Over 9 billion! A number of high-reputation films have been released, and this summer's box office is a bit fierce

【Global Times special correspondent Dong Ming】The summer file that began on June 1 has passed the halfway through the trip, and as of the afternoon of July 17, this year's summer box office has exceeded 9 billion yuan. With the release of many films such as "Disappearing Her", "In the Octagon Cage" and "Chang'an 30,000 Li", the continuous high reputation and high box office have led to the domestic film market, coupled with the next "Fengshen Part 1", "Super Family" and "Warm" and other new films to take over, this year's Chinese summer file is expected to return to or even exceed the pre-epidemic level.

Poster for the movie "Chang'an 30,000 Li"

High box office, high reputation

This summer's file presents the characteristics of high box office, high reputation, rich genres, and its own topics, providing a wealth of choices for the general audience. According to the statistics of Maoyan Professional Edition, the top three box office in this summer's file are the suspense film "Disappearing Her" (3.4 billion yuan), the realistic theme "In the Octagon Cage" (1.56 billion yuan) adapted from the true story, and the cartoon "Chang'an 30,000 Li" (750 million yuan) showing the flourishing Tang style. If you are interested in Hollywood blockbusters, audiences can also choose "Transformers: The Rise of the Power Warriors" (650 million yuan), "Spider-Man: Across the Universe" (350 million yuan), and the just-released "Mission Impossible 7" (200 million yuan).

This year's domestic films have significantly overwhelmed Hollywood movies in terms of box office and attention, and some Hollywood IPs that have been influential in the market have weak follow-up: Warner/DC's annual highlight "The Flash" has a box office of only 180 million yuan in China, Disney/Pixar's animated film "Crazy Element City" has a box office of 110 million yuan, Harrison Ford's classic adventure series "Indiana Jones 5" is only 23.66 million yuan, which is not as good as the two Japanese cartoons "Sky City" (130 million yuan) and " Doraemon: Nobita and the Ideal Township of the Sky (100 million yuan) attracts Chinese audiences.

Engage audiences of all ages

While obtaining a high box office, the reputation of new films in this summer's new film has generally improved, and the Douban score of "Chang'an 30,000 Li" and "Tea Ah No. 2" currently in the file has exceeded 8.0, and the 7.9 and 8.6 of "Mission Impossible 7" and "Spider-Man: Across the Universe" are among the best in new Hollywood films, "I Love You!" Realist works such as "In the Octagon Cage" have also been recognized by audiences of all ages. These films not only attracted the attention of ordinary audiences, but also continued to ferment on social media, triggering secondary topics.

This summer's Hollywood movies still feature special effects and action scenes as selling points, such as the various thrilling scenes in "Mission Impossible 7" in which Tom Cruise personally plays, the dazzling robot fights and superpower special effects in "Transformers: The Rise of the Power Warriors" and "The Flash" and "Spider-Man: Across the Universe", which still reflect the level of Hollywood's film industry, while there is no lack of innovation in genre films. However, Hollywood's technological advantages have become commonplace in the eyes of today's Chinese audiences, after all, the subject matter is disconnected from daily life, resulting in a lack of emotional resonance, easy to fall into aesthetic fatigue and difficult to stir up social communication topics.

Poster for the movie "Mission Impossible 7"

After years of accumulation, domestic films have gradually grasped the "pain points" of Chinese audiences, and by excavating themes that are more in line with reality and schedules, the film has triggered topic fermentation after its release, and exploded the box office in the long run. Although "Disappearing Her" is a fictional suspense story "How did a strange woman become my wife", it is based on a real case, and after being "out of the circle" on many social platforms, the box office soared from the previously predicted 700 million yuan to 3.4 billion yuan.

Wang Baoqiang's "In the Octagon Cage" is also adapted from real events, and Wang Baoqiang, as the director and protagonist, tells the audience more about the plight of the teenager in the film and the bitterness of the coach through the perspective of the male protagonist. The release of two domestic animations "Chang'an 30,000 Li" and "Tea Ah No. 2 Middle School" also coincides with the target audience of the summer file: the former's panoramic display of Chinese culture and history, and the group portrait portrayal of Li Bai, Gao Shi and other Tang poets, which is not only suitable for students who are studying poetry, but also makes middle-aged audiences quite emotional; The latter accurately captures the preferences of young audiences in the summer through the joyful high school life and northeastern accent, and has become another dark horse in this summer.

There are still a lot of new films in the second half

The current pattern of summer files can be seen through the distribution map of "box office crowns of various provinces in the country" on the Maoyan platform: the realistic theme of "Octagonal Cage" has become the box office champion in most provinces and cities in the country, "Chang'an 30,000 Li" won the box office championship in Shaanxi and surrounding provinces such as Gansu and Shanxi where Xi'an is located, as well as Beijing, "Cha Ah Er Zhong" unsurprisingly ranked first in the box office of the three eastern provinces, and "Mission Impossible 7" only led in Shanghai...

In the second half of the next summer season, there will be new domestic films such as "The First Part of Fengsheng", "Super Family", "Warm", "Learning Dad", "All or Nothing", "The Last Truth", "Boyhood", as well as imported films and co-productions such as "Barbie", "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Smash Bros", "Megalodon 2" and other imported films and co-productions have been released one after another, which is expected to continue the increasingly popular market. Under this trend, this year's summer file is expected to hit the record of 17.7 billion yuan in 2019, helping China's film market to fully recover and move towards the annual box office mark of 60 billion yuan.