May 2, 2023 | Total Issue 3223
In 2023, 3 days have passed, and the revenue of the large market in the schedule is 1.053 billion yuan. Among them, the three films "The King of the Long Sky", "Life Road Unfamiliar" and "So Many Years" jointly contributed nearly 800 million yuan to the box office.
The May 1st gear halfway has passed, is this performance considered excellent?
Let's compare the same data in previous years. In 2022, the May 1st file will be affected by the epidemic, and new films have been withdrawn, which can be ignored. Looking back at the May 1st file in 2021, the two films "Above the Cliff" and "Your Wedding" passed the 500 million yuan mark, and the total box office of the schedule reached 1.673 billion yuan.
In this way, the revenue of the broad market of this year's May 1st gear is more likely to be the same as the previous year, or surpassed by a slight margin.
Why didn't the first May Day file after the epidemic form an explosive growth at the box office? "The King of the Long Sky", which was originally in the leading position of the schedule, why was the single-day box office overtaken by "Life Road Unfamiliar"? With questions, the film and television monologue connected with theater managers and market experts.
The weakness of the waist film is the main reason
There are as many as 18 new films released on May 1st, but there are very few new films that can attract the attention of the public. On the schedule list, only the top three box office reached the order of 100 million yuan, and the rest of the new films could not cross the threshold of the pre-holiday film "Slam Dunk".
The new films that cannot be seen in the box office list indicate that they have not yet reached tens of millions of yuan in box office revenue. For example, "Guardians of the Universe: Storm Power" box office 6.89 million yuan, "Paradise Valley Adventure" box office 2.05 million yuan... In short, this year's May Day new film can beat too few players.
Mr. Zhuo, the manager of a theater in Shenzhen, analyzed that the performance of "King of the Long Sky" in their theaters was weak, and the energy of fans could only drive the box office in the first three days. Since the fourth day, the box office of "Life is Unfamiliar" has surpassed "The King of the Long Sky", and the comedy is still a rigid need for the big schedule.
Mr. Zhuo recommended "King of the Long Sky" to familiar friends, some people felt that the movie looked too serious, and they preferred to enjoy a period of entertainment and leisure time in the theater. Therefore, the box office of "Life is Unfamiliar" gradually caught up with "The King of the Long Sky".
Mr. Zhuo also revealed that their theater originally negotiated a customer to do a pre-screening patch advertisement on May 1st. But this customer suddenly changed his mind before the holiday and canceled the release plan, because he was not optimistic about the box office of this year's May 1st file. It turns out that the May 1st box office really did not have much surprise.
Market expert Winter said that "The King of the Long Sky" and "Life Road is Unfamiliar", as the head films of the schedule, have played a role in driving the market.
The weak performance of waist films in the schedule is the main reason for the lack of explosiveness in the market. The three films "Shocking Rescue", "Prosecutor Storm" and "Countdown to Say I Love You" had a combined box office of less than 100 million yuan as of 0:00 on May 2.
During the May Day holiday, the tourism market in Beijing, Hangzhou, Zibo and other cities was extremely hot, did this have an impact on the film market?
Mr. Ma, the manager of a cinema in Beijing, said that on May Day and National Day, these movies have always been public holidays. The travel market will not have a large impact on the film market, and some fans will even go to the movies in between visits.
For example, he said, on May 1, his theater's single-day box office was 60,000 yuan, 10 times higher than the working day on April 27, which shows that there is still a large number of audiences pouring into the theater during the holiday. However, on May 1, 2019, the theater's single-day revenue was 130,000 yuan, and the box office champion at that time was "Avengers 4". It can be seen that the popularity of the film market completely depends on the appeal of the film.
Since the number of blockbuster films in the May 1st show is insufficient, why don't films such as "Disappearing Her", "Super Family" and "Drug Sweep 3" choose to appear here?
Winter explained that "Slam Dunk" was released before the May 1st file, and then "Guardians of the Galaxy 3" took over. There are strong imported films landing before and after the schedule, and domestic blockbusters should consider the pressure of box office competition on the one hand, and the volume of the schedule on the other hand, obviously the summer file after that is more suitable.
High reputation≠ high box office
May 1st new films have been scored one after another on Douban.com. As of 0:00 on May 2, "King of the Long Sky" scored 7.0 points, and "Life is Unfamiliar" and "So Many Years" all scored 6.7 points.
The current highest score of the new film is "Changsha Nightlife", with a score of 7.5. However, good reputation also failed to boost the film's box office revenue, and the cumulative box office of the film was only 10.48 million yuan.
"Changsha Nightlife" interweaves multiple groups of character story lines, through the stories of family, friendship and love between them, sketching a unique picture of Changsha's nightlife.
Douban netizen Xu Ruofeng commented: "The story it tells is actually to let us learn to stop occasionally, look at the corners and alleys around our lives, discover the scenery we have never seen, and re-feel the fun of the city." ”
The film classification of "Changsha Nightlife" is "plot/love", and the love line in the film is only a branch of the story. Therefore, the film shows a disadvantage in the schedule competition. It is not like "Life is Unfamiliar" that explicitly serves the audience in the comedy genre, nor does it not like "So Many Years" focuses on love to attract couples, which eventually forms a situation of high reputation and low box office.
The Douban score of "King of the Long Sky" is 7.0, which is already good in commercial films. Wang Yibo's last movie "Nameless" scored 6.8 on Douban, and the current score is 6.7.
Film critic Fujii Shu commented on "King of the Long Sky": "The story and spectacle are both professional and can be described as a satisfactory answer sheet in the context of 'propositional composition'." Humanistic care, great country attitude, and military style are all present. ”
Maoyan Professional APP predicts that the total box office of the film will reach 714 million yuan. "King of the Long Sky" has a good appeal, and is in a schedule with few opponents, why is it difficult to enter the 1 billion yuan box office club?
"King of the Long Sky" from the content point of view, it belongs to the modern military theme. The display of stealth fighters in the film and the description of the confrontation between our army and the enemy army will inevitably require some blurring in the details. This reduces the intensity of the plot and loses the bursting point that further ignites the market.
In the second half of May 1st, the champion of the schedule appeared in suspense. The box office of "Life is Unfamiliar" later came to the top, surpassing "The King of the Long Sky" step by step. There are still two days left in the schedule, and it will be up to the deer to see who dies.
Hollywood blockbusters support the May film market?
May's film market conquest has just begun. The North American film market has always launched the summer season in May, and the super blockbusters in the schedule will also be introduced to the Chinese mainland. The sci-fi film "Guardians of the Galaxy 3" is scheduled for May 5 in the mainland, the action film "Fast and Furious 10" is scheduled for May 17, and the fantasy film "The Little Mermaid" is scheduled for May 26.
Although the number of imported films is small, the appeal is particularly strong. The number of people who want to watch "Silver Guard 3" has reached 280,000, and the number of people who want to watch "Furious 10" is 400,000. There is no doubt that these two films are bound to make a box office storm in the market.
Mr. Ma, the cinema manager, said frankly that although the epidemic has passed, theaters have to face rising rent and labor costs, and now theaters urgently need box office blockbusters such as "Fast 10" to attract audiences. In addition to guaranteeing the box office, Hollywood blockbusters can also drive the hot sales of theater popcorn and movie peripherals, and the strength of attracting gold is obvious to all.
After May 1st, the mainland's summer season will kick off in June. Both theaters and audiences are looking forward to seeing more strong domestic films enter the market. The head film and the waist film work together to make the schedule reach a new high.
【Text/Cui Ting】