Domestic thrillers can only have a way out if they are small, big, outdated and high-quality

In the first quarter of 2016, the total box office in the mainland was 14.5 billion yuan. Although the number of domestic thrillers released was booming, they only accounted for 0.24% of the market share. What difficulties still exist in domestic thrillers? Can there be "high-quality responsibilities" in the next summer?

In 2014, a movie "Jingcheng 81" won 400 million yuan in box office, allowing audiences 'confidence in this genre to peak. However, to this day, although the box office of domestic films continues to rise, the proportion of thrillers in the box office of the entire market has not seen significant improvement. Among the total box office of 44 billion yuan last year, the proportion of thrillers has not exceeded 7%. According to data, the total box office in the mainland in the first quarter of 2016 was 14.5 billion yuan. Although the number of domestic thrillers released was booming, they only accounted for 0.24% of the market share. What difficulties still exist in domestic thrillers? Can there be "high-quality responsibilities" in the next summer?

North America>>> Horror films win "Warcraft" Wen Ziren becomes a new generation of horror masters

In North American theaters, horror films and thrillers have always been the "cool meal" in the summer. In the second week of June this year, three new films,"Conquering 2","Warcraft" and "Shocking Robbery 2", joined hands in summer theaters in North America. In this crowded weekend box office battle, director Wen Ziren's horror film "The Convocation 2" easily won the top spot with US$40.35 million, beating the fantasy masterpiece "Warcraft" that was eagerly awaited by players around the world.

As the official sequel to the 2013 phenomenal supernatural horror film "Conquering", the film created the release of "Conquering" Annabel "(released on October 3, 2014, with a box office of US$37.13 million in the first weekend). In the past two years, the horror film has the highest opening box office in the North American market, surpassing the former" No. 1 "" Hidden 3 "(which premiered on June 5, 2014, with a box office of US$22.69 million in the first weekend). However, whether it is "Annabel" or "Hidden 3", there is the same manipulator behind it: Wen Ziren, the founder and director of the "Summon" series. In terms of the field of horror films alone, Wen Ziren can be said to be an isolated existence in Hollywood at present.

"Conquering 2" won high box office in North America

. It is worth mentioning that "Conquering 2" has an investment of approximately US$40 million, which is a small and medium-cost production in Hollywood. The film's final box office exceeded US$100 million in North America, while its predecessor,"Conquering," finally grossed US$147 million. In addition, the film's reputation is also very good. By early July, the small-budget horror film "Human Cleanup Project 3", with an investment of only US$10 million, had grossed US$14.47 million at the box office on its first day of release, successfully recouping its costs, and ended "Finding Nemo 2: Where Are Dolly Goes". The dominance of Dolly for two consecutive weeks and became the champion of the week. This film is the third installment in the "Human Cleanup Project" series. The entire series is a model of "being big with small things" and has now formed a horrific "IP". Moreover, the reputation of the three films is growing, and the audience is very interested in it.

Domestic>>>"Jingcheng No. 81" stimulates investment confidence. Twelve thrillers are piled up this summer.

Looking back at the China thriller market from 2010 to the present, after experiencing a period of explosive growth, it has gradually stabilized, and last year began to show a significant growth momentum. At the end of 2009,"Midnight Taxi" became the first commercial horror film, achieving a record box office gain of 13 million yuan at the time. Despite this, in 2010, when the market had not yet fully awakened, only seven thrillers were released. The amazing performances of "Area B 32" and "Far Cry" made 2011 the most successful year for "making it big with a small". The number of thrillers released this year rapidly increased to 14. Such a high rate of return has attracted a large amount of hot money into the film market. By 2013, the number doubled to 28. However, investors who later wanted to "make a fortune" were not so lucky. The poor quality of domestic thrillers made the audience not buy it. In the days that followed, even as the number of screens and film output increased, the domestic thriller market as a whole was regressing. By 2014, the number of domestic thrillers released throughout the year fell back to 21.

However, in 2014,"Master of Hypnosis" and "Jingcheng No. 81" came into being. The former gave the audience renewed confidence in the quality of thrillers, while the latter's phenomenal performance and replicable model made investors feel great. temptation. With the establishment of two new benchmarks, investors are back in the thriller market in 2015. Last year, 15 thrillers were released during the summer season alone, and a total of 31 were released throughout the year. Although the number of thrillers released this year's summer is not as good as last year, there are still 12.

The number does not seem to reflect the true situation of domestic thrillers. However, the numbers themselves have become one of the problems with this film genre.

