"All or Nothing" is on fire, will Bad Monkey's next hit be far away?

The popularity of "All or Nothing" is easily reminiscent of the summer five years ago.

The summer of 2018 hit the World Cup, and the whole network was focused on the green field, and just when the film market was still hesitantly waiting, "I Am Not the God of Medicine" unexpectedly ran into a dark horse.

"I Am Not the God of Medicine" has been screened for three rounds, rhythmically achieving a circle-breaking effect through word of mouth. The first round of "thousands of people point screening", the formation of the industry's word-of-mouth praise, the second round of large-scale screening, the fan group for word-of-mouth spread, to the third round of screening, social discussion reached a peak, in the case of weekdays, the attendance rate reached more than 40%, with 9.1%, 10.9% of the film, won 43.1%, 52.1% of the box office proportion, and then put it out, the first day of box office 160 million, and finally received 3.1 billion box office, becoming the 2018 summer box office champion, but also the current realistic theme box office ceiling.

"I am not the God of Medicine"

Five years later, the same blockbuster route, "All or Nothing" also went through. The same hot screening period, the same realistic theme caused heated discussions, the same record-breaking box office results, and, also born out of the bad monkey's "72 Change Film Project".

It can be said that the success of "I Am Not the God of Medicine" and "All or Nothing" has provided opportunities for small and medium-sized production-level films to fight big with small and medium-sized production standards, and also made the realistic theme a hot spot in the market, but while the market is looking forward to the next dark horse, it is also waiting to see whether this set of explosive secrets can be reproduced again?

The furious road of "All or Nothing"

Summer is not at the last minute, anything is possible.

Just when the industry was speculating that "Disappearing Her" might become the box office champion in the summer of 2023, "All or Nothing" was born. 172 million on the day of screening, 537 million in 3 days of screening, breaking the box office record in Chinese film history, breaking the 1 billion mark in 3 days of official release, the final box office forecast continues to rise, and the film history record is constantly updated - the lively situation of the summer file is more unpredictable due to "All or Nothing".

Since its release, the proportion of films in "All or Nothing" has remained above 40%, and the proportion of box office has been maintained at about 60%, thanks to the soaring "Desperate Bet", the summer box office has exceeded 17 billion, according to Tuopu data forecast, the cumulative box office of the summer file is expected to land at 19 billion, up 108% year-on-year. In the face of the explosive growth of the box office in the summer that exceeded expectations, Tuopu data raised the final box office for the whole year of 2023, which is expected to hit 57 billion, which means that the film market will return to the pre-epidemic level of ninety percent.

Behind the super high box office results is the accurate insight and judgment of reality in "All or Nothing". For the first time, the film brings the inside story of the fraud industry chain to the big screen, and carefully portrays the deception experience of different types of victims, allowing the audience to substitute into it and generate strong emotions. On Weibo, along with the popularity of the movie, the topic of "anti-fraud" has become more popular, "the fraud methods you have encountered", "who do you remember after watching the desperate bet" and other related topics, netizens start from their own experience to tell the fraud experience, behind the strong desire to express is that the film is in line with the rising social atmosphere of "national anti-fraud" in the past two years.

"Desperate" was sloganed during the publicity period, "one more person watching the movie, one less person being deceived", on the basis of ensuring the entertainment of the movie, it improved the audience's vigilance against fraud and had certain social significance. It can be seen from the audience's enthusiasm for "All or Nothing" that the social attributes of the film are being tapped, the topical reality theme has become the audience's interest, and the results of high-grossing films such as "Disappearing Her" and "In the Octagon" are also secretly in line with this set of explosive theories.

Of course, the audience's interest in realistic themes is not sudden, and its market potential has always been not to be underestimated.

Bad monkeys see "reality"

In 2018, the popularity of "I Am Not the God of Medicine" is a strong call from the audience for realistic movies.

Focusing on the practical dilemmas of medicine, "I Am Not the God of Medicine", with the protagonist Cheng Yong's growth transformation in the process of buying and selling medicine prompts the audience to think about the complex human nature and medical environment, which completely enriches the audience's demand for a realistic theme, which is why today, five years later, "I Am Not the God of Medicine" still maintains a good result - on Douban, 2.1 million people scored a high score of 9.0.

Even, the discussion triggered by the film overshadowed the film itself, the sociality of the film exceeded the entertainment, and after "I Am Not the God of Medicine" promoted the implementation of social measures such as the price reduction and supply of national anti-cancer drugs, and at the level of humanistic care of film art, it set an example for realistic films.

As the main producer of "I Am Not the God of Medicine", Bad Monkey is keenly aware of the audience's viewing needs in the current film environment and draws inspiration from reality. For example, the debut film "The Beneficiary" of the Olympic bid is based on the theme of insurance fraud, and inserts social issues such as online live broadcast chaos and women's survival dilemma into the comedy plot that is ridiculous.

In the real problems to find the life difficulties of ordinary people, show the fate of small people, and give a certain amount of realistic care, it can be seen that realistic movies not only meet the content needs of fans, but also give a film a profound significance of the times.

In fact, from the fifth generation director "Qiu Ju Fights the Lawsuit" to the sixth generation director "Three Gorges Good Man" and "Dog Thirteen", the creation of realistic themes has never stopped. In the process of social progress, consumption concepts, fashion trends or social phenomena are shaping the content creation of realistic themes little by little, and film, as the most widely accepted cultural consumption of the public, has also invisibly formed another social observation, projecting the ideological changes of the current mass group.

