source: ecompany

"the sinking of the lisbon maru", as a documentary with historical memory and humanistic care, encountered severe challenges at the box office and aroused heated discussions.

"the sinking of the lisbon maru" was released in early september. the documentary revealed to the public a historical truth that had been buried for 82 years. in 1941, the japanese army invaded hong kong. the british troops stationed in hong kong were forced to surrender after seventeen days of fierce fighting and became prisoners of war on christmas day. in october of the following year, the japanese cargo ship "lisbon maru" carrying more than 1,800 british prisoners of war was sunk by a u.s. submarine torpedo attack in the waters near the zhoushan islands. nearby east pole fishermen risked their lives to rescue 384 british soldiers.

according to fang li, the director of the documentary, the filming of "the sinking of the lisbon maru" lasted 8 years and cost 50 million yuan. director, producer fang li and the film team traveled across the ocean to interview those who experienced it and their descendants. according to reports, fang li maxed out 5 credit cards for the filming and sold all his properties during the most difficult time.

after the film was released, it gained a high reputation due to its solid research work and touching emotional expression. as of september 28, the cumulative box office has exceeded 31 million yuan. douban ratings show that "the sinking of the lisbon maru" currently has a score of 9.3, with more than 69,000 people participating in the review. however, "the sinking of the lisbon maru" is obviously a movie that was neither well-received nor popular, and this box office data still has a long way to go before the film can make back its money.

public information shows that the declared cost of "the sinking of the lisbon maru" is 50 million yuan, but the actual investment may be slightly lower than this, about 40 million yuan. to achieve a return on investment, the film may need to earn about 110 million yuan in box office revenue.

looking back at the production background of "the sinking of the lisbon maru", director fang li was originally a geophysicist and marine technology expert, and later crossed over to engage in film work. in 2014, when he was supervising the production of han han's "unexpected", he accidentally heard the story of lisbon maru told by local fishermen.

fang li said that since he learned about this incident, he led a team to explore out of curiosity and wanted to find the sunken ship. after finding the ship, i wanted to find the people related to the ship and understand their stories and what they experienced 82 years ago. that's how the story was unearthed. "now, it's time to tell them to more people."

on september 28, the official wechat account of "the sinking of the lisbon maru" announced that the film will compete for the 97th academy award for best international film on behalf of mainland china. fang li, the film's director and producer, also said on weibo: "i hope the world will hear this story about china 82 years ago."

whether it is well-received or not is a common problem faced by documentaries. according to the "2023 china film market annual inventory report", china's theater movie box office in 2023 will be approximately 54.9 billion yuan, of which documentaries only account for more than 100 million yuan. in 2023, only one film, "happy journey", achieved a box office of 5.804 million yuan, followed closely by "snow leopard and her friends", which only had a box office of 2.821 million yuan.

as of now, among the domestic documentaries released in 2024, only 5 have a box office of more than one million yuan, and only 3 of them have a box office of more than 2 million yuan.

industry insiders analyze that the current return on investment situation of domestic documentary films is still worrying, and the general environment will take time to change. domestic theater documentaries still need more diversified distribution methods and more precise and effective publicity methods to trigger discussions on social topics and find their own audiences.

editor: wan jianyi

proofreading:liu rongzhi

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