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Since the beginning of 2024, many films focusing on "spending money like crazy" have been released one after another. The New Year's Eve movie "Gold Finger" focuses on "buy, buy, buy" and "get rich in the New Year", and the May Day movie "The Last Hundred and Thieves" humorously shows the protagonist Jia Youwei's crazy enjoyment in the last ten days of his life, and has made a name for itself with a box office of 781 million yuan. With the release of these films, "The Richest Man in Xihong City", which also focuses on "how to spend money", has also been discussed again by the public.

Image source: Douban official poster

These movies that focus on "spending money", "partying" and "getting rich quickly" have become the darlings of the market in terms of box office performance or discussion heat, and some have even become phenomenal films. However, in terms of word of mouth, they are almost all evaluated as "bad movies", "boring" and "vulgar". What kind of audience psychology is behind the box office success of "spending money madly" movies? Why are their word of mouth and box office performance so different?

The story setting and cast advantages help the movie go viral

Movies about showing off wealth and living a life of luxury are common in the market, but movies about how to spend money, or even how spending money becomes a pain, have become a scarce perspective. These movies that "do not teach people how to make money, but how to spend money" have made the audience shine with their differentiated story settings.

The film "Personal Customization" is based on the principle of "helping others and disgusting yourself" to customize "spending money" plans for customers. Especially in the chapter of "having money", the audience followed Song Dandan's experience of "having money but not being able to spend it" and "discounts are insulting", and they had a rich woman's addiction and gained a novel experience. The comedy film "The Richest Man in Xihong City" that came out in 2018, the main theme of the poster is "Gold will always be spent", which strongly highlights the meaning of "spending money". The story is adapted from the American movie "Brewster's Millions", with a very contrasting story setting of a frustrated goalkeeper "spending 1 billion in a month", which satisfies the audience's curiosity.

Image source: Douban official poster

The name of "Thelma & Louise" is inspired by the classic thriller crime film "Thelma & Louise", but the content is very different from the classic thriller crime film, a funny and absurd story about "spending money". After being diagnosed with cancer, the extremely stingy protagonist Jia Youwei decided to give up his "lying flat with a million" plan and spent one million in the last ten days of his life. The setting of "changing the way of life" allowed the thrifty "money-slave" to experience the life of a rich man. This film, which did not have an advantage in the early promotion, unexpectedly became the audience's hot choice with its absurd story setting.

Image source: Douban official stills

The powerful star lineup and diverse style levels add to the charm of "spending money" movies, making them irresistible to the audience. For example, the gathering of comedy masters such as Jia Bing and Xiao Shenyang, plus the blessing of director Wu Rina from Happy Twist, make "The Last Road to Madness" form an extremely relaxed comedy atmosphere.

The director of "Gold Finger", Zhuang Wenqiang, and the two leading actors are all from the original cast of "Infernal Affairs". The film also sees Tony Leung and Andy Lau reunite after 20 years. The film is adapted from a real case that shocked the world - the largest capital operation fraud case in Hong Kong history, the "Carrian Fraud Case". The combination of the best actor and the world's most bizarre case is hard not to be attractive.

The two films are either pure comedies to make the audience laugh; or extremely ironic, showing the wealth gap; or financial games, exposing fraud traps, which can be said to have taken "spending money" and "getting rich quickly" out of the circle.

Image source: Douban official stills

Realistic portrayal and concept guidance, grasping the audience's psychology

Movies are a mirror of reality, mirroring the lives of ordinary people. "Spending madly" movies not only create a grandiose scene of showing off wealth, but also show the lives of ordinary people in the portrayal of details, thus establishing an emotional connection with the audience.

Wu Rina, the director of "The Last Thing Called Spending", mentioned that the "spending" setting of the film is different from that of "The Richest Man in Xihong City". As the background of the times changes, the audience's perception of money also changes. Therefore, the director incorporates current hot topics such as stinginess and saving money into it, creating a single middle-aged man who is extremely stingy between work and family. For example, in the plot, the male protagonist pays for shopping with a stack of coupons that he has saved for a long time, showing his way of saving money. Behind the stingy setting, it actually echoes the current social background of consumption downgrade, as well as the discourse competition between moonlighters and money savers, which are all part of the real life of ordinary people.

Image source: Tencent Video, screenshot of the movie

Movies are more of a dream-making machine, staging a daydream for the general public and satisfying the audience's extreme imagination of "getting rich overnight" and "turning their fortunes around".

"Is It Over?" is a story about a low-class person who turned his life around. In his "unlimited refill" life, the protagonist Lao Fan disguised himself as a nouveau riche, a businessman, a writer, etc. This dream of reaching the pinnacle of life has also occurred in the minds of the public.

