news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

Is it the content or the publicity that makes a movie a hit? The summer blockbuster "Falling into the Earth" suffered a box office failure. From its release on July 12 to the announcement of the end of the first round of screenings on August 10, the cumulative box office was only more than 30 million yuan, and the investment of more than 100 million yuan had almost no hope of making a profit.

On August 9, Yongsheng Animation released a farewell video for "Falling into the Mortal World". Producer Huang Long mentioned that due to various reasons, the journey of "Falling into the Mortal World" on the big screen has come to an end. "In fact, facing such box office results, we are very unwilling. The first round of screenings is over, and we will not be online on video websites in the short term. I hope we can meet again on the big screen. Please continue to pay attention to us."

Affected by multiple factors such as content, marketing, schedule, and market environment, is the low box office of "Falling into the Mortal World" accidental or inevitable? How far is the distance between a well-received work and a box office hit? When IP adaptations are rampant, is there still a way out for original animation? Southern Metropolis Daily reporter reviewed the reasons behind the box office failure of "Falling into the Mortal World". Who is to blame for the difficulty of a good work to become a hit?

content

Popular but not commercially successful, a new IPDifficult to break out of the circle

How difficult is it to make an original animation in China? According to statistics from the Lighthouse Professional Edition, among the top 20 domestic animated film box office charts, there are 8 "Boonie Bears" movies, 4 Conferred Gods IPs, 2 White Snake IPs, 1 Journey to the West IP, and 2 movies adapted from high-scoring TV series. Among the top 20, only three movies can be considered original, namely "30,000 Miles in Chang'an", "Deep Sea" and "Big Fish and Begonia".

Although "30,000 Miles from Chang'an" is not a typical IP adaptation, the Tang poetry, Li Bai, Chang'an, etc. in the movie are all cultural symbols that are familiar to the audience, and its educational attributes are very popular among parent-child viewers.

"Deep Sea" is the only adult animation in the 2023 Spring Festival. During the promotion stage, the film received a lot of attention due to topics such as being a new work by the director of "The Monkey King: Hero is Back", taking 7 years to polish, and ink particle special effects.

Big Fish and Begonia, which was released in 2016, caught up with the bonus period of the "rise of Chinese animation". In the early stage, it relied on crowdfunding to accumulate a group of loyal fans. After its release, it became popular with its Chinese aesthetic style. It is worth noting that the distribution company behind Deep Sea and Big Fish and Begonia is Enlight Pictures, which has created popular animations such as Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World and has mature experience in the promotion and distribution of animated films.

As the highest-rated animated film on Douban this summer, why did "Falling into the Earth" fail to replicate the box office success of these three animations?

"Falling into the Mortal World" is derived from the graduation project of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. The short film of the same name was once a hit on Bilibili. The film tells the story of the descendants of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. It innovatively combines the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl with the twenty-four constellations, and constructs a new worldview based on the inheritance of traditional culture. The story focuses on family affection that can easily resonate with the public.

"Falling into the Mortal Realm" is a rare domestic animated film with a solid script in recent years, but the film's box office performance was not satisfactory. After nearly a month of release, the box office was only more than 38 million yuan.

Zhu Haipeng, director of the animation department of Guangdong University of Finance and Economics Bay Area Film and Television Industry College, said: "The reputation of "Falling into the Mortal World" is mainly based on Douban's ratings. In the past two years, as the Chinese film market has continued to sink to small towns and third- and fourth-tier cities, the coverage of Douban users is not that strong, because Douban users are mainly young people in first- and second-tier cities, so there is a situation where Douban users and movie audiences are not completely matched." Ge Jing, associate professor of Beijing Film Academy and director of the animation planning major, has a similar view: "The vast majority of audiences may not rate a film or write reviews, but this majority of audiences are often the core component of a large box office."

Although "Falling into the Mortal Realm" is smoother and more complete than most Chinese cartoons on the market, objectively speaking, it is not a perfect work, and the film's character modeling and narrative rhythm have also been criticized to varying degrees.

Most importantly, as a new IP with low public awareness, many netizens reported that the title of "Falling into the Mortal World" was "incomprehensible", and the words "Stars line up, Chinese comics are on fire" on the poster did not highlight the content and positioning. Eryu, a movie fan in Lanzhou, Gansu, said that when he first saw the poster of "Falling into the Mortal World", it was hard to imagine that the movie had anything to do with mythology or family affection, and he thought it was a mass-produced costume idol drama that was regularly released every quarter.

