The movie May 1st war is about to start on April 28. According to the data of Lighthouse Professional Edition, as of press time, the pre-sale of the May 1st box office has exceeded 48 million yuan; At present, 18 new films have been scheduled for May Day, 11 more than last year, the highest in the same schedule in recent years. The new films to be screened on May 1st are rich in genres and diverse themes, including action, suspense, romance, comedy, animation and other genres, including the drama action film "King of the Long Sky" with a wide audience, the comedy "Life is Unfamiliar", the disaster film "Shocking Rescue", as well as the romance film "So Many Years" and "Countdown to Love You" with a prominent proportion of young female audiences, as well as parent-child animation "New Pigman Movie: Super Racing" and "Guardians of the Universe: Storm Power", etc., so that the audience can "feast their eyes".
Throughout 2017 to 2022, the overall box office trend of the May 1st file in the Chinese mainland film market is mainly rising. Industry insiders analyzed that most of the new films in this year's May 1st are medium-sized, and the schedule arrangement is "balanced", which helps to amplify the market potential of the film, achieve a win-win situation for multiple films, and bring benefits to the broader market.
The withdrawal of the film returns
One of the keywords of this year's May 1st file is "the return of withdrawn films", and films such as "The King of the Long Sky", "Shocking Rescue" and "Prosecutor Fengyun" have previously undergone finalization and then withdrawal. "This year's May 1st file is known as 'the most crowded May 1st file in history', and many films are rescheduled after being withdrawn, indicating that the Chinese film market has a backlog of films due to the epidemic and other films, which need to be continuously digested and released." Rao Shuguang, president of the China Film Critics Society, told Variety.
"The King of the Long Sky" directed by Liu Xiaoshi and starring Wang Yibo and Hu Jun was originally planned to be released on September 30 last year and was the main film of last year's National Day file, but two days before its release, the film suddenly announced the withdrawal of the file, and the pre-sale box office of the film at that time had exceeded 30 million yuan. According to the real-time publicity data of Lighthouse's professional publicity, by the time of publication, the number of "kings of the long sky" "wanting to see" exceeded 840,000, ranking first in the schedule. "The film focuses on the group of Air Force test pilots, and from the current trailer and other materials, the production level is very good." Chen Jin, data analyst at Lighthouse Pro, said. Rao Shuguang also believes that this year's May Day "King of the Long Sky" has attracted a lot of attention, "The cast of the film is very eye-catching and is expected to achieve eye-catching market performance." ”
The disaster action film "Shocking Rescue" was originally scheduled to be released on July 8, 2022, and after the withdrawal, it will meet the audience on April 28 this year. Based on real events, the film focuses on front-line fire fighters and tells the touching story of their flesh and blood going to the soup. In the summer of 2019, the work "Heroes of Fire" with the same theme achieved a box office of 1.706 billion yuan, becoming a dark horse in the market. "Shocking Rescue" is similar in theme to "Heroes of Fire", and it is also quite appealing in terms of production scenes and plot design. "The film has opened large-scale screening in advance, which shows that there is a certain confidence in its own quality." Chen Jin said.
"Prosecutor's Storm" was scheduled for May 1st last year and then withdrawn, and will be released on April 29 this year. Director Mak Zhaohui, who has directed well-known masterpieces such as "Infernal Affairs" and "Eavesdropping", this time focuses the camera on the daily work of prosecutors, presenting a showdown between justice and evil. The film is based on real cases and uses a large number of litigation plots. As a rare prosecutor-themed project in China, the film fills the gap between the May 1st crime genre film and the main theme movie.
Who has a dark horse phase?
Comedy movies have always been a very gold-absorbing genre film in domestic films, and as the only comedy film in May 1st, "Life is Unfamiliar" has the potential to become a box office dark horse. The film is directed by Yi Xiaoxing, whose last comedy work "The King of Bath" received more than 400 million yuan at the box office in 2020. Chen Jin believes that "Life is Unfamiliar" has a genre advantage in the May 1st file, and the previous road-themed comedy films "People on the Road" and "Heart Flower Road" have achieved good reputation. Judging from the trailer, "Life is Unfamiliar" revolves around a truck journey with laughter and tears accidentally opened by "a family of four", and the laughter is dense.
""Life is not familiar" may become a big surprise in the schedule, after all, the audience needs to use comedy to release the mood." Rao Shuguang said. He also said that the feature film "Changsha Nightlife" released on April 28 is also worth paying attention to. The film is produced by Chen Kexin and Zhao Xiaoshi, written and directed by Zhang Ji, starring Yin Fang and Zhang Jingyi, and Zhang Yixing starring. From the unique perspective of urban youth, the film tells the story of the encounter and reconciliation of several young people with different fates in the night of Changsha, and presents the fireworks of Changsha's fresh activists.
"Your Wedding" in 2021 (789 million yuan box office), "I Really Hate Long-distance Relationships" (165 million yuan box office) in 2022, in the past two years, the romance films produced by Light Pictures are all dark horses of May 1st. This year, Light Pictures once again launched the romance film "So Many Years" with a small and broad breadth. The film is adapted from the final chapter of the "Zhenhua series" novel in Chang'an in August. Previously, the three films "Hello, Old Time", "The Best of Us" and "Secret Love Orange Birth Huainan" ran through the youth of many audiences, and the movie "Secret Love Orange Born Huainan" led the Dragon Boat Box Office last year. Playing on the same stage with "So Many Years" is "Count Down to Love You" produced by Wanda Pictures, and the film incorporates fantasy elements. "Whether these two movies can continue the dark horse performance of youth romance films in the May 1st file is worth looking forward to." Chen Jin said.
There are also animated movies "Paradise Valley Adventure", "New Pigman Movie Super Racing", "Space Guardians: Storm Power" and "Super Cute Time and Space Baby" aimed at family fun and parent-child orientation, providing options for parent-child moviegoing. It is worth mentioning that many previous May 1st shows are the world of imported films, such as "Fast and Furious 8" in 2017 and "Avengers 4: Endgame" in 2019. This year, with the recovery of the imported film market, the May 1st file has returned to the state of "ambush before and chasing soldiers later", "Slam Dunk" released on April 20, "Guardians of the Galaxy 3" released on May 5, and "Fast and Furious 10" scheduled for May 17, will squeeze the space of the new film on May 1st. But on the other hand, the popularity of introducing blockbusters may help the entire film market and drive more new films to lift the market.
After May 1st, one of the most important stalls of the year is about to usher in - the summer stall. When analyzing the performance of the film market in the first half of this year, Rao Shuguang believes that "the performance of the domestic film market in the first half of the year was better than expected, which allowed the industry to regain confidence." Looking forward to the next summer file, National Day file and next year's Spring Festival stall to bring more surprises. In his view, the high-quality development and sustainable prosperity of Chinese films are inseparable from the efforts of filmmakers, as well as the tolerance and understanding of the whole society, and a benign and harmonious social public opinion environment can help China move from a film power to a film power.