Reading Chuang / Shenzhen Business Daily reporter Du Xiangxiang
The 25th Bond film, 007: No Time to Die, is currently in hot air, and as of November 4, the film has only grossed 234 million in the seven days of release, which is not outstanding. Does the "007" IP still have commercial value? This movie accompanies the old generation 007 "stepping down", how will the new generation of "007" break the game?
James Bond, a fictional agent who has been on the screen for 59 years and has accompanied generations of fans around the world, is arguably the longest-lived character in Hollywood film history. Agent culture occupies an important position in British culture, 007 was once the benchmark of the agent type, and "Mission Impossible" and "Spy Heavy" faced "how to form a difference with 007" when they opened the image adaptation.
What is not in line with the popularity of IP is that the 007 series has never been popular in the Chinese mainland film market, and only 5 films have been officially introduced, of which the box office of "007: Breaking the Sky" in 2013 was only 376 million. In 2015, "007: Ghost Party" ended up with 542 million at the box office, ranking only 25th in the 2015 annual box office list.
This year, "No Time to Die" is the finale of Daniel Craig. As a 6th generation 007 actor, he has played Bond five times in 15 years, "It's time to say goodbye." Craig said more than once on publicity occasions. And from the plot point of view, he is indeed "retired".
In terms of word of mouth, "No Time to Die" Douban scored 7.1, and The cat's eye and Taobao tickets were 8.8 and 8.5 respectively. In the history of cinema, it is very difficult for sequel movies to maintain a certain good reputation, especially for more than 20 series movies, and it is even more difficult to maintain the ideal reputation, so it is rare that "No Time to Die" can have more than 8 points of positive word of mouth.
However, "007: No Time to Die" has a good reputation but why is the box office average? Some viewers said that Bond may be old in this movie, which is different from the image of the omnipotent agent with flying cornices and walls, and the higher the expectation value, the higher the disappointment value. Unlike the American agent portrayed in Tom Cruz's "Mission Impossible" and Matt Damon's "Spy On The Monster" series of films, Daniel Craig's Agent 007 is more British gentlemanly, and compared with the previous 007, unlike The handsomeness, humor and elegance of Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan's version of 007, Daniel's version of 007 is more calm and even cold, showing more "iron man tenderness". Some viewers also said that Bond's high-tech weapons and luxury cars in "No Time to Die" are too few to be addicted.
In fact, not only in China, but also in the world, the 007 series has long faced a bottleneck, and 007 movies have followed the same narrative mode for decades: receiving instructions - first encountering the villain - tangling with the bang girl - falling into crisis - defeating the evil group - missing or hugging the beauty. It is difficult to shoot more than 20 films without making the audience aesthetically tired. James Bond, who has a handsome appearance, a luxurious car, and a luxurious suit, is the most unsuitable type of person to be a spy if placed in reality.
What is the future direction of 007? Industry insiders said that the 007 series still has great commercial value and creative space. Even if you haven't seen any other 007 movies, viewers can know through 007: No Time to Die that 007 is just a code name, and any agent has a chance to be given the code name of 007 by the organization. In "007: No Time to Die", the handsome black female agent 007 brings new points of view and highlights to the film, in fact, this is also the film side to release a signal to the audience, in the future "007" series of movies, it is not excluded that female starring 007 may not be ruled out, and the female version of 007 creation is very likely to refer to "Black Widow", "Captain Marvel", "Wonder Woman" and other blockbusters.
In terms of plot, "Fast and Furious 9" has "raced" to space, and 007, which has performed 25 missions on Earth, is likely to fly to space, after all, space espionage is a heavy task that all 007 has not yet challenged.
Review: Sun Shijian