Summer files, how do film companies make moves?
Text/Tehran
Maoyan Professional Edition shows that as of May 31, the cumulative box office of Chinese mainland was 22.139 billion yuan, leaving only less than 8 billion yuan from the 29.9 billion yuan in 2022.
But that's only one side of the coin.
In the same period of 2019, the total box office of the film market has exceeded 27.1 billion yuan, and the total number of performances is more than 1.8 million lower than that of 5.1 yuan. That is to say, the overall box office of the film market this year is still lower than the pre-epidemic level, and the theater attendance rate also leaves a large room for recovery.
Based on this, the summer file is even more arduous, especially for film companies that have just ushered in the dawn.
According to the statistics of Wenyujun, among the 9 listed film companies that recently released their first quarter report for 2023, except for Bona Film, the remaining 8 achieved a year-on-year increase in net profit, of which Wanda Film, China Film and Hengdian Film and Television, which had the highest net profit, made profits of 316 million yuan, 182 million yuan and 149 million yuan respectively.
Beaune, light is difficult to climate
Huayi did not move
Wanda has a weak heart
For the decline in revenue and net profit in the first quarter of this year, Bona Film explained in the financial report, mainly because the box office performance of the films participating in this period decreased compared with the same period of the previous year.
According to this statement, it is difficult for Bona Film to create more performance for itself in the summer.
At present, Bona Film only has a second production and co-released "Don't Call Me "God of Gamblers" to compete in the summer file, although the film brings together Chow Yun-fat, Yuen Wing-yee, Fang Zhongxin and other well-known Hong Kong stars, and has the blessing of the gimmick of "the return of the gambling god of Brother Fa", but through less than 20,000 people who want to watch the cat's eye, you can clearly feel the coldness of the audience.
Coincidentally, the two main control films "Transparent Heroes" and "Tea Ah Two Middle School" taken out by Light Media also failed to win a sense of existence.
What is even more anxious is that Bona Film and Light Media will basically not have key projects.
Bona Film's financial report shows that the company's long-warmed key projects "Operation Red Sea 2: Operation Killer Whale" and "Outsmart the Tiger Mountain Prequel" have not yet started, the sequel to the movie "Myth" "Legend" is being filmed, and "Burst Point" produced by Lin Chaoxian and "Boyhood" directed by Chen Kaige are still in post-production.
Light Media revealed that among the works expected to be released within this year, "Sweeping the Black and Seeing the Clouds", "Solid as a Rock", "Grass and Wood World", "Her Little Pear Vortex" and "True Colors" (formerly known as "New Order") have been completed for a long time.
However, limited by its own theme, the box office volume of "Grass and Wood World" and "Her Little Pear Vortex" will not be too large, "True Colors" (formerly known as "New Order") has been released since the withdrawal of the file in July last year, and compared with the summer file, the National Day file is more worthy of "sweeping the black and seeing the clouds" and "solid as a rock" bet.
On the other side of the story, the sequel to the "ex" series "Ex 4: Early Marriage" controlled by Huayi Brothers has also been completed, and the current number of people who want to watch the film has approached one million, and the topic of Douyin has exceeded 500 million, and the market popularity is very hot.
However, although many parties broke the news or speculated that "Predecessor 4: Marriage Early" will be released in the summer, the Huayi brothers have never expressed a clear attitude.
Unlike the Huayi brothers, Wanda Movies has not made big moves in the face of the summer file, more because there are no cards to play.
Although the police and bandit film "Peacekeeping Riot Squad" starring Huang Jingyu and Wang Yibo is scheduled to be released within the year, it is obviously more suitable for the National Day file, while other high-expectation projects such as "Give You a Glass of Forgetful Water", "Dragon Hunting Tips 2", "Best Bid" and "Bright War" are still being prepared or promoted.
Hengdian and Lianrui played a combination punch again
Happy Twist is facing Ruyi Pictures
Ali Pictures is willing to be a green leaf
In the summer of 2022, "Life Events", which Hengdian Pictures and Lianrui Pictures once again cooperated, rose against the market and became a dark horse, which in turn also drove the market's trust and expectation for the next cooperation between the two sides.
However, as far as the current number of people who want to see Maoyan, the reality love movie "I Love You" that the two sides came up with this time! 》Limited competitiveness. The film was directed by "Get Out! Tumor Jun" "Send You a Little Red Flower" director Han Yan directed, starring Ni Dahong, Hui Yinghong and so on, the story is adapted from Jiang Cao's original comic of the same name, telling the brave and pure love of two pairs of old people at the end of their lives.
