Chao News reporter Fang Tao.
This Spring Festival, are you "hot and hot"?
Regardless of whether there is body anxiety or not, recently, countless netizens have fallen into a long-lasting discussion about **. There is no doubt that the movie "Hot and Hot" has been "hot" from the screen to life, and even the old song "Horse Pole" has taken the opportunity to become popular with a lyric.
In the Spring Festival in 2024, the box office of the movie will end at 801.6 billion yuan, setting a new box office record for this schedule. "Hot and Hot", "Flying Life 2" and "Article 20" have frequently rushed to the hot search on Weibo, causing heated discussions among the whole people.
Compared with the loud volume of Spring Festival movies, this year's Spring Festival TV series are unusually quiet. Dramas with high hopes such as "South to North", "Fireworks Family", and "The Case of Tang Di Gong" have not generated social hot spots and national topics so far.
The "splashing traffic" brought by the 2024 New Year's drama "Flowers" does not seem to have been caught by this year's Spring Festival TV series.
Watching dramas at home **From Visual China.
Why is the Spring Festival stall "a soldier must fight".
How does watching dramas during the Chinese New Year become a "New Year's custom"?
"Son-in-law" in the 2021 Spring Festival file, "Hurricane" and "Three-Body Problem" in the Spring Festival file of the Awakening Era, "Hurricane" and "Three-Body Problem" in the Spring Festival file of the Awakening Era, ......In recent years, Spring Festival TV dramas have repeatedly come out of the circle, setting off a wave of national drama watching.
Except for the Spring Festival, it is difficult to find a schedule where audiences of all ages and all social classes are leisure. For a drama, during the Spring Festival, not only the audience base is maximized, but also the custom of visiting relatives and friends, even the probability of word-of-mouth transmission will be much greater than usual. Once a part of the audience is captured in this period, the communication effect is often the best. ”
Chen Xin, who has been in the film and television industry for more than ten years and has become a professional TV drama screenwriter in the past four years, told reporters that because of the incomparable family cohesion of the Spring Festival for Chinese, a huge home drama market has naturally formed.
A popular drama can not only bring advertising revenue, but also leverage users' willingness to pay. From the beginning of the commercialization of Chinese film and television works, the Spring Festival file can be described as a "battleground for soldiers".
In 1998, the Chinese New Year sitcom "Home and Everything" directed by Zhang Huizhong was released on the first day of the Lunar New Year. The whole family stays in front of the TV and waits for the series, which has gradually become a "New Year's custom" for many families.
It can be said that the original purpose of the Spring Festival TV series was to "accompany the audience for the New Year". In the following years, more and more TV series of the same type appeared on the stage of the Spring Festival:
Official stills from the family sitcom "A Family in the Northeast".
In the Spring Festival of 2002, the family sitcom "A Family in the Northeast" directed by Yingda and produced by Ying's Film and Television Company became popular all over the country as soon as it was broadcast. In the same year, the modern rural comedy "Liu Laogen" series directed and starred by Zhao Benshan also landed on CCTV for two consecutive years.
"Yingda Comedy Universe" and "Benshan Comedy Universe" constitute the Spring Festival memories of countless audiences. In 2006, the "Country Love" series created by Benshan Media was updated 16 times in 18 years, becoming the longest-lived series of domestic dramas, and was nicknamed "Spring Festival Nail Household" by netizens. On February 2 this year, "Country Love 16" arrived on the Youku platform as scheduled, still continuing the story ...... Ivory Mountain
This kind of drama that shows one or more family group portraits, with a bit of light comedy elements, is lively and lively, and ends with a 'family carnival', has indeed been the mainstream of Spring Festival TV dramas for a long time. However, according to Chen Xin's observation, in recent years, the market feedback of this kind of drama in various schedules has gradually become unsatisfactory.
Chen Xin told reporters that the Spring Festival stalls in 2023 are a typical example. The anti-crime criminal investigation drama "Hurricane" and the sci-fi drama "Three-Body Problem" are not related to the traditional "family carnival", but they have sprung up one after another and become phenomenal works, which is enough to show that the Spring Festival TV series need a steady stream of fresh blood.
It's not just about "accompanying the audience for the New Year".
There are more and more dramas, why is it difficult to make a "Spring Festival dinner"?
In this year's Spring Festival, it is obvious that the volume of movies far overshadows the TV series. In previous years, when relatives and friends gathered during the Spring Festival, it was natural for everyone to discuss the plot trend of the hit TV series during the Spring Festival. But this year, whether it is a hot search on Weibo or offline exchanges, the discussion of TV dramas is relatively insufficient. ”
Yu Si, a lecturer at the Huace Film School of Zhejiang University of Media and Communication, received a doctorate degree in contemporary literature (contemporary culture and popular film and television) from Beijing Normal University. In recent years, she has been on the front line of TV drama and film script creation, and has a unique observation of the dissemination of film and television works.
