Recently, another Spring Festival withdrawn film - "Let's Shake the Sun Together" was released. Similar to the situation after "Mr. Red Carpet", which was withdrawn in an almost tragic posture before, the box office of "Let's Shake the Sun Together" was also dismal compared with expectations. The other two withdrawn films "Eight Rings: The Nether of the Canopy" and "Huang Pi: The God of Wealth Cat" have not yet been released again.
What is the "meaning" behind the withdrawal and finalization of several films, and what kind of thinking do they bring us?
One
"Did you go to see that movie?" "I did, and the whole family went there." ”
During the Spring Festival, there are more and more such greetings. Watching movies has quietly become a new folk custom of the Spring Festival.
From February 10 to 17, the Chinese film market was as brilliant as fireworks, with a box office revenue of 8.016 billion yuan and more than 163 million moviegoers. 8 films were released, bringing an enjoyable visual feast to audiences across the country. It's just that the 8 films are a few joys and a few sorrows, "Hot and Hot", "Flying Life 2", "Article 20" and "Bear Infested" 4 films have the last laugh, while the other 4 films have been withdrawn together. As a result, a new phenomenon in Chinese film history has emerged - "collective withdrawal".
The specific reasons for the withdrawal may vary, but there should be no doubt that they are "not suitable" for the Spring Festival stalls.
So, what is the trade-off of the Spring Festival stalls?
Let's start with audience needs. The Chinese New Year in Chinese is such a festival: there is only this time of the year when people of all ages slow down and relax together. Everyone enjoys this time of leisure and is willing to spend money on it, and this particular time period has become a unique luxury. At the same time, at a time when cultural and entertainment products are extremely rich, who will accompany the "New Year" has also become a problem.
In the past two years, people's Spring Festival consumption has undergone new changes, and the "lipstick effect" has been fulfilled in the Chinese film industry. The "lipstick effect" refers to the fact that people are unable to buy expensive luxury goods due to their limited financial resources, but instead have more "spare money". At this time, people are more willing to buy moderately priced goods represented by "lipstick" and other products to satisfy their consumption desires. The small cost but suitable for all ages, together and happy to watch the movie, has become the "lipstick" of the Spring Festival.
Let's look at the market needs. The box office champion of the Spring Festival stalls has basically been able to easily jump to the box office mark of 3 billion yuan in recent years, and can basically rank among the best or even far ahead in this year's box office war. Those who win the Spring Festival stalls win the world, this is true. It is precisely because of the "golden" value of the Spring Festival stalls that the market is also fierce, which means high publicity costs. There is no money to publicize and squeeze the quality of the film alone, and it is easy to be hit on the head and bleed.
Then there's the law of operation. There are many films eyeing the Spring Festival file, but the industry basically has a clear understanding, that is, what kind of film can be ranked in the Spring Festival file. The most basic criterion is to be relaxed and happy, suitable for all ages, and under this principle, catching the person in the family who controls the wallet and controls the emotions can basically be said to be more than half of the success.
Of course, there are also some films that do not quite conform to this principle can occasionally come to "fight", especially films that can use star effects or fan help, such as "No Name" in 2023, and some films can also be tried because of their really good quality and the blessing of famous directors, such as "Sniper" in 2022.
Photography: Ren Chao
Two
Over the past century, periods of recession or economic crisis have provided opportunities for the film industry to grow rapidly. For example, Hollywood's first take-off. In 1935, after the Great Depression of 1929-1933, the output of American industrial output was halved, while the number of moviegoers in the United States exceeded 80 million every week.
This time, it's China. The slowdown in the mainland's economic growth has given people more "spare money" and "small money" for cultural and leisure consumption such as movies, and the film industry has ushered in a period of opportunity for rapid development.
At the same time, the deep integration with social media has also made the Chinese film market show a distinct modernity and uniqueness.
The "flow economy" has gradually become king. Starting from the strong recovery of the summer file in 2023, the film has gradually become a public opinion field, and the creation, germination and guidance of topics and the control of topics have become new phenomena, new means and even new growth points for film publicity and distribution.
This is especially true for the Spring Festival stalls, which are guided by short video platforms, superimposed with entertaining, interactive, diversified, and personalized push content, and the huge and active user group with a high degree of overlap with the movie audience has become the most powerful component of the box office. For most viewers, the more topical the film, the more they want to watch it.
