Early screening changes to "early release"! 2026 Summer Collective "Stealing": Is it confidence or guilty conscience? The box office war started 15 days early

Jiuzhi Network News There are still 15 days before the official opening of the traditional summer holiday, and the box office war in 2026 has already killed the eyes. As of June 4, three blockbuster films,"Extreme Escape","Four Duties" and "Love is Rage", have been screened in advance on a large scale by official announcements."The First Part of the Three Kingdoms: Struggle for Luoyang" and "Maverick" have also been exposed to be secretly preparing for the screening plan. There is even news that "The Battle of Penghu" may advance the screening to July 10-a full 15 days before its official release.
This year's pre-screening completely broke industry conventions: it is no longer just dozens of small-scale industry viewing videos, but a "quasi-public screening" with tens of thousands of videos, covering all cities across the country, and accounting for nearly 20% of the screenings. Some people say that this is the film company's absolute confidence in the quality of content and relies on word of mouth to lock in the box office in advance; others accuse this as a vicious competition that "does not talk about martial arts", using the name of spot screening to promote files and squeeze the living space of small and medium-sized films. A national debate on "whether pre-screening should be banned" is sweeping the entire film industry.
* 1. Highlight the "arms race": from "testing the water" to "all-out war", the leading blockbusters collectively "sneak away"
In the past, pre-screening was to hold dozens of small-scale screenings in a few cities about a week before the film was released, mainly inviting media, film critics and senior fans to watch, with the purpose of accumulating reputation in advance. But in the summer of 2026, this rule was completely torn apart.
The first shot was fired by the disaster comedy "Extreme Escape," which opened on June 5. The film opened nationwide large-scale advance screening from June 1 to 3, with a cumulative screening of more than 12,000 in three days, with an average of 45 people per field and a direct box office of 32 million. Even more exaggerated, some theaters even arranged golden shows for them, accounting for up to 17%, more than "Love Letter to Grandma," which has been released for more than a month.
This was followed by the main theme historical blockbuster "Four Crossing", which was officially released on June 26. The film announced that it will open nationwide pre-screening from June 15 to 19, covering all prefecture-level cities in 31 provinces, cities and autonomous regions across the country. It is expected that the number of screenings will exceed 30,000. Cat's Eye data shows that the number of people wanting to watch "Sidu" has exceeded 1.8 million, making it the domestic film with the highest number of people wanting to watch this summer. The industry predicts that its box office will easily exceed 100 million.
After seeing the successful screening of "Extreme Escape", the romantic crime film "Love Is Rage", which was originally scheduled to be released on June 19, it was temporarily announced that it would advance the screening to June 10 to 12, and also adopt a nationwide large-scale screening model. A theater manager revealed: "Now the first thing the film company says when they meet is 'How many films can you give for ordering screens'? If they don't give enough films, they threaten to give the films to other theaters. "
According to incomplete statistics, more than 10 films have been officially announced or will soon be officially announced during this summer, and almost all of them have participated in the headline blockbusters. Some industry insiders joked: "If this trend continues, there will be no official release date for movies in the future, only the 'screening end day'. "
2. The national debate: Is it "confidence showing off muscles" or "guilty conscience grabbing box office"?
The crazy expansion of pre-screening has caused unprecedented controversy on the Internet. Netizens and industry insiders were divided into two distinct camps, and there was a fierce quarrel.
Supporters: On-demand screening is a market choice, and good movies should be seen by the audience in advance
"The film company dares to screen on a large scale, which shows that it is confident in its content. If it's a bad movie, it will only die faster. "
"Audiences have the right to choose. What's wrong with seeing good movies in advance? It's better than being cheated out of money by a bad movie. "
"" A Love Letter to Grandma "is counterattacked by word-of-mouth screening. Good movies should use this method to break through. "
Opposition: This is vicious competition, undermining market order, and eating too ugly
"The on-demand screening is even higher than the officially released movie. Is this called on-demand screening? This is called running away! "
"Small and medium-cost films don't have much to do. Now that the blockbusters are screened in advance, they will have no way to survive. "
"During the screening period, Douban is not divided, and the audience can only see the favorable comments released by the film company. Isn't this misleading consumers? "
The core of the controversy is that the nature of "advance screening" has changed. Rao Shuguang, president of the China Film Critics Society, said: "The original screening was a word-of-mouth marketing method, but now it has become a box office harvesting method. The film company took advantage of the loophole of spot screening without box office ranking and Douban rating to seize market share in advance, which is unfair to other films. "
Some netizens pointed out pointedly: "Really good movies don't need to be screened on a large scale so early. "The Wandering Earth 2" and "Manjiang Red" didn't have any large-scale screenings, but didn't they still sell for billions? Those who are in such a hurry to check in now are probably not sure and want to make more money before the reputation collapses. "
3. The truth behind it: the audience has changed, the propaganda has panicked, and the screening has become a "life-saving straw"*
Why is there a sudden wave of advance screening in the summer of 2026? Behind this are the profound changes that are taking place in China's film market.

