The "dazzling light" of Hollywood movies, this April, has become somewhat bleak.
One is "Super Mario Bros. Movie".
Lighting Entertainment partnered with Nintendo Pictures to sing triumph all the way after its release in North America.
At present, the box office has exceeded 500 million US dollars, and it is expected to get 1 billion US dollars at the box office, breaking the box office record of animated films.
However, this film, which has been released simultaneously in the mainland, has barely exceeded 100 million at the box office.
The other is "Dungeons & Dragons: Rogue Glory".
You changed the movie, the foreign reputation is good, and Douban also scored 7.7 points.
But in the theater market, the response was muted.
At present, it has been released for more than half a month, and the cumulative box office is only 72.22 million yuan, and it is difficult to think of exceeding 100 million.
Compared with this film, the current global box office of 135 million US dollars, its results in the mainland are also shocking.
Not only this April, the decline of Hollywood movies has actually begun at the end of last year.
"Avatar: The Way of Water" directed by James Cameron grossed $2.316 billion at the global box office, easily squeezing into the top three box office lists in world film history.
But on December 16 last year, after the simultaneous mainland release, in the same period of completely no opponents, the box office was only 1.697 billion yuan, which is not very good.
And this result is already the best performance of Hollywood movies after "Avengers 4" in 2019.
Like "Black Panther 2" and "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Frenzy", sitting on a large number of Marvel fans, the box office after release, but only 106 million and 272 million.
DC's Thunder Shazam! Wrath of the Gods is even more miserable.
The box office in 1 month of release was only 41.21 million, and the Douban score was 5.6, which received a bad review.
Other movies are even less worth mentioning.
Columbia Pictures' sci-fi film "Escape from the Cretaceous" only had a box office of 6.4 million in half a month after its release;
the horror film "Meghan" box office 22.35 million;
Once upon a time, Hollywood movies were called "Hollywood Tigers".
The market effect is too fierce, forcing us to launch the "Domestic Protection Month".
However, judging from the performance of these two years, Hollywood movies seem to be less "scary" than before.
Its impact on the mainland market is also getting smaller and smaller, not to mention the topic of ideological input and "cultural aggression".
Some people say that Hollywood movies are not good;
Some people also say that Hollywood movies are becoming more and more routine and less sincere.
In Pico's view, these views are still too superficial.
If we pay attention to the observation, in fact, the development of Hollywood movies in China has gone through three stages.
After this ups and downs, Hollywood movies are finally on another road, going further and further.
The first stage: the "ten films" stage
The introduction of "Hollywood blockbusters" began with the opening of the mainland film market in the 90s.
Previously, our film industry in the mainland followed the model of a planned economy.
With the process of reform and opening up, Chinese films under this model reached a peak in the late 70s.
In 1979, the number of moviegoers nationwide once reached an astonishing record of 29.3 billion.
However, after entering the 80s, with the popularization of television, the people have more choices in spiritual needs, and the attendance rate of cinemas has also been greatly affected.
After entering the 90s, the number of moviegoers in theaters across the country showed an "avalanche" downward trend.
There were 14.4 billion in 1991; It fell to 10.5 billion in 1992 and 4.2 billion in 1993.
Obviously, the mainland cinema market at that time was on the verge of collapse.
Therefore, on January 5, 1993, the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television issued Several Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Film Industry Mechanism, which abolished the unified purchase and unified sales during the planned economy period.
From the previous method of unified distribution of domestic feature films by China Film Corporation, it was changed to film studios and directly distributed and screened to the film market.
Under the guidance of this new "Opinion", "Hollywood blockbusters" have also ushered in the dawn of opening up the mainland market.
The imported films that could previously be screened in the mainland were all films that China Film bought out and distributed the screening rights to foreign companies, and the average price was limited to about 20,000 US dollars each.
What can be bought at this price are those old films that have been released for a long time, or shoddy bad films.
After the release of the "Opinions", at that time, China Film was allowed to introduce 10 foreign films with "three views of the right" every year in the form of box office sharing.
