Jia Ling, squeezed Andy Lau away?

As of 21:00 on February 17, the total box office of the Spring Festival stalls in 2024 will be 8.02 billion yuan, setting a new record for the box office, number of shows, and number of people in the Spring Festival stalls of Chinese film and television (the previous highest was 7.842 billion yuan in 2021). Among them, "Hot and Hot", "Flying Life 2" and "Bear Infested: Reversing Time and Space" ranked among the top three at the box office.

Among them, Jia Ling's self-directed and self-starred "Hot and Hot" led the Spring Festival with a box office of more than 2.7 billion, while "Mr. Red Carpet" starring Andy Lau was not so lucky.

After a bumper harvest at the box office of several movies, on February 16, the movie "Mr. Red Carpet" and "Huang Pi: The God of Wealth Cat" announced the withdrawal of the Spring Festival file;

From a strategic point of view, "if you can't beat it, you can run" seems to be a rational behavior, but from the results point of view, can they really exchange for their ideal box office after withdrawing?

The official poster of "Hot and Hot" Picture/The official Weibo of the movie "Hot and Hot".

Is it all the fault of the box office?

As of February 17, the box office of "Let's Shake the Sun Together" was 96 million yuan, the box office of "Mr. Red Carpet" was 82 million yuan, the box office of "Eight Rings: The Nether of the Canopy" was 3.2 million yuan, and the box office of "Huang Pi: The God of Wealth Cat" was 900,000 yuan. The box office, film schedule, and attendance rate of these four films are far lower than those of several top films in this year's Spring Festival.

On the evening of February 14, Lianrui Pictures, the main producer of "Let's Shake the Sun Together", announced that the film would be screened on the last day on February 15, and then it would be withdrawn from the Spring Festival file. In the notice issued by Lianrui Pictures, it was clearly stated that he had made a major mistake in the selection of the schedule, which led to the final decision to withdraw the file.

"Let's Shake the Sun Together", which focuses on the seriously ill group, is Han Yan's third work after "Get Out! Tumor Jun" and "Send You a Little Red Flower".

The official poster of "Let's Shake the Sun Together" Picture/The official Weibo of the movie "Let's Shake the Sun Together".

China News Weekly learned that the original target schedule of "Let's Shake the Sun Together" was Valentine's Day, but this year's Valentine's Day was covered by the Spring Festival holiday. In the end, the film announced that the film would be rescheduled to March 30 and then released. After the defeat of the "Spring Festival file", he was ready to rush to the "Qingming file".

Compared with "Let's Shake the Sun Together", the situation of "Mr. Red Carpet" cooperated by Ning Hao and Andy Lau is even less optimistic. On February 10, China News Weekly saw in a cinema in Beijing that the schedule of "Mr. Red Carpet" could reach nearly 10%, but by February 16, in the same movie theater, the schedule of "Mr. Red Carpet" had fallen to less than 2%, and it was not prime time, and even some of the screenings had only single digits.

According to the circular issued by Huanxi Media, the first producer of "Mr. Red Carpet", the total production expenses of "Mr. Red Carpet" are about 260 million yuan, all of which are paid by Huanxi Media Group, of which the cost of starring Andy Lau exceeds 60 million yuan, and according to the proportion of the film box office, the film's account sharing accounts for 36.9%, which means that the total box office of "Mr. Red Carpet" exceeds 720 million yuan in order to recover the cost. But judging from the current box office, it is impossible to achieve this result.

Just one day before the announcement of the withdrawal of "Mr. Red Carpet", on February 15, the leading actor Andy Lau said during the roadshow in Chengdu that the movie appeared at this time to discuss life with everyone and share "understanding and tolerance" with everyone who has watched the movie.

The official poster of "Mr. Red Carpet" / "Mr. Red Carpet" official Weibo

As for the other two withdrawn films, "Eight Rings: The Nether of the Canopy" and "Huang Pi: The God of Wealth Cat" have almost no voice. The vast majority of viewers don't even know that there are these two films. In the eyes of some film critics, these two films show the attribute of "cannon fodder", and they have no competitiveness in the Spring Festival file.

If you can't beat it, you run, and then what?

The concept of ungearing is not new, and the act is simply to trade "time" for "space". However, in recent years, there have not been many cases of box office success after the withdrawal.

In June 2019, the movie "Eight Hundred" was officially announced to be withdrawn, and it was finally delayed for a month, and finally won a box office of 3.1 billion, which was a success in the market;

But the obvious difference between these two movies and the films that were withdrawn during the Spring Festival this year is that they never appeared in front of the audience before they were withdrawn, and the audience already had great expectations for these two films, so they did not form too much negative word-of-mouth.

