Spring Festival films have attracted more than 3.2 billion yuan in six days, reproducing box office reputation

As of 18:00 on February 2, the cumulative box office of the Spring Festival in six days exceeded 3.2 billion yuan, which is expected to catch up with the box office record of 3.6 billion yuan in seven days in 2016.

, which is regarded as the "revitalization" of the 2017 movie box office, is coming to an end amidst the noise. With the joint efforts of various blockbusters and fans, the Year of the Rooster has delivered a gratifying report card at the beginning of the Year: the national box office on the first day of the New Year was 802 million yuan, exceeding the 640 million yuan on the first day of the New Year last year, setting a new single-day box office high; Although the box office declined day by day in the following five days, the overall box office remained stable. As of 18:00 on February 2, the total box office over the six days of the Spring Festival exceeded 3.2 billion yuan, which is expected to catch up with the box office record of 3.6 billion yuan in seven days in 2016. Among them, the three highest-grossing hits "Journey to the West to the Demon","Kung Fu Yoga" and "Make a fuss in India" have grossed 1.13 billion yuan, 830 million yuan and 560 million yuan respectively.

Compared with the rising box office figures, the quality of the film has shown a scene of ice and fire: the three highest-grossing New Year blockbusters mentioned above have all encountered two extremes of word-of-mouth."Theme collision","Old routine" and "Weak plot" are high-frequency words in netizens 'comments; while Han Han's work "Wind and Waves" and the domestic animation IP "Bear Infested·Fantasy Space" have achieved catch-up at the box office with their good reputation.

"Journey to the West to the Demon" set a record box office on its first day

. The grand occasion of the Spring Festival in 2016 is particularly memorable: the box office reached 3 billion yuan from the first day of the New Year to the sixth day of the New Year. The seventh day coincides with Valentine's Day. The two popular periods are seamlessly connected, jointly setting an astonishing box office record of 3.6 billion yuan in seven days. This "strongest Spring Festival slot in history" not only generated the highest single-week box office in the world, but also became an insurmountable peak for the box office throughout the year. In the face of such brilliant achievements, this year's Spring Festival is undoubtedly "under great pressure".

Judging from the beginning, the New Year blockbusters in the Year of the Rooster are not losing momentum: the total box office on the first day of the New Year was 160 million yuan more than the same period last year. Among them, the box office of the three films "Journey to the West to the Demon","The Troubles in India" and "Kung Fu Yoga" The first day of the box office has both successfully exceeded 100 million yuan, and the battle situation of "three pillars" is even better than in previous years.

Supervised and written by Stephen Chow and directed by Tsui Hark,"Journey to the West to the Demon" has achieved outstanding results since its pre-sales. Before the official release at 00:00 on the first day of the New Year, the total pre-sales box office had reached 176 million yuan, setting a record for pre-sales in the history of China films. The highest box office record for pre-sales was recorded on the first day of release, breaking the single-day box office record of 340 million yuan for "Speed and Passion 7" and winning the single-day box office champion for domestic films.

However, the box office trend in the following days staged a ups and downs: it fell back to 574 million yuan on the second day of the Lunar New Year, and the box office per day from the fourth day of the year was less than 500 million yuan. Fortunately, the box office remained stable at 450 million yuan in the following two days.

Senior film critic Deng Jianguo analyzed that the rebound in box office during the Spring Festival this year is not unrelated to another round of crazy "ticket replacement". On several major e-commerce ticketing platforms, low-cost ticketing activities such as "" Ride the Waves "are very attractive. They are very attractive. It is worth noting that starting from this year, the average online sales service fee charged by netizens for each movie ticket during the online ticket purchase process will be included in the box office. This change will also have a significant effect on improving the statistics of the entire Spring Festival period.

The three major popular films have been criticized as "lacking in new ideas"

, similar to previous years. The three major New Year films "Journey to the West to the Demon","The Big Troubles in India" and "Kung Fu Yoga" have no pre-screening, but focus on "star cards" to attract attention. Therefore, the reputation accumulated in the past few days before its release plays a key role in the stamina of the box office.

As a continuation of the two major IPs of "Stephen Chow + Journey to the West","Journey to the West" combines "Xingye Wulitou" with Tsui Hark's special effects technology. Coupled with the joining of popular actors such as Wu Yifan and Lin Xinxin, the film is expected to become The first work in 2017 to exceed 2 billion yuan in box office. However, after the film was released, it encountered two extremes of word-of-mouth.