According to incomplete statistics, around the Spring Festival in 2024, a total of more than 10 dramas will be broadcast on major platforms: "South to North", which writes the train of the times, and the costume reasoning drama "The Case of Tang Di Gong" have premiered on CCTV 8, CCTV has launched a female-themed masterpiece "Fireworks People", and the youth idol drama "In the Blizzard" has landed on Tencent**....In addition, "Dog Leftover Run", "Dali Temple Shaoqing Tour", "Happy Scroll Changle City", "Happy Parents Group", "Country Love 16" and other dramas covering the Anti-Japanese War, ancient costumes, comedy, suspense, idols, and rural themes have also appeared.
It can be said that the 2024 Spring Festival TV series "New Year's Meal" is actually not short of "dishes", but it seems that there are few topics out of the circle, and the collective "dumb fire".
Yu Si said that with the rise of online dramas, the user stratification of TV dramas has become more and more mature, and it is indeed becoming more and more difficult to do Spring Festival TV dramas that pursue the "flavor of the New Year of Ten Thousand Families". On the whole, there are many works with a good level of production in this year's Spring Festival TV series, but there are still many reasons that have led to the "loss" of the Spring Festival file.
First of all, in terms of the film layout of the ** platform, "Flowers" avoided the Spring Festival file, which obviously raised the audience's expectations, "After chasing "Flowers" for more than a month, if the relay drama does not have a bright performance, it is easy for everyone to abandon the drama. ”
Official stills from the TV series "Flowers".
In terms of the content theme of the TV series itself, this year's Spring Festival file did not accurately find the breaking point. Yu Si told reporters that from ancient costume fairies, to urban sweet pets, to big IP series, and then to the return of neorealist themes, the trend of TV dramas often changes every few years.
In recent years, it is a very noteworthy phenomenon for literary works to feed back film and television works. The two popular dramas "The World" and "Flowers", as well as the hit "Echo" in 2023, are all adapted from the works of the Mao Dun Literature Award, and the original work of "The Three-Body Problem" has won the highest honor of science fiction - Hugo Award.
In a sense, classic literary works have stood the test of time and readers, and adaptations into TV series are often more likely to be successful. However, realistic themes usually reflect the complex aspects of social life and human nature, and are not necessarily suitable for the joyful and relaxed atmosphere of the Spring Festival, which is a big test for the director's control of the content theme. ”
"The World" has its own atmosphere of a big family and period dramas, coupled with high-quality scripts and actors' interpretations, and it became an instant hit during the Spring Festival. And the Dutch writer Gao Luopei's adaptation of "The Case of Tang Di Gong" of the same name**, its brain-burning and suspenseful plot is obviously not in line with the general atmosphere of leisure and entertainment during the Spring Festival.
In terms of marketing and publicity, this year's Spring Festival TV series did not play the card of "differentiated competition".
Ding Yongdai's character image of "The World" Official stills of the TV series "The World".
Ding Yongdai's character image of "South to North" Official stills of the TV series "South to North".
is also a period drama of the Spring Festival, and it is all led by the old drama bone Ding Yongdai, "South to North" was benchmarked against "The World" at the beginning of publicity;and "The Case of Di Gong of the Tang Dynasty", which is based on the historical background of the Tang Dynasty and focuses on suspense detectives, hopes to "take over" "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" in the publicity.
There are pros and cons to the way of benchmarking classic dramas in publicity, on the one hand, it will make the audience have high expectations, and on the other hand, it will also make the innovation and freshness a little lacking. For example, "The World" is, in my opinion, one of the best dramas in the past decade. Di Renjie's IP has already had successful cases in movies, Liang Guanhua's version and Andy Lau's version of Di Renjie have many fans, and it is more difficult for the TV series version to surpass the classics. The current market response also proves that even if the two dramas are commendable at the production level and there is no flaw at the content level, the final broadcast word-of-mouth is far from their respective target dramas. ”
Although it is impossible to require every TV series to benchmark against "Flowers". But Wong Kar-wai used his unique aesthetics and three years of shooting at any cost, setting an industry benchmark for us to see that TV series can still be filmed like this. Similarly, "The Three-Body Problem" also spent four full years polishing the script. So when we discuss the popularity of a series, the most important thing that cannot be ignored is the content itself. Yu Si said.
The reporter also contacted Ye Ziqian, who is engaged in the promotion and promotion of TV dramas, and she told reporters that even on the same track of film and television works, this year's Spring Festival TV series have also been "hit on both sides".
Official stills of the short drama "I Was a Stepmother in the 80s".