The situation is clearly opposite after the release. A typical example is the movie "Chinese Ping Pong: The Jedi Strikes Back" released during the Spring Festival in 2023, from the perspective of the movie itself, the film is considered a sincere work in sports-themed movies, but the box office was dismal after the Spring Festival was released that year, and it was changed to a small-scale screening on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year that year, and then the box office performance was still poor after the re-screening, and finally only received 100 million box office, and did not realize the "Jedi Counterattack" as called in its title.

The official poster of "Chinese Ping Pong: The Jedi Strikes Back" Picture/The official Weibo of "Chinese Ping Pong".

Similar to "Chinese Ping Pong: The Jedi Strikes Back", the 4 films that were withdrawn during this year's Spring Festival are all works that have already been unveiled, and the results after the rescheduled release are not optimistic.

Sun Jiashan, an associate researcher at the Central Academy of Culture and Tourism Management, told China News Weekly that from a positive point of view, the withdrawal has room for maneuver for some films;

In Sun Jiashan's view, the reason why some films know that their characteristics do not match the Spring Festival file is that compared with other schedules, the Spring Festival file and the National Day file are relatively guaranteed schedules. Compared with the 3-month summer file, the time variables of a week are smaller, and compared with the National Day file that was formed later, the Spring Festival file is more important for all filmmakers, it can not only lay the foundation for a year, but also affect the publicity and scheduling plans of the films and artists behind them.

"In fact, there are only 4 schedules for the full year, the New Year, the Spring Festival, the summer, the National Day, and the industrial development is still being explored, so there is no perfect standard, because there is no standard, so there are not too many shortcuts. Sun Jiashan believes that although there are no standards and shortcuts, at least they must conform to the national conditions and cultural atmosphere of the mainland.

""I Am Not the God of Medicine" was a success in the summer of that year, but it would be miserable to put this movie in the Spring Festival file, because no one wants to watch this kind of content during the Chinese New Year. Sun Jiashan said.

Regarding whether it will be successful after the withdrawal, Sun Jiashan said that it mainly depends on the cost of film production, and the lower the cost, the greater the room for maneuver. From this point of view, among the 4 withdrawn films in the Spring Festival, Sun Jiashan believes that "Let's Shake the Sun Together" may have a greater roundabout, and the chance of finally achieving a return on investment is greater.

"The key question is not to withdraw the file, but whether you can find a suitable file for yourself after the withdrawal, it is impossible not to play without playing during the Spring Festival, to wait for another pie to fall from the sky, and make money at the box office. Sun Jiashan said.

Is "split line issuance" feasible?

In October last year, at the 24th National Film Promotion Conference and the 1st National Film Market, the producers and distributors of 24 films such as "Reunion Again" and "No Problem" signed contracts with theaters that reached cooperation intentions and decided to implement separate distribution.

The so-called split distribution is to distinguish the distribution model of the current film in theaters across the country, and different theaters can screen different films according to the needs of different users. But in this year's Spring Festival, in the new round of games between the filmmakers and the theater chain, the contradictions brought about by the distribution of the separate lines have gradually surfaced.

The person in charge of a cinema chain in a central city told China News Weekly that before the Spring Festival this year, some distributors put forward specific requirements for sub-line distribution, and the number of screenings in the first two days of the Spring Festival should not be less than 22% of the total number of screenings in the cinema, and even required the two films to be bundled together.

At the end of January this year, the China Film Producers Association, the China Film Distribution and Projection Association, and representatives of eight investors and producers of Spring Festival films finally held a symposium on the distribution and screening of Spring Festival films, and said that no unit or organization can use its dominant market position to interfere in market business activities, including film scheduling, and make restrictive arrangements for the legitimate business activities of various market entities.

Separate distribution is by no means useless, the films screened between theaters are different, and in order to be responsible for their own choices, each will prompt them to carry out more publicity for a single film, and even create their own theater "personality temperament", which can also gain something in the market segment.

From this point of view, the distribution of sub-lines requires more refined marketing methods, more and more professional cinema-related practitioners, and a period of time to screen and cultivate audiences.

If some theaters that focus on animated movies appear, works such as "Bajie: The Nether of the Canopy" and "Huang Pi: The God of Wealth from the Sky" may be able to slightly improve the embarrassing situation of this year's Spring Festival.

Although in this year's Spring Festival, the "split line issuance" did not achieve the desired effect, but there was a lot of controversy, but through continuous reciprocal exchanges, it will not present a different situation.

Just before the release of "Mr. Red Carpet", director Ning Hao said in an interview, "We have no shortage of very lively films, and I am tired of filming myself, and I want to shoot something calm." ”

But it turns out that the audience of the Spring Festival stalls still prefers lively movies, and I don't know if the box office of "Mr. Red Carpet" in the end can make Ning Hao "calm down".

Reporter: Ji Anbing

Editor: Hu Yun