Text/Chen Yuqi
Even though he had seen it four or five times, Jojo didn't hesitate to buy a movie ticket after the re-release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to make up for the regret of not being able to watch the movie in the cinema that year.
"I still want to receive an acceptance letter from Hogwarts, I still want to have a chance to try to crash into the 9 and 3/4 platform, I want to go to Diagon Alley to buy, I want to have a different talent." More than 10 years have passed since he first watched Harry Potter, and Jojo is still fascinated by that magical world.
Designer Huang Hai's Chinese commemorative edition poster for "Paradise Cinema" (Source Douban)
Avatar, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Love Letters... This year's re-screenings seem to be particularly numerous. Today, "Cinema Paradiso" also ushered in a re-screening, and this "god work" in the hearts of fans was released on a large scale in the mainland for the first time.
"Make up a movie ticket" has become a tacit understanding among movie fans, and the movie re-screening boom is coming, is the classic movie really a profitable business?
Re-screening movies get together, fans "New Year"
In addition to Harry Potter, Jojo also walked into the cinema for the first time after the release of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy with the mentality of "what the super high-rated epic masterpiece of 20 years ago really looked like". For her, who had not seen "The Lord of the Rings" in its entirety before, this re-screening was a rare opportunity.
Jojo said after watching the film that from the current script logic of the storyline pursuing ups and downs and the character shaping pursuing the end of the hero, the values of "The Lord of the Rings" can be called simple. "But I would feel more intimate, and there is a feeling that the world still yearns for pure truth, goodness and beauty."
Or against the feelings, or against the visual effects, the re-screening of the two series of films "The Lord of the Rings" and "Avatar" has made many fans shout "New Year".
"Avatar" surpassed "Avengers 4" at the total box office and returned to the top of the global film box office (Source: Cat's Eye Movie)
Previously, movie re-screenings are not uncommon, such as the 3D version of "Titanic" in 2009, "Journey to the West" in 2014, and "Spirited Away" in 2019, all of which are re-screening films with good response.
Yang Qifeng, a senior film producer and investor, analyzed that the re-screening of movies is released in a pile, on the one hand, affected by the epidemic, domestic and foreign films are reducing production, on the other hand, the head content is becoming more and more cautious in the choice of schedules, and after the new films are released in the Spring Festival, National Day and other large schedules, some slots will naturally appear gaps, and classic movies need to supplement the market.
From the box office data, after the outbreak of the epidemic, the box office of most re-screening films stayed at the level of tens of millions of yuan, and the single film with a box office of more than 100 million yuan was only "Interstellar", "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", "Avatar" and "Manslaughter".
Box office performance of re-screening movies after the outbreak of the epidemic (as of June 6, 2021, data source: Maoyan Professional Edition)
The biggest selling point of the re-screening film is the feeling, and making up for the regret is a big motivation for fans to enter the cinema. In 2002, China began to implement the reform of the cinema system, and the film distribution transitioned from the distribution of provinces and cities to the unified supply of films in theaters, and the number of theaters has increased rapidly since then. Yang Qifeng believes that before the construction of the theater was rolled out, the number of excellent film works that the audience did not have the opportunity to watch in the theater was huge, and these films all had the potential for re-screening.
Invisible re-screening costs
A movie rerun is not as simple as taking it and putting it on. According to reports, the film re-screening to go through copyright, remake, publicity of several key steps, from the first release time of more than two years or the content of the adjustment of the film, but also by the National Film Administration to re-examine, re-issue the release license, in 2015 in the 3D version of the re-release of "A Generation of Grandmasters" has undergone a complete review process.
In the remake phase, 2K/4K fixes have become basic operations, and some films have to be converted to 2D to 3D, IMAX, Dolby Atmos and other versions. According to the publicist, the cost of "Kung Fu" to 3D in 2015 was about 20 million yuan, while the re-screening box office was only 25.574 million yuan, far from covering the input cost. Director Wong Kar-wai also said in an interview that the 3D version of "A Generation of Grandmasters" "the cost of the conversion is enough to make a new film."
In addition to technical fixes, many re-screening films have also seen changes in content. "East Evil and West Poison", "Journey to the West", "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", etc., the re-release version has appeared in the original version of the content that is not available, "Sweet Honey" re-screening, director Chen Kexin also re-selected the voice for the role of Maggie Cheung.
"It's not that the cost of money is the cost, the cost of strategy and the cost of time are still important." Yang Qifeng introduced that before the re-screening of the film, a lot of communication and coordination must be carried out, and the copyright negotiation process is cumbersome, which brings a huge time cost to the re-screening of the film.
The publicity link in the traffic era is also very different from the premiere of the movie. In this re-screening, "Love Letters" adopted the marketing routine of "crying and crying films", which caused a lot of discussion. The so-called "crying film" marketing refers to the interception of classic tear-jerking scenes in the film, or the interception of the audience's uncontrollable and tearful shots, with sad background music, which is commonly found in the short video marketing of domestic love movies.
Source: The movie "Love Letter" Douyin account
Movie re-screening, steady profit?
After experiencing the verification of box office and word of mouth, is classic movie a safer choice?
Also a classic Hong Kong film, the re-screening of "Journey to the West" has a box office of 184 million yuan, while "Sweet Honey", "Kung Fu" and "Ah Fei Zheng Biography" have a dismal box office, and the 2011 re-release of Zhang Guorong and Wang Zuxian's version of "Qiannu Ghost" has a box office of only 2.95 million yuan. The market situation of re-screening films can be described as a double day of ice and fire.
Yang Qifeng believes that the re-screening is not a stable and profitable business, such as choosing the wrong schedule, homogenizing the film when it is re-screened, and not in line with the current consumption habits, etc., which may make it difficult for the film to make a profit. Coupled with the fact that the audience is already familiar with the movie, it is not an easy task to attract the audience to enter the theater and consume again. "Even if it's safe, it won't make a lot of money, and the ceiling will be relatively low."
In addition, the audience of re-screening movies is generally concentrated in first- and second-tier cities, and there is a problem of sinking difficulties. According to the data of the professional version of the lighthouse, more than 80% of the audience in the re-screening of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy is bachelor's degree or above, and the audience in first- and second-tier cities accounts for nearly 70%.
Audience portrait of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (Source: Lighthouse Pro)
Screenwriter Grey believes that re-screening movies are not easy to break the circle and become blockbusters, and the scope of dissemination is mainly concentrated among movie lovers, even if the film with a wide audience such as "Avatar" will not have such a large volume as when it was first released.
Among the re-screenings of movies in recent years, only "Titanic (3D Version)", which was re-released in 2012, won 950 million yuan at the box office, becoming the runner-up of the annual box office. Other re-screenings have been almost negligible at the box office compared to the broader market.
"Just like reading a book, it is impossible to read only new books, classic masterpieces have been reprinted, and the combination of new and old is objective." Yang Qifeng believes that re-screening movies are transitional, adjustment, and off-season filling, and in the traditional big period, new films are still the mainstream.
In 2020, after the theater was closed for half a year and reopened, in the early stage of the resumption of work without films to screen, the re-screening film assumed the responsibility of "saving the market". This year, the European and American film markets have been slow to recover, and Hollywood blockbusters have continued to be absent. In this case, the re-screening of imported classic films has become a supplement and enhancement to the main market.
Jojo believes that the fact that movies can become everyone's "feelings" is the affirmation of the movie itself. "I don't think there's any problem with such excellent results, even if they're used to make another hundred years of money, and I go into the cinema and spend money on them, both because they're worth it and because I miss the days when high-quality films came out in an endless stream."
(Editor: Huang Yulu Proofreader: Yan Jingning)