This year's summer box office total is not as high as last year's, but tickets are hard to come by! Audiences "packed" the cinema for it
2024-08-18
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China Business News (Reporter Zhao Yiru)This year's summer movie box office has exceeded 9.4 billion yuan, with "Catching Dolls" leading the way among dozens of films, accounting for 32% of the box office. At the same time, with the Paris Olympics being held, "watching the Olympics in theaters" is also hard to get a ticket, and the diversified development of theaters is continuing.
Movie posters of new domestic films such as "Under the Alien" and "Reverse Life" in Shanghai Xintiandi UME Cinema attract movie fans. (Photo provided by CNSPHOTO)
Summer movie box office total exceeds 9.4 billion yuan
According to the data from Lighthouse Professional Edition, as of 12:00 am on August 14, the total box office (including pre-sales) of the 2024 summer season (June 1 to August 31) has exceeded 9.4 billion yuan. "Catch the Doll", "Silent Killer" and "A Small Shop at the Edge of the Cloud" are temporarily ranked in the top three of the box office list, with box office revenues of 3.037 billion yuan, 1.339 billion yuan and 498 million yuan respectively, accounting for a total of 51.6% of the summer box office.
Among them, "Catching Dolls" starring Shen Teng and Ma Li became the hottest film of this summer, with a box office share of 32.1%, breaking the box office record of summer comedy films in the past five years. The previous holder of this record was "The Lone Moon" starring Shen Teng and Ma Li; "The Silent Killer" accounted for 14.2% of the box office, ranking third in the cumulative box office of summer crime films in Chinese film history.
The new movies released in August are also very exciting.
The movie "Decryption," directed by Chen Sicheng, earned 40.889 million yuan on its first day of release on August 3. As of 12:00 noon on August 14, the cumulative box office had reached 304 million yuan, ranking seventh in the summer movie box office.
White Snake: Floating Life became the box office champion of the Chinese Valentine's Day movie schedule in 2024, and set a box office record for the Chinese Valentine's Day animation schedule. Currently, the film ranks 9th in the summer movie box office with a box office of 218 million yuan.
At the same time, "Deadpool vs. Wolverine", "Despicable Me 4" and "Inside Out 2" ranked 4th to 6th in the summer box office, with box office revenues of 406 million yuan, 372 million yuan and 340 million yuan respectively.
It is worth mentioning that the total box office of movies in the 2023 summer season (June 1 to August 31) was 20.619 billion yuan. The top six films in the summer box office were: "All or Nothing" with 3.526 billion yuan, "She's Gone" with 3.523 billion yuan, "Fengshen I: The Storm of Chaoge" with 2.481 billion yuan, "Octagon Cage" with 2.204 billion yuan, "30,000 Miles from Chang'an" with 1.799 billion yuan, and "Breath" with 895 million yuan.
The total box office of this year's summer movies is still a certain distance away from last year. Currently, only one film has exceeded 3 billion yuan, and the box office of the rest of the films has not exceeded 2 billion yuan.
"The competition in the film market is becoming increasingly fierce, and the audience's viewing choices are more diverse. This year's box office may be affected by multiple factors such as film quality, publicity strategy, and release time, resulting in the box office failing to meet expectations. This also reminds us that the film industry needs continuous innovation and breakthroughs to meet the audience's growing aesthetic needs. Producers should pay more attention to the innovation and depth of the film's content, while increasing publicity and promotion efforts to increase the film's popularity and influence." Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, told China Business News that although the current box office is still behind last year, we should also see the positive side, that is, the film market still has huge potential and vitality.
Tickets for the Olympics are hard to come by
This summer, the holding of the Paris Olympics has made the film market more lively, and "watching the Olympics in the cinema" has become a new trend.
According to the data from Lighthouse Professional Edition, as of August 12, the total box office of CCTV's live broadcast of the 2024 Paris Olympics reached 2.442 million yuan. The top three box office events were: July 30 (table tennis mixed doubles final) 1.121 million yuan, August 3 (table tennis women's singles final, tennis women's singles final) 460,000 yuan, and August 4 (table tennis men's singles final) 275,000 yuan.
During the 17-day Olympic Games, more than 800 cinemas across the country participated in the live broadcast of the Olympic events, with a total of more than 2,300 screenings and a total audience of 55,000.
Tickets for some popular events in many cities were hard to come by. Compared with the 400,000 screenings scheduled every day in the national film market, the most screenings in a single day for the Olympic live broadcast were the 405 mixed doubles table tennis finals, accounting for only 0.1% of the total screenings, but generating 1% of the national box office, with a box office of over 1 million yuan. This shows that the impact of the Olympic live broadcast on the screening space of released films is minimal, but its role in optimizing and supplementing the market is more obvious.
Fu Ruoqing, Chairman of China Film Co., Ltd., believes that this is not only a creative attempt to empower the Olympic Games with film technology, but also a further exploration of non-film content empowering the diversified development of theaters, and a cross-border integration of the Chinese film industry and international sporting events.
"This marks a new breakthrough in the cross-border cooperation between live broadcasts of sports events and cinemas. Audiences can watch the Olympic Games on the big screen of the cinema and enjoy a more shocking and immersive viewing experience. This novel way of watching the games has undoubtedly attracted a large number of viewers." Jiang Han said that this phenomenon also reflects the audience's love and attention to sports events. The live broadcast of the Olympic Games in cinemas not only provides a more convenient channel for viewers to watch the games, but also further promotes the dissemination and popularization of sports culture.
Jiang Han believes that although the box office of live broadcasts of the Olympic Games in cinemas is relatively low at present, this also provides a broad space for the development of the live broadcast market of sports events in the future. With the continuous advancement of technology and the changing needs of audiences, it is believed that the cross-border cooperation between live broadcasts of sports events and cinemas will become closer and more in-depth in the future.
