Chasing light and gambling to win "Chang'an 30,000 Li": children recite poems, middle-aged people cry

Author| Mia

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When "counterattack" became the norm, the summer file ushered in the third dark horse - "Chang'an 30,000 Li".

At the beginning of its release, the Maoyan of "Chang'an 30,000 Li" predicted that the box office landing point was 5-600 million +, and as its reputation continued to ferment, the Douban score rose from 8.1 points at the beginning of the score to 8.2 points, and its box office fell from reverse to outbreak, and its landing point also rose all the way, from 600 million +, 900 million + to the current 1.5 billion +, about to become the highest reputation and box office in the history of chasing light animation.

From the perspective of the box office curve trend, the reverse decline mainly occurred around July 13, which is nearly a week after the first day of release, July 8, which can be described as a model of "relying on word of mouth to leverage box office potential energy" and breaking out the long-tail effect.

According to Maoyan Professional Edition data, at 9:50 on July 16, the total box office (including pre-sales) of the 2023 summer file exceeded 8.5 billion. At the same time, this year may become the "best word of mouth".

With the addition of several blockbuster players such as "The First Part of Fengshen " and "Super Family" this Friday, and "Heat" next week, the goal of breaking the total box office record is getting closer and closer.

168-minute long bet wins: Does "animated historical film" move adults or children?

During the screening period, many practitioners were sweating for "Chang'an 30,000 Li" "the longest in the history of domestic animation films": even live-action movies, rarely more than two hours, because of the frame rendering, animation production cost and duration are directly positively correlated, 168 minutes of nearly three hours in length, beyond the "attention limit" and "bladder limit" of most audiences, squeezing the space of other films, not conducive to film arrangement, and it is even more difficult for children to sit still.

Whether to preserve the integrity of the creation or to market is a dilemma for creators. However, judging from the actual results, "Chang'an 30,000 Li" won the bet. The reason, in addition to evoking emotional killing, perhaps, in the era of attention fragmentation, being able to sit in the theater for three hours without looking at the mobile phone, for the target audience, has completed a very ritualistic emotional resonance with the creator: returning to Shengtang requires "slowness" and immersion.

Judging from the past results, the box office is mostly around 500 million. The red clay small stove is the pseudonym of Wang Wei, the owner of chasing light, and appears in almost every chasing light work. "White Snake 2: The Green Snake Robbery", "New God List" series and other explorations of cyberpunk, steampunk and other visual aesthetics are remarkable, but the script makes people scratch their heads from time to time. Although its screenwriting team is getting bigger and bigger, the decision is still made by Boss Wang.

Fortunately, chasing light has improved. Whether from the perspective of script completion or detailed research, as the opening work of new culture and the tenth anniversary of chasing light, "Chang'an 30,000 Li" is the most attentive in the history of chasing light, and the criticized character modeling, the "five-five-point" horse leg ratio or from Tang Figurines, Tang Sancai, Tang paintings and even the Zhaoling Bajun relief, as a brilliant highlight of the scene of "Will Enter Wine" has been created for nearly two years. 3D landscape, two-dimensional ink and other painting styles are beautiful. Pei XII's character also reflects the progress of women's views.

Strictly speaking, "Chang'an 30,000 Li" is not an "animated film", but a "historical biopic". Its out-of-the-loop logic is similar to the main theme that exploded a few years ago and this year's ticket title "Manjiang Red", which has similarities: it stems from national feelings and cultural identity. Gao Shi, Li Bai and Li Bai have connected a large number of poets in one light and one dark, with the friendship between the two as the shell and the changes of the Tang Dynasty as the core, conveying the mainstream patriotic trend of "defending Chang'an", and finally sublimating the theme of the whole film with the sentence "Poetry is in, books are there, Chang'an is there", which sublimates the theme of the whole film - dynasties rise and fall often, and art is eternal and immortal.