In addition to the "old rival", the Spring Festival film market is soaring, setting box office records. During this year's Spring Festival, micro-short dramas produced with small costs and headless actors also rose strongly, harvesting a large number of audiences. For example, the filming cycle of the mini program short drama "I Was a Stepmother in the 80s" lasted for a total of 10 days, and the post-production was only 80,000 yuan, and on the day of its launch on the first day of the Lunar New Year, the single-day recharge exceeded 20 millionThe Douyin collection of "Little Year Beast and the Demon Hunter" has more than one million likes, and the average Kuaishou collection is **15 million;Micro-short dramas such as "Give Her a Handle", "The New Year", and "Mr. Pei Thinks of Father and Son Every Day" have also become frequent visitors to Weibo hot searches.
Compared with TV dramas that pull recharge members through explosive models and pay for the ** platform quarterly or even the whole year, micro-short dramas consumed for "single products" seem to be closer to the audience's emotions.
Ye Ziqian also believes that this year's Spring Festival TV series lack content discussion and the ability to "create stalks".
Lao Mo, I want to eat fish" "The bigger the wind and waves, the more expensive the fish" "What grade, use the same TV as me?".”…
Just like the explosion of "Hurricane", in the Internet era, the ability to "create memes" means continuous topics, which is crucial for a TV series to maintain its popularity for a long time. The Internet memes caused by TV series make young people use and play in order to become popular. This year's Spring Festival TV series obviously lacks such performance.
Can the 2024 Spring Festival stalls "make efforts in the future".
What are the other doorways behind the hit TV series?
Different from the so-called "three-day box office determines life and death" in the film market, the Spring Festival TV series have a longer cycle and front, and the heat fermentation also needs to advance with the plot, which can often continue after the Lantern Festival, and there is still the possibility of "future force".
Out of professional habits, in addition to the latest "Fireworks", Chen Xin has been involved in all the dramas of this year's Spring Festival.
In the Blizzard", it is obvious that it is the student party audience to catch, first of all, it is not a particularly popular theme, and the series has ended, and the popularity should have entered a period of decay;"The Case of Di Gong of the Tang Dynasty", from the production to the cast, is highly anticipated, but it still fell into the situation of 'opening high and going low', and the score on Douban is only 59。The hardcore suspense theme needs more to be a blockbuster, and among the seven cases, if the first few do not capture the audience well, it will be more and more difficult to ignite passion in the future. ”
Official stills from the TV series "The Case of Tang Di Gong".
In Chen Xin's view, on the contrary, "South to North" may be the drama with the most possibility of "future development", "This drama itself is a trickle of water and a long-term way of telling, restoring the life trajectory and character fate of railway workers in that era." In the atmosphere of the Spring Festival, everyone may slowly see it. ”
However, it is no longer realistic for this year's Spring Festival TV series to reproduce the popularity of "Hurricane". "South to North" has won a good reputation in the same schedule dramas, which may be a more realistic goal.
Although the explosion of a drama series largely requires "the right time, place and people", there is often an internal logic.
Yu Si said that for a drama to go out of the circle, the production level must be the best first, and now the audience has mature evaluation standards for high-quality TV dramas, and it is unlikely that a few traffic stars can pull shoddy scripts. At the same time, it is particularly important for the topicality of the drama to resonate with the audience and the social mood.
Yu Si said, for example: "When everyone is tired of workplace elite dramas, the little people who rise from the bottom and are full of flesh and blood in "Hurricane" are eye-catching, and at the same time, it also stepped on the anti-black and anti-corruption social sentiment. Another example is the classic drama "The First Half of My Life", in which middle-aged women face family anxiety and emotional crisis, which can also resonate with countless middle-aged audiences. ”
At this point, this year's phenomenal movie "Hot and Hot" has provided a textbook-level case. From the controversy over the topic of Jia Ling losing 100 pounds, to the film's delivery of the core value of "I want to win once", which meets the society's expectations for a powerful work, to the film promotion MV "Everything Is Too Late" after the film screening, which continued to ferment the heat, making "Hot and Hot" hot for a while.
Official stills from the movie "Hot and Hot".
Chen Xin also said that at present, the joyful atmosphere of "accompanying the audience for the New Year" is more borne by the Spring Festival Gala of each David TV. If you want to get out of the circle during the Spring Festival, you must continue to touch the audience with fresh things, and innovation is always the first driving force.
In 2021, "The Awakening Age" can be seen to be different from the main theme dramas we have seen in the past, giving people a particularly real sense of substitution. Lu Xun, Chen Duxiu, Cai Yuanpei ......These great historical figures in the play are all life-like and down-to-earth. It is not only a historical subject that the parents paid attention to, but also really touched the young people of today. But first of all, because it is innovative. ”
TV dramas are a mass culture commodity, and the audience can never be criticized. Whether a drama can be popular in the end, for the screenwriter, can be summed up in one sentence - to see if our work is good enough. Chen Xin told reporters.
According to the interviewee's request, Chen Xin and Ye Ziqian are pseudonyms).
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