Hot IP frequently takes on the stage, professional adaptation teams are scarce, box office is less than expected

Through investigation and interviews, the reporter found that compared with original plays, although strong IP adaptations of stage plays are inherently endowed with a better fan base, if stage play production cannot be recognized by fans in the early stage, it will be difficult to rely on publicity to gain ideal box office results in the later stage.

drama "The Legend of the Sword and Fairy 3" is currently in full swing, and "Tomb Robber Notes: Hidden Sea Flowers" is about to start its national tour in April. In recent years, strong IP adaptations have gradually become a hot spot in the stage drama market. Strong IPs with a strong fan base such as "White Deer Plain" and "Three-Body" have been put on the performance stage. However, through investigation and interviews, the reporter found that compared with original plays, although strong IP adapted stage plays are inherently endowed with a better fan base, if stage play production cannot be recognized by fans in the early stage, it will be difficult to gain ideal box office through publicity in the later stage.

Strong IP has frequently stepped onto the performance stage

to integrate strong IP into stage plays with various expression techniques, which has become a hot spot in the current performance market, and the "Tomb Robber Notes" series of stage plays are among the best. In 2013, the stage play "Tomb Robbing Notes" did not attract much attention when it premiered in Shanghai, but a year later, the play toured 77 times in 15 cities across the country, creating box office revenue of more than 35 million yuan; the subsequently launched "Tomb Robbing Notes II" premiered only 45 times in Shanghai, with box office exceeding 20 million yuan.

Driven by the "Tomb Robbing" series, the online game "Ancient Sword Qi Tan" launched a stage play of the same name; after the movie "Tiny Times" won the box office, the stage play "Tiny Times" also appeared in Shanghai; based on the movie "Jingcheng No. 81", the stage play "Chaomei No. 81", was adapted to the movie "Jingcheng No. 81", which was launched on the stage with a supernatural thriller;"Legend of the Sword and Fairy","Gardenia Blooms","Get Out of the Way, Tumor King!" Other plays have also appeared one after another, further dividing the market for IP adaptations of stage dramas.

In the view of Zhang Haijun, chairman of Beiying Company, adaptation of stage plays by Strong IP is not new. For example,"Taking Tiger Mountain with Wisdom" is adapted from the literary work "Forest and Snowfield". It is just that due to the deepening of marketization of the performance industry, Strong IP has become more and more important. As a result, the concept of strong IP adaptation of stage plays has been refined. Although there are many strong IP adaptation of stage plays in the market, not every one can achieve ideal box office results."The success of a strong IP adaptation of stage plays, In addition to the quality of the original IP, the direction of adaptation is also very important. For example, some plays are more artistic; some are more entertaining. Only by determining the direction of adaptation can the corresponding audience have a clustering effect."

The fan base is a double-edged sword

compared with original plays. The natural fan base is undoubtedly the biggest advantage of strong IP adaptation of stage plays. This not only saves early script investment when stage plays are adapted, but also saves a lot of publicity costs in the later stages. Take "The Legend of the Sword and Fairy" as an example. This strong IP that has grown from a game to a film and television series has a considerable fan base. Therefore, the stage drama adapted from this is basically "tailor-made" for fans, regardless of the character shapes, lines, or story scenes, it is quite loyal to the original work. The stage drama "The Legend of the Sword and Fairy", which was thus branded, has not only been adapted into a series of works, but has also launched many national tours, attracting a large number of fans everywhere.

Having a fan base as a guarantee does not mean that the adaptation of stage plays is risk-free. The stage play of the same name, adapted from "The Ancient Sword and Qi Tan", has not been recognized by a large number of fans; in the stage play "Legend of Zhen Huan", due to the large number of characters and complex branches, the content was not displayed to the maximum extent in the limited time of the stage play. In addition, the TV series audience of "Legend of Zhen Huan" is too far apart from the stage drama audience, resulting in a flat box office for the performance.

Some industry insiders pointed out that fans 'reputation on a strong IP adapted stage play can have a great influence. Many strong IP adapted stage plays have not been recognized by the fan community in the early stage, resulting in reputation falling to a low point. Under this circumstance, No matter how we improve in the later stage and how to strengthen publicity, it will be difficult to obtain the ideal box office. In addition, a fan of strong IP is very familiar with the content of strong IP. Completely restoring the strong IP content will make the stage play lose its innovative power, and a little adaptation will cause dissatisfaction among fans. The balance between the two is often difficult to control.

Professional adaptation teams are scarce

. In the view of Liu Fangqi, director of the stage plays of the "Tomb Robber Notes" series, the reason why the current strong IP adaptation stage drama market is polarized between box office and word of mouth is mainly due to the lack of professional stage drama adaptation teams to strictly control the quality. Unlike film and television dramas, stage dramas can give the audience a lot of imagination when performing, so the control over content is relatively strict."In fact, the cost of attracting the audience to watch stage dramas is very high. The definition of a successful stage play is not reflected in the high production costs or gorgeous visual effects, but with excellent quality content, because expressing a strong IP in such a way as a stage play requires an extremely professional team. Only then can we form a brand effect and gain a foothold in the market."

However, such a professional team is still a scarce resource. Many stage drama practitioners still have a "good story and performance" understanding of strong IP adaptations of stage dramas, or think that box office revenue can be guaranteed with the help of strong IP gimmicks. But in fact, this is not the main factor for fans to enter the theater to watch. "As long as there is a basic story line and characters, any strong IP can be adapted into a stage drama. However, if you want fans to become loyal audiences of a certain brand's stage drama, or attract people other than fans to watch the stage drama, you still rely on the stage drama. The content itself, such as the stage drama" My Own Swordsman ", although the scenery is simple, it still attracts a large number of viewers, because as long as the content quality is excellent, the reputation of a strong IP has always been just an ornament." Liu Fangqi emphasized.

Editor: Nancy