Are the stories of the great poets of the Tang Dynasty easy to shoot? Good to shoot, not good to shoot. "Good shooting" is that Li Bai and Du Fu have their own legendary light, and are at the key node of the decline of the Tang Dynasty to the Middle and Late Tang, there are many historical stories to be explored, as the emotional memory recited by Chinese people since childhood, national cultural IP, popularity and appeal are not weaker than the four famous works, just listing their verses, the literary memory, cultural identity, and national pride evoked have moved a large number of people, and the film does this - there are 48 poems in the whole film, and many adults said: "I saw tears in my eyes." ”

The bad thing about filming is that the film as a "fan secondary creation" inevitably faces historical discrepancies, such as Li Du's first encounter in Tianbao three years, such as Gao Shi did not save Li Bai who was rescued in prison, and Geshuhan did not surrender at the beginning but finally surrendered. Between the virtual and the real, the world that the creator hopes to shape is transmitted.

And genius is not easy to shape, plot choices, character portrayal is bound to cause controversy, such as Li Bai drunken mistakes, Jiang Shang asked his son-in-law, etc., "demeaning Li Yanggao" made many Li Bai fans dissatisfied, feeling that the "symbol of freedom and romance" was damaged, and some film critics have pointed out that the values of the film are biased towards the Confucian practical utilitarian orientation, and the most outstanding merit is Gao Shi, and is shaped as a Forrest Gump-style hero, an idol that ordinary people can imitate. Of course, this must also be the mainstream value that can most arouse empathy at a time when the enthusiasm for public examinations is rising year by year.

Does "Chang'an 30,000 Li" move adults or children? With the idea of taking children to receive the cultural edification of Tang poetry, the group of children and their parents who "recite poetry in the theater" may be the main force contributing to the box office of the film, but the group that promotes the film's word-of-mouth fermentation circle may be mainly middle-aged adults - the entire time span, spanning the Anshi chaos, but also across the lives of Gao Shi and the two, they saw the ups and downs of life in the poet, aroused deep emotional resonance, and spared no effort to be tap water on social media. This is the strength of adult animation: the depth of thought that can be interpreted for multiple interpretations, and the breaking of the circle of topics, which can break the ceiling of the animation genre.

The film is still produced by Chasing Light Animation and Ali Pictures, which have been rigged and cooperated for many times, and has developed poetry collections, joint craft brews and other peripherals. In addition, it is worth mentioning that taking advantage of this summer's "study fever", when the premiere was held in Xi'an, the film party even released four research routes in conjunction with Fliggy Travel. These explorations have broadened the dimension of IP value.

Color Stripe House vs. Chasing Light: The Self-Evolution of National Comic Movies

Every summer, it is also the main battlefield of animated movies.

From the perspective of this year, it is from the June 1st "Doraemon: Nobita and the Sky's Ideal Township", "Tiger Fantasy Stage Adventure" and "Sky City" three animations, and then "Hollywood Team"'s "Spider-Man: Across the Universe" and "Crazy Element City" entered, in addition to "Marshmallow and Cloud Mother 1: Baby Core Movie" and "Super Flying Man: Radius Accelerate" and many other low-age children's animations, "Chang'an 30,000 Li" and "Tea Ah No. 2 Middle School" two adult animations, pushing the summer national comic craze to the climax.

Earlier, from China's first feature film animation "Iron Fan Princess" in 1941 to a batch of masterpieces that emerged in the eighties and nineties, Shanghai Art Film Studio was once the center of "national comic movies", "Trouble in the Heavenly Palace", "Nezha Trouble in the Sea", "Nine Colored Deer", "Hulu Brothers", "Tianshu Qitan", "Laoshan Taoist" and so on are classics in the minds of a generation, and have also enlightened the aesthetics of many animation industry practitioners.

With the outbreak of the national tide, the nearly 1 billion box office in 2015 "Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage" for the first time allowed the industry to see the potential of the national comic market, rekindle confidence, and single-handedly evoked the investment boom of national comics, attracting talents to enter, theater films began to tilt towards animation, "Big Fish and Begonia", "Wind Mantra" and other national comic films have appeared successively, expanding animated films from the field of children to the field of adults.

