The shooting cost is 200,000 yuan and the box office exceeds one million yuan on the first day."Roadside Picnic" may become an example of a theatrical film screening

"Roadside Picnic" has had a solid start. Even if the screening cycle is artificially limited to 10 days, it is still expected to be viewed on tens of millions of channels. Compared with its shooting cost of 200,000 yuan (not included in later publicity, etc.),"Roadside Picnic" will become a classic case of "making things big with small things".

Original title: During the summer season when hundreds of boats compete for fame, can "Roadside Picnic" make a difference for literary and artistic dramas?

Since the beginning of the summer season, domestic films have once been invisible from market competition under Hollywood's strong offensive: in May and June, except for the China-Hong Kong co-production "Three's" that exceeded the 100 million yuan line, none of the others reached the standard; On the contrary,"Hundred Birds Facing the Phoenix", which retaliated with producer Fang Li's "kneeling request for a film release", stepped out of the positive line and became the only dark horse at the box office.

But at the same time, many "no stars, no awards, and no publicity" drama films in the market have quietly gone offline, and many of them have been well-received genre masterpieces.

But before doing this, one concept should be clarified: a common classification standard in the past divided films put on the market into "commercial films" and "artistic films", and labeled the latter with the implicit label of "unsold". Putting aside the current situation that domestic distribution is not yet mature,"art films" are not necessarily equated with the cold weather of theaters."Hundreds of Birds Arrive at the Phoenix" and last year's release of "The Old Man of the Mountains and Rivers" are examples.

The shortcoming of this kind of film lies in the ambiguity of target positioning, that is, it is difficult for the drama film itself to refine selling points for audiences with specific preferences, especially when facing competition from strong genre films such as action/science fiction/comedy. Represented by the art theater line initiated by Jia Zhangke, it has become a consensus in the industry to cultivate the audience of drama films through a steady flow. I believe this will be of great benefit to expanding the market space for high-quality drama films.

Therefore, we will collectively refer to this type of film as a starting point to discuss the prospects of "Roadside Picnic".

It should be pointed out that in addition to drama films with a literary and artistic style, there is still a division of theme films in the China market; however, since their screening methods are not completely market-oriented (group bookings are more common), and the release cycle is closely related to the timing of relevant celebrations, so it is only listed here for reference and will not be in-depth for the time being.

If you start from the left column, basically all literary and artistic drama films released during the summer period are covered. It can be seen that except "Hundreds of Birds Arrive at the Phoenix", all other films have made little noise in the market: the story of "Bukilan", which was released on May 6, took place in the northern town of Laba Night, but in the end, the box office of more than 50,000 yuan was also chilling to the bone;"There is a Horse Across the Mountain", which was painted with "Alice in Wonderland 2: Adventures in the Mirror", only screened 326 times nationwide on the first day, and basically withdrew from the competition after the weekend;"October Spring", which starts on Saturday, is more similar to graduation exercises, and the cumulative number has not exceeded 10,000. However,"Winter", which was screened at last year's Beijing Film Festival, has received some favorable reviews in the critical circle, but it is still unable to break through the blockade of "Chills 2","To Youth: You Are Still Here" and "Big Fish Begonia", and the box office will reach double digits so far.

On the other hand, these drama films have a mid-to-average reputation in the fan community: except for "October Spring", which has insufficient reviews, the rest of the films basically fall within the range of 6 to 8 points, among which "Hundreds of Birds Sowing to the Phoenix" and "Roadside Picnic" scored relatively higher. Although there is no lack of superimposed influence of non-content factors, this is a strategy that has proven to be effective to form discussion potential and then transform it into bonuses on the layout.

Here, we might wish to review the counterattack roadmap of "Hundreds of Birds Facing the Phoenix": After its release on May 6, this work with the label of "legacy" was still submerged in the offensive of Hollywood blockbusters at first, with a cumulative box office of only 3.6576 million in one week of release. However, as Fang Li knelt down during the live broadcast the next Friday and issued an initiative to the theater to increase the number of times, this wave of noise swept across major platforms with the momentum of a tsunami. Industry giants who had originally voiced their support before the screening implemented it into action. During the action, the screening rate soared from around 1% to 7.15% on Sunday, and was once maintained at double digits on weekdays; At the same time, the potential energy of "Captain America 3" accelerated, leaving room for "Hundreds of Birds Facing the Phoenix" to overtake in box office output efficiency. Therefore, starting from the 14th,"Hundreds of Birds Facing the Phoenix" has stabilized its single-day earnings at 4 million for nine consecutive days. Above ten thousand, it once reached a high of 12.2439 million on Sunday. Although this unusual case caused by "extra-regulations" actions, which is rare in recent years, is not replicable, it still serves as a benchmark for the drama film market that is currently floating in the market quagmire.

However,"Roadside Picnic" directed by young director Bi Gan obviously does not have this potential to "turn things around". Can the film stand out in the slightly depressed summer market? Let's find out from a data perspective.

First, we will briefly explain each index according to the example:

Cognitive Index: By collecting source indicators such as search engines, social media, interactive communities, video websites, and Weixin Official Accounts, the audience awareness level of the corresponding movie is weighted, and is denoted by a value of 0 - 10;

Ticket Purchase Index: By collecting source indicators such as ticketing platforms and e-commerce channels, the pre-sale popularity of the corresponding movie is weighted, and is denoted by a value of 0 - 10.

From a cognitive perspective, the performance of "Hundred Schools of Thought Contending" and "Roadside Picnic" is comparable, but there are significant differences in the propaganda caliber of the two: the former focuses on director Wu Tianming's "legacy" and is endorsed by industry insiders from all walks of life, playing the emotional card; the latter does not highlight the characteristics of Bi Gan's "debut", but instead attracts the audience's attention from technical aspects such as "40-minute long lens" and realistic and fantasy style. Although there is still a gap with other films in the same format, it is already superior in the drama series.

In terms of ticket purchasing index,"Roadside Picnic" leads by one position by 7.65 to 6.02, which is also reflected in its box office figure of over 1 million on its first day. Although "Hundreds of Birds Facing the Phoenix" has a higher schedule when it opens, it only won 280,000 yuan in the face of the crushing advantage of "Captain America 3" during the same period. If it were not for producer Fang Li's "sad kneeling", this work that was three years late would not have escaped the curse of the market. It seems that "Roadside Picnic" has had a solid start. Even if the screening cycle is artificially limited to 10 days, it is still expected to watch tens of millions of channels. Compared with its shooting cost of 200,000 yuan (not included in later publicity, etc.),"Roadside Picnic" will become a classic case of "making things big with small things".

In the torrent of summer, literary and artistic dramas such as "Roadside Picnic" are like a clear spring. Whether it can inject new flavor into the market during the 10-day short-term screening is worth observing in depth.

Editor: Nancy