Goldfinger is also a story about a poor boy who subverts the rules and plays with the rich and powerful. The movie posters also feature the rhetoric of "starting from obscurity and enduring humiliation". After Cheng Yiyan became a wealthy boss respected by everyone through "buying and buying", he also encouraged everyone to "go shopping" and took the lead in "buying British Century Shipping for 1.2 billion" and other operations to show off his new way of spending money to the audience. In terms of publicity, Goldfinger undoubtedly used everyone's "dream of getting rich" to attract audiences.

Image source: Douban official poster

Another crucial reason why "spending money" movies can resonate with the audience is that they relieve the audience's psychological pressure by leading them to a positive concept of money. In the context of an era of accelerated operation, the profit-seeking nature and the value concept of money supremacy often appear in reality and on the Internet, causing invisible psychological pressure on many people. The disillusionment of the "money dream" in the movie brings the audience back to reality, while conveying the signal that "money is not the most important thing", making "spending money" movies a way to "lose weight".

In "The Last Thing Called Spendthrift", after Jia Youwei learned that he was misdiagnosed, he was overwhelmed by the pain of "living but losing money", and the conflicts between the brothers also arose over money. But at the end of the film, the Luandun brothers reconciled and started a new business, abandoning their obsession with money. From changing the way of life to changing the concept, the film conveys to the audience that friendship is the more precious thing in life. This is a similar value expression to the side of Wang Duoyu in "The Richest Man in Xihong City" that "money does not devour human nature", and it is also the psychological sustenance of the audience.

"Personal Tailor" is a "dream within a dream" illusion, where everything is just a temporary stage; "Gold Finger" is also a fantasy bubble under a scam, and the pursuit of money is ultimately in vain. These extremely absurd and ironic presentations of money effectively achieve the disenchantment of money, reduce the value of money, and thus achieve psychological relief for the audience.

Image source: Tencent Video, screenshot of the movie

"Spending money" may be the gimmick of the movie, but the meaning behind it is not just to satisfy the audience's imagination by showing extravagant scenes. Its analysis of social issues and the transmission of the concept of money are the in-depth dialogues that the creators want to achieve with the audience.

There is a contrast between word of mouth and box office, where does the problem lie?

Looking at the movies that are "money-fueled", most of them can achieve good results at the box office, but they are not recognized by the audience in terms of word of mouth. Even "Gold Finger", which won the "Best Actor" award at the Hong Kong Film Awards and was nominated for "Best Picture", is suspected of being a "scam movie". What is the reason behind this?

Image source: Douban rating screenshot

The logical problems in the movie have become one of the aspects that the audience complained about. Comedies such as "Thelma & Francis", "The Richest Man in Xihong City" and "Is It Over?", even if they are innovative in the content setting, cannot withstand scrutiny in the underlying structure and logical details. In "Thelma & Francis", the character's growth is driven by a "misdiagnosis", especially when the character immediately switches back to a stingy state after learning of the misdiagnosis. There is a lack of internal motivation for change, and the rift between the brothers is a bit abrupt.

Secondly, the lack of memorable moments in the film makes it a challenge to "enter the hearts of the people". Especially in the current comedy field, comedy movies face the challenges of comedy variety shows, online jokes, short videos and other content. Comedy movies need to create new ways of playing, rather than holding on to elements such as "not short of money" and "misdiagnosis", otherwise they will inevitably become "disposable" movies that are laughed at. For example, although "Is It Over?" borrowed "repetitive" narratives and added live broadcast and express delivery elements, it was buried in both box office and word of mouth because of its formalization and fragmentation, lack of substantive novelty.

Image source: Douban official poster

The misalignment between publicity and content is also one of the important factors that affect the reputation of "expensive" movies. At present, the role of publicity in the film industry chain is becoming more and more important, but if the publicity content deviates from the core of the film, it will give the audience a sense of "scam".

Take "Gold Finger" for example. The film first released a promotional video with the theme of "Buy, Buy", and then opened themed viewing sessions such as "Financial Explosion" and "Billion Counterattack", but these promotions deviated from the core of the story, which is finance and crime. So after watching the movie, the audience will have a sense of watching a half-finished "Wolf of Wall Street" and the "The Richest Man in Xihong City" in the field of crime. The promotion of "Thelma and Louise" and the slogan at the end of "Be happy while you are alive" are also suspected of deviating from the theme and forcibly exaggerating.

Image source: Douban official poster

Behind the discussion and controversy of the audience, the development trend of the times and the collective mood of society are reflected. The "money carnival" movies should continue to explore their creative characteristics and improve the median reputation while grasping their own commercial advantages and the psychological changes of the audience, so as to achieve a two-way dialogue with the audience in a true sense.