Author|Reed
"Why can Bao Bell still make films? Who is his audience?" Whenever Bao Bell's new work is released, such doubts emerge one after another, and even some industry insiders speculate that the return rate of his projects is stable and not loss-making, these questions will still become a "myth" in the industry.
In the past Qingming file, Bao Bell's self-directed and self-starred "Big "Anti" Faction" was released, plus "Going Out", which will be released this weekend, in less than half a year, Bao Bell has appeared in eight works, four of which are starring.
With questions, Fugujun went to the theater in Chaoyang District, Beijing to watch "The Big "Anti" Faction. That night, there were only four ticket-buying audience members in the theater, including Fugu-kun: a couple, and a lady sitting next to Fugu-kun. After the screening, I asked the lady why she came to see Bao Bell's film, and she told me that she was a staff member next to Bao Bell and bought a cloud charter to support...
The limited sample in the first-line cinema hall could not solve the problem, and Fugu Jun asked the studio manager, film market analyst and other industry insiders, combined with the data of Bao Bell's previous works, trying to find out the reason why he is so "prolific" because of the seemingly low rating and not controversial enough. Even, we found that Bao Bell is one of the few actors who can "get through the big and small screens": in the field of Internet University, his "Northeast Love Brother" series is also stable at 20 million+.
In addition to the actors' arrangement, content arrangement, and strategic online and offline distribution, Bao Bell's "success" also reflects a gap that has been ignored in the comedy market: the gap between the stable sinking market and the middle-waist comedians.
He also found a "blue ocean" for many actors who could not reach the top: find the audience that is most suitable for him, and he can also achieve "evergreen" in the industry.
The disappearing "passerby"
In the field of online public opinion, Bao Bell is synonymous with "bad movies", especially the comedies he directed or starred in, Douban has an average score of failing, and "Bao Bell doesn't watch it" has become the most popular netizen comment.
"Passerby" doesn't disappear suddenly. In the early days, Bao Bell had two out-of-the-circle roles, the infatuated Lao Zhang who couldn't be loved in "To Youth", and the eunuch Su Peisheng in "Palace Lock Agarwood". At that time, as a supporting role with a distinct image, everyone did not have too many doubts about his acting skills, and most of them thought that it was "quite suitable for the role".
In 2015, "Hong Kong Embarrassment" was released, he replaced the original Wang Baoqiang and Xu Zheng to play Xu Zheng's brother-in-law in the film, but because the image did not match the role, it caused a lot of scolding, and the audience's evaluation of it was mostly "embarrassing acting" and "annoying".
This also became a turning point in his acting career.
Although this "Hong Kong Embarrassment" hit a new box office high in the series, which also greatly increased its popularity, it was a reverse bonus to Bao Bell, and passers-by gradually lost popularity. Later, he summarized the reason in an interview, thinking that the role itself was not very likable, and his acting skills were passable.
After that, controversies such as the bridesmaid incident at the wedding and the plagiarism of the main creative works successively made Bao Bell a "scolding" existence in the first- and second-tier online public opinion fields such as Weibo and Douban. But at the same time, he still continues to appear in comedy works every year, which also makes netizens continue to ask "why can he still make movies".
There is a "paradox" in this: comedy is a film category that relies heavily on the charm of the leading actor, for example, there will be a standard for judging the degree of comedy by "content". But in the cognition of ordinary netizens, Bao Bell's popularity has undoubtedly fallen to the freezing point, why can he still be stable in the comedy track?
Perhaps part of the reason can be found from the box office distribution of Bao Bell's films: compared with Shen Teng, Huang Bo, Xu Zheng and other comedians who are oriented to the whole people, Bao Bell's comedy audience is more concentrated in the Northeast and third- and fourth-tier cities.
"What's in the Zoo", which was released in January this year, has a box office of more than 100 million, and the film schedule in the three provinces of Heijiliao has been higher than 20% for a week, and the box office proportion has also stabilized at more than 10%. In the Qingming file, where three foreign films and four domestic films compete fiercely, the proportion of "Big "Anti" Faction in the Northeast can continue to be higher than 10%, much higher than that in other regions.
The box office of "What's in the Zoo" in the three northeastern provinces
From the perspective of city distribution, the audience of Bao Bell's films is obviously a "pyramid" shape, and the proportion of the box office in first-tier cities is generally twice that of third- and fourth-tier cities, and the box office in first- and second-tier cities will decline significantly in the future.
Other comedy films with more than 500 million are more evenly distributed. For example, in January this year, the dark horse comedy "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop" accounted for about 25% of the box office in all tiers. The day after its release, "Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle Star" occupied most of the sinking market because of the "snow field", and "Annual Meeting" can still maintain a stable box office in first-tier cities with high reputation.