The first blockbuster to be introduced is "Outlawed World" starring Forber.
This action film, which cost $44 million to produce, was released in North America as early as August 6, 1993, and won $184 million and $369 million worldwide.
After experiencing various twists and turns, "Desperate World" landed in mainland theaters on November 12, 1994.
However, the film was only screened in six cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Zhengzhou, Chongqing and Guangzhou, lasting one week, but the number of moviegoers has reached 1.39 million, and the box office has received 11.27 million yuan.
It can be seen how big the box office potential of Hollywood movies is.
With this successful experience, the introduction of the second part of the account movie "Red Fan District" became much smoother.
And this movie is starring Jackie Chan, and the resistance is less.
"Red Fan District" was released in Hong Kong on January 21, 1995, and landed in the mainland on the 29th, which is almost equivalent to the simultaneous introduction, and won 95 million yuan at the box office in theaters nationwide, which is eye-catching.
The real box office hit also appeared in 1995.
It is "Card God" James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the third collaboration of "True Lies".
The film was actually released in the United States on July 15, 1994 before "Red Fan District".
However, the release time in the mainland was April 20, 1995, which was delayed by more than 9 months.
The production of Kashen has always been generous.
"True Lies" cost as much as $115 million, but its box office in North America was only $146 million, and the results were not too ideal.
But our mainland audience has never seen such a high-level action blockbuster, so the film is extremely popular.
With a ticket price level of less than 20 yuan at that time, the film won an amazing result of 103 million yuan and became the box office champion that year.
Since then, Hollywood has introduced blockbusters and has said "Hollywood Tiger".
Since the 90s, many excellent commercial blockbusters have been able to achieve outstanding box office results when they come to the mainland.
Especially the films directed by Kashin.
Following "True Lies", "Titanic", released in 1998, the box office reached 360 million yuan.
It was re-screened twice in the mainland, with a cumulative box office of 1.356 billion yuan.
There is also "Avatar", released in 2010.
It not only won an unprecedented box office of 1.715 billion yuan, but also successfully led a wave of 3D film revolution.
As a result, the number of cinemas on the mainland has ushered in explosive growth, and its impact continues to this day.
Last year, "Avatar: The Way of Water" was able to suddenly parachute at the end of the year, and Kashin's huge influence in the mainland was indispensable.
The second stage: the "two heroes and one giant" stage
"Titanic" is a calling card of Hollywood movies.
In the following 20 years, every Hollywood film released in the mainland can trigger a wave of movie-watching fever.
On the one hand, this is due to China Film's strict control and careful selection of imported films;
On the one hand, it is also because of the desire of mainland audiences for excellent commercial films.
On August 10, 2001, the World War II film "Pearl Harbor" directed by Michael Bay landed in the mainland.
The film suffered a double failure at the box office in North America.
But in the mainland, it was well received by the audience.
Not only became the box office champion with a box office of 105 million yuan, but it still maintains a high score of 8.0 on Douban.
On July 11, 2007, Michael Bay made a comeback with "Transformers".
This time, it won 269 million yuan at the box office and became the box office champion again.
And mainland audiences seem to have a soft spot for this IP.
"Transformers 3" in 2011 and "Transformers 4" in 2014 also occupied the first place of the year with a box office of 1.095 billion yuan and 1.976 billion yuan respectively.
Let's talk about Roland Emmerich, who is on a par with Michael Bee, known as "the man who will destroy the earth".
Although its 1996 hit "Independence Day" failed to be introduced, "2012", which was launched in 2009, was released at the same time.
The film overcame all the difficulties on November 13, easily winning 466 million yuan at the box office, and also became the first box office list that year.
In addition to these phenomenal movies, some classic IPs are also popular with the public.
The audience it has cultivated in the Mainland should not be underestimated.
For example, the "Fast and Furious" series has been introduced to the mainland since the fourth part.
Its best-performing 7th and 8th films won 2.423 billion yuan and 2.67 billion yuan at the box office respectively.
Even the rumored "Special Operation" also had a box office of 1.434 billion yuan.
