The box office of Spring Festival movies has fallen into a slump, but the word-of-mouth of "Removing Three Evils Around the Week" has unexpectedly ushered in a boom. In this case, there is actually another movie that was released at the same time as "Wednesday" that is worth paying attention to, namely "Strange Knife" starring Zhang Jin and Geng Le.
Compared with "Removing Three Evils Around the Week", which is gradually rising with word-of-mouth, the box office of "Strange Knife" is unsatisfactory, and it only barely exceeded 400,000 in 5 days.
The film, which was released on March 2, was set to roll off the production line on March 8 early, and judging by these data, the film's performance was indeed disappointing.
As an action movie, Zhang Jin has gone all out in "Strange Knife". He also shared his filming experience at the film meet-and-greet, which unfortunately ruptured his Achilles tendon while filming the film in March last year, and recovered from surgery for almost a year.
So what exactly is wrong with this movie that makes it so bleak? The first is the strong influence of "No One in Sight".
"Strange Knife" has inexplicable similarities with "No One in My Eyes", and during the ** trailer, many netizens left messages saying that there were several shots reminiscent of "No One in My Eyes".
"Strange Knife" tells the story of King Qi played by Zhu Shimao who wants to seize the throne, so he ** more than 200 people in the East Palace, but only one child is left with his mother to take away.
In the process of the mother and son fleeing, the charcoal seller played by Zhang Jin was filled with righteous indignation and went through many difficulties with one of the mother's and son's guards.
Truth be told, the story is bland, if not engaging. The highlight of the film is its excellent action sequences, however, in today's age of fairy-like films, the martial arts theme has long since faded.
Although the plot of the depiction of a chivalrous man saving others is similar, in some ways, the two actors, Zhang Jin and Xie Miao, even have similarities.
Considering that the acclaimed "No One in My Eyes" is a big online movie, why did "Strange Knife" choose to be released in theaters? After all, movie ticket prices are several times higher than online on-demand.
I believe that such doubts are enough to make potential viewers think about it repeatedly, because the ** era of action movies is long gone, and insufficient publicity cannot attract a large audience. Furthermore, this is not the best time to do so, so it's no surprise that the front door is deserted.
Although the cast of "Strange Knife" is strong and the production texture is also good, it was inexplicably affected by "No One in My Eyes". Secondly, the main goal of the filmmakers was to make a profit from the beginning.
It can be seen from the promotional materials for the release of this movie that when "Strange Knife" was released on March 2, iQiyi, as the production company, had already decided to arrange it to be launched on March 8.
It's not a hasty move to online because of poor box office performance, but a strategy that was in place from the start.
Then the question arises as to why hang out in the cinema when it was originally planned to be released in a week. This can't help but spark speculation that people are just leaving the market in a hurry just to make a profit.
It is conceivable that if "Strange Knife" achieves remarkable results at the box office or word-of-mouth, perhaps the decision to be released on March 8 will be urgently postponed, after all, online promotion is relatively more convenient.
In addition, the film was released in a split line, which was already a tentative attempt, and it caused a huge sensation a year ago, but its performance after the year was mediocre.
The split release means that it is not launched at the same time in theaters across the country, but through negotiations with various theaters to see which one provides more favorable conditions, it will be released in that theater.
For an action movie, choosing to split the line at a time when the market is cooling doesn't seem to be the best choice.
Perhaps, the movie "Strange Knife" should have been more humble and chose to **go up** step by step, maybe it could still attract word-of-mouth and popularity like "No One in My Eyes", instead of making a mess like now.