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interface news reporter | hu yujing

interface news editor | zhang youfa

data from lighthouse professional edition shows that as of press time on august 31, the 2024 summer box office was 11.6 billion yuan, nearly half of last year's 20.63 billion yuan, and the scale is close to that of 2014 and 2015.

the total number of screenings during the summer season this year was 38.26 million, 3.6 million more than last year. however, with ticket prices remaining the same, the total number of tickets sold was only 283 million, far from last year's 505 million, which directly reflects the audience's "departure" status.

the summer season has already shown signs of decline halfway through, with many films that were considered dark horses and top contenders failing to ignite the mood for watching movies. before the release of alien: taken, the market was still struggling to support itself with two films, the doll and the silence, which had been released for more than a month.

"catch the doll" won the summer box office championship with a box office of 3.25 billion yuan, and "the silence" won 1.35 billion yuan, becoming the "only two" summer movies to break 1 billion yuan. the imported sci-fi horror film "alien: the revenge" surpassed a number of domestic films and became the third place in the summer box office, with a score of 620 million yuan.

this box office structure is not healthy. based on past experience, a successful summer season often follows the structure of "one super and many strong". for example, in 2019, there was the "super hit" "nezha: the devil child comes into the world" with a box office of 4.7 billion yuan, and four "top blockbusters" such as "the bravest" and "spider-man: far from home" with box office exceeding 1 billion yuan.

last year, the box office of "all or nothing", "gone girl", "investiture of the gods part 1", "the octagonal cage" and "30,000 miles in chang'an" exceeded 1 billion, and the five films were evenly distributed on the 1 billion, 2 billion and 3 billion ladders.this year, there was no film to fill the "vacuum zone" between "catching dolls" and "silent killing", and mid-level films also lacked strong support. there was only one film with a box office of 500 million to 1 billion.

there are also certain signs of a bleak summer season. in the 2023 summer season, various film companies concentrated on releasing inventory, and the above-mentioned top films worked together to boost the box office. the top five films together contributed more than 60% of the total box office during the season.

yu dong, founder of bona film group, told interface entertainment in june this year that due to the tight cash flow in the industry and the tight capital chain of film companies, there will be insufficient films put into production in 2023, and the impact will be evident in this year's summer season.

what the industry did not expect was that this year's summer season would "go back to ten years ago overnight". "under the stars", "the decoded" and "the journey of flower", which were considered top blockbusters before their release, as well as the preview "dark horse" "safe evacuation from the 21st century", none of them had a box office of over 500 million yuan, far below industry expectations.

if we simply attribute the reasons, the cyclical economic downturn, the reshaping of movie-watching habits, the olympic diversion, and emotion-driven marketing have all had complex impacts on the summer box office.

returning to the controllable variables in the industry, there is still an obvious mismatch between supply and demand in this summer season - the viewing needs of female audiences and young people, as the "main force of moviegoers" and important shapers of social reputation, are not met; audiovisual blockbusters are unable to penetrate the sinking market, and the supply of spectacular blockbusters as "rigid needs" is insufficient.

based on the decisions made in the previous market stage, the type and aesthetics lead the industry forward, but in the current overly cold market environment, simple and direct approaches often work better.

unloved women and young people

judging from the ticket purchasing profile of users during the summer season in recent years, female audiences are an important driving force for the film market.

data from the lighthouse professional edition "2023 summer movie market insight report" shows that the proportion of female audiences buying tickets for the summer season from 2021 to 2023 has increased from 54% to 61%, with female users aged 25 and above being the main growth force. last year in particular, almost all the top-selling films relied on more female audiences to buy tickets.

this year's highly anticipated films "the decryption", "under the alien", "reverse life", and even the dark horse "safe escape from the 21st century" all had female audiences below 60%. on the other hand, the box office-leading films "catch the doll", "silent killer" and "a small shop at the edge of the cloud" all had female audiences that accounted for a higher proportion than the average of last year's summer season.

whether it is the heroic biographical attributes of "the decoded", the comic adaptation temperament of "under the alien", the male midlife crisis of "backdraft", and the growth of the middle school boy in "safe escape from 21st century", from the story level, these movies are not friendly to female audiences.

this does not mean that female audiences are resistant to these themes. after all, last year's summer box office runner-up "she was missing" was also mired in "misogyny" controversy, and the third-place "fengshen i" was almost a male heroic epic.