Of course, the best performance is the Marvel Universe series of movies.
Since 2008's "Iron Man", each work has cultivated a group of fans in the mainland.
During this period, in the form of developing a "special edition", he launched works such as "Iron Man 3" that have in-depth cooperation with mainland companies.
The highlight of the Marvel Universe "Avengers" series is a sharp weapon for harvesting box office in the mainland.
2018's "Avengers 3: Infinity War" topped the crowd with a box office of 2.39 billion yuan;
In 2019, "Avengers 4: Endgame" set a box office record for imported films with a box office result of 4.25 billion yuan, and has remained so far.
But the success of "Avengers 4" now looks more like the final glory of Hollywood movies in Chinese mainland. 、
The third stage: the "elixir failure" and the "chasing fault" stage
In the following 4 years, due to the impact of force majeure, the film industry around the world was hit hard.
Hollywood films, which are the first to take the lead, have gradually lost their market influence in the mainland.
The 2020 sci-fi film "Creed".
Before its release, it attracted attention due to the influence of director Christopher Nolan in the mainland.
However, due to its own quality problems, the popularity quickly decreased after its release, and the final box office result was only 456 million yuan, which disappointed everyone.
"Wonder Woman 1984", released in the same year, bears the aura of the strongest goddess in the DC universe.
After its release at the end of the year, the box office growth was weak, only 167 million yuan at the box office, which is far from the 610 million yuan box office of its predecessor.
Also a superhero movie, DC Universe movies have a huge gap in influence in the mainland compared with the Marvel Universe.
Such as the "Thunder Shazam" series.
The first work in 2019 still has 294 million yuan at the mainland box office, and this year's "Thunder Shazam! Wrath of the Gods suffered a lot of bad reviews after its release, with a Douban score of only 5.6 and a box office of only 41.2 million yuan.
DC movies can't get up at the box office, and the situation on Marvel's side is not as good as before.
Due to the Phase 4 films such as "Black Widow", "Eternals", "Spider-Man: Homeless", "Doctor Strange 2" and "Thor 4" have not been introduced.
As a result, there has been a fault in the mainland audience's "chasing" of Marvel movies, and the interruption of this "cultural supply" has also affected the box office.
"Black Panther 2", released in February this year, has a box office of only 106 million yuan, which is significantly reduced from the box office of its predecessor of 662 million yuan.
"Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Frenzy", released on February 17, was dragged down by word of mouth, and the box office was only 272 million yuan, far less than the 670 million yuan and 831 million yuan box office of the first two episodes.
Among the blockbusters introduced in the past 4 years, only "Godzilla vs. King Kong", "Fast and Furious 9", "Jurassic World 3" and "Avatar: The Way of Water" have achieved box office results of more than 1 billion yuan.
Compared with those movies that easily went on 2 billion before, the treatment has been greatly deteriorated, and the box office elixir of the past has also expired one after another.
Hollywood movies at this stage, in the words of many netizens, are:
"Hollywood movies are not good!"
The deep meaning of this sentence is that the technical advantages of Hollywood movies have long been gone.
At the story level, its ideological and cultural output is also outdated.
This is also the reason why the influence of Hollywood films in the mainland is declining.
In recent years, with the acceleration of the process of film globalization and the improvement of the level of film production in the mainland, the gap between the technical level and the level of screenwriters is gradually narrowing.
Take this year's Spring Festival sci-fi blockbuster "The Wandering Earth 2" as an example.
Its special effects shots are as many as 6,000 and 95,000 costume props have been produced, which has reached the production level of Hollywood industrial films.
The blockbusters "Changjin Lake" and "Watergate Bridge" of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea cost as much as 1.3 billion yuan.
The film is co-directed by three directors, Chen Kaige, Tsui Hark and Lin Chaoxian, using more than 70,000 extras, and its script has been polished for 5 years.
What was finally presented on the screen were two excellent works that won 5.775 billion yuan and 4.067 billion yuan at the box office respectively.
In addition to these high-cost blockbusters, like "Hello! Li Huanying, "Detective Chinatown 3", "Man Jiang Hong" and other comedy movies are also loved by the audience because of their stories and have achieved good box office results.
