April 5, 2023 | Issue 3196
Recently, actor Zhang Songwen spoke out during the promotion of the roadshow of the new film "More than Endless": "What is the significance of the roadshow of the movie? In fact, I still don't understand very well, maybe you tried your best, and then got a little audience who are willing to say a few words for the movie. Then I'm willing to do my best for it. ”
The official definition of "film roadshow" is simple, which refers to the film's main creator carrying out offline publicity activities nationwide according to the plan set by the distributor. The work content of the roadshow includes post-screening meetings, media group interviews, and exclusive interviews, and the main creators have to travel to multiple box office cities in a short period of time to create momentum for the film.
But the utility of the roadshow, especially the impact on the box office, is not very clear. Many times, in the eyes of the audience, the roadshow is like a large-scale gymnastics between the main creator and a very small number of fans, and it has little to do with themselves.
Judging from the box office results, the same roadshow, the results are also very different. "More than Endless", which has been on the road, was released for two weeks, and as of the early morning of April 4, the film had a cumulative box office of 54.89 million yuan. Previously, "Chinese Table Tennis Jedi Strikes Back" starring Deng Chao was also roadshow in more than a dozen cities, and the final box office just exceeded 100 million yuan. However, films such as "The Wandering Earth 2" and "Keep You Safe" also have huge road shows, but there are surprise performances at the box office.
So, how much does a roadshow help the box office? How is the roadshow city determined? What is the impact of roadshows outside the box office? With these questions, Film and Television Talk communicated with film distributors and theater managers to gain a deeper understanding of them.
01
Before the epidemic, movie roadshows were in full swing. The "Wolf Warrior 2" roadshow traveled through 30 cities in 30 days, and the "Pancake Man" roadshow covered 31 cities across the country. These films have achieved dazzling box office results, and roadshows have become a standard action in the publicity process of many films.
Three years into the pandemic, movie roadshows have become rare. In the post-pandemic era, roadshows are beginning to recover. This year's Spring Festival "The Wandering Earth 2" roadshow continued to March, and the spring "Keep You Safe" ran to more than ten cities.
The roadshow has helped the box office of these two films more obviously. "The Wandering Earth 2" opened a nationwide roadshow after the Spring Festival, and director Guo Fan led the team to visit theaters and schools in Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and other places. They shared their shooting experience with the audience and listened to the audience's feedback on the film, and the film's attention was effectively enhanced on various social platforms.
After the Spring Festival, the box office performance of "The Wandering Earth 2" was strong, and the single-day box office repeatedly surpassed the previous schedule champion "Manjiang Hong", which should be helped by the roadshow.
"Keep You Safe" had a box office of 130 million yuan in the first week (three days) and 210 million yuan in the next week (seven days). Although there are differences in the number of release days in two weeks, the highest box office in the first week of a movie is the norm. "Keep You Safe" can achieve reverse growth, and word-of-mouth fermentation plays an important role.
Director Dapeng began the roadshow before the film's release, and the trip lasted until two weeks after the release. Dapeng and other creators met and communicated with the audience in various places, and the event clips were promoted and distributed through short video platforms, and have repeatedly become hot topics. It can be seen that road shows can indeed play a role in boosting the box office.
02
How were these cities and theaters identified in the film roadshow itinerary?
Mr. Zhao is the distribution director of a film company in Beijing. He answered to the film and television monologue that the itinerary of the roadshow was first planned by the distribution department, and then the time was finalized with the main creators.
Roadshow cities and theaters are considered based on ticket prices. North, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are the first choice, and then we will consider ticket office cities such as Chengdu and Hangzhou. The choice of local cinema, in addition to box office factors, depends on the geographical location and cinema environment.
Usually, in the post-screening meeting event in the roadshow, the film party only needs the main creator to cooperate, and will not incur other costs. The revenue from the theater holding this event mainly comes from the box office of the film screening. Screenings attended by celebrities are often hard to come by.
Roadshows help promote movies, but not every commercial film will do it. Mr. Zhao said that the roadshow involves the issue of publicity budget and actor schedule.