however, under the premise that the overall summer movie season lacks female perspectives, subsequent films have not been tapped into marketing points like last year's "the gods proton group cp big mix" and "female revenge cool film", which cannot stimulate women's demand for watching movies. in the overall tired viewing mood, female audiences have also lost the reason to enter the theater.

the film industry has repeatedly emphasized the importance of young audiences in the past year. director huang jianxin expressed his concerns at the beijing film academy lecture hall at the end of last year, saying that the age of global moviegoers will rise to 25 to 30 years old in 2022, and young audiences will be attracted by other content. if not hindered, vertical screen short dramas will kill movies within three years. wanda film president chen zhixi also mentioned at this year's shanghai film festival that audiences under 24 are leaving theaters, and the industry needs to find ways to attract young audiences back.

this year's summer movie supply also shows a younger character. animated movies with young audiences as the main force include "inside out 2", "despicable me 4", "white snake: the floating life" and other well-known domestic and foreign animation ip sequels, "detective conan: the million dollar pentagonal star", "doraemon: nobita's earth symphony" and the re-released "your name" and "slam dunk" as mid- and tail-end players to meet the needs of young audiences.

in addition, live-action films such as "under the aliens", "safe escape from the 21st century", "negatives make positives", and "deadpool vs. wolverine" have combined their own characteristics and strived to get closer to young people. for example, "safe escape from the 21st century" combines elements such as comic culture, chinese dream core, and time travel in terms of narrative and audio-visual levels, while "under the aliens" can be called a collage product of popular culture - national comic big ip, electronic music, young people's growth, end barrage, and bar-style disco promotion. director wuershan also told jiemian entertainment that the main audience of the film is the young audience.

however, these film products still failed to capture the audience and almost disappeared after a week.

as reflected in the data, audiences under 25 years old accounted for only 22% of the ticket purchases for the top 10 films this summer, and the main age group is still between 25 and 34. the most popular movie among young audiences is "a small shop at the edge of the cloud", followed by "the silent killer", "the decryption" and "the inverse life". young audiences accounted for less than 15%.

audio-visual blockbusters andspectaclethe mismatch between supply and demand for blockbusters

thanks to the expansion of genres and the creators' pursuit of excellence, this year's summer films have made breakthroughs in the audio-visual aspects.

one of the major selling points of "decryption" is the large number of dream wonders. the film's cinematographer cao yu once again used the alexa 65 imax camera with high clarity and high color reproduction after "eight hundred" to present the surreal dreams in chen sicheng's script.

the photography innovation of "under the alien" is more tied to its genre innovation. wuershan mentioned that there are more than 1,600 visual effects shots in the film, accounting for most of the total shots. in the visual expression of the energy conversion exercises of yuanqi theory and the five elements sutra of traditional chinese medicine, wuershan pursues a superhero movie that is different from marvel and dc in cultural roots.

in addition, the aesthetic expressions of "negatives make positives" and "safe escape from the 21st century" are also novel and rare in the series of domestic films. the former has ambiguous colors and is considered to be close to wong kar-wai's style, while the latter has a strong sense of comics and presents a rich and gorgeous color range.

the emphasis on audiovisual is an industry consensus formed in the context of competition between movies, tv series and short videos. since last year's shanghai film festival, many heads of leading film companies have said that the film industry is facing pressure from tv series and short videos and needs to make further progress in audiovisual.

last year, yu dong expressed his concerns about video platforms to jiemian entertainment. he did some calculations: the industry has lost 100 billion yuan in box office revenue in the three years since the pandemic. where have the audiences gone? yu dong concluded that they have become members of iqiyi, youku and tencent video.

during this year's shanghai film festival, he told jiemian entertainment that bona will work harder to make blockbusters than before the epidemic, because "what people want in the cinema is an immersive experience, and they want to see content that cannot be seen on a small screen."

at the alibaba pictures press conference during this year's shanghai film festival, li jie expressed a similar view. he said, "many people use the highest quality adjective of a film work as 'cinematic', which is also the unique advantage of film that distinguishes it from other forms of entertainment."

"decryption" and "under the alien" are undoubtedly in line with the "blockbuster theory" advocated by the industry, and are therefore regarded as "seed players" for the summer season. however, with the overly depressed viewing sentiment during this summer season, it is much more difficult than expected for audiovisual blockbusters to activate the market. viewing behavior is dominated by more direct emotions, and emotions are obviously not related to technology and audiovisual upgrades, but are strongly tied to curiosity, social issues and marketing, and the latter is more likely to hit the sinking market.

the summer box office runner-up "the silence" combines issues such as school bullying, domestic violence, child crime, sexual assault, and voyeurism, and visually superimposes elements such as bloody violence, beatings and abuse, and imprisonment and beatings.

the discussion about the horror thriller "alien: taken" being "uncut" and "scaring children to tears" formed a kind of spectacular selling point based on the "alien horror aesthetics" of the film itself, pushing up its box office at the end of the summer season and ultimately taking third place in the season.

