1905 Movie Network Special Article "A Real Feast for the Senses", "Crying Like a Child After Watching the Film", "The Most Beautiful Animated Film Ever", ...... The movie "Deep Sea" was released in France for three weeks, with more than 150,000 viewers, setting a new record for the number of viewers of a Chinese film released in France in the past three years, and at the same time receiving praise from the French mainstream media and audiences.
"Fengshen Part 1: Chao Song Fengyun", which landed in French theaters on February 11 and 12, was also praised by local audiences, and even French audiences said that it was better than Marvel's superhero movies. "Fengshen Part 1" has been screened in more than 140 theaters in France and nearly 500 screenings, and its distribution scale exceeds that of North America. In just two days of special screenings, all the screenings of UGC les halles, the world's number one cinema in the heart of Paris, were sold out, breaking the record for the early screening of Max Linder, one of the most famous independent cinemas in Paris since the pandemic.
The Spring Festival films "Flying Life 2", "Article 20" and "Hot and Hot" are also in the new year, continuing to expand the "going to sea" team of Chinese films.
"Flying Life 2" will be released simultaneously in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and China on February 10, the first day of the Lunar New Year, and won the box office champion of Chinese films in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand during the 2024 Spring Festival. "Article 20" has been released in Australia, North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland and other places since February 22, and topped the global weekend box office of the week in its first weekend. "Hot and Hot" landed in North America on March 8 and was released in 200 theaters on the first day, creating the largest opening of a Chinese film in North America in the past ten years.
Among them, Sony Pictures obtained the remake rights of "Hello, Li Huanying" and bought the global distribution rights of "Hot and Hot", which is the first film in Chinese mainland that Sony Pictures has purchased global distribution rights without participating in the production, and it is also the domestic film that Sony Pictures has released globally again after 9 years. Jia Ling's two directorial works have embarked on a new path for Chinese films to "go overseas".
Compared with the heyday of costume blockbusters such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero" that swept the world more than 20 years ago, today's updated Chinese films have also handed over a breakthrough report card from "going out" to gradually "going in".
How did "The Deep" go deep into France?
As of March 17, the cumulative number of viewers of "Deep Sea" in France has reached 162,217. The last Chinese film to be the highest-grossing film in French cinemas was "The Party at the Southern Station", which was watched by 227,691 people. Ma Leimeng, general manager of FORTISSIMO FILMS and overseas distributor of "Deep Sea", said in an interview with 1905 Film Network.
The number of screens on the first day of "Deep Sea" in France was 324, and the scale of its release in France was the sixth largest in the history of Chinese films in France. There were "Heroes", "Red Cliffs", "Kung Fu", etc., and the first place was "Wolf Totem", with 383 screens.
Ma Lemeng said that there are two main types of Chinese films that have entered the French cinema market in the past: head art films and large-scale costume films. "Deep Sea" is neither an art film nor a costume blockbuster, but its high-quality, elaborate animation production, and its resume and word-of-mouth certification in more than 15 major international film festivals have the characteristics of Chinese films that are popular with the average French audience.
In February 2023, "Deep Sea" was shortlisted for the new generation unit of the Berlin International Film Festival and had its first overseas screening, which was well received. It was during the Berlinale that the team of Maremont licensed the French rights to the French distributor partners of The Deep.
"The presence of Deep Sea at the Berlinale is good for European and global distribution, as it will be seen by distributors in all regions. The fact that a film can be presented at an international film festival is the first step to going global, because it has already attracted overseas filmmakers, who know their local audience better. The cinema audience of the future will be different from the festival audience, but there will be some overlap. ”
The promotion of "Deep Sea" in France began in September 2023 with the dubbing of the film and the production of the poster and trailer for the French version. The local distributor released the main trailer in early December 2023 and confirmed its release on February 21, 2024, and launched a partnership with the Parisian Internet celebrity Sichuan noodle restaurant during the Christmas 2023 period, carrying out a series of promotional actions to promote "Deep Sea".
Ma Raymond believes that the release of "Deep Sea" in France can achieve such good results, which is inseparable from the localization of the publicity strategy:
"One is the localization of the film. The quality of the French dubbing is important, as well as the setting of the French title. The French title is Le Royaume des Abysses, which literally translates as "Abyss Kingdom", which is different from the Chinese title, more popular, and has a more "blockbuster" feeling.
The second is the localization of materials. The French version of the trailer is also different from the domestic main trailer, more popular, brighter, emphasizing the character of the male protagonist and the emotions of the male and female protagonists, as well as cute little animal supporting characters. The French poster is also a bit more commercial: the two protagonists are in the middle, and cute animals appear next to them.
The third is the evaluation of local media and Internet celebrities. The French distribution partner cut a trailer with French media reviews and images, and also invited many animation bloggers to watch the film, recreate the trailer, and retweet their praise. ”
Of course, the high quality and high reputation of "Deep Sea" itself are also the main reasons for attracting French audiences to watch it in theaters. "The visual experience of Deep Sea is excellent, and overseas audiences have not seen such a brilliant 3D animation of ink painting. It's relatively simple for animated films to go out, and there are no strong cultural barriers, especially the dubbed version. ”
In Ma Leimeng's view, the success story of "Deep Sea" will arouse the expectations of overseas distributors and audiences for Chinese animated films, and will also make overseas distributors pay more attention to Chinese films, especially large-scale and high-quality Chinese films.