However, for film, the change is not limited to the content level, and the "form" has also improved. In the process of marketization, commercial films have obvious advantages, and films with commercial attributes are more competitive in the market, which also promotes the transformation of realistic works to commercial films.

Under this trend, the use of drama means to complete the typification of realistic themes has become an urgent problem to be solved in the film industry, so that the film can improve the commercial value on the basis of the content of realistic themes, as well as the typology of narrative, such as the comedy attributes of "The Beneficiary" are obvious, and the crime film characteristics of "All or Nothing" are significant, helping the film form a certain market influence, promoting the realism theme to radiate more widely, and touching more moviegoers.

《Beneficiary》

Bad Monkey's mature operation of the social realist commercial genre film model has explored a feasible path for the film market, as a film company, there are enough opportunities to explore realistic topics closely related to ordinary people, and it has more confidence to lead aspiring young creators to enter.

Young creativity

Young high-quality creators are one of the important driving forces for Chinese films to thrive, and film companies value this even more. Taking Bad Monkey Pictures as an example, in 2016 it launched the "Bad Monkey 72 Change Film Project", which aims to support young and creative local directors and signed 10 young directors such as Lu Yang, Wen Muye, Shen Ao, Zeng Zeng, and Wang Zizhao.

In the current impetuous film environment, it is undoubtedly a rare and scarce thing to be willing to spend years as the production cycle to train young directors, which requires a strong sense of responsibility in the film and television industry, and the responsibility for young directors is just serious about the film industry.

Wang Yibing, CEO of Bad Monkey Pictures, once said frankly in the report that Bad Monkey has high requirements for scripts, and as the first work of a new director, he hopes to be successful, not to say purely commercial success, but ontologically, including artistry, ornamental and commercial. "Just like the agricultural civilization period of spring plowing and autumn harvest, film creation is urgent, it really needs to be carried out according to the laws of nature."

From the creative experience of several directors signed by Bad Monkey, it can be found that on the basis of having high-quality film creation ability, their styles are different, which is precisely the characteristics of young directors that Bad Monkey needs - breaking bottlenecks and pushing new innovations.

"People's Daily" once mentioned in a report that Ning Hao, as the artistic director of Bad Monkey Pictures, believes that "bad" is not a negative word, it has something to do with innovation. "People who follow the rules and are too well-behaved cannot engage in creation, and creation must break the established rules in order to have new things appear." Innovation is a very important quality in both research and technology. Dare to doubt certain laws, and in this sense 'bad' means innovation. ”

Films need innovation to give a steady stream of inspiration, but limited by the current creative environment of producer or producer-centered production, many times young directors' sense of innovation is shackled and cannot be truly expressed, which is also a major reason why young directors are accused of exhausting their talents after entering the film market.

Full respect and trust is an important prerequisite to ensure that the potential of young directors can be maximized. When Bad Monkey faces the projects of young directors, the two sides establish an equal relationship to cooperate, which protects the creative self-confidence of young directors and stimulates their creative enthusiasm and talent.

For young directors, what is really needed to enter the film industry is not the guidance and adjustment of film concepts, but the help at the production level. Lack of funds, rusty production links, these running-in in the film production process often consume their creative passion and hinder their creative inspiration, which is the biggest difficulty faced by many young directors at present.

In the interview, Ning Hao once said that the "new" director is only less experience in shooting works, which does not mean that his ability and thinking are lacking, more often, he is willing to be an art director, and if the other party does not make a request, he will participate in the creation as little as possible. "I always feel like my job is like sparring, the director is a boxer, I am a sparring partner, take your punches, find your way, and inspire you better."

A real "sparring" should be more reflected in the guidance of the film industry process, providing comprehensive industry chain services, from production to distribution and promotion, carrying out perfect system operations, solving the worries of young directors and helping them advance to a mature director faster. In Bad Monkey, Wen Muye's growth from "I Am Not the God of Medicine" to "Miracle Stupid Child" can be seen that he is more skilled in genre control, and the two films have made him an influential commercial film director at present, and likewise, he can clearly feel the rapid growth of the Olympic bid from "Beneficiary" to "Desperate".

"I Am Not the God of Medicine", "Miracle Stupid Child", "Beneficiary", "All or Nothing"

In this way, "All or Nothing" has become the finale of this summer, which seems to be an accident, but it has actually been fixed.

"I Am Not the God of Medicine" is the beginning, but "All or Nothing" is not the end, Bad Monkey currently has a number of high-quality works in preparation, and is about to be completed, and the "Bilibili X Bad Monkey 73 Change Youth Director Program" cooperated with Station B, and the short film "Big World Gacha Machine" directed by "Bad Monkey Army" has been launched. Bad monkeys who insist on slow work and meticulous work maintain strong productivity and continuously produce suitable works for the market and audience.

"Big World Gacha Machine"

In general, as a three-month big schedule, the summer file largely determines what number the annual box office is finally fixed on, and the follow-up potential of "All or Nothing" determines the final results of the summer file, who is the biggest winner of the schedule is unknown, but for the rapidly changing film market, whether to break the box office record is just a moment, more importantly, after this moment, what is left in the film market and where will it go?

Perhaps by the time the next blockbuster appears, the answer to this question will already be certain, but before the answer is revealed, Bad Monkey and many young creators are already on the line.