dramas, cheap scenes, and online movie labels are still tightly attached to this film.
In part, the novelty of "Sniper King: Assassination" comes from its ability to stitch, or at least choose the right content that the audience loves to watch and integrate it. Therefore, if only placed in the current dimension of the online film industry, "Sniper King: Assassination" has been able to bring enough freshness and entertainment to the audience, and is a relatively mature popcorn movie.
At present, the film's Douban score is 5.5, as a well-positioned entertainment online movie, this score should have met expectations.
In addition, we found that the previous game "Sniper King: Assassination", "Sniper King", also received more than 30 million points after its launch in 2021. However, from a content point of view alone, the two films have little connection other than similar themes.
This IP development logic reminds us of the theatrical movie "Manslaughter" series. Compared with traditional IP development, the creation space of this theme-based IP is more relaxed, and it is not difficult to see from the market performance of the two films in the "King of Sniper" series that this development model is a feasible idea in the process of the growth of self-made IP for online movies.
Patchwork and schedule are indispensable
Of course, in our opinion, the standout of this film is also inseparable from the addition of the external environment.
The first is the importance of spellcasting. The predecessor of "Sniper King: Assassination" "Sniper King" was launched on the iQiyi platform on November 19, 2021, and the cumulative box office exceeded 20 million on February 8 of the following year and 30 million on April 23. In other words, it took two and a half months for the film to break 20 million from its launch to 20 million.
The reason why "Sniper King: Assassination" only took more than half a month, most of the bonus comes from the use of collage to increase the efficiency of going out of the circle. The success of this film also once again verifies the correctness of more and more new films choosing to be put online.
Secondly, the schedule bonus does exist. Most of the films in this year's online movie Spring Festival file are highly consistent with the temperament of the schedule, and "Sniper King: Assassination" can be regarded as one of the few traditional temperament online movies. In other times, the genre of this film can be called mediocre, but it looks special in this year's Spring Festival.
This brings more possibilities for differentiated competition for the film. On the other hand, a large number of absurd comedy elements incorporated into this film can actually fully resonate with the Spring Festival file, and its fit still exists.
Therefore, it can be seen that after the release of the film, the popularity advantage on the video platform is significant, until February 13, "Sniper King: Assassination" still ranked third in the Tencent video platform online movie hit list, at this time, the film has been online for more than half a month.
This also proves from the side that rationalizing the arrangement according to the type of film and schedule temperament can improve the ability of the film to share accounts to a certain extent.
In addition, the high popularity of this film can also be seen on the short video platform. On the Douyin and Kuaishou platforms, the topic of "Sniper King: Assassination" is more popular than many films such as "Northeast Farewell to the Heavenly Group 2" and "Paper Man Returns to the Soul" in the same period, which is inseparable from the film's attention to short video marketing, and on the other hand, it is attributed to the fact that the content of the film hits the preferences of short video users.
epilogue
While practitioners are busy exploring new themes to grow, the emergence of "Sniper King: Assassination" tells us that traditional themes can also shine with new power.
The standout of this film also makes us feel the tangible improvement of the overall level of the industry. From project development to distribution and operation, all operational links tend to mature and standardize, which brings more stable quality control to the project, which in turn brings more practical box office numbers.
And, we still hope that the creators can stop there.
Incorporating good experience doesn't mean copying and piecing it together, even if it's already well done. Rubbing IP, shooting IP, creating IP, online movies have tenaciously gone through three stages, and we hope that online movies can go further.