The Paper's reporter Cheng Xiaojun
According to past experience, the weekend before the weekend of Labor Day in the United States (this year is September 6, or next Monday) is often the time of the year when movies have poor box office performance. In order to avoid the upcoming autumn blockbusters, film companies are generally unlikely to arrange new releases at this time; even if they do, they are always small and medium-budget films that do not have much hope for their box office performance.
During the pandemic, there was already less supply of new films, so this past weekend, we saw only one new film release on a large scale in North America. That's Candyman, a restrictive horror film produced by MGM Pictures and distributed by Universal Pictures.
Candy Man set a weekend box office record for a black female director
Perhaps due to the lack of competitors, "Candy Man" was finally released in 3569 theaters, and won $22.37 million in three days, which greatly exceeded the industry's previous expectations for it - because of the continuation of the epidemic and the arrival of Hurricane Ida, the analysis believes that the film can get 15 million US dollars to open the box office is very good. In the end, Dangren won the weekend box office charts.
Directed by Nia Da Costa, an African-American female director with a production cost of $25 million, the film was basically recovered by the opening of the first weekend alone (of course, there are also theatrical sub-accounts and publicity costs are not included), and it is expected to become one of the very few films under the epidemic that can recover all its investment by relying on the theater box office alone. And it also gives everyone more confidence in the young director's next work, the Marvel movie "Captain Marvel 2", which is scheduled to be released in North America on November 11, 2022.
Stills from Candy Man
In fact, with the opening results of "Candy Man", Da Costa, born in the new York University Film School, has become the first black female director in the history of American cinema to have a work that occupies the top box office at the weekend. Released in March 2018, Disney's "Wrinkles in Time" was directed by black female director Ava DuVernay and grossed $33.1 million, more than "Candy Man", but it lost to "Black Panther" in its premiere week and ranked second in the weekend box office list. Three years later, we finally saw Da Costa accomplish this landmark achievement for african-American female filmmakers.
The title and story framework of "Candy Man" are based on the work of the same name released in 1992, claiming to be its "spiritual sequel", but as long as you know that Jordan Peel, the black director who has made a name for himself with "Escape from Breaking Town" and "Us", is the co-producer and co-writer of this film, you will think that this version of "Candy Man" is not a simple commercial horror film.
In this new adaptation, Jordan Peel and director Da Costa inject the zeitgeist and social significance of "Escape from Breaking Bad", and insert a lot of political implications related to the racial issues of American society in the interval of the killing spree.
At present, the film has 85% of the film critics' praise on the film review collection website "Rotten Tomatoes", and the performance is quite good. As for the general audience, although some people complain that the political issues in the film make its genre interesting, overall, the B-level post-view score given by the audience is not bad.
"Candy Man" has 85% of the film critics' praise on Rotten Tomatoes
Looking closely at the first weekend audience of "Candy Man", 70% of them are in the 18- to 34-year-old age group, and they are mainly male, and they are the most important force supporting the North American box office in the past few months. At present, it seems that the box office performance of horror films during the epidemic is generally good.
Some analysts believe that this is because they love to go to the theater to watch horror movies, or the above-mentioned young people, who are relatively least affected by the epidemic and are the least afraid of the risk of epidemic; the second is also because this experience of watching horror movies together with a group of people in a dark theater is probably not available on the TV or computer at home. After decades of habit cultivation and cultural edification, this pastime of young people meeting in the cinema to watch horror movies has long been integrated into the lives of generations of Americans, becoming part of their growth experience, and it is difficult to completely die out because of the epidemic.
Finally, throughout the development of Hollywood horror films, with the help of the "lipstick effect", often the more social turmoil is full of chaos, the more the general public likes to go to the cinema to watch horror movies, so as to paralyze themselves with this temporary sound and light stimulation.
