Worry! How can the film market get better?
2022-04-15
The darkest hour of the movie box office On March 24 this year, the total box office in mainland China fell below 10 million yuan, the lowest one-day box office in mainland China in a decade. Until the Qingming Festival a few days ago, the situation was still not much better, and even the two films of "falling moon" and "new Batman", which the industry had high hopes, could not be saved. To some extent, it has become a fact that "there are no films in the cinema and no one watches them". Over the past three years, the global film industry has faced a huge crisis. All links in the upstream, middle and downstream of the film industry have been greatly affected. Of course, the epidemic factors bear the brunt. In China, it has become the new normal that cinemas in sealed off areas cannot operate and cinemas in other areas have low attendance. Cinemas struggling to survive often choose to raise ticket prices in a specific schedule to "return blood". However, this practice has led to a further reduction in the audience's viewing demand and triggered a vicious circle. Although the relevant departments have also introduced a series of measures to stabilize ticket prices, as the end of the whole industry, cinemas are the first to face the survival crisis, and it is helpless to raise ticket prices. At present, cinemas across the country cannot survive by selling movie tickets and snacks alone. As a result, many cinemas have begun to take the road of self curating or cooperation with other curators to increase the viscosity of the audience and deal with the lack of cinema films. For example, the French film exhibition to be held by Broadway film center, the art museum themed Italian film exhibition held by CGv studios, etc. these exhibitions are undoubtedly good for the audience in first tier cities, but in terms of scale, they can only be regarded as self-help measures, which is tantamount to a drop in the bucket for the whole cinema system. Risk of large-scale issuance Due to the poor market environment and box office performance, the distribution of films in the middle reaches has entered a long wait-and-see state, resulting in a backlog of many films and a sharp reduction in the number of cinema films. Many films choose to get together for a large schedule in order to obtain the box office bonus brought by the cluster effect, but such a choice often further increases the distribution risk: On the one hand, there may be deviations in the schedule selection. For example, the appearance of Han Han's new film and "Four Seas", which tells about urban and rural problems, in the Spring Festival, makes many viewers call "too depressed". Although the film quality may not be too poor, it is far from the audience's ownership and expectation of "family happiness" in the Spring Festival, resulting in a huge impact on the reputation and box office. And almost no live action film in the whole spring festival can make the whole family "happy", which is undoubtedly a spiritual burden for most viewers who want to have fun in the cinema and will also have an impact on the overall box office. On the other hand, it is very likely to face the uncertain factors brought by the epidemic in a certain schedule, resulting in the delay of release and the further backlog of films to the next schedule. Such a reciprocating cycle leads to the embarrassing situation that the films cannot be released for a long time and the cinemas have no films for a long time. In fact, since 2022, eight domestic films have been withdrawn from the archives in mainland cinemas, including the work hidden in dust and smoke, which was shortlisted in the main competition unit of this year's Berlin Film Festival. We have also seen a large number of films that skip the May Day, summer and National Day archives and directly set the 2023 Spring Festival archives in the posts of 2022 Spring Festival films, which is undoubtedly an abnormal phenomenon but in line with the law of the market. These phenomena show us some psychological expectations of the film industry, not to mention whether the film industry can survive the dry state of the whole year. It may be inevitable that the audience's viewing habits will completely subside and a new round of retaliatory price increases in cinemas. Investment is tightening day by day, "Rotten film" takes advantage of the weak point After theaters and distribution are facing great challenges, film production as the upstream of the industry is bound to be implicated, film investment is tightening day by day, and blockbusters show a lack situation from the source. Over the past year, the only real guarantee of sufficient funds may be the theme film, which also leads to the concentration of domestic film capital and themes, and the supply is relatively single. Due to more cautious investment, there are fewer and fewer popcorn "blockbusters" in theaters, and comedy films are outrageous: as of April, the only real comedy in theaters this year is "the killer is not too calm". Although the quality is worrying, it has harvested more than 2.6 billion box office, which shows the high entertainment demand of the audience. In this case, there are also some "rotten films" customized for the schedule. During Valentine's day, the prospective lovers will certainly enter the cinema and release the "inventory" that they can't get, including the "ten year product temperature" with an ultra-low score of 2.8. A