Ge Jing analyzed that "animation does not have the box office appeal brought by real stars. Its box office appeal depends entirely on the subject matter and IP of the film itself. It is best if it is well-known to everyone, known when mentioned, and interested in watching it." Compared with IPs such as Nezha and White Snake, the IP of Cowherd and Weaver Girl itself is not popular enough, and traditional cultural elements such as the 24 constellations are relatively unfamiliar to the audience.

Ms. D, manager of a cinema in Jinan, Shandong, observed, "This year's moviegoers are relatively conservative. They are in a wait-and-see state regarding new IPs or innovative things, and prefer safe, familiar, and guaranteed options. If the quality of this movie is good, but not explosively good, such as reaching a Douban score of 8 or above, it is actually difficult to stand out. "Falling into the Mortal Realm" is such a case."

Schedule

Market environment changes, competitors become stronger

The 2015 film "Journey to the West: Hero is Back" opened the era of "the rise of Chinese animation". In 2019, the phenomenal blockbuster "Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World" was born, and domestic animated films entered their peak period. It was also in this year that the project of "Falling into the Mortal World" entered the development period. After five years of polishing, "Falling into the Mortal World" was finally released this year, but the market environment is completely different from that of five years ago. In recent years, there have been some mediocre works every now and then to market the "light of Chinese animation", consuming the feelings of movie fans, and the audience is no longer as tolerant of Chinese animation as in the past.

From a macro perspective, the total box office for the first half of 2024 will be 23.902 billion yuan, a decrease of 2.328 billion yuan from the same period in 2023. This is the lowest in the past nine years, excluding 2020 and 2022, which were severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The first film to break 1 billion yuan in the summer season this year did not appear until July 19.

From June 25 to July 11, "Falling into the Mortal World" had nearly half a month of previews, during which the film's reputation began to ferment. If a small-scale film with a high reputation makes good use of previews, it will help boost the scheduling of films, such as Wang Baoqiang's "In the Octagon". However, after nearly half a month of previews, the scheduling rate of "Falling into the Mortal World" on July 12, the day of the film's official release, was still only 5.3%.

Lian Cheng Yicui, a self-media person who observes the film industry, believes that this data is very critical: "The screening rate of "Falling into the Mortal World" on the first day of its release ranked sixth on a single day, which was lower than "A Small Shop at the Edge of the Clouds", which had been released for 21 days at the time. Therefore, the box office on the first day was only 2.74 million yuan. The screening ratio on the following Saturdays and Sundays did not exceed 7%, which means that there is not enough room for box office release. The distribution volume plays a decisive role in the early box office, so such a starting point is destined to not be too high in box office."

On July 13, "Catching Dolls" started a large-scale preview, with a screening rate of 29.8%, almost equivalent to the official release. The screening rate of "Falling into the Mortal World" has been declining since then. On July 19, the Japanese animated film "Your Name" was re-screened in China, and the domestic animated film "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Guardian" was officially released. The screening rate of "Falling into the Mortal World" was squeezed to 1.1%, and there was a small rebound in the following days. However, on July 26, Wuershan's "Under the Alien" was officially released, and Chen Sicheng's "Decryption" started previews. The screening rate of "Falling into the Mortal World" dropped sharply to 0.3%, and never broke through 1% again. With the opening of the Paris Olympics on July 26, the entire film market was hit to a certain extent, and "Falling into the Mortal World" completely lost the possibility of a counterattack. Nearly a month after its release, "Falling into the Mortal World" announced the end of its first round of screenings on the day of "Chinese Valentine's Day", which was also the first day of the release of the big IP "White Snake: Floating Life" of Light Chaser Animation.

It is a common practice for domestic animated films to be released in the summer season, but they encountered box office "bombs" such as the "Shen Ma Combination", Chen Sicheng, and Wuershan in the early stage of their release. For fans who want to support "Falling into the Mortal World", it is not easy to find an ideal screening. "No screenings, few screenings, and hellish time slots", high-quality domestic animations are neglected by the market, should the cinema take the blame? Mr. Ruan, the manager of Guangzhou YES Dream Cinema, said: "As a pure commercial entity, the focus of the cinema is revenue. Before the movie is released, it will focus on publicity, investment from the film company, the selling points of the film, and the manager's understanding of the film. After the release, because there are actual data, it is relatively simple. Regarding the controversy over the low screening rate and few screenings of "Falling into the Mortal World", after all, it is all business for the cinema. Who would have trouble with money?"

Ms. D said: "I scheduled five shows on the first day of the release of "Falling into the Earth", but sales were not good. Later I changed it to one or two shows, but sales were still not good. I scheduled it for about a week and then stopped."