The joys and sorrows of Chinese films going overseas
In recent years, the overseas audience of Chinese films is more Chinese, and there is no large-scale access to the field of vision of foreign mainstream audiences. The market response of "Fengshen Part 1" and "Deep Sea" in France has brought a new atmosphere of breaking the situation.
Heylight Pictures, the French distribution company responsible for the joint promotion of "Deep Sea", was previously mainly responsible for the distribution of "The Wandering Earth 2" and "Fengshen Part 1" in France, Heylight founder Chen Xinglu once said in an interview that "The Wandering Earth 2" has been released offline in more than 10 cities in France, and the publicity target is mainly for the Chinese community, and "Fengshen Part 1" has broken the stereotype that Chinese commercial films going overseas are only limited to the Chinese community.
According to reports, the number of Chinese groups in France is limited compared with North America, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, and if you want to get a higher box office, you need to leverage the local audience in France. Through a series of accurate and effective publicity operations aimed at the target audience, about 70% of the moviegoers of "Fengshen Part 1" are French, and successfully captured the 20% of the audience in the French film market who like to watch non-English movies, and achieved a breakthrough.
Chen Xinglu once mentioned that the main reason for the introduction and distribution of "The Wandering Earth 2" and "Fengshen Part 1" in France is that the two films have international narrative language and visual elements, have global universal values, and also represent the current industrialization level of Chinese films, and have a strong reason to attract French audiences to watch in theaters.
How to cross cultural barriers and tell Chinese stories with richer world expressions is one of the important topics for Chinese films to go overseas. Director Guo Fan said, "What kind of movies do we want to convey, what kind of values do we want to convey, and how can we make others understand, this is a pain point when we do overseas distribution and overseas publicity in the future, and we must find a way to solve this communication problem." ”
Last year's summer hit "All or Nothing" repeatedly broke records after its release in Malaysia and Singapore, which shows that Chinese films can find audiences in specific overseas markets and have the potential to be blockbusters.
In Malaysia, "All or Nothing" far surpassed "Chinese Captain" with more than RM20.5 million, setting a new box office high for Chinese mainland films in Malaysia, with more than one million views in just one month, quickly breaking the record of Chinese films in Malaysia's film history. In Singapore, "All or Nothing" surpassed "Wolf Warrior 2" with S$1.362 million, setting a new record for the highest box office of a Chinese mainland film in Singapore.
"All or Nothing" was a big hit in Singapore and Malaysia, relying on the film's phenomenal performance in China, which directly affected the local audience in Singapore and Malaysia, and the theme of anti-telecom fraud made the local audience particularly sensitive. And Zhang Yixing and Wang Dalu are star artists who are liked by young audiences in Southeast Asia, and they also have a certain box office appeal.
Although the star effect of Chinese films overseas is not as good as that of kung fu superstars, it is still effective in some overseas markets, such as the top three Chinese films at the box office in Thailand in the past three years, "Warm", "Nameless" and "King of the Sky", all starring Wang Yibo.
Veteran overseas distributor Luo San once led the overseas distribution of the film "The Climber". Although the film has completed the first round of phased distribution in overseas simultaneous release regions in 2019, there are still overseas distributors, including Southeast Asia, to inquire about buying the copyright. For the international market, Jackie Chan in the lineup is still very attractive to them.
In response to the performance of Chinese films "going overseas" to the international market, Luo San proposed that domestic filmmakers can actually be bolder. The current overseas distribution model usually collects a copyright fee from distributors in different countries and regions through agents, and after that, the cost pressure is concentrated on local distributors for the publicity and distribution of landing. In this mode, the publicity cycle is usually compressed to the shortest, the publicity budget is compressed to the minimum, and the film will naturally not be able to maximize the dissemination and output. If you can consciously set aside more budget and time for overseas distribution, some films will have a very different effect overseas. Of course, the premise is that the film is worth it. What kind of film is worthy of such investment needs to be evaluated by experienced overseas distributors.
In addition, Luo San suggested that the dissemination of Chinese films to the international market can be more front-loaded, "at least while the domestic distribution strategy is formulated, ideally before and after the start of production, the overseas arrangements can be deployed, leaving a special budget and execution time, and preparing enough "ammunition" for overseas distribution."
"The distribution strategy and demand vary from region to region, for example, our release in Japan needs to be scheduled a year in advance. Gong Ge, the producer of "The Wandering Earth 2", once said that during the global release of the film, they were prompted to understand the needs of different places. He believes that the international distribution of Chinese films needs to establish a more professional team to collect and sort out the distribution demands and details of various regions, the characteristics of the market, etc., "We need to prepare the corresponding materials at the same time half a year, or even a year before the release, otherwise there will be time worries." ”
A film power needs to be strong locally, and it also needs to be strong overseas. In order for Chinese films to pursue high-quality content and an international expression pattern, how to establish efficient overseas distribution channels and systems in different countries and regions according to local conditions requires the efforts of more people at home and abroad.