On May 28, the theatrical movie "Skylark" was released for 3 days, with a cumulative box office of only 23,000 yuan. This movie is starring Ding Haifeng , Yu Shasha , Fan Ming , Lu Yong , Zhao Ziqi and many other well-known actors as supporting roles, the cast can not be described as strong. But why is it only 23,000 yuan at the box office in 3 days of release? According to the data of Maoyan Professional Edition, the number of people who watched the film on the 28th was only 8. This means that the final box office of this film can only be on 23,000 yuan.
The starring roles of Ding Haifeng and Yu Shasha, even if the two well-known actors are not traffic, they can't be embarrassed to the extent that only 715 people (Maoyan Professional Edition data) have watched it? Teacher Ding Haifeng once used the image of Wu Song in the TV series "Water Margin" to penetrate the hearts of the people. It stands to reason that the appeal of this powerful actor among middle-aged and elderly fans is very good.
And the heroine Yu Shasha, who has had many popular works on the Internet, is called the male version of Dapeng by netizens. In Dapeng's theatrical movies, which are often hundreds of millions of box office, why does Yu Shasha, known as the male version of Dapeng, star in a theatrical movie with a box office of only 23,000 yuan?
Not to mention the co-starring roles of many well-known actors such as Fan Ming, Lu Yong and Zhao Ziqi. Note that these well-known actors, and even actors who can be called drama bones, do not make cameos in "Skylark", but play the main role. This theatrical film basically achieves the level of the main actors are well-known actors. With such a lineup, it really shouldn't be only 23,000 yuan at the box office.
Based on this "shouldn't", we can explore the reasons for the poor box office of "The Skylark". On the surface, the film has not been rolled out across the country, and the only cities that have formed a box office are Hefei, Anqing and other cities. The failure to roll out in theaters nationwide and only be released in theaters in local areas is the superficial reason why the film failed to achieve better box office results.
Beyond the surface, the deeper reason is that the film did not attract major theaters during the release process, so it could not obtain nationwide screening. "Skylark" is obviously a crowd of well-known actors, the starring actors are familiar, but can not attract major theaters, the most fundamental reason is not the actor problem, but the content of this movie, outdated, major theaters believe that such a theme, has been unable to attract fans across the country to spend money to watch.
So, what story does "Skylark" tell? Let's take a look at the story synopsis of the film:
The movie "Skylark" tells the story of the protagonist Tian Wen (played by Ding Haifeng) who gave up his superior life and returned to his hometown to teach, and Xu Xin (played by Yu Shasha), a young teacher from the city, together lit up the hope of living and learning for poor children in mountain villages, and through the original intention and inheritance of three generations of educators, showed the group portraits of teachers rooted in the cause of mountain village education, reflecting their noble character and dedication to illuminate others with candle tears...
Regardless of the attributes of the times, if you only talk about this story, the film "Skylark" certainly has its own positive value, especially the selfless dedication of teachers in remote areas, which can also move many fans today. At this point, we cannot deny the authentic value experience of the movie "Skylark". But what if we don't put aside the epochal nature of the film?
In 1999, the movie "My Father and Mother" starring Zhang Ziyi and directed by Zhang Yimou was released, which won the quality affirmation of a large number of fans and touched a generation. Obviously, "My Father and Mother" also tells the story of the selfless dedication of teachers in remote areas. Such a story, placed more than 20 years ago, can indeed move many of us. Because back then, such a story was true and reminded fans of specific individual teachers.
And in 2023, if we take a similar story of a teacher in a remote area to try to move the audience, we will face two confusions. The first confusion, fans have long been moved by similar movies many times, "Skylark" can not take its own unique value to continue to move fans. The second puzzle, how come after more than 20 years, or such a theme and content to move us, our rural teachers and rural education, is still stuck at the level they used to be?
The real countryside has also undergone unprecedented changes in the perception of fans. A large number of rural primary schools have merged, many children who are inconvenient to go to school can eat lunch at school, and some rural schools are equipped with school buses that can pick up and drop off children in various villages, and at the same time, new phenomena have emerged. A large number of teachers with high teaching quality began to move from rural primary schools to county towns, while most of the teachers who remained behind were older or unable to meet the requirements of higher schools.
At the same time, most of the children left behind in rural primary schools are brought by grandparents or grandparents, and there is no way to enter primary schools in the county and its larger cities. And more rural students are indeed choosing to study in schools in the county seat. More importantly, many of our elderly rural teachers, after retirement, the pension treatment is not low. Of course, I think that retired teachers in rural areas deserve better pension benefits. However, such treatment, in the rural environment, is actually much higher than that of local elderly farmers. The superiority of rural teachers after retirement (ordinary people think of superiority, really excellent teachers, will not have this material superiority) will not be inferior to any village personnel.
These new contents of the new era have gradually refreshed the fans' new understanding of rural teachers and rural education. And the movie "Skylark" still stays on simple singing, which is based on the era of "My Father and Mother", not based on the truth of rural education today. So, it really can't be based on truth, build emotion. And this kind of movie, once emotionally distorted, will inevitably fail at the box office.
The box office failure of the movie "Skylark" left the filmmakers to think: the sensational old routine, not suitable for the film narrative of the new era, in order to make a really excellent rural film, you need to really take root in the countryside, talk about the truth of the current era. (Text/Ma Qingyun)