Promotion

The audience is not clear enough, and there is still too little "tap water"

"Falling into the Mortal World" was well received but not popular, and many people think that it was the publicity that held it back. The production company of "Falling into the Mortal World" is Yongsheng Animation, the company behind "Pig Man". The director Zhong Ding is a teacher at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. Compared with domestic animation brands such as Light Chaser Animation and Color House, the main creative team of "Falling into the Mortal World" lacks experience in film publicity. Director Zhong Ding once said in an interview with a reporter from Southern Metropolis Daily: "It may be because our animation people are not good at marketing and promotion, which leads to the audience's lack of awareness of "Falling into the Mortal World". The breadth and depth of our communication and reach are indeed limited."

Sen Sen, an animation film producer in Shanghai, believes that the positioning of Falling to Earth is not clear, which makes her feel uncomfortable recommending the film to people around her. "My friends are all around 30 years old. Falling to Earth's promotional focus on 'Chinese style' will attract more ACG people represented by Bilibili users, but it is difficult to support high box office by relying on young people watching cartoons. For middle-aged people, Chinese style is not that attractive."

Xiao Xiong, who lives in Chongqing, is a first-year graduate student this year and a senior fan of Chinese comics. She said that there are many "ACG" people around her, but these people are not very interested in "Falling into the Mortal World". She also mentioned that the title of "Falling into the Mortal World" gave her a whiff of BE, which could easily "dissuade" the audience who like family-friendly themes.

In terms of cinema promotion, Eryu said that she often went to different cinemas to watch movies in the past month, but she had not seen any display racks or posters related to "Falling into the Mortal World" in the cinemas in Lanzhou. "Whether it is the big posters at the entrance of the cinema, or the posters hanging in the elevator or in the corridor of the cinema, there are no more conspicuous materials, but when the Minions are released, there will be some dolls and the like." Manager Ruan of Guangzhou Xiaoxiguan YES Dream Cinema confirmed this: "There are really few materials for "Falling into the Mortal World". Xiaoxiguan YES Dream Cinema is considered a store with an investment of tens of millions of yuan, but it doesn't have any. If there is a private screening, we have to talk to the film company and then arrange for some materials."

Ms. D, manager of a Jinan cinema, said, "Now film producers are cutting costs and putting more publicity and promotion costs on streaming media. People may think that the promotional role of cinemas is limited." However, in terms of streaming media promotion, some viewers think that "Falling into the Mortal World" does not seem to have much movement. Sen Sen and Er Yu both mentioned that they rarely see information related to "Falling into the Mortal World" on platforms such as Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin. Topics related to "Falling into the Mortal World" have been on the hot search list many times, but they have not been on the list for long and are ranked relatively low. For example, #电影落凡尘定档# has only 18,000 discussions.

Ge Jing analyzed: "Compared to the various promotional materials released by the film company, ordinary audiences actually trust the viewing experience of people around them more. That's why we often say that cartoons must have 'tap water', which means that after watching the film, many viewers will spontaneously promote and spread the film. This is where film promotion is truly effective because it is a particularly real word-of-mouth." There have been many domestic animated films that have achieved box office comebacks by relying on the "tap water effect" despite insufficient publicity, such as "The Monkey King: Hero is Back" and "Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World". Why doesn't "Falling into the Mortal World" work?

Winter, a self-media person in the film industry, believes that "Falling into the Mortal Realm has 'tap water', but it is too little. Good production + good publicity + good subject matter can produce good works. At present, the domestic animation companies Color House and Light Chaser Animation are doing better, but Light Chaser also lost money for several films in a row. Later, it accumulated a lot of 'tap water' and slowly got back on its feet. Original domestic animation is particularly difficult. Even if more publicity is given, the effect is estimated to be average. Even with more publicity and more investment, 'Young Lion' only achieved a box office of more than 200 million yuan."

The high reputation of "Falling into the Mortal World" did not achieve corresponding box office returns. Will this situation stimulate future film creation to focus more on publicity and promotion and neglect content? Liancheng Yicui thinks not, "The box office performance of "Falling into the Mortal World" is just an isolated case. Although the reputation of this movie is not bad, it has not reached the point of exploding or going against the sky."

He added: "Publicity and marketing are very important, but a good horse needs a good saddle. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to rely solely on publicity and marketing. After all, the film industry is content-driven."

In the farewell video of "Falling into the Mortal Realm" released on August 9, the creators thanked the audience and fans for their support. In addition, producer Huang Long said: "In fact, facing such box office results, we are very unwilling. The first round of screenings is over, and we will not be online on video websites in the short term. I hope we can meet again on the big screen. Please continue to pay attention to us." Director Zhong Ding promised the audience: "We will definitely continue to create with this energy, with our accumulated experience, and with our excellent team."

Written by: Nandu reporter Jian Yue, Liu Yifan, intern Wu Xinyue