The movie "Seamless", which will be released on June 28, 2024, has a dismal box office, with a cumulative box office of only 1,520 yuan as of July 10.
The theater took 794 yuan, and the filmmaker shared 557 yuan.
The film industry is not easy, and many theatrical films have achieved miserable results this year, such as Huang Shengyi's "Next Stop Love" has no box office data, "July Itch" box office 2359 yuan, "New Nine Products Sesame Official" box office 5969 yuan, etc.
Although "Seamless" has accumulated 743 million people, it is incomprehensible that the box office is so low.
The film is directed by Cui Xinping, starring Xu Pengpei and others, and tells the story of the Lin family father and son in Beijing Hutong inheriting their craftsmanship and finally pushing the cheongsam to the world stage.
In the vast sea of stars in the film and television industry, the birth of each work carries the creator's hard work and dreams, they may be like bright stars, lighting up the night sky; Or like a meteor passing by, although it is short, it leaves an unforgettable trajectory.
In this star-studded film, there are occasionally some works, whose stories are equally moving, but they are eclipsed on the battlefield of the box office, becoming "accidents" and "missing pearls" in the audience's mouth.
The movie "Seamless" is such a work, which silently tells a story of inheritance, dreams and family love in the hustle and bustle of the market with a unique perspective and simple emotions, but it has encountered unprecedented embarrassment at the box office.
On social media, "Seamless" is frequently mentioned in an almost playful way, not because of its word-of-mouth or because of its well-made sold-out performances, but because of its staggeringly low box office figures, which accumulate just 1,520 yuan.
This number, in today's film and television market with a box office of hundreds of millions or billions, is undoubtedly like a forgotten dust in the corner, but it has unexpectedly aroused widespread attention and discussion among netizens.
People were surprised, curious, or ridiculous, and said: "What is the loss of this movie?" "Did the audience go to see piracy? ”
Jokes aside, there is no shortage of people who have begun to dig into the story behind the film, trying to understand why it is in such a situation.
The birth of "Seamless" stems from director Cui Xinping's deep affection for the hutong culture of old Beijing and his concern about the gradual disappearance of traditional handicrafts.
He invited a group of powerful actors such as Xu Pengpei, Chen Jinyan, Mu Liyan, and Gao Hongliang to join in, and jointly created a story about the emotional entanglement between the Lin family father and son due to the inheritance of cheongsam craftsmanship that takes place in the depths of Beijing's hutongs.
The film has no gorgeous scenes, no cool special effects, just delicate emotional portrayals and real life textures.
The father and son of the Lin family, a pair of men with very different personalities but connected by blood, not only weave exquisite cheongsams in the daily needlework shuttle, but also inadvertently weave their emotional bonds.
The storyline of the film slowly unfolds around the life of the Lin family father and son, from the first rays of sunlight in the early morning spilling into the narrow alleys, to the father and son working silently in the dim light after nightfall, every scene is full of life.
Father, an old artist with an almost paranoid love for cheongsam craftsmanship, he used his own hands to sew those cheongsams that carried cultural memory and family glory; The son, a young man who has been wandering for many years, finally chooses to return to the family, trying to find a balance between modernity and tradition.
There is not only friction between the two due to differences in concepts, but also a deep family affection when facing difficulties together.
In the film, those seemingly ordinary dialogues and simple actions can often touch the softest part of people's hearts, making people feel the temperature of life in laughter and tears.
is such a work full of warmth and ingenuity, but it suffered Waterloo at the box office.
According to statistics, the cumulative box office of "Seamless" is only 1,520 yuan, behind this figure, is the indescribable bitterness of the theater and the filmmaker.
According to the usual account sharing ratio, the theater will take most of the box office revenue from it, and after deducting various taxes and distribution expenses, there is not much left that really falls into the hands of the filmmaker.
For such a low-cost but well-made film, such a box office result is undoubtedly a huge negation of the efforts of all involved.
But what is puzzling is that despite the dismal box office, the film's online distribution is extremely hot.
According to statistics, its cumulative number of broadcasts has reached a staggering 743 million times, a figure that is in stark contrast to the box office results.
Behind this, there is not only the audience's spontaneous sharing and discussion of the content of the film, but also the efficiency and convenience of information dissemination in the era of social media.
Through Weibo, Douyin, Bilibili and other platforms, people share touching clips and wonderful lines in the film, and even in-depth excavation and interpretation of the story behind the film.
Although this kind of "word-of-mouth communication" failed to directly translate into box office revenue, it enhanced the social influence of the film to a certain extent, allowing more people to know about this buried good movie.
The box office failure of "Seamless" undoubtedly sounded the alarm for the entire film and television industry.
It allows us to see that in today's pursuit of maximizing commercial interests, there are still a group of people who insist on their own artistic pursuits, record the bits and pieces of life with their lenses, and convey the temperature of culture.
The cruelty of the market often makes such persistence seem so weak and pale.
How to find a balance between business and art, so that more works with depth and warmth can get due attention and returns, has become a difficult problem for all practitioners.
The spread of "Seamless" also gives us some inspiration.
In today's highly developed social media, the dissemination of content is no longer limited by traditional channels and methods.
A movie, even if it can't achieve outstanding box office results in theaters, can let more people see and feel its unique charm through the power of the Internet.
This is undoubtedly a new opportunity and challenge for those low-cost, independently produced films.
The story of "Seamless" is not only about the success or failure of a movie, but also a profound allegory about dreams, perseverance and inheritance.
It reminds us that in this era of rapid change, we must always stay true to our original intention.
Every persistent pursuit of art deserves to be respected and remembered.
Perhaps, the box office of "Seamless" is not ideal, but the emotions and values it conveys are like those carefully sewn cheongsams, although they have been baptized by the years, they still shine with inextinguishable light.