"Head-take-all" fuels fighting. The scheduling resources of the Spring Festival file are very tight, and the film company needs to continue to show during the schedule to maintain the continuous popularity of online and offline by releasing various materials. The publicity and distribution cost of the films squeezed into the Spring Festival file is at least 150 million or more, which is a great difficulty for small and medium-sized investment films that are already stretched thin during the production period. At the same time, movies are also a kind of "you get what you pay for" commodity, generally speaking, only with large investment will there be a big box office, and only films that are expected to be more than 2 billion yuan can attract head distribution. The head production is blessed with the head release, and its competitiveness is obvious.
"Content is king" is still the truth. It starts with flow, becomes capital, and finally quality. Taking "Hot and Hot" as an example, "drainage" is actually a double-edged sword, when performance art is too much greater than content art, the backlash brought by large traffic is beyond imagination. Therefore, the first and most important condition for "fighting" is content, and content is king is the truth for the survival and success of a work of art.
Three
Let's take a look at the films that have been withdrawn and rescheduled during the Spring Festival.
In the context of the recovery of the film market, popular films are obviously the integration point of marketing, publicity and the comprehensive resources of the film itself. And films that lack new content, new marketing, and new investment are impossible to paddle in this schedule. What's even more difficult is that the long-tail effect of the previous retreat often becomes a negative factor after re-uprang. Therefore, there is a risk in withdrawing the file, and the file must be set carefully.
Through the withdrawal of films, finalization, box office, word of mouth, etc., it can also be seen that some regular things are surfacing, pushing the film industry and industry managers to think and act.
Originality is fundamental to the art of cinema. "We want robots to help humans sweep the floor and wash dishes, because humans have to write poems and paint. Now robots are writing poems and drawing, but humans are still sweeping the floor and washing dishes. "This is a joke about AI on the Internet.
Similarly, our lives are so colorful and our cultural resources are incomparably rich, but almost all of the commercial blockbusters that will be released in 2023 come from adaptations of foreign films. Is there a problem with our screenwriting power, is it the capital's rigid requirements for the speed of the film's launch, or is it a change in our audience's tastes?
All of these factors are present, but they should not be taken for granted. Let this kind of story framework and plot deduction from abroad, coupled with some Chinese emotional rendering "patchwork" of films, like fast food continue to be pushed to the market and occupy the market, then how can our cultural endogenous force and originality be guaranteed? Where to talk about cultural self-confidence and cultural inheritance and innovation?
Small and medium-sized film and television companies are the foundation of the film industry. When more and more high-grossing works are occupied by several production companies for a long time, you must know that there are still tens of thousands of small and medium-sized film and television companies across the country silently doing the same thing but not seeing returns. The cultivation of top screenwriters, the training of well-known directors, the growth of talents in service and Taoism, and even the insight of a casting assistant director are all tempered, fallen, and summarized on one small and medium-sized project after another, and finally achieved Phoenix Nirvana. Just as the pyramids were built, the spires were seen from afar, but what made the pyramids stand was the base that could easily be overlooked. Those small and medium-sized film and television companies are the foundation of the film industry.
A healthy public opinion environment is the guarantee for the development of films. Today, with the deep integration of the Internet and movies, the huge traffic and multiple values contained in the Internet have brought considerable positive impact, and at the same time, the concealment and complexity of the network have also brought great difficulty in maintaining order. Especially when the box office is deeply bound to the strong promotion of awareness by the Internet, it also brings public opinion out of control caused by the chaotic rhythm of unconventional and unbounded standards. This kind of backlash will affect the presentation of the core value of the film and the future creative direction.
A work of art has a tone and a background, and art appreciation is certainly a personal feeling, but once it enters the public comment space, it must be regulated and restricted. Art criticism must first be based on art and works, and cannot be bought by capital or led astray by personal emotions. The evaluation criteria for films should be diverse, and at the same time, they should also be scientific and standardized.
The commercial box office is a measure of a film's excellence, but it is by no means overwhelming. How to vigorously promote the main theme film, how to achieve daily infiltration of art films, is to think deeply and practice; life is rich, artistic pursuit is diverse, people's needs are multifaceted, the mission of art works is sacred, forget these and carry out a one-dimensional box office pursuit, will soon become an unavoidable "boomerang" in the development of films.
Only by continuously cultivating the basic work at the bottom can the film market continue to flourish.
Source: "Shandong Publicity" WeChat public account (ID: sdxcweixin)