Feng Xiaogang, Ge You, and Fan Wei jointly created the movie "If You Are Honest Do Not Disturb 3" encountered a box office winter, and failed to break through the 100 million yuan mark within ten days of release, and its reputation was mediocre. What's the problem?
One of the possible reasons may be related to cross talk actor Yue Yunpeng. He doesn't appear much in the movie, only three scenes. These scenes are not substantially related to the overall plot of the movie, and even if they are deleted, it will not affect the storyline. The image of the bionic robot played by Yue Yunpeng only appears in three clips.
In the first scene, he appeared under the stage name "Chengru" and was ridiculed by the great director, the second scene was when the great director was serving as a life mentor, he appeared as an assistant, and the third scene was a dialogue with the great director, and he made some sarcasm on the master. Although these scenes are interesting, they do not stick to the core of the movie.
In addition to Yue Yunpeng's role, the role of Hokkaido farmer Wu Sang is also a bit redundant. The plot of him and Qin Fen going to an izakaya may be a little nostalgic, but it has little to do with the overall plot. In contrast, Wu Sang appeared in the first two films, and he also intersected with Qin Fen, and there is a certain historical precipitation.
Therefore, the box office slump of the movie "If You Are the Truth, Do Not Disturb 3" may be related to the fact that some characters have too many scenes and do not stick to the main plot.
In fact, characters such as Jianguo played by Chang Yuan, Mango played by Yao Chen, and Chuan Chuan played by Guan Xiaotong have almost nothing to do with the main story, and are more like a continuation of the previous work. Even Li Chengru's role in the movie "Private Custom" has also appeared, but Yue Yunpeng is a character added out of thin air in "If You Are Honest Do Not Disturb 3", and it has little to do with the main plot, which is indeed a little weird.
The second is the embarrassing performance, Yue Yunpeng plays the bionic robot as a comedian, and his character design is mainly to create jokes. However, in "If You Are the Truth, Do Not Disturb 3", the funny scenes around Yue Yunpeng are both lacking in innovation and a little embarrassing. First of all, in the part where Yue Yunpeng appeared, the movie still used an old-fashioned stalk like "Guo Degang and the relationship between apprentices", which has been spread on the Internet for nearly ten years, and the so-called "Yunhe Nine Dragons and Dragons Soaring All Over the World" is even more annoying, and even fans of Deyun Club may find it boring. Secondly, when Yue Yunpeng appeared, his expression still continued his usual cheap and cute characteristics, coupled with the old "loyalty to the master" stalk, which made the audience feel embarrassed.
Although there is something new about the rivalry between the great mentor and apprentice who uses chicken soup for the soul to fool customers, in the end, it still mixes chicken soup for the soul with funny jokes, which sounds like a joke between chicken soup and ridicule, like chicken soup mixed with cola, although it is indeed delicious but the taste is a little awkward.
Of course, these embarrassing scenes cannot be blamed solely on Yue Yunpeng, nor can they be blamed on Li Chengru. After all, the plot is conceived by the screenwriter, the film is shot by the director, and the actors are just characters who carry out the shooting task. Therefore, the awkward scenes cannot be blamed entirely on the actors.
Secondly, on the issue of overestimation of traffic and word-of-mouth. Viewers who watch "Do Not Disturb 3" may feel an emotion of paying tribute to the previous work, especially the appearance of characters such as Mango, Chuanchuan, Jianguo, Wu Sang, and Lao Fan in the movie. However, Yue Yunpeng's role is more like the result of Feng Xiaogang's compromise on traffic. Perhaps influenced by the success of Zhang Yimou's "Man Jianghong" at the box office, Feng Xiaogang mistakenly thought that Yue Yunpeng's traffic could bring some box office. In addition, he has a good personal relationship with Guo Degang, and for the sake of business reciprocity, he also decided to arrange Yue Yunpeng to show his face in "If You Are Honest Do Not Disturb 3".
In fact, the success of "Man Jianghong" is first due to its subject matter. Yue Fei and "Man Jianghong" have a huge influence among the audience. Secondly, the influence of Zhang Yi, Shen Teng, Lei Jiayin and other acting powerhouses also played an important role. These actors are at the peak of their careers in terms of acting skills, traffic, and word-of-mouth. Thirdly, the traffic driven by Yi Yang Qianxi is also a key factor in success. In comparison, Yue Yunpeng's traffic is not comparable to Yi Yang Qianxi.
In addition to overestimating Yue Yunpeng's own traffic, Feng Xiaogang may have overestimated Yue Yunpeng's reputation. He may think that Yue Yunpeng's audience base can also drive the box office, but this may not be the case.
Yue Yunpeng once won a good reputation for his cute expression and down-to-earth performance style, but that was when he was in his twenties. Now, in 2024, Yue Yunpeng will be over thirty-eight years old and is almost regarded as an uncle-level figure. However, his performance style still stays on the image of cuteness. In addition to attracting iron fans, other audiences have long felt aesthetic fatigue.
It is worth comparing that Xiao Shenyang, who also had a cheap style when he first debuted, was willing to give up traffic and pursue a new style in order to transform. In contrast, Yue Yunpeng has always maintained a cute image for many years, which makes his reputation unsustainable.
What's even more troublesome is that his performance on the cross talk stage in 2023 has also been criticized. From the "roast chicken cross talk" at the beginning of the year to the "crawling cross talk" at the end of the year, they were all ridiculed by the Internet group. Even during the New Year's Day holiday when the movie "If You Are the Truth 3" was released, he performed a "crawling on the ground" program on the stage that made the audience cry and laugh.
Not only that, when some people on the Internet hyped the news that Yue Yunpeng would participate in the 2024 Spring Festival Gala, many netizens also expressed their disgust. It can be seen that Yue Yunpeng is no longer the popular Yue Yunpeng he used to be.
In short, Feng Xiaogang may have made the mistake of empiricism, mistakenly thinking that Yue Yunpeng could bring some unexpected box office benefits to "If You Are Honest 3" with his traffic and reputation, so he designed a few unrelated funny scenes for him alone.
"Do Not Disturb 3" and Yue Yunpeng's own problems led to an unexpected lose-lose situation, which included redundant scenes and embarrassing performances.