For example, before the epidemic, the main creator of a film participating in the roadshow assumed that there were more than 10 people (including assistants and other accompanying personnel), and it was necessary to travel to 10 cities, and the cost of air tickets, hotels, and catering involved on this road was conservatively estimated to be about 300,000 yuan. The publicity strategy of each film is different, and some films focus on advertising, and roadshows will be omitted.
In addition, if a film has many stars and the roadshow involves more than 10 cities, it is necessary to actively coordinate the schedule of multiple actors, and if the time is not suitable, the roadshow may also be abandoned.
Mr. Zhao once followed the promotion of an action movie, ran non-stop to 7 cities in 7 days, and had a cold and fever on the 8th day. The main creators also gritted their teeth at that time, and the roadshow publicity was this rhythm.
The golden period of a movie's box office harvest is the first two weeks, or even the first weekend. For most films, intensive efforts need to be made before and in the first week of the screening, and the roadshow will obviously help the box office.
03
"Chinese Table Tennis Jedi Strikes Back" (hereinafter referred to as "Chinese Table Tennis") was released in February, Deng Chao led the main creative team to travel around, but the film's box office just exceeded 100 million yuan. Why didn't the roadshow help the film's box office?
Mr. Zhao analyzed that the roadshow is the icing on the cake, but it has never been the first productivity at the box office.
"Chinese Table Tennis" was originally scheduled to be released on the first day of the new year, but then postponed to the third day of junior high school, missing the golden time for release. After the release on the third day of the new year, the film simply could not grab enough screenings. "Chinese Table Tennis" was later postponed to February 17, but the influence of blockbusters such as "Manjiang Red" in the Spring Festival file is still there.
The roadshow of the film must have been planned in the morning, and the actors will also reserve a schedule. If "Chinese Table Tennis" is postponed again, the early publicity investment may be in vain, and it is estimated that it will be difficult to coordinate to the appropriate schedule for the actors later, and finally have to bite the bullet and release it.
The main creator ran the roadshow to fulfill his duties, and the roadshow received a good response everywhere he went. Some viewers said, "I had zero expectations for the film before I came, but after watching the movie, I will turn into tap water." Some fans said to Deng Chao, "I may have been a little prejudiced against you before, but you made this movie too well, so I changed my prejudice against you."
Deng Chao's previous comedy "Breakup Master" and "Villain Angel" have suffered a large number of bad reviews, and the Douban score of both films has not reached 6 points. "Chinese Table Tennis" Douban scored 7.0 and has remained at the level of 6.8 points so far. During the roadshow, the audience said that director Deng Chao should be treated well this time.
However, the film was still unable to kill the encirclement of blockbusters such as "The Wandering Earth 2" and "Manjiang Red" at that time. On the first day of release on February 17, it only achieved a bleak start of 8.21 million yuan, and the box office has been declining since then. The film is already at a disadvantage in the market competition, accounting for only 11.8% of the first-day ranking, and the rating above the passing line and the praise of the roadshow alone cannot stop the rapid decline of the single-day box office.
Mr. Zhao also pointed out that Deng Chao, Wu Jing and Dapeng are all actors turned directors. The works they direct often have a national roadshow program, because they are both directors and stars and will do their best to promote their work.
Other films want to do national roadshows, and if the director is not famous, they need the full cooperation of the starring actors. If the schedule of the starring actor cannot be coordinated, it is difficult for the director to attract enough attention by running the roadshow.
04
Is the impact of the roadshow on the film limited to the box office level?
Mr. Wang is a distribution manager for a film company in Beijing and has been involved in the distribution of several films. Based on years of work experience, he concluded that roadshows mainly play three roles in film promotion.
First, the amount of media exposure in a local area. For example, the main creator of a film came to Wuhan for a roadshow, and important local media would gather. At the same time, the audience present was mainly fans and creator fans, including famous local self-media. The post-screening communication between the main creator and the media and the audience will produce excellent content feedback, and it will become a hot local entertainment news in a short period of time.