"Out of Control Player" shows a new strategy for publicity during the epidemic period
"Runaway Players," which previously topped the top for two consecutive weeks, grossed $12.7 million at the North American box office last weekend, ranking second and still popular. On Friday, the new film, which has not yet been released on streaming, landed in Chinese mainland theaters, earning 155 million yuan in three days over the weekend. Currently, it grossed $79.31 million in North America and $179 million worldwide.
Speaking of the success of this film, the lead actor Ryan Reynolds is really credited. This refers not only to his wonderful performances on the screen, but also to the great efforts he made to promote his work before and after the film's release. After becoming a popular star with the release of "Deadpool" in 2016, Reynolds quickly developed his own soft power to run social media and became a veritable Internet celebrity.
Ryan Reynolds hand-painted poster congratulating "Runaway Player" on exceeding 100 million yuan at the Chinese box office
According to the latest issue of the Hollywood Reporter, in the promotion of "Out of Control Player", Reynolds worked closely with Asad Ayaz, the head of Disney's publicity team, to shoot as many as 75 promotional materials for the film, far exceeding the average of 10 to 15 promotional materials for male protagonists in similar Hollywood films.
In a promotional video before the mainland release of "Out of Control", Reynolds showed his hand-drawn
In the promotional video of "Out of Control Player" confirming the introduction of Chinese mainland, he showed the "Chinese special poster" that personally drew and wrote the title of the Chinese; and on the weekend, after the film exceeded 100 million yuan at the box office, he immediately released a new congratulatory poster, which was so efficient that he could be called a model worker.
"Some people may think that this kind of film promotion work will be boring, but I will not." Reynolds said, "I like to do publicity, I can take this opportunity to make some stalks, say some paragraphs, joke with the audience and friends, why not enjoy it." ”
In the past period, due to the epidemic, a large number of films have had to choose to postpone the release schedule again and again. For example, "Runaway Player" was originally scheduled to be released in July 2020, but then postponed to December 2020, and as the epidemic intensified, it was scheduled for May this year, and finally postponed to August.
As each new slot approaches, how to restart the publicity machine and how to make the target audience pay attention to themselves again has become a new problem that Hollywood film publicity veterans have to face. "Every time you start promoting it again, you have to make a new impression, and you must not let the target audience think that the film is already familiar to them, and the most feared thing is that some people think that the film has been released." Assad Ayaz introduced.
Today, although "Runaway Player" has been released for three weeks, it still has a 45-day window, whether through social media or through other channels, as long as people hear about how wonderful it is, and what Easter eggs are the potential audience who want to see it, it is expected to make its box office to a higher level. And this attraction also provides a rare confidence for the troubled American theaters.
The industry expects audiences to return to the theater
Last week, the American Cinema Line Alliance (NATO) hosted their annual film conference CinemaCon in Las Vegas, and Chairman John Fithian optimistically said that the U.S. film box office market is on track to return to normal levels in 2022.
In fact, the North American box office totaled $63 million last weekend, basically the same as the previous weekend, and a 40% reduction compared to the data of the same period in 2019. But in the eyes of Fei Xian and others, as long as the next film company can restore confidence and put more films like "Candy Man" and "Out of Control Player" in the respect window period, the return of the audience is only a matter of time.
At this film industry conference, there are also many people who support the theater industry. Patti Jenkins, the director of the Wonder Woman series, said in a high profile that she felt deep heartache at the thought that many viewers had watched Wonder Woman 1984 for the first time sitting at home, on TV or on a computer. "I've always made these movies so that people can experience my work in the cinema, and if you watch it on your phone the second or third time, I think it's OK, but the first time..."
Dune poster
Earlier, Dune director Dennis Villeneuve also stressed that his work was shot for the big screen rather than the TV screen, so he still has a hard time accepting the reality that "Dune" will be released online and offline. "Frankly, watching Dunes on tv is like driving a jet ski in your bathtub. Personally, it's ridiculous, because my starting point for Dune is to pay homage to the experience of watching movies on the big screen. ”
Editor-in-Charge: Zhang Zhe
Proofreader: Luan Meng