After the National Day file passed this year, the public's discussion of "10 billion film emperors" has exceeded to "20 billion film emperors".
At present, there are two, one is Wu Jing, 24.254 billion box office, ranking first; one is Shen Teng, 21.153 billion box office, ranking second. It is a bit regrettable that as of now, there is still no Chinese female filmmaker whose personal box office has accumulated to 10 billion.
Since the emergence of the title of "10 billion film emperor", everyone has been discussing a question - why are there more men than women among the actors at the 10 billion box office?
Yeah, why? Of course, this problem is complicated and can be explained a lot, but Achu wants to talk to you from the perspective of the development of the film industry, and guess who will become the first female filmmaker to exceed 10 billion at the box office.
01 Unavoidable box office appeal
Film has the dual attributes of culture and commodity, and has carried a commercial gene from the day it was born.
Everyone has to buy tickets to enter the cinema to watch movies, which means that movies are commodities that enter the market and circulate, and have value and use value.
Box office, that's where it comes in.
Therefore, a film is made without economic concepts such as budget, cost, and profit, and even if it is more artistic, investors will unceremoniously measure the return on investment.
The audience pays for the actors, directors, and screenwriters they like, and capital decides who to invest in based on the public's preferences as a criterion.
Achu has written about the 007 series of movies before, which is a typical male theme commercial film, and it is also an investment project that can carry the box office in the current market.
Returning to the "Starring Box Office TOP100" list produced by Maoyan and analyzing the types of films in which more than 10 billion box office filmmakers participated, it is not difficult to find that they are mainly concentrated in comedy, action, science fiction, suspense reasoning and other genres.
For example, Wu Jing's "Wolf Warrior 2" and "Changjin Lake"; Shen Teng's "Hello, Li Huanying" and "Charlotte Troubles"; Liu Haoran's "Detective Chinatown" series; Huang Bo's "Crazy Aliens"; Xu Zheng's "囧" series.
In addition to Liu Haoran, a new generation of young actors, the rest are middle-aged male actors whose works and popularity have accumulated to a certain extent, and the actresses are ranked after 10, and the top Scarlett Johansson is also 13th.
In these types of films, there are more male actors than female actors, especially films like "Chosin Lake" and "King Kong Chuan" that are biased towards historical and war themes, and actresses have almost no important roles, and they can't talk about carrying the three words at the box office.
At present, the types of female actors with more room to play are love, family ethics, etc., for example, Bai Baihe's "Get Out!" Tumor Jun", with Wu Yanzu, takes the warm + emotional route, and is also quite popular in the market.
There is also "My Sister", which has aroused heated discussion in the first half of this year, with a domestic box office of 860 million, which is also a theme focusing on families and women.
Of course, male actors have more opportunities than female actors, not only in China, but even in Hollywood or Europe, where the film industry is developing faster and has a more complete industrial system.
There are more male directors, male screenwriters, male actors, they have more say, and "when 80% of movies are made by men... The viewer gets a male perspective. ”
But in recent years, there has been a growing discussion of such issues, and women filmmakers are actively seeking ways to change.
In fact, behind such problems, the real concern of everyone is whether men and women are equal.
Gender equality is a social issue, which is closely related to the change of popular concepts and the economic development of society.
02 The changing film industry
There is no doubt that all the traditional societies in the world are patriarchal societies.
With the influence of feminist ideas, people gradually paid attention to feminist films and female character shaping in movies.
Scholars believe that there have been three waves of feminism in the history of the United States, the first of which began in the late 1840s and ended in the 1920s.
In Hollywood, Los Angeles, for example, the protagonists of early Hollywood films were men, and the female figures in them were either angels or whoresses.
They are foils for male presence. For example, Elizabeth in the 1931 science fiction movie "Frankenstein" is just a gentle and beautiful wife.
From the early 1960s to the end of the 1980s, a second wave of feminism was set off, during which many women's liberation movements appeared, and feminist films also entered the historical stage.
For example, Jane Fonda starred in "Julia."
Women began to become more and more diverse from a single function, and there were female warriors, prophetesses, heroines, etc. in the movie, and the charm of the characters also increased, and the female characters also had the characteristics of bravery, wisdom, and maturity.
The third wave began in the 1990s and continues to this day.
Li Yinhe said in Feminism, "An important point of feminism is that the status of women is the best measure of the degree of civilization of a nation. Marxism also believes that the degree of women's emancipation is a natural measure of the degree of social emancipation. ”
It can be said that equality between men and women is the symbol of social liberation and social progress. But it takes a process of change, and we want to give it time.
