On the collapse of summer movie season
2024-08-26
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Jackie Chan + Chen Sicheng + Xu Zheng + Wuershan, these four big players together cut 1 billion yuan.
This is a cold joke about this year's summer movie season, with a sense of absurdity that makes people want to laugh but can't. Four industry leaders all have blockbusters competing for the summer movie season, but the result is as netizens said, "The more explosive before the release, the more honest after the release."
Chen Sicheng's meticulously crafted "The Decryption" and Xu Zheng's passionately dedicated "The Adversary" have both just exceeded 300 million yuan in box office revenue. Wuershan's new film "Under the Alien" did not break the 100 million mark until the sixth day after its release in theaters. The fantasy action blockbuster "Legend", starring Jackie Chan and costing 360 million yuan, only had a cumulative box office of 79.9 million yuan in the end, and huge losses were inevitable.
Movie Poster of "Decryption"
Movie poster of "Reverse Life"
Poster of the movie "Under the Alien".
Poster of the movie "Legend".
It is also regrettable that the movie "Negatives Make Positives" starring the film emperor Zhu Yilong only grossed more than 62 million yuan in 5 days after its release, and it is predicted that the final box office will hardly exceed 100 million yuan.
Logically, the promotion of this summer season is quite strong: the Film Bureau promoted the film list for the first time and held a summer film release conference called "Summer of Movies". As the protagonists of the summer season, the film producers worked together to make the summer season cake bigger. Coupled with the efforts of film companies to use AI to enhance movies and use technology to promote breakthroughs in audio-visual images, this summer season looks beautiful.
But ideals are full of hope, while reality is very skinny. Although this year's summer box office has exceeded 10 billion yuan, it is almost impossible to catch up with last year's summer box office of 20.619 billion yuan in less than a week.
Why is this year's summer movie season so bad?
There is a saying that it clashes with the Paris Olympics.
The Olympics will indeed steal some of the limelight from summer movies, but the Olympics cannot be blamed for the nearly halved movie box office. In fact, the Paris Olympics even contributed to the summer box office. According to Lighthouse Professional Edition data, the total box office of the Olympic Games live broadcast in theaters reached 2.442 million yuan.
From historical experience, the Olympic year does not necessarily have an impact on the summer box office. Data shows that in 2012 (London Olympics), the summer box office was 4.09 billion yuan, an increase from 2011 (3.742 billion yuan); in 2016 (Rio Olympics), it was 12.41 billion yuan, basically the same as 2015's 12.45 billion yuan; in 2021 (Tokyo Olympics), it was 7.381 billion yuan, a significant increase from 2020's 3.616 billion yuan.
It seems that the fundamental reason for the collapse of the summer box office has to be found in the movies themselves.
The most important thing is probably that there are too few top movies in this year's summer season, and it is only supported by two movies, "Catch the Dolls" (currently box office exceeds 3 billion yuan) and "The Silence" (1.3 billion yuan).
Let's take a look at the top three box office hits in the 2023 summer season: All or Nothing with 3.526 billion yuan, She Vanished with 3.523 billion yuan, and The Legend of the Gods Part I: Chaoge with 2.481 billion yuan. The three movies together are close to 10 billion yuan, with the fourth-placed Octagonal Cage also making 2.204 billion yuan, and the fifth-placed 30,000 Miles from Chang'an making 1.799 billion yuan. Not only are there a large number of top movies, but they also have a variety of themes, so it's reasonable that they won big in the end.
Looking back now, the fact that the 2023 summer season can create a myth may be attributed to the revenge consumption after the end of the epidemic three years ago. This year, consumers' wallets are tighter, and with more diverse entertainment options, they naturally have higher requirements for movies. Looking at the comments of netizens, it is clear at a glance: "The quality of the movie is too poor, and the audience does not go to the cinema for charity", "The plot is old-fashioned, the production is crude, and there is no interest in watching the movie", "There are only a few faces in domestic movies, and I am tired of watching them"...
As movies, the environment, and consumers change, famous directors start to drift, abandoning their own tracks and focusing on personal expression, showing a kind of stubbornness that is out of touch with the world. Both the movies and the audience are more self-centered, so there is no running-in, only friction.
The collapse of the box office during this summer is a pity, but it may also be a good thing for the industry. Since the era of fan movies has ended and rational audiences have returned, it is better to let movies return to the original point of creation - only high-quality film works are qualified to make the audience pay expensive ticket prices and time costs, which should become common sense in the industry. (Liu Yingyu)
