In the Spring Festival schedule in 2024, eight films will be unprecedented, who would have predicted that half of them would be taken down, which will undoubtedly become a major milestone in the history of Chinese films.
Mr. Red Carpet", "Let's Shake the Sun Together", "Eight Rings: Canopy Nether" and "Huang Pixiu: The God of Wealth Cat" announced one after another about a week after their release that they would be withdrawn or rescheduled from the Spring Festival schedule, which made many viewers very surprised and confused.
Although the withdrawal or rescheduling of movies is a common phenomenon in the industry, this time the situation is different: first, a large number of movies have chosen to withdraw and refile; Secondly, these films have already been released, and some even decided to withdraw when the box office was close to 100 million.
Regarding the withdrawal of the four Spring Festival scheduled films, it has sparked a lot of discussions and controversies, and people have expressed their opinions.
Why were the first and fourth films revised?
In this bustling world, people come for profit and rush for profit, and it is self-evident that the rescheduling of the four films is obviously in pursuit of higher box office and greater revenue.
However, there may be subtle differences between the four films in the actual situation.
Among the four films that were withdrawn, "Let's Shake the Sun Together" has received an excellent reputation, on par with the other four popular movies. However, due to the poor quality of the film schedule, it was difficult to achieve a high box office, so it was finally decided to withdraw and choose a more competitive schedule.
Although the rating of "Mr. Red Carpet" is not too high, this movie does bring together the two stars Andy Lau and Ning Hao, and its content is quite attractive. If it is released in a relatively small competition period, even if it cannot become a big hit, relying on Liu Tianwang and Ning Hao's box office performance will not be too bad.
The other two cartoons could not compete effectively with "Bear Infested" due to low box office revenues. Rather than disappearing in obscurity during the Spring Festival, it is better to increase the audience's attention by withdrawing and changing the file, and then choose a time similar to the summer file to re-release, this time it can be regarded as a round of advertising in advance.
Why did the second and fourth films choose to be released during the Chinese New Year?
Many viewers may be curious about this: Since everyone knows that the competition pressure of the Spring Festival file is very high, why do these four films still insist on entering the Spring Festival file?
First of all, the producers have a high level of confidence in their own films, and plan to "welcome good luck" during the Spring Festival. Compared with other schedules throughout the year, the Spring Festival stalls are more likely to give birth to popular movies. As long as the conditions and timing are right, you may have the opportunity to meet the big luck and make good profits.
The movies "Mr. Red Carpet" and "Let's Shake the Sun Together" are more inclined to this style, especially "Mr. Red Carpet", which was originally released in November, but was later adjusted to the Spring Festival schedule.
Secondly, the producers lack enough confidence in the films they make. However, due to the phenomenon of "rain and dew evenly wet" during the Spring Festival in previous years, the crowd of moviegoers during the Spring Festival schedule is relatively concentrated, and some audiences are just watching movies, which leads to some movies that were not strong unexpectedly gaining a certain amount of box office income, and hot-selling movies have lost some profits.
Huang Pixiu: God of Wealth from the Sky" and "Eight Rings: The Nether of the Canopy" are more inclined to this style.
What are the reasons for the failure of the third and fourth films?
Considering that the four movies chose to withdraw or change files, this is undoubtedly an experience of "Spring Festival deserters". Whether it is because of unwillingness or because of grievances in scheduling, the consequence of withdrawing the file is like declaring that this adventure is a failed journey.
Why did these four films fail? Let's take a look at why the other four films were able to achieve more than 1 billion box office revenue in a short period of time, which is significantly different from the four films that were withdrawn before.
Hot and Hot", "Flying Life 2", "Article 20" and "Bear Infested" all have the explosive characteristics of the Spring Festival stalls, Jia Ling, Shen Teng and Zhang Yimou have all had the box office experience of the Spring Festival stalls, so they have been widely praised by the audience.
Bears Infested: Reversal of Time and Space is part of the franchise, almost every one of which is a hit, has built a good box office reputation and enduring inertia, and it's almost impossible to keep a low profile.
In addition, these four movies all incorporate comedy elements, and even the heavier "Article 20" contains a lot of hilarious scenes, which shows that Zhang Yimou has fully understood the popular plot of the Spring Festival file.