First of all, the audience is becoming more and more rational and no longer believes in publicity routines. The era when one could easily harvest billions in box office by relying on stars, large-scale productions, and topic marketing is gone forever. This year's May Day holiday, many all-star blockbusters suffered at the box office, but "Love Letters to Grandma", which cost only 14 million yuan, relied on word of mouth to counterattack, and the box office eventually exceeded 1.4 billion yuan. This made all filmmakers understand a truth: word of mouth is the only ticket to the box office. Advance screening is the fastest way to verify and spread word of mouth.
Secondly, the competition during the summer season was too fierce, and the film company had to sell in advance. There are more than 50 scheduled films this summer, with an average of 7-8 new films released every week [__LINK_ICON]. Among them, the first blockbusters include "Four Crossing","Battle of Penghu","The Three Kingdoms Part 1: The Struggle for Luoyang" and "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop 2!" Wait for nearly 10. If you wait until the official release before you work hard, you will likely be overwhelmed by other films. By ordering screenings in advance, you can take the lead, seize the audience's attention and film scheduling in theaters.
Third, spot screening has proven to be an effective box office strategy. In the summer of 2023, both "Octagonal Cage" and "One Sim" achieved box office hits through large-scale advance screenings. Among them,"One Sim Sim" earned more than 500 million yuan in box office [(36 krypton)]. This led later film companies to follow suit, believing that "it will not sell well if you don't check in."
But some industry insiders also warned: "Spot screening is a double-edged sword. If the quality of the movie is good, screening will add to the box office; but if the quality of the movie is not good, screening will only spread the bad reviews in advance and die even worse. "On May Day this year, there was a suspense film that had high hopes. Due to the collapse of reputation for on-demand screening, the box office ended up only one-third of the expected.
The fourth and third soul torture directly hits the pain points of the industry, but no one has been able to answer it yet
This year's pre-screening chaos not only aroused audience dissatisfaction, but also exposed many problems in China's film industry. The following three questions are worth pondering by all filmmakers:
Pop point 1: Where is the boundary of advanced screening? How many games are considered "large-scale"?
At present, the National Film Administration has no clear regulations on the number, time and scope of advance screenings. This has led to the filmmaker being able to expand the scale of screening at will, and even the extreme situation of "screening for one month." Some netizens called: "Clear regulations should be issued to limit the number and time of screenings. For example, the number of screenings should not exceed 5% of the total number of screenings, and the screenings should not be earlier than 7 days before the release. "
Hot spot 2: Douban is not divided during the screening period. Is it protecting bad movies?
According to usual practice, Douban will not open scoring until the movie is officially released. This led to the fact that during the screening period, the audience could only see the favorable comments released by the film company and the water army, and could not understand the true reputation of the film. Many viewers spent money to watch bad movies just because they were misled by false propaganda. Some netizens suggested: "After the number of screenings exceeds a certain number, Douban should open scoring to give the audience the right to know. "
Hot point 3: Will early screening lead to "bad money driving out good money"?
Relying on its strong capital strength and publicity resources, leading blockbusters can carry out large-scale pre-screening and seize market share in advance. However, small and medium-cost films simply do not have the ability to conduct on-demand screening, and can only survive in the cracks. In the long run, will this lead to more and more polarization in the film market, leaving only large-scale blockbusters and no longer seeing excellent works with small and medium-cost costs?
Conclusion: Content is the king's way, screening can't save a bad movie
The 2026 summer screening battle has just begun. In the next month or so, more films will join this "arms race." But no matter how diverse the film company's publicity methods are, it is the quality of the film itself that ultimately determines the box office.
"Love Letters to Grandma" did not have a large-scale pre-screening, an all-star lineup, or a sky-high price announcement, but with a sincere story, it became the biggest dark horse this year. This tells us: the audience's eyes are sharp, and good movies will never be buried.
Advance screening is just a marketing tool. It can make good movies visible to the audience faster, but it cannot save bad movies. If the quality of the movie itself is not good, no matter how early and on a large scale, it will only die faster.
I hope all filmmakers can understand this truth: instead of focusing on how to "sneak away" and grab the box office, it is better to calm down and polish the content. After all, content is the soul of a movie.