According to the data of Lighthouse Professional Edition, as of 11:11 on February 15, the total box office (including pre-sale) of the 2024 Spring Festival (February 10-February 17) exceeded 6 billion yuan!
There is no doubt that the focus of this year's Spring Festival stalls is on Jia Ling and the movie "Hot and Hot" directed by Jia Ling. Since its official release on February 10, the first day of the Lunar New Year, Jia Ling and "Hot and Hot" have firmly occupied social media screens, and various hot search topics have emerged one after another. Topics such as "Jia Ling's abdominal muscles" and "Jia Ling now" have accumulated nearly 2 billion readings on Weibo, and keywords such as "Jia Ling's weight line chart", "Jia Ling's weight loss full record", "hot and piping hot release", "hot and hot easter eggs" and other keywords frequently appear on the hot search list.
The much-discussed "Hot and Hot" did not live up to the audience's expectations, the box office of the film reached 420 million on the first day, and on the second day of release, it counterattacked "Flying Life 2" and topped the single-day box office list. In only 2 days, 7 hours and 50 minutes, the box office successfully exceeded the 1 billion mark, becoming the 113th film in the history of Chinese film to break 1 billion at the box office.
"Hot and Hot" is a remake of the Japanese movie "100 Yuan Love", which is Jia Ling's second self-directed and self-starred work. The film tells the story of the heroine Le Ying (played by Jia Ling), who has been at home for a long time, decides to change her lifestyle, starts to learn boxing after meeting boxing coach Hao Kun (played by Lei Jiayin), and gradually falls in love. However, the road to life has not always been easy, and the challenges that come one after another have left Le Ying feeling deeply stressed. Eventually, she managed to lose weight and stand in the ring to defeat herself.
Jia Ling has put a lot of effort into this new film. According to her, the filming lasted a year, went through the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, and was turned on five times (one more because I was too tired). "I also managed to lose 100 pounds and develop the image of a boxer. ”
Stills from the movie "Hot and Hot".
Today, the record of "Hot and Hot" is still being refreshed, and Maoyan Professional Edition has also raised the film's total box office forecast in the mainland from 3.7 billion yuan to 4.47 billion yuan. If the final box office of "Hot and Hot" can reach this number, it means that among the top 10 Chinese films in the box office list, the films directed by Jia Ling will occupy two seats. She is also expected to become the next 10 billion box office director.
The popularity of the Spring Festival box office is inseparable from the popularity of the majority of movie audiences. With the development of the times, watching a movie on the first day of the Lunar New Year has become the default New Year's custom of the post-80s and post-00s. The activity of the first year of junior high school is not to play mahjong, that is, to go to the movies.
"Watching movies" is becoming a seemingly self-evident new custom, and the Spring Festival file has also become the most competitive movie schedule, with various trailers and theme songs on the battlefield, which is simply a "fairy fight".
So, where does the concept of Spring Festival stalls come from?
Our memory of watching movies during the Chinese New Year, a concept that is more ancient than the "Spring Festival file" is the New Year movie.
The first to start the road of Chinese New Year films was Jackie Chan's "Brothers and Sisters", which was released a week before the 1981 Lunar New Year, and in order to echo the atmosphere of the Chinese New Year, the poster of the film deliberately chose the background of the lion dance.
Stills from the movie "Junior Brother Goes Out".
At that time, Jackie Chan was still a 26-year-old little fresh meat, and this movie also became the first movie in Hong Kong film history to break 10 million.
When Jackie Chan came to record the 2024 Henan Spring Festival Gala this year, he came by car, and many netizens lamented that Jackie Chan has always been approachable for decades.
In 1981, Xu Guanwen's "Modern Bodyguard" was released a week before the Spring Festival, and the slogan of "Chinese New Year film" was first proposed, and in 1982, Xu Guanwen's "Best Partner" was released. Both of these films were box office champions that year, and they broke the 15 million and 20 million lines of Hong Kong films in a row.
Stills from the movie "Best Partner".