In 2013, Wang Wei was idealistic and devoted himself to the animation field as the founder of Tudou.com. In the early days, his personal aesthetic-led projects, "Little Door God", "Atang Adventure" and "Cat and Peach Blossom Source" were written and directed by him, without receiving positive feedback from the market, until 2019, "White Snake: Origin", which cooperated with Warner, had a good box office reputation, and the first profitable "White Snake: Origin" became a reversal of chasing light animation, and has since embarked on the road of new compilation of myths and legends.

Almost at the same time, Light was the first to enter the game and gradually established itself as a leader in the field of domestic animation. As the first person in the "Big Five" to put animated films at a strategic height, Color Stripe House was established in 2015, and in about five years, Light invested in more than 20 animation companies, including Tian Xiaopeng's October Culture, Dumpling's Cocoa Bean Animation, Li Wei's Zhongchuan Hedao, Shang You's Haochuan Animation and so on. After long-term cultivation, "Nezha: The Devil Child Descends" that came out in 2019 refreshed the ceiling of national comic movies. In 2022, Light Media established a new label Light Animation, announcing the planning and management of the mythical universe.

In recent years, the national comic film market has gradually formed a pattern of light color stripe house and chasing light animation. Chasing Light has gradually shown its strong industrial production capabilities, but the shortcomings in creativity need to be improved. The Colorstripe House has accumulated a large number of creative talent resources, but external investment forms cooperation, not "direct ownership", and the degree of control and industrialization standards may be limited. This year's Spring Festival file "Deep Sea" is less than expected, proving that the weakness of the screenwriting link is still the pain of national comics.

The enthusiasm for the adaptation of traditional mythological public IP has made the two "collide" from time to time and expand their territory in their respective "Fengshen universe". Caijoya filmed the "Chinese mythology trilogy" "Nezha: The Devil Child Descends" and "Jiang Ziya", while Chasing Light filmed "New God List: Nezha Reborn" and "New God List: Yang Jian". In order to expand the familiar stories of the people across the country into new ideas, most of the stories of the two companies borrow the original characters, shoot the sequel, and find the "resonance of the current era".

In fact, in addition to traditional Chinese myths and legends, the two leading labels are also constantly expanding new fields and constantly achieving self-evolution. Last year's "Out of the Earth" was an attempt at science fiction, and this summer's "Tea Ah No. 2 Middle School" focused on campus comedy and identity exchange. Chasing light animation sets three product lines: new legends, new myths and new culture, "Chang'an 30,000 Li" presents the great potential of the new culture series: it can not only pry parents who want to take their children to study, but also pry the cultural feelings of middle-aged people. Considering the rich and colorful historical and cultural bonanza of the mainland, there are still many IPs available for mining.

According to the Q1 financial report of Guangguang Media in 2023, the Chinese traditional culture reserve projects in its promotion include "Nezha: The Demon Child Troubles the Sea", "Journey to the West: The Great Sage Troubles the Heavenly Palace", "Jiang Ziya 2", "Big Fish and Begonia 2", "Shuo Feng", "The Last Kuiba", "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea", "Dali Temple Journal", "Acacia", "Xiaoqian", "Phoenix", "Red Child", "Erlang God" and so on. "Nezha: The Demon Child Troubles the Sea" and "Xiaoqian" are expected to be released next year, while the first work of Light "Chinese Mythological Universe" is scheduled to be released the year after.

Of course, there are new challengers around the Colorful Stripe House and Chasing Light. After the hit of "Chinese Strange Tan", Shanghai Film Group announced that it would launch a second season, and the big movie "Summer of Little Goblins" has been launched. Beijing wonderfully announced that "Lion Boy 2" will be released in 2024.

"Journey to the Bell Bud" and "Slam Dunk", released in the off-season this year, let the outside world see the energy of the rise of daily comics. For animation practitioners facing difficulties such as long production cycles and difficult commercial returns, in addition to love, they should also think about how to form an industrialized and systematic content system.