Author: Didi
As of 9 o'clock, the box office has just exceeded 80 million, and the performance of this 520 schedule is not satisfactory.
This year's 520, domestic romance films are collectively absent, and only one of the old films in 2023 "Only You Can't Miss It" will be re-screened, and Japanese pure love films will be released in a centralized manner, namely "Tonight, Even if this love disappears from the world", "April Girlfriend" and "The Years That Missed You".
In addition to being produced and promoted by Zhonghe Qiancheng, "The Years That Missed You" starring Xu Guanghan and Qingyuan Goye just exceeded 10 million, and the box office of the other three romance films aiming at 520 did not exceed 5 million. The top two at the daily box office "The End of the Road" and "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City" are all May 1st films, which are very different from the love theme of 520.
Last year's 520 schedule happened to be on Saturday, with a box office of 323 million, of which "Furious 10" contributed 180 million. If this year's 520 is due to the constraints of Monday's working days, compared with 2021, 520 is also on Tuesday on weekdays, and there is still a domestic romance film "I Want Us to Be Together" that contributed nearly 100 million to the box office, plus the screening of "Furious 9", the re-screening of "Love Letter" and the two May 1st films, a total of 5 films exceeded 10 million, and the box office could reach 230 million on the same day.
is not only 520 files, but this year's May Day "Journey Through the Moon", as the only romance film in the period, only has a box office of 45 million. You must know that in the past May Day, there was no shortage of "hits" like "Your Wedding" with more than 800 million, and small and medium-sized films such as "I Really Hate Long-Distance Relationships" and "Next: Ex" can also exceed 100 million.
Compared with sweet or sadistic romance films, "Disappearing Her", which was released last year and is known as "a must-see for love brains", is more suspenseful and criminal, not about the praise of love itself, but about making the audience realize the shocking tragedy caused by marriage and love, He Fei's scumbag image sounded a wake-up call for every girl who believes in love. Sweet love is becoming less and less loved by the public, but the film that warns everyone to put an end to the love brain is getting more and more attention from the public.
This seems to send us a signal: the gimmick of love can't be fried after all.
Disappearing "520"
Romance has always been a popular category in the film market, and the audience has infinite expectations for romance films. And "520", as a homophonic stalk of "I love you", together with Qixi Festival and Valentine's Day, provides a good opportunity for the release of romance films.
For example, in the previous years, 520, Qixi Festival and other schedules have released well-known romance films such as "Missing and Forgetting", "Burning Winter", "I Want Us to Be Together", "The Legend of the White Snake: Love" and so on. Coupled with the influence of commercial value, whenever the dates of "Valentine's Day", "Tanabata", "520", and "New Year's Eve" are coming, various media will put on the shelves to hype up a series of gimmicks such as holiday atmosphere and love, and carry out a wave of advertising bombardment.
However, in recent years, in this particular date, romance films seem to have entered a state of silence, and this year's 520 files are the most intuitive proof.
Among the 4 movies released in 520 files this year, except for the re-release of "Only You Can't Be Missed", the remaining three movies are all imported films. Even if the film market as a whole recovers, whether it is the producer or the audience, the interest in romance films still does not seem to be high.
On the one hand, due to the "film shortage", in this year's Chinese film market, the overall number of movies has been greatly reduced, and domestic romance films no longer want to enter the "small schedule" of 520, which is only one day, but will go to a larger schedule to give it a try.
On the other hand, domestic romance films have fallen into a dilemma that is neither popular nor popular. Among the top ten movies at the box office in 2024, except for "Hot and Hot", which mentions a little bit of love, the other nine movies such as "Flying Life", "Article 20", "Annual Meeting Can't Stop" and so on have no love elements at all. Domestic romance films have always been the hardest hit area by word-of-mouth, and there are very few Douban with more than 7 points, but due to the bonus of schedule nodes, there are also hundreds of millions of box office boxes for New Year's Eve files "Predecessor 3" and "Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle Star", 170 million points for Valentine's Day file "Journey to the West Daughter Country", and nearly 100 million box office for 520 files "I Want Us to Be Together".
In Fugujun's view, on the one hand, 520 is on Monday this year, which has indeed lowered the box office of the schedule, and various romance films have also chosen to raise the file to the previous weekend to strive for more box office; On the other hand, due to the overall poor quality and evaluation of romance movies in recent years, the audience has gradually lost interest in romance movies.
The craze for love movies gradually retreated in this kind of "indifference" of the masses and the "abandonment" of the producers.
The economic recovery is sluggish, the individual consciousness is awakened, and love has become the second choice
What is the real reason for the ebb of romance films and the loss of interest of the audience? In addition to the schedule problem, perhaps the quality of the film itself and the change in the concept of love in the social environment are the internal factors that cause this situation.
First of all, in the current competitive social environment, everyone's pursuit of love has become more and more insignificant. The decline in the marriage rate and the birth rate of newborns is a very clear symptom. On social networking platforms in recent years, many young people have said that they do not want to get married or have children, and their desire to pursue love has decreased significantly.
For some, emotional communication is not simply a matter of flattery, but a tangible "investment", akin to a consumption that needs to be rewarded. In the current social environment, investment in love often gives way to investment in the economy, and love seems to have become a secondary choice, and under the influence of this kind of thinking, there is no "use" for love movies - there are fewer couples watching movies.
Secondly, everyone's views on the love elements in film and television works have also changed. For example, in the recent "Harbin 1944", Hu Bin's true character design did not gain the audience's touch, but was ridiculed by a large number of netizens as "licking dogs" and "boiling sheep". "Passing by Your World", which was once popular because of the licking dog setting of "Swallow, you want to be happy, you want to be happy", no longer has a market.
In early romance movies, love triumphed over life and difficulties, and people were often able to burst out with amazing willpower in the face of love. For example, Hiroko Watanabe's pursuit of love in Iwai Shunji's "Love Letter", and the love between Jingqiu and the third child in Zhang Yimou's "Hawthorn Tree Love". But in the romance movies of recent years, I Love You! In films such as "Burning Winter", although love is still the object of description, people are not the worldview of love first in early love movies, and the awakening of individual consciousness has become the most important performance in current love movies.
Before the epidemic, youth traumatic romance films such as "The Year in a Hurry", "To Youth", and "Sadness Flows Into a River" could also be sought after by the audience, but in recent years, after the silence of painful literary films, the pain in the movies has become more and more criticized by the audience.
Pure, sweet love is becoming more and more difficult to attract audiences, and this year's May Day "Journey Through the Moon" is a good example. Last year's New Year's Eve movie "Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle Star" seems to stick to the camp of sweet dramas, but what really attracts the audience is never the movie itself, but the ritual sense of "Zhang Wansen, it's snowing" and snowing in the cinema, the reputation of the film itself fell sharply after its release, no one discussed love, only "Snowflake" has been swiping the screen.
Traditional love stories seem to have really lost their original market.
The absence of domestic romance films this year and the loss of 520 files are just a reminder: romance films, it's time to find a new way out.