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Interface News reporter | Zhang Youfa

Entertainment of the Week is a new column launched by Jiemian Entertainment. We will review the main news hotspots in the entertainment industry last week and the market performance of top works. At a stage when the entertainment industry as a whole has entered the stock market, these daily changes contain opportunities for the tide to surge again.

Limiting the observation range to one week can also help us judge the industry's longer-term development possibilities.

Jackie Chan's new film is mired in controversy

On July 10, the movie "Legend" starring Jackie Chan was officially released nationwide.

With the market's expectation of a sequel to "The Myth", "Legend" still failed to break 100 million yuan in box office after five days of release. In the daily box office ranking on July 14, it fell to fourth place, behind "Inside Out 2" which had been released for 24 days. The Douban score of the movie is only 5.5 points, which is also low among the summer movies.

The biggest controversy in Legend is the "AI Jackie Chan", which was also the main selling point before the movie was released. During the Shanghai Film Festival, there was already a discussion on whether AI was mature enough for film production. After the release of the movie, the performance of AI was not satisfactory, and many self-media used AI as a point of criticism for the movie. In the comment section of the movie's Douban homepage, the main theme about AI was also negative.

Moreover, using AI as a marketing point has obscured some other highlights of "Legend", such as Kim Hee Sun's cameo, the real-life war scenes, and the occasional Jackie Chan-style action comedy. Of course, these few highlights can hardly cover up the old-fashioned and weak plot of the movie itself.

As the company's main producer, Bona Film Group recently released its 2024 semi-annual performance forecast, predicting that its half-year net profit will be negative, with a loss of 108 million to 153 million. The financial report explained that since the national movie box office in the first half of the year was lower than the same period last year, the fixed costs such as theater rental and depreciation were high, resulting in an increase in the loss of the cinema business compared with the same period last year.

The poor performance of "Legend" is obviously not enough to make up for the losses in the first half of the year, and another film produced by the company, "Dream of Red Mansions: The Golden Marriage", will also be released this month. This will be Bona's opportunity to recover its performance in the summer season.

The eSports Olympics is coming

After e-sports entered the Asian Games, the e-sports Olympics is finally here.

The International Olympic Committee announced on the 12th that it will cooperate with the Saudi Arabian National Olympic Committee to hold the first Olympic eSports Games in Saudi Arabia in 2025. This proposal will be submitted to the 142nd International Olympic Committee Session to be held in Paris for review.

In the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, e-sports made its debut as a performance rather than an official event. At last year's Hangzhou Asian Games, e-sports became an official event, taking an important step towards the integration of e-sports with mainstream sports.

It is not surprising that Saudi Arabia is the host of the first Electronic Olympics. E-sports has become part of Saudi Arabia's national strategy. In the "Vision 2030" plan at the national level, Saudi Arabia will become the "World Center for Gaming and E-sports". The 2024 Saudi E-sports World Cup was held in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, on July 3 this year, and included popular events such as League of Legends and Dota 2.

The e-sports industry has always hoped to be closer to traditional sports. On the one hand, this will allow e-sports to further enter mainstream society and avoid the public's stereotype that e-sports is just about playing games and not doing business.

On the other hand, e-sports competitions are mainly based on clubs, and there are few competitions based on countries. The world's most commercially valuable sports IPs, whether it is the World Cup or the Olympics, are based on countries and regions, which proves that the combination of competition and national consciousness can stimulate greater commercial value.

The Olympics also needs to attract young people. This year's Paris Olympics added four events that are popular among young people: skateboarding, rock climbing, surfing and breakdancing. E-sports is undoubtedly the most popular competitive event among young people.

However, there are still barriers between e-sports and sports. From the perspective of consumption logic and packaging, e-sports is closer to the field of general entertainment. Compared with directly entering e-sports into the Olympics, holding the "E-sports Olympics" may be a more compromise solution.

Andy Lau concert ticket prices are being hyped up to 60,000

After being away from the music scene for many years, Andy Lau recently announced a concert tour in China, but prices in second-hand channels are severely inflated.

The tour will be held from July to September in eight cities, including Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen and Chongqing, with a total of 36 shows. The lowest ticket price is 680 yuan and the highest is 2,580 yuan.

Shanghai was the first stop of the tour, and the three concerts from July 5 to 7 were sold out. According to Xinmin Weekly, although the concert claimed to use the real-name system for ticket purchase, some netizens shared that the original price of 2,580 yuan for the first row of the inner field was raised to a high price of 68,880 yuan by scalpers. When the reporter inquired about the price, the 2,580 yuan inner field ticket was also quoted by scalpers as 14,000 yuan.

This is also a microcosm of the booming performance market in the first half of this year. Since the end of the epidemic, the audience's enthusiasm for returning to offline entertainment has been high, and many singers have also invested in the concert market. The enthusiasm of both parties has continued until this year.

According to CCTV news reporters, the China Performing Arts Industry Association learned that in the first half of this year, there were 251,700 commercial performances (excluding performances in entertainment venues) nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 30.19%; box office revenue was 19.016 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.24%; the number of audiences was 79.1013 million, a year-on-year increase of 27.10%.

But amid the high popularity, there are also hidden dangers. According to incomplete statistics from the Xiaolujiao Think Tank, since 2024, at least 25 concerts have been canceled before the performance, most of which were canceled due to poor ticket sales. The concert market is showing a trend of differentiation. Top concert IPs can tour the country with multiple shows in one place, while those with average appeal can only sell tickets at a discount or even be canceled in the end.

This means that the concert market is also facing the challenge of oversupply, and non-head singers may continue to face the dilemma of not being able to sell tickets. As mass consumption becomes more rational, how to optimize supply is the proposition of the next stage of the concert market.

With the support of "Silent Killer" and "Catching Dolls", the summer season finally broke 4 billion

After welcoming the heavyweight new film, the summer season finally heats up

According to data from Lighthouse Professional Edition, as of 13:31 on July 14, the total box office (including pre-sales) of the 2024 summer season finally exceeded 4 billion, and on July 13, the daily box office exceeded 300 million again after 70 days.

Previously, the monthly box office in June, the start of the summer season, was only 2.231 billion yuan, a cliff-like drop from 4.134 billion yuan in June last year. After the Spring Festival, this year's film market has been sluggish, and the total box office in the first half of the year was 23.897 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 9.1%.

The release of "Silent Killer" and "Catching Dolls" played an important role in this wave of market recovery. "Silent Killer" was directed by Ke Wenli, and it still follows the path of the previous hit suspense film with constant plot twists and social topics. "Catching Dolls" was starred by Shen Teng and Ma Li, representing the public's expectations for Happy Twist comedy.

For the Chinese mainland film market, suspense and comedy films are still a rigid demand. Last year, it was "Gone Girl" produced by Chen Sicheng that heated up the summer season. Comedy films have a broader market base and are a popular film genre in all major seasons.

After the market heats up, the following summer season will also see the release of different types of movies such as "Under the Aliens", "Deadpool and Wolverine", and "Retrograde", which will be able to attract different audiences. I believe this will also give film practitioners greater confidence in the second half of the season, bringing about a subsequent virtuous cycle.