If Xu Zheng, Shen Teng, and Huang Bo are obvious "national comedians", then Bao Bell is the "king of the sinking market".
"The people who scolded him on Weibo and Douban are not a group of people who really buy tickets to see them. Most of his audience is those who work in third- and fourth-tier cities, or work in state-owned enterprises and institutions, and leave work at half past five. They need some of these comedies to spice up their after-work lives. They are not Douban users, and they don't care so much about the so-called logical ups and downs or-pee-fart jokes. Xiao Chen, an analyst at the film market, told Entertainment Capital.
In other words, the bad reviews we see in the online public opinion field are separated from Bao Bell's real popularity, "Bao Bell on the Internet and Bao Bell in the theater are actually two different things." ”
Baumbell's "high-yielding" way
From his debut film "Fat Squad" to "What's in the Zoo" at the beginning of this year, the works starring or controlled by Bao Bell are rarely big hits, but they can also maintain the level of 1 to 200 million. The reason for this is that "the topic selection, content arrangement, and commercial elements in Bao Bell's works have always been relatively constant. "Kobayashi analysis, who has worked with Bao Bell.
Almost every film controlled by Bao Bell will fall into the controversy of tribute or plagiarism, and most of the films he currently controls also have prototypes: "Fat Squad" is accused of being similar to "Ace Agent", "Northeast Love Brother" remakes "When Men Are in Love", "Sunshine Sisters" directly put the original version aside and made it as it is, "What's in the Zoo" is a remake of the Korean movie "Secret Zoo", and the just-released "Big "Anti" faction is also similar to the French movie "Who is the Superhero".
But the remake is also one of the reasons why Bao Bell can maintain a "high production". Kobayashi told Fugu-kun, "Bao Bell's Hippo Pictures has been searching for a library of comedy films, such as Korean sex comedies, or books that are a bit of and pee and fart in Britain and the United States, but everyone can read them." This makes Bao Bell have no shortage of content to shoot, remakes shorten the time cost of script creation, and remakes with original references are also easier to get through and find investment than the original story. ”
In addition, the cast of Bao Bell's works also has relatively stable sequences, not only often forming a lineup of "all comedians", but also paying attention to the selection of supporting roles. "Why did you choose Clara? Because she fills the indispensable 'vase' role in this kind of movie, in addition, he will also choose Jia Bing, Chang Yuan of 'Happy Twist' and Song Xiaofeng of 'Zhao Jiaban', who are familiar to the sinking market and have audience popularity. ”
Kobayashi told Fugu-kun that these comedians have a relatively fixed circle and make cameos in each other's works, but the cost of acting is not high.
In terms of distribution choice, Bao Bell also has a unique strategy. Xiao Wang, a studio manager, found that "What's in the Zoo" was released in January this year, and at the same time, "there were no new films", so this remake comedy with a poor reputation could also get more than 100 million at the box office.
"What's in the Zoo" actually replicates the "cold period" breakthrough strategy of the previous "Big Red Envelope". The film will be the daily box office champion in the first two weeks after New Year's Day in 2021 and a month before the Spring Festival, due to the fact that there are almost no competing films in the same period, and the only competition with it is "Send You a Little Red Flower" and "Bomb Disposal Expert 2", which have been released for a month, because there are no new films, "Big Red Envelope" has more than 20% of the films scheduled in the first 12 days, and finally won 235 million box office.
In addition, Xiao Wang also found that Bao Bell's comedy is almost "cinema-network synchronization", and it will be launched on the Internet about two weeks after the theater is released, "There are indeed young people in small towns who are unwilling to spend 35 yuan to watch movies in theaters." But they will be video members and willing to watch a comedy for free on the Internet. ”
These audiences also constitute the "basic plate" of Bao Bell's comedy, becoming a group of people who are "invisible" in the field of online public opinion, but spend real money to support Bao Bell in the cinema or online.
On the other hand, the accurate grasp of the preferences of the sinking market has also made Bao Bell quickly become the head in the field of online movies, and the "Northeast Love Brother" series led by him has been filmed twice, each of which has received more than 20 million box office. He is also one of the few creators who can "open up the big and small screens", Xiaolin believes that this is because Bao Bell can seize the demand of the male sinking market, such as the story of Clara and the male dick who constantly make cameos.
Judging from the content, although Bao Bell's comedy will have vulgar passages that are despised by film critics and Douban netizens, there are often ", pee, and fart" jokes such as picking up pants, being stuck, suddenly kneeling, being kicked by flying, and involving body discrimination, and the logic of the plot itself cannot stand scrutiny.
But Bao Bell's comedy has always had a very stable narrative routine: the aggrieved little person achieves a counterattack or "will be wrong" because of an unexpected event, uses strong settings and high contrast to create laughter, and uses the way of complaining to make most of the audience who walk into the theater at least "laugh", and finally achieve a happy ending for the family.