Against this backdrop, if other films try to challenge those four films that are almost destined to become hits, it would be like asking for trouble.
Let's Shake the Sun Together is a movie full of warmth, which is perfect for the audience to calm down and savor it. But during the Spring Festival, the crowds and the pace of gatherings, dinners and travel become extremely active, which makes it lack enough leisure time to savor it.
In fact, "Mr. Red Carpet" is an often underrated film, if you watch it carefully, you will find that it contains a wealth of emotions, even if you have doubts about Andy Lau, will you still be skeptical about Ning Hao?
However, we must keep in mind that the audience during the Spring Festival is mainly for parties, and in such occasions, comedy is obviously a wider audience and easier to reach consensus, so it is easier to become the first choice.
Fortunately, Zhang Yimou has incorporated many comedic elements into "Article 20". At the same time, Lei Jiayin, Ma Li, Chen Minghao and Zhang Yi have faithfully completed their tasks, making the whole work full of comedy. Otherwise, Article 20 may face the embarrassing situation of not being able to withdraw its files.
Regarding the cartoons "Huang Pixiu: God of Wealth from the Sky" and "Eight Rings: The Nether of the Canopy", they must not ignore the high reputation brought by the "Bear Infested" series of movies, so they decided to break into the Shura field of the Spring Festival schedule.
During the Spring Festival, many parents do choose to watch another cartoon with their children after their children finish "Bear Infested: Reversing Time and Space"?
Know yourself and your opponents and be invincible. The four films that were withdrawn not only did not fully evaluate the strength of the four popular films, but also did not have an essential understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of their own films. At the beginning, he broke into the Spring Festival file with a lucky mentality, and the result was that he was unwilling to fail to withdraw and change the file, and such an ending is not worthy of sympathy.
Some netizens blame the rescheduling of the four movies on the so-called "oppression of capital", which is really ridiculous. Capital is a very important factor in the development of the Chinese film industry to this stage, but it is not the only factor. Without sufficient financial support, none of these eight films could have been filmed.
Some netizens feel that the unfairness and high concentration of cinema scheduling are the reasons for this situation, which is really ridiculous. Cinemas operate like a supermarket, so why not put FMCG products on the market that bring in a lot of profits, instead of those unsalable goods that can't be sold for money? Is there really a contradiction between cinemas and making money?
Frankly speaking, half of the eight films in the Spring Festival schedule were very popular, and half were withdrawn, which is a direct consequence of the liberalization of market competition, and no one can deny it.
4. Who has the power to turn the situation around?
In the film industry, withdrawal and rescheduling can be divided into two categories. One of them is to withdraw and change files before the movie is released, which is especially obvious in "Detective Chinatown 3". This kind of withdrawal before the release does not have much impact on the future box office, but increases the attractiveness of the box office, and it will also help the future box office.
There is also a situation where it is a big risk to withdraw and change the file after the release of "Chinese Ping Pong: The Jedi Strikes Back" for a period of time. Although many viewers thought that the film was mistakenly killed by the market after finishing "Chinese Ping Pong", this did not change the result of the movie's box office failure.
From one point of view, if you choose to withdraw after the release, this may make the producers lose confidence in themselves. In order to avoid these risks, filmmakers may need to evaluate the timing of the release more carefully, and at the same time strengthen publicity and confidentiality efforts to ensure that the film can attract more attention and support after the rescheduling. From another point of view, there is also a risk of being ** and spoilers, which may lead to the loss of some viewers who were originally planned** after the rescheduled release.
From a relative point of view, because of its excellent reputation, after the reshuffle, as long as the competitors are weaker in the same period, the chance to get a higher box office will be the greatest.
With "Mr. Red Carpet" having so many topics of discussion, choosing the right release time and combining it with some good fortune will make it more challenging to hit the box office by a big margin, but that doesn't mean it's completely hopeless.
Regarding these two animation works, even if they are adjusted to the summer file, they may not be able to improve significantly, and we also expect that there will be no large-scale productions like "Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang'an" in the summer file.
Everything is not so simple.
Entertainment at the forefront