Five of the top ten Chinese box office lists in North America are kung fu films, can domestic films still be exported?

The word "Kung Fu" is the most famous and currently the only signature of Chinese films in the world.

Among the top ten Chinese films in North America box office (only co-productions and mainland films), five are kung fu films.

2000's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" grossed $128 million, and 2002's "Heroes" grossed $53.71 million.

2008's "King of Kung Fu" grossed $52.07 million, 2006's "Huo Yuanjia" grossed $24.63 million, and 2013's "Generation Grandmaster" grossed $6.59 million.

These five films ranked first, second, third, sixth and ninth respectively, and the rest were "The Great Wall", "The Last Emperor", "We Were Born in China", "Rock Tibetan Mastiff" and "The Wandering Earth".

Kung fu films are already thin for Chinese films now, and it is difficult to make a comeback.

After "The King of Kung Fu", the only kung fu films that can make a difference in the North American film market are Donnie Yen's "Ip Man 3" and "Ip Man 4", but the release of "Ip Man 4" also marked the complete end of Chinese kung fu films.

Back then, relying on Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Ang Lee, Chow Yun-fat, Wong Kar-wai, Donnie Yen, these influential Chinese actors and directors in North America could also drive part of the box office.

But now, they are all old, the genre of kung fu films is equivalent to nothing, domestic films want to break into North America again, they have to study the other five movies in the top ten and summarize the rules from them.

What is the reason why "The Great Wall" can win tens of millions of dollars at the box office in North America?

Zhang Yimou's influence? Matt Damon's anti-box office ability? Chinese all-star cast? Types of stories to fight monsters? A picture of Chinese style?

"The Great Wall" relies on a strong distribution system, released in the first week in 150 countries around the world, and opened in 3,325 theaters in North America, an achievement that even "The King of Kung Fu", which gathered Jackie Chan and Jet Li that year.

On the other hand, "The Wandering Earth 2" has a much better reputation than "The Great Wall".

With a score of more than eight points on IMDb, it has been released for more than 40 days, and the rating has not fluctuated much, remaining at 7.9 points, but "The Wandering Earth 2" only opened in 166 theaters in North America.

And this is the largest Chinese film in North America in the past five years, but not even a fraction of "The Great Wall", let alone "Nameless", which has only been released in 62 theaters.

The overseas distribution of Chinese films is basically based on the company Well Go USA.

It's just that most of the theaters released are concentrated in places where Chinese gather more, with limited screenings, and the scheduling rate and release time are almost not picked, and I dare not think about any holidays and prime time.

Coupled with the xenophobic thinking in North America, it is relatively difficult for foreign language films to get a piece of the pie here, after all, when "Doraemon" is broadcast in the United States, they have to change their chopsticks to knives and forks to prevent cultural invasion.

It can be seen that the first step for domestic films to go out is to build a distribution system.

Just like the leftist film companies Phoenix, Great Wall and Xinlian in Hong Kong back then, they have their own theaters that they can control in Hong Kong.

Or like Jiahe in the glory period, there is a theater line that cooperates with North America, which can ensure the large-scale release of new films as soon as they come out.

It would be better if Shaw had its own Shaw cinema line in Southeast Asia, otherwise no matter how good the movie, the audience has nowhere to watch, and it is difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice.

Why is "The Last Emperor" sought after by North American audiences?

In fact, strictly speaking, "The Last Emperor" is not a Chinese-language film in the traditional sense, the production team is foreign, the dialogue is all English, but China participates in the cooperation, that's all.

This way of co-production can also be used as a way for domestic films to go out, but the current ideology, "The Last Emperor" style cooperation is no longer possible.

Moreover, the quality of "The Last Emperor" cannot be filmed by the current director.

The cinematography is full of intention, the picture is full of symbols, the soundtrack is full of spirit, the editing is changeable, and the script is epic.

Therefore, for the current Chinese films that want to go out, the reference value of "The Last Emperor" is not great, and there is no talent to support "The Last Emperor".

The documentary "We Were Born in China", like "The Great Wall", also benefited from its distribution.

"We Were Born in China" was distributed by Disney Pictures in North America, and it was officially released in 1,508 theaters in North America on its first day, a number that many blockbusters cannot match.

And the content of the story is the birth and growth of giant pandas, snow leopards, and golden snub-nosed monkeys, without cultural barriers and viewing thresholds, whether at home and abroad, you can understand and empathize.

"Rock Tibetan Mastiff" was able to achieve a box office of $9.42 million in North America, which is quite surprising.

But if you think about it, it really deserves it, because it is easy to understand, just like Japanese anime and Korean boy and girl groups.

The story of "Rock Tibetan Mastiff" is traditional inspirational blood, and the plot is mainly based on dreaming and engaging in rock music, singing and dancing, crying and laughing, and the North American audience is also reasonable to say that it is favored.

After all, the idea of blood is universal, listening to music as long as the melody is online, generally you don't need to understand what is sung in the song, in other words, simply let "Rock Tibetan Mastiff" create a miracle.

As for "The Wandering Earth", like the sequel "The Wandering Earth 2", it is a cliché.

If "The Wandering Earth" also has an encouragement score for domestic science fiction, then "The Wandering Earth 2" is a proper Hollywood A-grade production level.

Technically, it is enough to wrestle with Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters.

In terms of story, the big heart of universal values can also be easily understood, and there are many divergent points in the details, which can be called a "good" word.

In terms of genre, compared with the ultimate proposition of human beings and superheroes saving the world commonly used in Hollywood science fiction films in the past, "The Wandering Earth" opens up a third track, that is, realistic science fiction and homeland plot science fiction.

This kind of innovation and craftsmanship makes the "The Wandering Earth" series even if it is labeled as the main theme, it does not affect its export of Chinese values to the outside world.

Because the values in the film are not a direct form, but a subtle influence, so that overseas audiences also accept the film, and then be affected by the ideas in it.

To sum up, domestic films must do three things if they want to go abroad.

First, there is a strong distribution system, second, the story is easy to understand and eliminate cultural barriers, and the third is to improve the industrialization of film and television and subtly export values.

At present, the export of foreign culture has begun to change the previous thinking, which is a good thing, but Chinese films still have a long way to go, do not build cars behind closed doors, forget to communicate with the world, and only know to sit in the well and watch the sky.