large number of viewers frankly say that they even have a strong sense of being cheated after watching it. This kind of film has led to the rapid decline of the audience's viewing enthusiasm again, and the cinema has to become a "disk catcher" again. Another factor that cannot be ignored is that cinema films often lack real realistic observation (although it may be realistic themes). They often avoid talking about "problems" and are replaced by complacency under a certain way of life. Some films tell about the life of bourchia, which is no different from a castle in the air for the vast majority of cinema audiences. In terms of content, it is impossible to reach more audiences, so it is impossible to form a larger reputation and box office. Cinema movies have become a "light luxury" option From the perspective of the audience, the reasons why they are unwilling to enter the cinema are also obvious: on the one hand, the so-called "experience" brought by the cinema has not changed much in recent years (even declined due to lack of maintenance), and the industry lacks the capital and power to upgrade; On the other hand, the audience's wallet is tightening day by day, but the ticket price is actually increasing. Under such a "scissors gap", cinema films have become a "light luxury" option among many entertainment possibilities to some extent. Globally, the gradual disappearance of this necessity is not unique to China: with the rise of streaming media, online variety shows and dramas began to erode the cinema market, and both capital and talents are moving closer to streaming media. This year's Oscar best film "listening girl" was bought by Apple TV + and distributed globally through its network platform is an excellent example. The marvel series of the "gold lettered signboard" of the North American theater has also begun to turn to dramas in recent years. From Wanda vision last year to moon Knight this year, we can clearly feel that Marvel's creative center has begun to shift to streaming media. This is not only a response to the long-term closure policy of cinemas under the epidemic, but also a cater to the audience's latest media habits. Under such circumstances, the reduction of audience demand for cinemas has been irreversible. In fact, for today's audience, the golden slogan of "content is king" has become very outdated. The so-called "good content" defined in the traditional sense is not enough to pull the audience back to the cinema - in today's "everyone is a creator", the "content" occupies the user's time, and the network, streaming media and even short videos are attractive enough, or even more complete and abundant, Previously, a movie and two hours to get information and moved, now only need to watch a short video or read a public official account, and these media can even spread faster, and can lead to more public discussion. Really tell the public, To truly belong to the public Facing such new challenges, the film did not lose the necessity of its existence, but lost a lot of positions. Industrial upgrading is imminent. This upgrading should not only stay at the level of hardware iteration, but also the concept replacement: what does cinema film bring to the audience? What can't be replaced by small screen and streaming media? This is not only a problem faced by literature after the rise of film more than 100 years ago, but also a problem faced by film after the emergence of television decades ago. Now, the development of media once again requires the film industry to return to the irrefutable essence of film and cinema. Among them, audio-visual experience is one of the most important aspects. Interestingly, corresponding to the depression of cinemas and the collapse of cinemas, it has always been the popularity of major film festivals in China. Whether it is a world-class new work or a classic old film, the difficult situation of finding a ticket has never changed. This means that the quality of the film itself is still the most important factor for the audience. Although cinema films put more emphasis on commodity attributes, it is very important for audiences in any era to find a cultural and spiritual connection, which not only puts forward requirements for the production ability and projection level of films, but also has higher requirements for creators. The era of blind stacking special effects has ended both subjectively and objectively, and the assassination of novelist should become a masterpiece. In this regard, the best domestic films are actually cartoons. Chinese animation creators have made great efforts in how to make the audience get a cinema level experience. For example, the lion boy, which was released in the cinema at the end of last year, shows the high industrial level of domestic animation, whether it is extremely fine design, smooth division or screenwriter with a certain depth. If there are a large number of such works, it should be only a matter of time before the film returns to the starting line. In addition, if streaming media brings a private or private experience, and empathy on the screen can be obtained without watching with others, then the most important thing for cinemas is synchronicity and non private attributes. Only works that truly tell and belong to the public and can stimulate the enthusiasm of discussion can revitalize the film and cinema. (outlook new era)
Edit：Yuanqi Tang Responsible editor：Xiao Yu
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