The film market has set off a "fixed tide". According to the Lighthouse Professional release calendar, as of February 22, more than 20 films have been officially announced from March to April (excluding May 1st). The film list covers many genres such as romance, comedy, action, science fiction, and animation. Among them, domestic films worth paying attention to include the action comedy "Dragon Horse Spirit", the sci-fi comedy "Space Exploration Editorial Department", the disaster action film "Jedi Pursuit", and the Hong Kong-style crime film "Broken Network". Imported films include DC's latest masterpiece "Thunder Shazam!" released simultaneously around the world! Wrath of the Gods", Japanese director Makoto Shinkai's anime work "Journey to Suzuya", and "Detective Conan", the highest score in the history of Douban in the theatrical version of "Detective Conan: The Undead of Baker Street", will also be released in the mainland.
Chen Jin
"March and April, as the traditional off-season, a number of films have been set, indicating that the market supply side is recovering rapidly." Chen Jin, a data analyst at Lighthouse Professional Edition, told Variety. The resurgence of the film market is largely due to the strong performance of the 2023 Spring Festival file - the 7-day box office is 6.758 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.89%, ranking second in the total box office in the same period in Chinese film history. With the help of many new films in the Spring Festival file, the box office of mainland films will quickly exceed 10 billion yuan in 2023, breaking the record of the fastest annual box office in Chinese film history to exceed 10 billion yuan. In the following March and April, the market heat is still continuing, with new films every week and wonderful every month. Looking forward to the whole year, industry insiders believe that the supply side of 2023 under the inventory backlog is relatively abundant, and the domestic film market is expected to usher in a big supply year.
March: Introduction of film screen
On March 3, the Hong Kong film "Broken Network" assembled by the three "actors" of Kwok Fucheng, Ren Dahua and Lin Jiadong was released in conjunction with the disaster adventure movie "Wasteland" starring Ren Suxi and Li Chen. "Disconnection", produced by Zheng Baorui and directed by Huang Qingxun, tells the story of a programmer played by Kwok Fucheng who is wanted in black and white because he accidentally gets involved in an online financial crime operation, and has to fight criminals to the death in order to protect his family and prove his innocence.
"Wasteland" is written and directed by Zuo Zhiguo, in the movie, the brother and sister played by Ren Suxi and Li Chen go deep into the wilderness to encounter a sandstorm and fall into a desperate situation for survival. The film goes deep into the hinterland of no man's land to shoot live, not only creating a lonely atmosphere for characters in desperate situations, but also conveying the brave spirit of "going down" and showing wild survival skills. "Wasteland" has a small but beautiful uniqueness and avant-garde temperament, known in the industry as the female version of "No Man's Land", quite a dark horse appearance. Another suspense movie "Cloister Pavilion" starring Ren Suxi is about to be released nationwide on March 10.
Dapeng's self-directed and self-starred comedy movie "Keep You Safe" was recently announced to be set for March 10. The film is produced by Chen Zhixi and starring Dapeng, Li Xueqin, Yin Zheng, Wang Xun, Wang Shengdi, etc., telling the story of the middle-aged and downtrodden Wei Pingan who embarked on a road to refute rumors for Han Lu, a customer who met Pingshui, for a promise. "Keep You Safe" as the opening film of the 2022 Hainan Island International Film Festival has gained a good reputation. "The film lineup is strong, and it is the most anticipated commercial genre film in early March." Hu Jianli, secretary general of the China Film Critics Society, told Variety.
Hu Jianli
The distinctive feature of the March film market is the clustering of imported films. "In the off-season, the introduction of a large number of commercial blockbusters can make up for the market vacuum, which has a certain boost and support for the domestic film market." Hu Jianli said. Among them, the DC superhero movie "Thunder Shazam!" released simultaneously with North America on March 17! Wrath of the Gods" has attracted more attention. The film is the second part of a series of works featuring DC superhero Shazam as the protagonist, and the original cast has all returned. In addition to the visual effects elements that superhero movies have always been the mainstay, "Thunder Shazam! Wrath of the Gods also retains the youthful elements and comedy style characteristic of the series.