Realistic themes and famous directors blessed, the selection of topics is quite innovative and topical, but "I Love You! The shortcomings of " are also more obvious: first, the original work has a low degree of dissemination in the mainland, and IP empowerment is limited; Second, the actors do not have "traffic" stars, and the all-powerful lineup can maximize the charm of the story and characters, but it is difficult to bring considerable "drainage" effects during the promotion period and early stage of the film's release.
On the other hand, the emergence of contemporaneous projects with a stronger lineup and higher volume greatly diverged "I Love You! attention.
With I Love You! " was released the next day, and the crime suspense film "Disappearing Her" that first locked the Dragon Boat file is Chen Sicheng's new layout after the "Tang Detective" and "Manslaughter" series. The film received unanimous praise when it premiered at the Hainan Island International Film Festival earlier, and the number of people who want to see Maoyan has exceeded 200,000.
I love you! In addition, Hengdian Pictures and Lianrui Pictures also jointly participated in the production of "Drug Sweep 3: People in the End of the World", while Hengdian Pictures participated in the production of "Super Family" and "Warm".
All three movies will be released at the end of July, but compared to "Super Family" and "Warm", "Drug Sweep 3: People in the End of the World" obviously lack a sense of presence.
Specifically, "Super Family", which is the main controller of Happy Twist and starring Shen Teng, is created by the original team of "Shy Iron Fist", which is a pure "twist comedy"; Although the theme of the youth street dance inspirational movie "Warm" controlled by Ruyi Film and directed by Dapeng is relatively niche, it has the strong blessing of the starring cast of "Wang Yibo + Huang Bo".
It should be noted that "Sawtooth Shark 2: The Abyss" starring Jason Statham and Wu Jing has been scheduled for August 4, which is bound to increase the pressure on the scheduling of the three films again.
On the other hand, "Sawtooth Shark 2: The Abyss" and "Super Family" all have Alibaba Pictures behind them, and Ali Pictures also bet on "Don't Call Me "God of Gamblers", but the company has not yet launched a main control project.
Galaxy Cool Entertainment, iQiyi, Beijing Culture
Who will be the "catfish" that stirs the market?
Galaxy Cool Entertainment is one of the earliest online content "unicorn" companies in the market, although due to the decline of "Mars" IP, its voice in the online comprehensive market has weakened visibly in recent years, but before that, Galaxy Cool Entertainment has expanded its business line to film and television dramas, artist management and short video fields, which is also a major reason why it can attract Alibaba's investment.
"Learning Dad" is the first main film of Galaxy Cool Entertainment, although the current number of people who want to see the film does not have a significant advantage in the summer films, but the quality and potential of the film are great.
The two leading actors Huang Bo and Yan Ni are both actors with high national recognition, and the film also focuses on the issue of "young and young" closely related to the public. Compared with the father-son film "Galaxy Cram School", which also has an educational background, the overall style of "Learning Dad" is biased towards comedy, and the viewing threshold is relatively lower, and it is also more suitable for watching movies together and family.
After the first all-pitch and all-control film "Sweeping Black Decisive Battle" counterattack became the dark horse of May 1st in 2021, iQiyi Pictures has become more and more active in the theater market, but the overall progress has not been as smooth as expected, and the two key projects launched this year "Chinese Table Tennis Jedi Strikes Back" and "Loyal Dog Bagong" have failed to create surprises.
This summer, iQiyi's disaster action movie "Jedi Pursuit" and the crime suspense film "Assassination Storm" produced by iQiyi are both directed by Qiu Litao, of which "Jedi Pursuit" will be in the Dragon Boat Show and "Disappearing Her" and "I Love You!" " and "Don't Call Me "God of Gamblers" fight, "Assassination Storm" will face the siege of "School Dad" and "The Last Truth" after its release.
Finally, let's talk about Beijing culture.
Affected by the negative impact of senior management, financial fraud, performance loss, and credit disclosure violations, Beijing Culture quickly fell behind after "The Wandering Earth", losing money continuously from 2019 to 2022, with a cumulative loss of more than 3.2 billion yuan in four years.
In the first quarter of this year, although Beijing's losses continued to shrink, it still did not achieve profitability. Not long ago, the company was questioned by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange because of the "soaring" revenue data in the fourth quarter of the 2022 annual report.
Based on this, the performance of "Fengshen Part 1: Song of the Dynasty" in the summer season is of great significance to Beijing culture.
However, from the beginning of the script creation, this oriental magic giant that benchmarks the Hollywood classic movie "The Lord of the Rings" has been pregnant for nearly 10 years, and in the past 10 years, the film market has undergone earth-shaking changes, and the public's appreciation level and aesthetic ability have already been qualitatively improved. And what will it bring to Beijing's culture? All need to wait and see.
However, before that, Beijing culture needs to ensure that "The First Part of Fengsheng: Song of the Dynasty" can be on the summer file as scheduled.