The film industry has indeed made some changes over time, with studies showing: "Of the 100 highest-grossing films in 2020, 28 percent were female producers and 21 percent were executive producers, both two percentage points more than last year." ”
However, Martha Lauzer, director of the Women's Television and Film Research Center at San Diego State University, said: "The situation is indeed improving, but the current imbalance between men and women in Hollywood filmmakers is still relatively serious." ”
Take the prestigious Academy Award for Best Director in the film industry, for example, only two women have won this award in so many years, one is the director of "Bomb Disposal Force", Catherine Bigelow, and the other is Zhao Ting, who just won the award for "Nomadland" this year.
A global award, founded in 1929, with only two female best directors in the last hundred years, has shown a certain situation.
It can be said that the film industry is still dominated by men, but thankfully, women have slowly pushed open the door, and they have been working hard for their equal rights and interests over the years, and they have been striving for equal rights and creating outstanding works.
Achu still remembers patricia Aquet, who won the 87th Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, in her acceptance speech, saying, "Every woman who gave birth to a citizen and a taxpayer of this country, we have fought for a lot of equal rights for others." It's time for American women to get equal wages and other equal rights. ”
Offstage, Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lopez kept clapping.
03 Who is the first Chinese female filmmaker to box office more than 10 billion
Speaking of Meryl Streep, I have to say that the artistic life of many foreign actresses is longer than that of domestic middle-aged actresses, they have many scripts to choose from and challenging roles, and their acting careers are not closely tied to individual age.
Earlier, Ah Lang, editor-in-chief of Watching Movie magazine, once said in a cultural program, "On the Chinese screen, there are only 'little girls' and 'old ladies'!" ”
It sounds a bit absolute, but Zhou Xun, who is known for his good acting skills and aura, has worried about age, "Everyone says that I began to get old when "When is the Bright Moon". That's when I really got up in the morning and sat on the couch I started crying. ”
She was crying not about getting old, but about not having a suitable role to play.
Therefore, Zhou Xun is very envious of his idol, the French actress Isabelle Hupel, "I hope I can be like her, all the time to continue to act, until I am old, some people still like to see me." ”
Huper's acting skills are unquestionable, she has won the film queen of world-renowned film festivals such as Cannes, Venice, and Caesars in France.
She is still active in front of the curtain, in 2016, "Future Things", "Her"; 2017 "Claire's Camera"; 2018
This year, there is also a starring movie "Drug Dealer Aunt" released in North America.
Of course, in recent years, domestic actresses have also begun to save themselves and transform.
For example, because the fertility career was suspended for a period of time, Yao Chen, who could not get a good script after his comeback, began to serve as an executive producer, starring in the women's theme movie "Send Me to Qingyun".
Ma Yili of the Mesozoic Era also tried to transform into a nanny Sun Fang in "Find You".
At the same time, we can also see middle-aged actresses like Yong Mei winning international awards for their works.
Part of the brilliance in them is precisely the unique perspective and richness that age brings.
In the case of female filmmakers with a personal box office of more than 10 billion, Achu is also looking forward to someone breaking the game.
In 2019, "Avengers: Endgame" was released, and Scarlett Johansson, the actor of Black Widow, became the first female filmmaker in the Chinese film market to personally box office more than 10 billion.
But she is a foreign actress, followed by Zhou Dongyu and Bai Baihe, the former with a cumulative box office of 9.598 billion, the latter with a total box office of 9.567 billion, and they are only one good movie with a box office of more than 500 million yuan away from the 10 billion.
Next, this is also full of suspense - Bai Baihe has a new movie "Door Lock" released this month, remade from a Korean movie of the same name, focusing on women living alone, compared with the past, there is an expansion in the theme.
Bai Baihe is not a comedian, more like a spokesperson for domestic chick movies, and the new role played this time, Fang Hui, is a microcosm of a solitary woman working hard in a big city, and there should be some places worthy of empathy.
And Zhou Dongyu also has a new movie released in December, which is "Fireworks on the Plain" cooperated with Liu Haoran, a realistic crime theme, which is also different from the love and growth themes she was good at before.
When everyone is trying to expand their boundaries, the world of female filmmakers will gradually expand.
epilogue:
In Achu's view, no matter who becomes the first Chinese 10 billion female filmmakers, it is a kind of progress, because this is an affirmation of female filmmakers and another promotion of equality between men and women.
When we talk about female filmmakers "breaking the tens of billions", we do not require male filmmakers to take advantage of the interests, but hope that women can get the same opportunities and have the same rights and interests as men - do not have to be preferential, only seek equality.
Text/Achu X X Sixteen X Whale