"Bao Bell's comedy has always been very straightforward, he doesn't pursue tears in laughter, he doesn't pursue connotation, he just wants to scratch you and make you laugh. "Most viewers who watch Bao Bell's comedy don't seek to get any deep thinking in the film, but just want to get a little chance to laugh in less than two hours.
"Bao Bell is like Pinduoduo in the comedy market. I don't say that one day he can beat Shen Teng, but he will always have his own market. And the people in this market are what you can't question and argue, and people just really like to watch it. Kobayashi concluded.
The comedians of the fault line with the "attack" of Bao Bell
"In fact, Bao Bell can come out, a big reason is that there is an obvious fault line in the comedian market. Today, if we want to make a comedy movie with more than 1 billion yuan, the only actor we can find is Shen Teng, and then there will be no more, and then there is Bao Bell, who is stable at 100 million to 200 million. ”
Producer Xiao Wang told Fugu Jun that the phenomenon of "Bao Bell's high production and stability" that we see today may be a kind of "survivor bias", but behind it is actually the current situation of the fault line of domestic comedians.
"We have a top class of actors who can carry the box office, such as Shen Teng, Xu Zheng and Huang Bo in the past, but first, the output is limited, and second, Xu and Huang rarely appear in comedy works anymore, and Huang Bo obviously wants to transform since "A Good Show". In this case, there will be more actors like Bao Bell who make several low-budget comedies every year to fill the market gap. ”
Even if there are already paths to supplement comedy talents such as "Annual Comedy Contest" or stand-up comedians, Xiao Wang believes that as actors on the big screen, these comedians are not enough at the level of public awareness to "bring their own box office into the market", and now most of them still make cameos in comedy movies.
In addition to the restrictions of the audience market, on the other hand, his own performance paradigm has gradually fixed: he can only play the small characters in the farce or the arrogant villains similar to the "big" people.
In addition to Bao Bell, actors such as Chang Yuan, Jia Bing, Wei Xiang, and Allen, who have played the role of "green leaves" in comedy all year round, are also in the same predicament. "Chang Yuan often plays some sissy 'second tails', Jia Bing is an uncle, and Alan is a big fool...... The roles and performance paradigms received by these actors will fall into a fixed routine, and the audience will not buy the roles that do not match their temperament, and it is difficult to make a breakthrough. ”
"Bao Bell imitates the combination of Wang Baoqiang and Xu Zheng. There is a shrewd place, and there is a simple place, you can always find some shadows of predecessors in him, maybe because he is not the 'originator', can not climb to the top of the industry, but there are always opportunities for him in this market. ”
Xiaolin has worked with Bao Bell, and he found that Bao Bell is far more modest than the outside world sees, willing to accept the "dislike" of the first- and second-tier audiences for him, and willing to bow to capital and the market, but at the same time, "Bao Bell himself has lowered his desires, he doesn't want to be an actor who shoots profound things like Huang Bo or Dapeng, and he is not willing to explain anything to the audience who doesn't like him, but curls himself up in his comfort zone." ”
As a director, Bao Bell only shoots comedies with similar genre themes, such as the "big" series of "Big Red Envelopes" and "Big "Anti" Faction, and does not exclude remakes, which greatly reduces the difficulty of creation. As an actor, after the villain he played in "Big" People was recognized, most of his follow-up works were similar roles, the villain Chen Xin in "Checking the Storm", and he played against Shi Xiaolong and Xie Miao respectively in "Fighting Black" and "Riot Control".
Wang Jing once mentioned in an interview that Stephen Chow stopped acting in comedy later because he couldn't accept that he was still "pretending to be ugly and stupid" like before, which is also the choice of most comedians at home and abroad, and they choose to transform when they reach a certain age.
Kobayashi discovered that the comedians who can become popular are actually good-looking, and Bao Bell naturally lacks this advantage. But in the comedies he directs, he often has hair and rarely "self-defiled" in his image, which may be one of the reasons why Bao Bell can continue to be a comedian today.
Back to the question at the beginning: why can Bao Bell continue to make films?
On the one hand, it is his active choice, understanding the needs of the sinking market and male users, choosing a similar content arrangement model, having the strength to open up large and small screens, and the actor, director experience accumulated over the years and popularity in the circle allow him to control a complete work.
On the other hand, it is also the external environment of the comedian fault line, which allows them to have an absolute right to speak and a fixed audience in the field of small and medium-cost and vulgar comedies, which makes up for the market outside the head comedy box office and becomes a special existence.
In the content track, most people can't reach the head, and Bao Bell has found another blue ocean that is far from being paid attention to: finding an audience that is suitable for him, forming a "self-consistent" and cost-effective creative method, and realizing the "evergreen" of his acting career.