Hollywood Chinese director Wen Ziren, who has directed word-of-mouth horror films such as "The Conjuring", "Lurking" and "Dead Silence", and the sci-fi thriller "Meghan" brought by him as a producer and screenwriter have also been confirmed to be introduced, and are scheduled to be released on March 17. In the film, the artificial intelligence toy doll "Megan" developed self-awareness in the process of getting along with the girl Katie, and "Megan" gradually lost control in the overprotection of the girl, and then evolved into a killing after a killing, which plunged humans into great danger and fear. The film integrates horror elements and artificial intelligence themes, exploring the boundary between technology and family love. "Meghan" has been released in North America on January 6 and is quite popular with young fans, beating "Avatar 2" at the box office in the first weekend. The production cost of the film is only 12 million US dollars, and the current global box office is 165 million US dollars, which can be called a dark horse movie that "earns a large box office at a small cost" at the beginning of this year.
In addition to Hollywood films, the March Film Market also introduced many excellent works from other countries. Such as the British comedy "Mrs. Harris Breaks into Paris" performed by old drama bones, the popular Japanese animated film "Suzuya Journey", and the classic board game IP adaptation movie "Dungeons & Dragons: Grand Theft of Glory" and so on.
Among them, "Journey to the Bell Buds", directed and written by Makoto Shinkai, is scheduled for March 24. The film tells the story of a female high school student Suzuya who meets the mysterious closed-door teacher Kusanagi on her way to school, and the two embark on a fantastic adventure side by side. The real-time announcement of Lighthouse Professional shows that among the films to be screened from March to April, the number of people who want to see "Lingbud Journey" has exceeded 280,000, ranking second in the same period. Chen Jin introduced that the film's director Shinkai Makoto's previous two works "Your Name. "Children of the Weather" won box office results of 576 million yuan and 288 million yuan respectively in the mainland. still holds the record for the highest grossing Japanese film in China. ""Journey to the Bell Buds" has a Douban score of 8.0 points and was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, and the film is expected to continue the bright performance of Xinhai Makoto films in China."
"Throughout the film market in March, although it is mainly small and medium-cost production, new films are released every week, and there are relatively heavy films in the first, middle and late months. From the perspective of the release plan, it can effectively avoid the market vacuum. Hu Jianli concluded. He also mentioned that this year's Spring Festival films are full of box office stamina, such as Valentine's Day on February 14, "Can't Tear Sadness" and "Can You Don't Leave Me" and other love films, but the top two at the box office that day are still Spring Festival films "Manjiang Red" and "The Wandering Earth 2". After entering March, these Spring Festival movies will continue to exert their residual heat.
April: The film has a variety of subject types
This year's Qingming Festival does not have 3 consecutive days of holidays, so it is impossible to form a scale schedule in the film market. However, around the Qingming Festival, the sci-fi comedy "Space Exploration Editorial Department", the Jackie Chan action comedy "Dragon Horse Spirit" and the disaster action movie "Jedi Pursuit" will meet the audience.
"Space Exploration Editorial Department", released on April 1, directed by Kong Dashan, starring Yang Haoyu and Arya. In the film, Tang Zhijun, editor-in-chief of the editorial board of the science fiction magazine "Space Exploration", has been obsessed with finding extraterrestrial civilizations for decades. One day, he receives an abnormal signal suspected to come from the depths of the universe, so he gathers his fellow "fallen people" and embarks on a journey to find aliens again with the question that puzzles him for the rest of his life...
It is worth mentioning that "Space Exploration Editorial Department" is produced by Guo Fan, the director of the "Wandering Earth" series, and director Kong Dashan is also the director of Group B of "The Wandering Earth 2". Different from the "heavy industry" of "The Wandering Earth", the film focuses on small and beautiful, mixed with absurdity, black humor, road movies and other multiple elements, and has successively won the Pingyao International Film Festival Fei Mu honorary best film, Beijing International Film Festival attention to the future unit of the most watched film and many other honors, Douban score of 8.7 points. "The film tells a sci-fi story in a pseudo-documentary style, and although the production cost is not comparable to the "The Wandering Earth" series, if the word-of-mouth is successfully fermented, it is expected to drive the box office, which is worth paying attention to." Hu Jianli said.