The crux of the problem>>>

Low investment in

production is originally the advantage of thrillers. For small producers who have just entered the film market, thrillers must be among the preferred investment types. Despite various creative restrictions, domestic thrillers have always had a stable audience. It has never been a problem to be big with a small amount, but it is often difficult to recruit a good creative lineup for domestic thrillers with an investment of less than 20 million yuan. Even if there are stars in the film, if the special effects, stories, and publicity are not up to standard, it will be difficult to achieve good results. For example,"Magic Wheel", which was first released during this summer's season, although starring "Screaming Queen" Lin Xinru, it only received less than 7% of the schedule. It went offline in less than a week, and the final box office was less than 8 million yuan; and another summer thriller "The Evil Voice of Magic" invited stars such as Zhang Xinyuan and Jiang Wen to participate in the movie, but its final performance remains to be tested.

Large quantity and low output

According to statistics, from the second half of last year to this year, thrillers have basically maintained the rhythm of one movie a week. Under such contradictions, the general market life cycle of thrillers is only seven days left (three days from the first weekend to next Thursday), and box office output per unit continues to decline, with an average box office of less than 5 million yuan per thriller. The crash of genres, average quality and close release schedules not only make the audience aesthetically tired, but also make it difficult to produce "bellwether"-style domestic thrillers.

Since

most thrillers do not invest much, the funds allocated for publicity cannot be compared with some blockbusters, which determines that they need to use their own methods to attract attention. To this end, many domestic thrillers will "change the names of some well-known foreign films" when naming their titles, and others will "lean against a big tree to enjoy the shade." The former include "Death Note","Memory Fragments","Weird Talks","Blood Maze", etc. The latter is most famous for "The Fear of the Pen Fairy", which makes the audience easily confused with "The Pen Fairy".

In addition, many domestic thrillers are now inseparable from the word pornography. Some thrillers focus on rendering pornographic elements in the materials released in the early stage to achieve the effect of attracting audiences and attracting attention.

The lack of thrillers IP

The two horror films that shine in the North American summer season this year are sequels. Although the official sequel to "Conquering" is only "Conquering 2", there is already a spin-off "Annabel";"The Human Cleanup Project" has reached its third installment. In early Hollywood, there were also horror IPs such as "Ghost Street" and "Death is Coming". Although not every film was a great success, it still cultivated a large number of loyal audiences. Looking back at domestic thrillers, apart from "The Pen Fairy", it is difficult to name any other attractive series of thriller films. This has nothing to do with the main creator of the thriller "making quick money" and the lack of practice of cultivating brand awareness. Previously,"Jingcheng 81 2" has been announced to be launched. If it can continue to perform brilliantly, it may be possible to create a model domestic thriller IP.

The way out>>>

The direction is to make it small and big, outdated and high-quality

. There is no denying that thrillers have a specific and fixed audience, and the market potential is infinite, but audiences are also looking forward to the emergence of excellent works. At the same time, after experiencing market shocks and rational thinking, investors also understand that the era of using small ones to compete with big ones no longer exists, and only excellent quality and precise marketing can attract audiences.

Li Ming, chief producer of the film "Red Skull" that was released last year, said: "Today's China audiences have become biased against domestic thrillers, and only the emergence of high-quality works can change this situation."

Wen Jun, producer of "Jingcheng 81", and Ye Weimin, director of "Jingcheng 81", also admitted in an interview that mainland thrillers have never been able to escape the evaluation of shoddy and not scary enough. It is in this situation that they saw the feasibility of creating a high-quality thriller line. "Jingcheng 81" has invested more than 20 million yuan. Although this investment scale is not even a medium cost for ordinary films and can only be regarded as a small cost, it is already an unprecedented high investment for a thriller. Regarding this approach, Wen Jun admitted that many film companies did not understand it at the time."They felt that the thriller genre could be filmed without actors and little investment because the entry threshold was relatively low. There are small companies everywhere, and they tell us to shoot thrillers as soon as they come because they think it is easy. But this is wrong. A good phenomenon I see now is that more and more people are doing things seriously, no matter what genre this movie is. This will eliminate those unreliable ones and turn them into a healthy environment."

Ye Weimin added that he believed that the so-called concept of being small and broad was wrong from the beginning. "In fact, if you invest a lot, the box office will be even bigger. This is the market demand. Audiences like to make genre films that are serious and tell good stories. Being big and small is an outdated concept. For example, if you make a movie on a small cost, the investor won't pay for it, but you won't be able to meet the audience's requirements, because the audience's requirements will increase."

Editor: yvette