Domestic films have seen some box office dismal phenomena in recent years. For example, in "Mistaken into Youth" released in 2021, the promotional slogan is "The original cast of Journey to the West reunites, and the four old actors are acting on the same stage".
Although the audience is quite familiar with Li Shihong, Ma Dehua, Xu Shaohua and Liu Dagang, they are not as well-known as Liu Xiaolingtong after all. In addition, the story of the film itself is lackluster, and it is not even as exciting as a big online movie, and the final box office is only 1172 yuan.
In the current environment where the film market often exceeds 100 million or even billions, these four-digit box office results are simply vulnerable. In contrast, the slightly better box office result is "The Founding General Awarded the Title 1955", and the cumulative box office has exceeded at least one million.
However, this movie has a strong lineup, it is still the main theme film, and even Tang Guoqiang is the director, but it is still difficult to recover the cost, and even the money to buy water for the crew is barely enough.
thought that the box office results were outrageous enough, but "Holding the Pen as a Knife", which was released on December 8, had a cumulative box office of only 167 yuan after 4 days of release. That's right, it's a three-digit box office, and the total number of moviegoers is only four, which is ridiculous.
It's not hard to find out why this film failed, and the following three points alone are enough to make "Pen for Knife" a failure. One of the most obvious reasons is the lack of appeal of the subject matter. In the domestic film market, the most attractive theme is undoubtedly the combination of the main theme and the war.
From "Wolf Warrior 2" to "Operation Red Sea", and then to "Changjin Lake", the box office easily exceeded billions. And "Holding the Pen as a Knife" is not popular, and it can even be said to be unpopular, it tells the story of Shaoxing Qing official Zhen Wan, which is a typical biographical film.
The story is set in the 19th year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, and depicts the experience of Zhen Wanjin Shi and the first and entering the dynasty as an official, as well as the plot of his brave expedition to a different place to investigate. The film also shows Zhen Wan's insistence on official morality and the quality of putting the people first, as well as his friend's position in a major case involving rebellion.
Judging from the story setting alone, this work is more suitable for adaptation into a film and television drama, and compressing a large number of plots into a short 97-minute movie duration is obviously not the best choice.
This article discusses the reasons for the failure of a film: the first is that the film celebrates the characters, unlike other works, and does not incorporate a lot of comedic elements or fictional characters, but adopts a dull and boring shooting method.
The second is that the publicity is not in place, and the film has almost no pre-publicity on the Internet and major ** platforms, resulting in the audience almost ignorant of its existence. Third, the cast of the film is relatively unknown and lacks box office appeal.
In contrast, other films such as "Hidden from the Sea" and "The Illumination Shop" have high-profile and powerful actors, so even if the word of mouth is mediocre, it can attract more audiences and achieve better box office results.
Unlike other productions in its celebration of characters, the film does not incorporate a lot of comedy or fictional characters, but instead uses a dull and boring approach to filming, and the final appearance seems boring.
Therefore, if the audience spends an hour and a half to watch such a work, presumably few people are willing to waste time, even if it does not cost money. Second, the propaganda is not in place. Now that a movie is released, even if the plot itself is not eye-catching, the early publicity must be in place.
Make full use of the Internet for word-of-mouth fermentation, and then release behind-the-scenes shooting tidbits or trailers on major ** platforms, the director can be shocked 800 times a day because of the outstanding performance of the actors on everyone's social platforms.
Although this method is easy to make the audience feel deceived, it has to be said that it is enough to attract everyone to stop and let the audience at least go to this work for the excellent performance of the actors.
However, "Holding the Pen as a Knife" seems to be released in secret, and no eye-catching promotional materials have been released at all, so that many viewers don't know that there is such a film released. This is also an important reason for the dismal box office of "Pen for the Knife". Third, an unknown cast.
However, the fundamental crux that made this work only win 167 yuan at the box office in the end was the lackluster cast. Several of the leading actors in the film even have a handful of masterpieces, and occasionally play roles in hit dramas, and they are all marginalized supporting roles.
This makes no one in the film have the so-called box office appeal.
In contrast, several films that are being screened, such as "Hiding from the Sky and Crossing the Sea", in addition to Xu Guanghan, who is out of the circle with Li Ziwei's performance, there is also the help of actress Hui Yinghong, as well as high-profile powerful actors such as the heroine Zhang Junning and the second male Yin Zheng.
Therefore, despite the average word-of-mouth, this film was released at the same time as "Pen for the Knife", but it was able to achieve 1The box office result of 1.4 billion does not affect the attractiveness of these actors to the audience.
"The Lighting Store", which was also released on December 8, won 1The box office result of 2.3 billion is obviously because its cast is more attractive than "Hiding from the World".
In addition to Zhang Ruonan, the goddess of white moonlight, and Bai Yufan, the actor Bai Yufan, there are also Liu Yijun, the top of the uncle circle, and the ** goddess Liu Yan, as well as Sun Qian, Huang Chengcheng and other well-known actors who have starred in "The Wind Blows in the Summer". The cast and box office results of the movie "Pen for Knife" have been in the spotlight.
Even during the screening of "The Three Teams", due to the joining of Zhang Yi and other powerful actors, it has already set a box office of more than 80 million. Similarly, even though the attraction of "Breaking Point" is relatively low, with the joining of William Chan and actor Zhang Jiahui, the box office has exceeded 60 million.
However, the most striking is "Goodbye, Li Kele", although the box office appeal of the leading actors Tan Songyun and Yan Ni is limited, but this film cleverly invited actor Wu Jing to play the heroine's father. Although Wu Jing does not have many scenes and not many shots, the box office of this movie has exceeded 200 million.
Among the many movies that were released in December, "Goodbye, Li Kele" performed the best at the box office, and it is clear that Wu Jing is the biggest selling point of this film, and audiences will even come to watch him at him.
In contrast, the movie "Holding the Pen as a Knife" was released in December and did not seem to have chosen the New Year's Day schedule, but it was still suppressed by Wu Jing's influence.
Due to the lack of excellent casts and themes that are not enough to attract the audience, coupled with the promotion of Buddhism, the audience's interest in this movie is not high, and it can be said that "Holding the Pen as a Knife" is self-defeating.
This also serves as a warning to future domestic films: theatrical releases alone are not enough to ensure success, and in order to achieve box office success, they must be considered from many aspects, and must not be conceited. Otherwise, it will become the most unpopular film of the year like "Pen as a Knife".
Would you support a film like this?