"520" has just passed, "521" is still in progress, and the film market is also stained with the "joy" of artificial consumption festivals: Lighthouse Professional shows that yesterday's market closed at 330 million, a record high.
Among them, "Fast and Furious 10", which has been released for many days, won the championship with a single-day box office of 180 million, while the domestic romance film "Please Don't Trust Her" only got a single-day box office of 36.04 million, less than a quarter of the former; The Japanese romance movie "The Rest of My Life" only has a box office of more than 10 million, ranking fifth in the "520" file - romance films still have not beaten imported films in the sweet "520".
This situation is very similar to two years ago, the "520" in 2021 is Thursday, and the box office of "I Want Us Together" on the first day was nearly 100 million, performing well, but in second place was "Fast and Furious 9" at zero point; By the next day's "521", the former began to be crushed by the latter's single-day box office of 327 million, and domestic romance films also lost to imported films.
Romance films can usually only become the winner of the "love file" without an opponent, not only artificial schedules such as "520" and "521", but also in traditional "love files" such as Qixi and Valentine's Day, romance films are not always in demand.
Lighthouse Professional Edition data shows that although many new films are scheduled for Qixi and Valentine's Day every year, in the past nine years, there have only been two romance films "Bride Wars" and "I'm Waiting for You at the End of Time" among the box office champions of Qixi Stall; In the Valentine's Day file, only the champions of the 2014, 2015 and 2022 schedules belong to romance films.
It is not difficult to understand that whether it is "520" and "521" or Qixi and Valentine's Day, they are not legal holidays, and if they can't catch up with the weekend, the box office endurance is weaker. Qixi is mostly at the end of the summer file, and the release of romance films at this time not only faces the long-tail effect of the summer blockbuster films, but also has to compete with newly released imported films, and does not occupy an advantage during the schedule; Valentine's Day files are mostly during the Spring Festival, and in the fierce battle of Spring Festival films, only large-scale romance films with strong comedy elements like "Mermaid" have audience appeal.
Therefore, romance films with box office potential often do not choose the "love file" with short time and little market space, and a better choice is to compete for the box office in a large period like the summer file. The relatively less confident small and medium-sized romance films are more willing to seize the viewing needs of couples under the holiday effect and create gimmicks in the release of "love files" to reap the box office.
Although the conclusion is that the emergence of "520" and "521" is only a supplement to the love file, as long as the audience has other choices similar to "Fast and Furious" in this "festival", it is not "must love", but the emergence of emerging artificial schedules is still an important part of the market to optimize the concept of schedules and break the dependence of large schedules.
That is what we often say, attach importance to ordinary weekdays and weekends, and make watching movies commonplace, rather than "eating dumplings for the New Year". In this dimension, "520" is so important.
In 1998, Fan Xiaoxuan's "Digital Love" lyrics "520 is I love you" gave the meaning of these three digital confessions, and with the development of the Internet, netizens themselves created 520 Internet Valentine's Day, making this homophonic meme unique to Chinese a festival related to love.
There is no "520" in the world, and there are more consumers. Merchants will not miss this festival and create a purchase gimmick by various means, and the film market is also adaptable - in 2018, the attempt of "Time and Space Cohabitation" excavated the schedule of "520", which belongs to romance films.
The film was released on May 18 (Friday), only two days before the weekend's "520", in order to better use the holiday effect, the film released "520 All-Star Special Edition Love Words Collection" and other materials to mobilize the audience's willingness to watch the movie, and finally the film still won 110 million box office results on the day of "Avengers 3" strongly grabbing the box office of 520.
The finalization and marketing strategy of "Cohabitation in Time and Space" has brought certain inspiration to the market, and "520, 521", which were originally made for consumption, were selected by romance films. But the schedule has not yet formed a long-term stability - 2019's "520" caught up with Monday, and only one romance film, "True Love Is Not Late", was released; In 2020, the "520" film market has not resumed work, and the excitement of the schedule has not been continued; In the same period of 2022, the market is still affected by the epidemic, the week before the arrival of "520", the single-day box office on weekdays slipped below 10 million, and many films originally scheduled to be released in the "520" schedule were withdrawn, and the final schedule was supported by the re-screened "I Want Us Together", with only more than 50 million box office.
It can be seen that without the supply of high-quality films and the blessing of weekends, it is difficult for the energy of the "520" schedule to explode. And this year to catch up with the weekend, there is "Fast and Furious 10" and romance films, in order to create a new box office record, even if the box office is mainly supported by imported blockbusters, but no one stipulates that "love files" can only watch romance movies.
Because compared to the box office results, the more important revelation of "520" is that the more such small schedules should be, the better. Like the Spring Festival file and the National Day file, although it is "tempting", but the publicity cost is high, the competition is fierce, and the risk factor of recycling the box office is too high, which is not suitable for all films, and the small schedule is a good position for small and medium-sized films.
Especially in the sinking market, the audience's ticket buying behavior is extremely tied to the festival, there are suitable new films to be released, and supporting marketing actions that match the festive atmosphere, these small schedules may also create new surprises for the market - cross-Chinese New Year's Eve is a typical case.
At the end of 2017, "The Last Night on Earth" created the concept of "One Kiss New Year's Eve" through Douyin marketing, which triggered a movie-watching boom and obtained more than 100 million pre-sales results, and also brought hot New Year's Day files; At the end of 2018, due to the continuous supply of many films such as "Manslaughter", "Ip Man 4" and "Pet", the relay between small schedules was realized, which became a good schedule cluster effect and drove the box office of the entire market; In 2020, "Send You a Little Red Flower" and "Warm Hug" also chose to be released on Thursday, December 31, and the box office of both films was about 200 million on the first day, making the cinema across Chinese New Year's Eve lively again.
There was also Father's Day two years ago, on the Friday before the holiday (June 18), there were four new films "Amazing Dad", "Father Trapped in Time", "Football Dad" and "Extraordinary Father and Son" that were closely tied to the holiday in terms of content theme, and on Father's Day, there were also two films "Father's Love Never Ends" and "Parents' City Life" finalized - this is also the embodiment of the industry's emphasis on "small schedules" and "new schedules".
After all, not all big schedules are born with big schedules, and have also experienced the process of starting from scratch, and in this process, the industry deliberately created the "new schedule" was born, through the continuous supply of new films and supporting marketing actions to cultivate the audience's awareness of the schedule, and finally accepted by the audience, develop the habit of watching movies on "520", "Father's Day", "Mother's Day" and other days, it is not impossible.
"520" and "521" should be more, if every weekend or even weekday can become a "festival", there is a high-quality, diversified film supply, together to drive the audience's interest into the theater, then the film market will enter a healthier and more balanced state, the audience will not be affected by something like "there are too many films I want to watch in the New Year, and there is no one to watch in March".
The most important thing is that the audience does not forget the movie and often walks into the theater, after all, the film market can no longer miss the opportunities that any ordinary day may bring.