For three consecutive years, the annual box office champions of Hong Kong films have all belonged to the "Chinese New Year films" of the Spring Festival stalls, and the concept of Chinese New Year films has been officially established in Hong Kong and has become the most worthwhile movie to watch every year in people's minds.
Later, many classics emerged in the Chinese New Year films of Hong Kong films, such as Dong Bi's "Rich and Powerful" series, and Stephen Chow's series of comedies.
However, the most familiar Chinese New Year film to the audience must be the "Happy Event" series started in 1992 by "Happy Events in the Family", which was simply made into a serial.
Stills from the movie "Happy Events in the Family".
The development of Chinese New Year stalls in the Mainland
Hong Kong New Year films always have a strong "Wishing you prosperity" atmosphere, and this tradition was also transplanted when Chinese New Year films were introduced into mainland films, adding some local humanistic care.
At the beginning of "Party A and Party B", the pioneering work of the Chinese New Year film in the mainland, the sentence "I wish the people of the whole country a good year of the tiger" points out that my film is for the Chinese New Year. Many viewers are most impressed by the film, which is the sentence "1997 has passed, I miss it very much".
Stills from the movie "Party A and Party B".
In order to avoid head-on confrontation with Jackie Chan's upcoming "Who Am I", which was released on January 17, 1998, the film was brought forward to December 24, 1997, and was an instant hit at that time.
Feng Xiaogang's later "See You or Leave", "Endless" and "Big Names" all achieved box office successes, and also won the annual box office championship of domestic films twice.
The Fung Comedy that took over the Chinese New Year film launched the brand, and later the concept of the Chinese New Year film specifically refers to the Chinese New Year film led by the Fung comedy.
As the most commercially successful film genre of that era, Chinese New Year films sent Chinese cinema into the new century.
Around the year 2000, when the Internet was not as widespread as it is now, one of the reasons why a movie was not released simultaneously across the country was that there was no way to prepare as many copies of the film.
Therefore, the first round will be released in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, the second round will be released in provincial capitals and economically developed cities in various provinces, and the third round will sink to other cities in various provinces.
At that time, domestic blockbusters like "Hero" and "Wuji" generally lasted from the end of December of that year to the Spring Festival in February of the following year. Movies released during this time can be called Chinese New Year movies.
When will the Chinese New Year stalls be distinguished from the Spring Festival stalls?
During the Spring Festival in 2013, Stephen Chow's movie reappeared again after 5 years, and chose to be released on the first day of the Lunar New Year. "Journey to the West", which was released on February 10 of that year, won the annual box office championship in one fell swoop.
Stills from the movie "Journey to the West".
As a result, the Spring Festival stalls became popular again. After experiencing the madness of "Mermaid" breaking 3 billion in 2016, no one doubts the box office magic of the Spring Festival stalls.
followed by 2015's "Detective Chinatown 1", "Where Are You Going, Dad", 2016's "Mermaid", 2017's "Riding the Wind and Waves", 2018's "Operation Red Sea", "Detective Chinatown 2", 2023's "The Wandering Earth 2", "Man Jianghong" and other films, the concept of "Spring Festival file" is deeply rooted in the hearts of young fans.
Singer Zhou Shen, who once sang the theme song "People Is" for "The Wandering Earth 2", joined the Henan Spring Festival Gala "Again and Shuangjia", bringing the song "If You Miss It, You Miss" One person plays the triangle, one eye is ten thousand years, and one song is in a dream.
Nowadays, I believe that when many people mention the name of the film, they will think of not only the plot of the film, but also the Spring Festival memories of the year when they watched the movie.
In people's past impressions, the main task of the Spring Festival is to visit relatives and friends, and watching movies is not a necessary choice.
Driven by the Spring Festival homecoming tide and the continuous acceleration of urban construction, "watching movies" during the Spring Festival has become a kind of "just need" action close to the general public: from individuals to families, from big cities to towns, in a sense, "watching movies" is not only a New Year's custom, but also constitutes a daily way of life, with more imagination space worth looking forward to.
Nowadays, the significance of movies for the Spring Festival contains more aspects of life.
Which movie did you watch this year's Spring Festival?
Come and share your pick movies in the comment section!