Some viewers believed: "Tsui Hark and Stephen Chow filmed a different 'Dark Journey to the West' from the past. The two used an alternative narrative to re-deconstruct the classic section of the Journey to the West, and the special effects were also refreshing." Audiences who didn't like it focused on criticizing the "old scumbag" that repeatedly appeared in the film's lines and soundtracks. The acting skills of young actors such as Wu Yifan and Lin Yun were also complained by many netizens that "they were far inferior to Huang Bo and Shu Qi in their previous works." This also directly prevented the film from repeating the steady rise in the box office of "Mermaid" last year.

Also "riding" the popularity of the Journey to the West,"The Big Bang in India" also encountered the dilemma of a decline in the box office along with word of mouth. In the eyes of many viewers, although this modern version of "Journey to the West" plays the "emotional card" and even has the "big egg" of the return of the Monkey King in the six-year-old children's version, the plot does not follow the routine of "Lost in Thailand", and the funny scenes also seem to be too hard. However, some fans expressed tolerance and appreciation for Wang Baoqiang's first self-directed and self-acting:"Although it is not perfect, it shows his intention and sincerity."

"Kung Fu Yoga" directed by Tang Jili and starred by Jackie Chan is praised as the most suitable movie for "family fun" in the same period. The box office of the film has been increasing steadily since its release, with the single-day box office jumping from third place on the first day of release to winning the championship on the fourth day of the year. Although the "Jackie Chan" action comedy still has a large number of "iron fans", it still cannot escape the doubts of "taking advantage of the old".

In comparison, the box office and reputation of "Wind and Waves" and "Bears: Fantasy Space", which are very different in styles from the three popular films, have increased steadily, earning 390 million yuan and 290 million yuan respectively in the first six days. As Han Han's second director's work, although "Ride and Waves" fell into a theme song storm before its release, the quality of the film finally overshadowed the controversy and was praised as "having smiles, tears and regrets, which is much more mature than" We Will Live "." As the only domestically produced cartoon during the Spring Festival,"Bear Infested·Fantasy Space" continues to win the hearts of children and parents with its heart-warming plot and excellent production.

Reporters observed

that New Year films are not short of box office and

lack of high-quality products. After experiencing the cooling of box office last year, the 2017 film market ushered in a good start, just like the spring sun makes people feel warm. The box office of the three New Year films on New Year's Day exceeded 100 million yuan, which shows that the audience's enthusiasm for watching movies has increased; and the total box office of 3.2 billion yuan in six days is also enough to show that the movie watching habits that the audience has cultivated over the years have not changed.

Throughout the past 20 years of vigorous development of the New Year festival, from "Hongfan District", which pioneered the success of New Year films, to "Party A, Party B","See You, and" Endless ", which established Feng Xiaogang's status as a New Year comedy, to" Hero ", which broke the tradition of reunion and lively New Year films, the opening period with huge demand for movie viewing has always been a" prosperous place "where classic works frequently appear. Especially in the past ten years, the types of New Year films have become more and more abundant with the changes of public tastes, gradually forming a prosperous situation in which romantic comedies, costumes, and action fantasy are blooming.

However, today, with the rapid development of the domestic film industry, the most popular New Year films seem to be lacking in innovation amidst the hustle and bustle of the crowd-not only are there few impressive high-quality films, but even the film types, themes, and styles have embarked on a "turning back" of convergence.

Take the six Spring Festival films with the highest box office in the past two years as an example. Whether it is "The Mermaid","Journey to the West: 3 Fighting the Bone Bones" or "Journey to the West", they all coincide with the same "fantasy style"; the above two "Journey to the West" films plus "Make a fuss in India", three of the six films are re-developments of the "Journey to the West" IP. What's even more embarrassing is that during this year's Spring Festival, both "Make a fuss in India" and "Kung Fu Yoga" feature Indian customs, which has caused many netizens to call "drama".

The overall situation of the film in 2017 has begun, and whether the subsequent box office growth will still depend on the word-of-mouth effect of the film itself. To avoid a repeat of the box office dilemma of "opening high and going low", increasing incentives such as ticket subsidies can only "cure the symptoms" in a short period of time. The creation of high-quality content is the long-term "root cause" solution. After all, what determines whether an audience will buy tickets to enter a movie theater is not the pile of data on the books, but whether there are good films worth spending money and time watching.

Editor: yvette