The action comedy movie "Dragon Horse Spirit" starring Jackie Chan, Liu Haocun and Guo Qilin is scheduled for April 7, and the release day coincides with Jackie Chan's birthday. Jackie Chan's character is a down-and-out dragon and tiger martial artist, and many plots related to the dragon and tiger martial artist in the film are in line with Jackie Chan's personal experience. At present, "Dragon Horse Spirit" is the second most popular movie that Taotao wants to see. Chen Jin analyzed that the film is Jackie Chan's second action comedy after 3 years, and it is also another animal-themed film by director Yang Zi since "Pet", after "Pet" was released on New Year's Eve in 2019, and finally received 683 million yuan at the box office. In Hu Jianli's view, Jackie Chan's "Dragon Horse Spirit" did not enter the absolute hot schedule, but chose to release it on a small schedule on weekends, which is expected to drive the market with its own popularity and achieve a box office breakthrough.
Hong Kong director Yau Litao's disaster action movie "Jedi Pursuit" will be released on April 7. Starring Ou Hao, Gu Jiacheng, Yu Haoming and Huang Yao, the film tells the story of the "8077" border armed police special combat team facing the double extreme test of nature and physiology at the end of the 90s of the 20th century, and a group of outlaw drug dealers at any cost. Qiu Litao's directing style is known for its strong rhythm and hardcore graphics, and his previous "Drug Sweep 2: Showdown" and "Bomb Disposal Expert" series performed brilliantly. "Jedi Pursuit" is a typical Qiu Litao-style commercial film, the director added disaster elements to the well-known anti-drug theme and action films, which will enrich the film market in early April.
In mid-April, there was also a Thai movie "A Cup on the Road" produced by Wong Kar-wai, and the romantic comedy "Be'er Like You" starring Jia Bing and Liu Yan was released. In addition, "Detective Conan: The Undead of Baker Street" will be released in Art League franchised theaters from April 4. The film is known as the best theatrical version in the history of "Detective Conan", and the story involves artificial intelligence, sci-fi suspense, intergenerational transmission, educational growth, etc.
Hu Jianli believes that on the whole, March and April are in the weak period of watching movies before May 1st and after the Spring Festival, and the overall box office will not be too high. However, compared with the same period last year, the market recovery signal is obvious, and the total box office will exceed the same period last year. In addition, the off-season in March and April often kills dark horse movies, such as the love movie "Sad Story Than Sadness" released in March 2019, which achieved a box office result of 958 million yuan. "There are generally no head-hit blockbusters released in the spring, and if the finalized film has excellent quality and publicity, it is expected to become a dark horse."
Looking forward to the important schedule in the first half of the year, a number of new domestic films have been finalized one after another, boosting Chinese films in 2023 to higher box office goals and better content quality. For example, there are currently 4 new films in place in the May 1st file: "The King of the Long Sky", "Shocking Rescue", "Life is Unfamiliar" and "Prosecutor Storm", with a variety of film types, covering military action, disaster blockbusters, family comedies, and suspense crimes for all audiences to choose. The film is Chen Sicheng's latest layout of the domestic brain-burning suspense film genre after the "Tang Detective" series and the "Manslaughter" series of movies, continuing the operation mode of "Chen Sicheng producer + cutting-edge young director", which is expected to become the number one seed in the schedule.
According to Lighthouse Professional Edition data, as of February 22, the national box office of movies in 2023 has exceeded 13.55 billion yuan (including pre-sales), the highest in the same period in history. Chen Jin said, "The film market is recovering rapidly, and we look forward to continuing the current box office performance in March and April, smoothly connecting with the May 1st file, and laying a solid foundation for the annual box office to return to 60 billion yuan." In Hu Jianli's view, the ensuing "fixed tide" reflects the heating up of cultural consumption and also reflects the audience's demand for more excellent works. As a result, China's film market may be able to welcome spring and summer and fully recover.