Second, distributors strengthen ties with theaters. The theaters involved in the roadshow are carefully selected by the distributors, and the main creators come to these theaters to promote it, and at the same time, they can also drive the exposure of the theater. The distributor took this opportunity to complete a beautiful roadshow and deepen its ties with local theaters, killing two birds with one stone.
Third, the main creators of the film have received feedback from audiences everywhere. The roadshow will travel to important cities in the north and south, and some directors are very concerned about the different responses of audiences in the south and north. Mr. Wang has followed a comedy film roadshow, and the director sometimes deliberately blends into the audience to observe the audience's reaction to the laughter. In the post-screening communication, the director will also deliberately communicate with the audience about the handling of laughter baggage, and save the audience's feedback for the next creation to adjust.
The author noticed that the main creator of "The Wandering Earth 2" paid attention to in-depth communication with the audience during the roadshow. Some viewers will talk about imagining the story of the third part, and director Guo Fan will listen carefully. This feedback will obviously have an impact on the creation of The Wandering Earth 3.
05
From the outside world, the roadshow can bring 100% attendance to the theater, and the media exposure, the theater should look forward to the movie roadshow. However, Ms. Zhang, the manager of a movie park in Shenzhen, said that every time she heard that she was preparing to receive the main creator of the film to come to the roadshow, her mood was mixed.
Happily, the theater will produce a high box office on the day of the roadshow; The worry is that hosting the main creator is a fairly high-intensity job.
Whenever the main creator comes to the roadshow, the theater will receive a notice from the distributor 3~7 days in advance. If it is an advance screening, the theater should confirm in advance that it has received a copy of the film and prepare for the screening. At the same time, on the day of the roadshow, all the employees of the studio had to go to work to help maintain order.
Roadshows also require the theater to report to the police station. If a big star arrives on the day, the theater will also temporarily hire security guards to strengthen security.
The main creator of a movie works in a city's road show, usually to run 6~8 theaters in a day. Ms. Zhang explained that the film's creators cannot favor one over the other, and important local theaters must take care of it, so as to ensure the maximum output of the film at the local box office.
Therefore, the film creator usually spends half an hour in each theater, hurriedly walks through 1~2 theaters, communicates with the audience for about 15 minutes, and rushes to the next theater after the end. For this half hour of the arrival of the main creator, the theater has to prepare for three days or even longer.
Ms. Zhang emphasized that the main creative roadshow will indeed bring significant box office effects to a theater. After the theater holds a roadshow event, it will increase the pomp and circumstance of the film, and the starring fan group will also come to this theater to support the idol.
06
Roadshows are not exclusive to commercial films, and there are also roadshow activities for literary films, but the scale cannot be compared with commercial films. For example, in the reality film "Rattle" released in February, filmmaker Lian Cheng Yi Crisp and director Bai Zhiqiang traveled through 28 cities for road shows.
In this process, it was mainly the two of them who completed the work in the roadshow, and received praise and suggestions from many audiences along the way. Unfortunately, the final box office of "Rattle" only collected 1.817 million yuan, and the audience failed to break through the fan circle.
Liancheng Yi Crisp believes that when a literary film enters this market, the publicity team must have a mentality of four or two pounds. Although the current box office cannot compare with the results of those commercial films, if you don't run the roadshow, will it be difficult to even achieve this result?
It can be seen that road shows can only have an indirect impact on the box office of movies, and what can really affect the box office is factors such as movie type, cast, and release schedule. In addition to the box office, roadshows can indeed play a role in increasing the exposure of the film and promoting the communication between the main creator and the audience. From this point of view, roadshows have always been an important part of film promotion.
The epidemic has passed, and there are many movies ready to be released in the next May Day and summer files. Mr. Zhao said that the industry is still recovering, and most film companies have reduced their publicity budgets, so there are currently fewer films that can conduct roadshows. He believes that as the market recovers, roadshow activities will gradually become more frequent in the second half of the year.
【Text/Cui Ting】