"catching dolls" is not a spectacle in terms of genre, but two national comedians, shen teng and ma li, do their best to pretend to be poor while rich and create "the truman show" for their son's success. the misunderstandings that occur in the process and the reflections on education problems itself constitute a kind of domestic film spectacle. the social emotional radiation generated penetrates the sinking market, which can be called a higher-level spectacle movie.

the combination of spectacle and emotion constitutes what zheng zhihao, ceo of maoyan movie, calls "extreme". in the tragic reality that audiences are generally not interested in movies, this extreme is the most effective way to drive movie-watching behavior. although audio-visual blockbusters are in the right direction in the long run, they are ultimately a "chronic medicine".

summer movie revelation

moving beyond the “box office only” approach, from an industry perspective, this year’s summer season also presents filmmakers’ reflection and innovation on genres and creations. if the industry can get out of the current “pain period”, “chronic medicine” is also expected to cure the stubborn disease.

let’s take “decryption” as an example. in this film, chen sicheng finally stepped out of his usual narrative template of “female spectacle + southeast asian crime + social hot spots” and instead developed a more “hollywood-flavored” biopic. “individual heroism” and the duel between two geniuses are very sophisticated genre techniques in hollywood movies, but they are still new species in the domestic film industry.

although chen sicheng sensed the market risks of new genres, he probably did not expect that the box office of "decryption" would be only one-tenth of that of "gone girl". in an interview with jiemian entertainment, he mentioned that "decryption is a brand new genre. repeating it may not be risky for the time being, but once the risk comes, it is irreversible."

but he also revealed the innovative consciousness of a "big money" commercial film director - "some people think i am relatively successful, having made some profitable films. if even i don't try, who will?"

some other movies that did not perform as well as expected at the box office, such as "under the stranger", "negatives make positive", and "safe evacuation from the 21st century", have expanded the grammar of domestic films in at least one dimension of genre, aesthetics, and style, and have become "new things" that the audience has never seen before.

the inspiration brought by the box office success of the film is more obvious. first of all, the comedy film with a good narrative is still the golden rule, and the rule of spectacle film to ignite the emotions of the audience is still effective. in the stage of the industry lacking cash flow, filmmakers may continue to create along this path to ensure safety. this is not a trick, but a required action for the industry to recover.

secondly, the industry rules that were once considered outdated are still effective. for example, the effectiveness of ip, such as "alien: taken", "inside out 2", "white snake: the floating life" and "despicable me", are still the backbone driving force to attract audiences to the cinema in the bleak market situation. although these new ip works are not blockbusters, they are still in a safe zone.

third, 50% of the box office of "a small shop at the edge of the cloud" came from audiences under 24 years old, which successfully verified the viewing needs of young people. literary ip based on collective memories of school days is easier to adapt than classic literature such as "dream of red mansions" and is more audience-friendly. perhaps in addition to traditional literature and online literature, creators can also focus more on this type of text.

fourth, realistic themes are in a delicate situation. in "reverse life" and "catching dolls", the latter has strong comedy to weaken its realistic pain, while the former, because of the middle-class perspective, focuses on superficial difficulties and shallow contradictions, and slips into the dangerous area of ​​"rich people pretending to be poor". connecting with the thinking of "dying to survive" produced by xu zheng six years ago, whether the audience still needs realistic themes and what kind of realistic themes they need requires creators to think deeply.

finally, there are some off-site factors that provide inspiration. the film "safe escape from the 21st century" was not released in time after its preview quickly gained popularity, and the marketing of "under the aliens" was embroiled in controversy over the objectification of women's bodies. these "mistakes" are not difficult to avoid, but only require the creators to consider the emotions of the audience in advance.

after all the reflections and discussions, it seems that we can return to the old topic of whether filmmakers should guide the market or follow the market, make movies for the current audience, or use movies to predict the audience's predictions. the answer is naturally both.

however, right now, after a bleak period of major blockbusters, the capital chain of film companies has become increasingly tight, and the industry is in urgent need of recovery. for the long term, it may be more realistic to start with quick-acting medicine, get through the current period of pain, and then slowly work on genre and audio-visual innovations.