In contrast, since 2009's "Avatar", the production level of Hollywood movies has not improved significantly, and it is still in place.
Under the trade-off, the gap narrows little by little, and when the naked eye can no longer see the difference between the advantages and disadvantages, the technical advantages of Hollywood movies no longer exist.
In terms of story creation, Hollywood's major film giants have relied on a strong screenwriting team to create classic works that have swept the world.
Originally, different countries and different nationalities around the world have insurmountable cultural barriers from religious beliefs, living habits to ideology.
But Hollywood movies, with their universal values of promoting personal ideals, have somewhat erased this barrier.
Because of this universal value, which is universal, it has been recognized by audiences all over the world, including Chinese mainland audiences, so that Hollywood blockbusters can be exported to every corner of the world.
And those film IPs that have been operating for more than ten years or even decades are also assembly line works created under the background of the mature film industry.
Like the "007" series of works as many as 25 episodes;
The Star Wars series of sequels, spin-offs and TV series is also under development;
"Jurassic Park" series, "Terminator" series; The "Alien" series and the "Mission Impossible" series also have many sequels, and they all have a large number of fans in our mainland.
Disney Marvel Studios created a Marvel Universe movie, which has lasted for 25 years.
In its first 3 stages, a total of 23 films were released, collectively known as "Infinite Legend", and the popularity lasted for 11 years.
But after "Avengers 4", as the residual value of superhero movies was squeezed dry, multiple equal rights consciousness rose.
The universal values and cultural consciousness on which Hollywood movies live are also being deflected step by step.
In today's mainstream commercial films, many African-American, Asian, and Latino characters are forcibly added, regardless of whether the plot itself is reasonable or not.
These "politically correct" maneuvers can be recognized by American audiences, but they cannot be accepted by audiences around the world.
This year's upcoming Disney movie "The Little Mermaid" was questioned by the whole Internet for replacing the heroine The Little Mermaid Ariel with a black girl with dirty braids.
These casting controversies not only affect the look and feel of the film, but also make some audiences who are difficult to accept the change, lose interest in the film, and hurt the film itself.
In contrast, the domestic films released in recent years, due to the improvement of the audience's appreciation level, have stimulated the creators' intentions in script creation.
Those movies that can get a good box office are all works with excellent script quality.
For example, the 2018 feature film "I Am Not the God of Medicine".
It was originally a low-cost work, and because of the fermentation of its audience's word of mouth, it finally won a high box office of 3.1 billion yuan.
Compared with Hollywood movies, domestic films have innate advantages because there is no cultural barrier.
Nowadays, the audience's cultural identity with Hollywood blockbusters is getting lower and lower, and the love value for domestic films is increasing.
As we trade-off, Hollywood movies drift away from us, a trend that cannot be easily reversed.
The giant Marvel DC can't save it, the big director "Cameron" can't save it, and the superstar "Tom Cruise" can't save it.
As a result, we will feel that "Hollywood is not good-looking", no longer like it so much, and even have resistance to emotions.
This year, domestic theaters ushered in a comprehensive recovery.
Not only domestic films have been set, but also imported films are not far behind, and more than 20 films have been finalized in April alone.
Although the opening year's "Black Panther 2", "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Frenzy", "Super Mario Movie" and other films have not been able to drive the movie-watching boom.
There are still many blockbusters to be introduced in the future, and the opportunity for Hollywood blockbusters to regain the market still exists.
Pico is looking forward to hardcore blockbusters such as "Fast and Furious 10", "Transformers: The Rise of the Power Warriors", "Indiana Jones 5", "Mission Impossible 7: Fatal Reckoning (Part I)" and so on.
It is hoped that these films can maintain the level that a series of films should have, continue their good reputation, and get good box office results in the mainland.
We also hope that future Hollywood movies can abandon those "politically correct" sets.
Focus on the creation of the script to create truly great work.
Keep the golden sign of "Hollywood blockbuster".
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Blood Dan Xin
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