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The author of this article is @鬼脚七 from Xiaowan family. The only function of movies is to make life more interesting than movies.

For a movie to break the box office record in film history is a low-probability event that requires the right time, place and people.

Especially in today's era of unpredictable global markets, no one can guarantee that the content they promote will be a hit.

But even so, in this past summer, Disney became the "number one player" in breaking box office records, and broke them twice in a row.

On June 14 this year, "Inside Out 2" from Disney's Pixar Studio was released in North America. 40 days later in late July, the global cumulative box office had reached 1.447 billion US dollars, surpassing "Frozen 2"'s 1.445 billion US dollars, becoming the number one in the animation box office rankings in film history.

Pixar's congratulatory message

Strictly speaking, the 2019 "real lion version" of "The Lion King" has a higher cumulative box office of $1.663 billion, but neither the industry nor Disney itself usually classifies this work as an "animated film."

However, even if "The Lion King" is included, "Inside Out 2" is still strong, with its current box office reaching 1.625 billion, and is only a stone's throw away from surpassing the former.

Just as "Inside Out 2" broke the record and became the number one animated film in history, Disney also launched its first R-rated blockbuster, "Deadpool vs. Wolverine" from Marvel Studios.

This superhero movie, which set off a movie-watching craze, was released in North America on July 26. Just two weeks later, "Deadpool vs. Wolverine" broke the $1 billion global box office, becoming the second R-rated movie in history to break the $1 billion box office mark.

Fox Super Hero Party

On August 16, "Deadpool vs. Wolverine" grossed $1.085 billion worldwide, officially surpassing "Joker"'s $1.07 billion and becoming the new global box office champion for R-rated movies.

In the space of a month or so, the box office champions of both animated films and R-rated films were rewritten one after another (and they were the first and second place in this year's global box office list). Interestingly, they were both produced by Disney.

"Joker" director Todd Phillips released a congratulatory picture

"Inside Out 2" is undoubtedly a work suitable for all ages. The story focuses on the confusion of adolescence, the growth experience and the emotional connection between people, which are also the classic themes of the cartoons we are most familiar with.

"Deadpool vs. Wolverine" is full of blood, violence, swear words and vulgar jokes. Captain America, who has always paid attention to "language", also contributed swear words in the film.

Chris Evans Returns in 'Fantastic Four'

These two works have become popular this summer, which makes us want to talk about a seemingly unanswered question: "What do today's movie audiences like to watch?"

If "Inside Out 2" represents the "harmless" and steadily produced family-friendly sequel, the R-rated "Deadpool vs. Wolverine" represents a return to entertainment and fun-filled topical movies. Perhaps these two directions are the best survival rules for Hollywood movies at the moment.

So far this year, the top ten in the North American box office charts are all "old IPs."

Compared to previous years when we could still see hit original movies like "1917", "Barbie", and "Oppenheimer", even without Marvel dominating the charts this year, other new films are lacking in novelty and creativity.

Top 10 North American box office charts (as of August 15)

In addition to the endless stream of sequels such as "Bad Boys for Life", "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and "Kung Fu Panda", films such as "Twister", "Garfield", "Wonka" and "Mean Girls" are remakes of "ancient" IPs that were directly rummaged through.

This conservative taste may come from the impact of the global market recovery being slower than expected, or from the delays in subsequent production and distribution caused by the Hollywood strike.

The 2023 Hollywood strike affected the production of many films

In addition, the recent announcement by Marvel Universe to "recall" Robert Downey Jr. and Kevin Feige to reorganize internal creations and correct the "political correctness trend" of the past few years (which brought about the box office and reputation failure of the fourth phase), all represent a mentality of "seeking stability" and returning to the essence of movies/story.

Downey returns as Phase 5 villain Doctor Doom

However, there are only a limited number of works that can create miracles, and box office records cannot be broken every year. Under the multiple influences of audience loss and strikes, it is a foregone conclusion that this year's North American box office will decline compared to last year.

Of course, it’s not just North America where box office performance fell short of expectations this year.

The 2024 summer season, which is nearing its end in the mainland, has seen box office performance far worse than the same period last year (just over 10 billion, half of last year's). Except for "Catch the Dolls" with 3.1 billion and "The Silent War" with 1.3 billion, other films collectively performed mediocrely, and the 500 million mark has become a major threshold.

2024 Summer Box Office Top 8

Compared with the decline in overall box office performance, we are more interested in the changes in the film structure:

In the past three years, the continued "falling out of favor" of Hollywood films in the domestic market has become an irreversible trend, and many works that were popular in the North American market have received a lukewarm response in China.

Even the two record-breaking phenomena mentioned above are also like this, "Inside Out 2" earned 340 million RMB in the mainland, and "Deadpool vs. Wolverine" earned just over 400 million RMB, which is already a good result for superhero movies in recent years.

The opening disco on the grave "ByeByeBye" that was hotly discussed on the Internet

This year, the performance of Hollywood blockbusters in mainland China is even colder than ever before, as evidenced by the fact that both classic IPs and other commercial blockbusters are no longer effective. The contrast between "Twister" making the top ten box office in North America and its pitiful 20 million yuan in China shows one fact: Chinese audiences don't buy into the old tricks.

Superhero movies don’t work, clichéd genre films don’t work, and sequels like “Kung Fu Panda” and “Despicable Me” that lack originality don’t work. So what do Chinese audiences want to see?

This may be the answer to the question "Why the summer box office is not as good as expected" - after breaking through the filter of Hollywood and imported blockbusters, we need works that truly have local appeal and emotional resonance.

Last year's summer movies "She Vanished", "The Octagon", "All or Nothing" and "The First Part of the Gods" accounted for most of the box office. This year, the lack of works with sufficient market appeal has become the biggest reason for the sharp decline in box office sales.

Regarding the life-and-death question that the global film industry will face after the end of the epidemic, "What do audiences like to watch?", Hollywood's answer may be "Let us continue to make sequels and classic IPs" or "Bring back Robert Downey Jr."

The Korean film industry's answer was the thriller "Tomb Raider" and the action film "Criminal Metropolis 4", while the Japanese film industry put forward a luxurious lineup of local animations (Hayao Miyazaki's new film, Conan's new theatrical version, etc.).

Chinese films also need to find their own direction. The answer can be the combination of film technology and national culture represented by "Fengshen", the return to realistic themes represented by "All or Nothing", or the rise of female narratives in "Hot or Low".

But no matter which one, the audience that needs good content is the real driving force behind market recovery.

With less than half a year left this year, I hope that some major Chinese-language films will be released, setting new records for the year-end box office record list.

Who will stand out? Let's wait and see.

Note: Some of the pictures in this article are from Douban and the Internet. If there is any infringement, please contact us.

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