During the Spring Festival in 2024, the pre-sale activities of new movies are in full swing.
Although this year's Spring Festival schedule has received a lot of criticism for the lack of special effects blockbusters aimed at heavy industry, in fact, such a schedule does need comedy movies. At present, the advance box office of the three comedy films, "Flying Life 2", "Hot and Hot" and "Article 20", has exceeded 50 million, forming an inseparable competitive situation.
However, in the ** schedule, there are always people who are happy and some people who are sad.
It cost 2600 million, the pre-sale amount is only 16 million, Andy Lau tried his best, but there is a problem with "Mr. Red Carpet"?
During this year's Spring Festival, a total of 9 new movies were unveiled, except for the three major stars and "Bear Infested", the remaining 5 films performed quite poorly.
Special mention is made of the "Mr. Red Carpet" show.
As of 8 p.m. on February 4, the total pre-sale box office of "Mr. Red Carpet" was just over 16 million, while the proportion of pre-rehearsal films on the first day was only 8%.
What exactly is this concept?
Shen Teng, Jia Ling and Zhang Yimou, the three top directors, will certainly not be able to match them, especially compared with "Bear Infested: Reversal of Time and Space", which usually performs poorly in pre-sales during the same period, their bear infested pre-sale box office has reached 24.55 million, and the proportion of pre-rehearsal films on the first day is only 108%。
If "Bear Infested" is regarded as a national IP, then the difference between "Mr. Red Carpet" and "Let's Shake the Sun Together" is quite awkward.
Let's Shake the Sun together reached a total pre-sale box office of 15 million, while the proportion of pre-rehearsal films on the first day was 69%。
Compared with "Mr. Red Carpet", there is hardly much difference in the box office performance. However, the production cost and star lineup of "Let's Shake the Sun Together" are at a medium level, Peng Yuchang and Li Gengxi are both young non-traffic stars, so their salaries will definitely not be very high, and the return pressure of "Let's Shake the Sun Together" is very small.
However, "Mr. Red Carpet" is a work like no other!
Although there are no special effects blockbusters during this year's Spring Festival, this means that the production cost of these films will be relatively low.
Surprisingly, Mr. Red Carpet, a pure comedy film, cost a whopping $2600 million, this data is announced by the producer's Huanxi official financial report.
From the financial report, we know that the production cost of "Mr. Red Carpet" is as high as 2600 million, of which the director's salary is 24.6 million, and the actor's salary is 100 million, which accounts for almost half of the total cost.
Coupled with the high publicity costs of the Spring Festival schedule.
According to the 38% box office revenue provided by the producer, the estimated box office of "Mr. Red Carpet" may need to exceed 900 million to achieve a return on cost.
Given the current pre-sale trend and the popularity of the movie, the pressure on the return of the movie is too great.
Apparently, the main creative team has realized that Andy Lau and other creators have recently carried out a series of promotional activities, the main purpose of which is to expose and satirize the behavior of the entertainment industry. I have to say that Andy Lau is very dedicated, and he does not refuse to come to the live broadcast, and he really does a good job in publicity.
It's a pity that the popularity of "Mr. Red Carpet" is not high, what is the problem?
Even if you invite tens of millions of influencers to promote, it won't help to withdraw the file and change the deadline? Is it possible for "Mr. Red Carpet" to achieve a counterattack?
From my point of view, "Mr. Red Carpet" did not perform very well, and the main reason may be that the audience is not very interested in its subject matter.
By depicting the life of famous Hong Kong movie star Lau Wai-chi, the film vividly presents the various facets of the entertainment industry. On the screen, Liu Weichi's image gradually faded, and Ning Hao's directing technique showed a unique mockery of the entertainment industry. There is no doubt that the movie is Ning Hao's most proficient satirical comedy work, and it is obvious from the trailer that a large number of scene details in the movie are alluding to many major events in the entertainment industry.
Surprisingly, the name Stephen Lau is actually a perfect blend of Andy Lau, Tony Leung, and Stephen Chow.
This idea sounds really good, but in this era of information overflow, the audience already has a basic understanding of the so-called "insider" in the entertainment industry, and even the story that "Mr. Red Carpet" wants to tell is not large-scale, and the audience is very smart, what can "Mr. Red Carpet" film? In the movie, the director cleverly uses the characters' lines and plot to humorously satirize the stars who have attracted much attention. This is just a subtle satire on the entertainment scandals of some celebrities.
Do you really have the courage to take large-scale photography? Is it possible for Ning Hao and Andy Lau to destroy their livelihoods?
This situation makes Andy Lau no matter how hard he tries to publicize, even those hidden marriage stories that he doesn't want to mention can be said freely. Andy Lau laughed about the hidden marriage of the year, but Dong Yuhui showed a different kind of humor. He also participated in the sale of movie tickets in the live broadcast room of tens of millions of Internet celebrities, and listened to Dong Yuhui talk endlessly like a student.
Regrettably, these efforts have been in vain. The movie was originally planned to be released in the Chinese New Year schedule in 2023, but due to the continuous rise in popularity, it was finally decided to be released during the Spring Festival.
Surprisingly, they still follow the same propaganda strategy as before, but the current young audience doesn't seem to accept it.
The next thing to discuss is the management of the budget.
A comedy film that cost nearly 300 million to produce, although it is highly sought after in the market, the only actors who can ensure that the box office exceeds 1 billion in recent years are Shen Teng and Wu Jing, Andy Lau is undoubtedly the most appealing one among the current Hong Kong actors.
If you don't consider large-scale IP-based productions like "The Wandering Earth 2", Andy Lau's two most outstanding works at the box office, "Anti-Drug 2" and "Bomb Disposal Expert 2", both reached a box office of 1 billion. In addition, Andy Lau's acting skills and popularity also have considerable influence in the world. In addition to this, stars like Louis Koo have also participated in the growth of the box office. During the Spring Festival, Andy Lau's most outstanding movie is "The Crowd" released in 2021, which has a box office income of 76.5 billion. However, audiences' tastes towards movies are becoming more and more diverse, and box office is not the only criterion. Even taking into account Ning Hao's participation, the box office revenue of "Mr. Red Carpet" cannot claim to be stable at more than 1 billion.
Mr. Red Carpet is essentially an adventure.
Considering the large number of comedy movies during this year's Spring Festival, Shen Teng Jia Ling has clearly become the most attractive comedy star, while "Mr. Red Carpet" has received relatively little attention.
Of course, we also hope that "Mr. Red Carpet" can show the counterattack momentum of "The Crowd", go all out after the Spring Festival holiday, and at least break the box office record of 1 billion to maintain the principal.
Celebrate the New Year in peace and auspiciousness