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interface news reporter | zhang youfa

war movies will become the national day champion again.

on the sixth day of national day, the box office of "volunteers: battle of life and death" (hereinafter referred to as "volunteers") directed by chen kaige has exceeded 700 million, and its share of the box office on that day has also exceeded 40%. platforms such as lighthouse professional edition and maoyan professional edition have also raised their box office expectations for "the volunteer army".

during the national day holiday last year, the first film in the series, "volunteers: attack," had a box office of less than rmb 500 million and only ranked third among the national day box office. this also led to a low pre-release box office for "volunteers" this year. , but the final schedule performance once again proved that there is still a natural fit between the national day schedule and the main theme war movie.

of course, the performance of "volunteer army" is first of all related to the insufficient supply of this year's schedule. jiemian entertainment’s previous reports have mentioned many times that after depleting the inventory in the past few years, the film industry is facing the problem of insufficient supply of first movies, which extends from the summer vacation to the national day.

this year's national day schedule lacks a first movie with enough gimmicks. the reputation of the original topical movie "749 bureau" has consumed the public's expectations. the current douban score has dropped to 4.4 points. "volunteer army" has also improved its social reputation compared to its predecessor. its douban score currently reaches 7.2 points, which is higher than the 6.9 points of the first film.

a big schedule like the national day inherently requires heavy industry film products with strong audiovisual appeal, and war films meet this demand. according to director chen kaige's introduction at the previous premiere, the total number of shots shot in the "volunteer army" trilogy was as high as 12,000. compared with the first film, the proportion of war scenes in "volunteers" has been greatly increased, and the audio-visual scenes are enough to attract the public.

compared with other movie genres, war movies are attractive to audiences in different regions. audiences, whether in sinking markets or first- and second-tier cities, are willing to come to theaters to watch war movies. according to beacon professional edition data, on october 4, "volunteers" accounted for more than 40% of the box office in first- to fourth-tier cities.

from the perspective of more specific schedule attributes, the attributes of the national day schedule are more consistent with the main theme of war movies. this is a long-term market education process.

in 2016, "operation mekong" took in 530 million at the box office during the national day holiday, marking the beginning of a large-scale entry of theme movies into the national day holiday. the subsequent box office success of "my motherland and me" and "captain of china" also gradually formed a coupling relationship between the public, main theme movies and national day movies. it has also become a market consensus that main theme movies are scheduled to be released during the national day, and the public watches main theme movies during this period.

in recent years, the supply of main-themed movies during national day has been more concentrated in the war movie genre. this is related to the attributes and characteristics of war movies themselves.

throughout the long history of film, audiences’ interest in war films has always been widespread. in the 20th century, hollywood movies used war movies as an important means to open up huge overseas markets.

1942to1945,when the united states entered world war ii,hollywood has produced more than 1,700 films, about 500 of which are war films related to world war ii. this has become an important pivot for american films to enter the european market. after world war ii, the continuous production of war films in the united states also shaped the public's perception of hollywood.

for audiences around the world, war films are a universal language. their strong audiovisual characteristics allow the public to feel the latest achievements of film industrialization, and the anti-war themes conveyed by american war films can be accepted by the public, such as other values ​​​​from hollywood are more easily accepted by global audiences.

"the characteristic of the twentieth century is not violence itself, but the viewing of violence." the popularity of war films is rooted in the public's interest in viewing violence. in the last century, emerging television and other mass media’s coverage of wars was an important catalyst for public sentiment and paved the way for the mass production of war films.

hollywood, an important producer of popular culture, also maintains a passion for screen representations of violence. in the thirty years since the end of the vietnam war, more than 500 films have emerged in the united states that show the war from different perspectives.

this logic is also valid in the 21st century. with the rise of new media, social media and short video platforms have become new ways for the public to watch wars, and they are more intuitive and faster than television media in the 20th century. the iraq war is called the "youtube war" by the media. the battle between the iraqi and kurdish forces and the islamic state in 2016 and the russia-ukraine conflict in recent years are called the "first facebook war" and the "first tiktok war" respectively. ".

watching war satisfies the general sensory needs of the public. after visual stimulation, war movies are also related to the current mood of society and the deep emotional structure of mass society.

for the united states, war movies are an intermediary in shaping mainstream values ​​and social consensus. the oscars have never been stingy with their praise for war movies. in the oscar for best picture alone, there are 21 films with war as the main background, which does not include movies with many war scenes like "forrest gump" . if extended to other awards, war films are undoubtedly one of the most popular film genres at the oscars.

from a global perspective, the united states is the main producer of war films. in the past ten years, the quality and output of china's war films have also increased rapidly, and they have become the type with the most market appeal and industrialization level among main theme films.

before the epidemic, "operation red sea" and "wolf warrior 2" had already won the box office championship in mainland china that year. from 2020 to 2022, war films have won the domestic box office championship for three consecutive years, namely "the eight hundred", "changjin lake" and "changjin lake: shuimen bridge".

on the one hand, these war films have improved the industrialization level of chinese films. on the other hand, they have also promoted the popularity of main theme films by movie audiences and become a mainstream movie viewing.

in 2023, the war movie "volunteers: attack", which was the best-grossing war movie, only ranked 17th that year. although it is related to the quality of the film itself, it also reflects that after three years of war films, the audience has shown a certain degree of aesthetic fatigue towards films with similar themes. this year's "volunteer army" performed well during the national day release, but it is still far from the box office results of blockbuster war films such as "changjin lake".

hollywood's interest in war films is also waning. in the past ten years, mainstream commercial films in north america have become more biased towards youth films such as superheroes. the selection of best films at the oscars has increasingly favored narratives about ethnic and sexual minorities. war films are hard to find. trace. however, last year, "oppenheimer" won a big victory at the oscars, which seemed to reflect the return of war films in another form.

in a longer time scale, war movies are still a necessity for movie viewing. of course, if the film studio wants to achieve wider box office success, i am afraid that it still needs to think about more differentiated story angles and deeper public emotions to reach a broad consensus.