Domestic animated films are rising strongly, with box office 1 billion yuan just around the corner

Original title: Domestic animated films are on the rise

[Art and Art Trend]

The animated film market has received frequent good news recently. First, as the overall growth rate of the film market slowed down, animated films bucked the trend. In 2016, the total box office of animated films released in the China film market reached a record 7.005 billion yuan; In 2017, the two domestic animations,"Bear Haunts·Fantasy Space" and "David Bacon's Hapless Agent Bear", released during the Lunar New Year period, box office exceeded 100 million yuan. In addition to arousing repercussions among young audiences during the festival, they unexpectedly triggered a movie-watching craze among young people after the holiday; There are also many animated films such as "Doraemon: Nobita's Antarctic Ice Cold Adventure","My Dad is the King","Three Little Pigs 2","Submarine Story 5: The Treasure Box of Time", etc., which use light and shadow to create a lively and happy festive atmosphere for children. It seems that while fantasy blockbusters, youth films, comedy films and other genres are gradually declining, the performance of animated films is particularly outstanding. Is this really the case? How should we view the rise of animated films?

The market for animated film "David Bacon: The Hapless Agent Bear"

is becoming more rational

. In 2016, a total of 63 animated films were released in the China film market, of which 41 were domestic films (including two co-productions between China and the United States), producing 2.4 billion yuan in box office; 22 imported films, producing 4.1 billion yuan in box office. In 2015, 54 animated films were released, 41 domestic films, with box office output of 2.1 billion yuan; 13 imported films, with box office output of 2.4 billion yuan. It can be seen that in the past year, the number of domestic animated films released has remained the same as before, and the box office has increased slightly. While imported animations have increased significantly in both the number of releases and box office. The surge in the box office of China's animated films in 2016 was mainly due to the contribution of imported films.

Judging from the hierarchical distribution of box office, in 2016, there were 35 animated films with box office exceeding 10 million, of which 14 were domestic films; 23 animated films with box office exceeding 30 million yuan, and 8 were domestic films; 13 films with box office exceeding 100 million yuan, and 3 domestic films; 5 films with box office exceeding 500 million, and 2 domestic films; and 27 works with box office below 10 million were domestic animations without exception. Obviously, the single output capacity of domestic animations is weak, and most of them still hover at the box office level of around 10 million. The higher the box office level, the harder it is to find domestic animations. Judging from the annual average single output, the average single output of animated films in 2016 exceeded 100 million yuan, slightly higher than the 80 million yuan in 2015. However, it cannot conceal the fact that the gap between large-scale works with high box office and low-cost works with low box office is getting wider and wider. The high ones are higher and the low ones are lower, making the market rely too much on a few hit works, showing a serious uneven distribution, which is dangerous for a healthy animated film market.

The box office data of animated films on the first day is also very interesting. For example,"Kung Fu Panda 3", which won 107 million yuan on the first day, has its brand and characters deeply rooted in the hearts of the people;"Your Name", which won 76.36 million yuan on the first day, originated from the influence of highly recognizable styled directors;"Big Fish Begonia", which won about 70 million yuan on the first day, created enough topic with originality and emotion;"Angry Birds", which earned 53.55 million yuan on its first day, is an IP adaptation of the famous game. Obviously, these blockbusters all have one or two points that can be accurately marketed, and each point can radiate to a large potential audience. "Zootopia", which only earned 22.45 million yuan on its first day, demonstrated the great power of word-of-mouth effect through Disney's excellent quality. It soared all the way and won the top spot in the box office of animated films in the China market, once again affirming the core role of family fun works for all ages with rich stories, people-friendly characters, well-produced, and profound meanings in the market. "Ocean Pooh", also produced by Disney, only had 13.34 million yuan at the box office on its first day. Although it had a good reputation, it failed to go further in the China market due to the cultural acclimatization of the music, song and comedy genre. In addition, although "Bear Infested" released in 2016 earned 56.68 million yuan on its first day, it opened higher and lower, closing in at the box office of 290 million yuan; while "Bear Infested·Fantasy Space" released in 2017 took advantage of the victory and scored 520 million yuan in box office on the first day. It can be seen that when the brand's influence is close to the ceiling, the creator takes a different approach, works hard in 3D, and can once again win the favor of the audience with exquisite visual effects. There are various signs that in the current mobile social media environment, the market's consumption of brands and high-quality content is becoming more rational and calm.

Originality has become a trend.

From the perspective of consumers, China's animated film market is very eager for original high-quality content, as evidenced by the 565 million yuan box office of "Big Fish Begonia" and its polarized word-of-mouth heated discussion. For the first time, it truly attempts to construct a visual feast about the oriental fantasy world on the screen based on ancient literature and traditional architecture under the conditions of contemporary audio-visual language. Audiences are willing to pay for the feelings of this film, which can actually be regarded as a concentrated explosion of demand for original content. For creators, their efforts to pursue originality have received a positive response from the market. It can be said that after years of imitation and running-in, the whole society has reached a consensus on the necessity of originality awareness in animation creation. For example, the two films "Little Gate God" and "The Battle of the New Year" consciously explore the traditional China cultural resources that the audience is familiar with, refine symbols and character images with outstanding joy, and use the animated audio-visual language that is easy to accept by the current audience. It cleverly handles issues related to tradition and contemporary times, and stitches values such as harmony and responsibility into the narrative of the film. Although there are still immature areas, it can still be regarded as a valuable practice of original consciousness. There is also "Rock Tibetan Mastiff" co-produced by China and the United States. Under the framework of Hollywood narrative, it combines the story of individuals pursuing secular success and then gaining spiritual redemption into the unique Tibetan cultural context of China. It is also a good example of seeking originality within norms.

We can optimistically predict that there is still much room for expansion in the animated film market. Basically, a single box office of 1 billion yuan should be the standard that domestic original animations can achieve in the next few years. "Zootopia", a work of volume and reputation, can surpass many live-action films with a score of 1.53 billion yuan, which is enough to prove that there is still room for imagination in the current market to accept animated films. In addition, the "natural" acceptance of animated films by mainstream movie-watching groups such as the post-80s and post-90s is undoubtedly a booster for the market. There are also more than 40,000 screens in China's film market that ranks first in the world, objectively preparing for the expansion of the animated film market.

Expand creative horizons

Judging from the domestic animation works that have box office exceeding 10 million in recent years, there is a widespread shortcoming that the creative concept pattern is not large and is not conducive to communication in the wider market. Most of these works have obvious exclusive national characteristics and regional cultural characteristics. Taking "Big Fish Begonia" as an example, the background setting of the work to discuss life and death, reincarnation, and responsibility is quite ambitious, but the main line of the story is based on a vulgar love triangle. The protagonist Chun treats the entire family and even the entire family in order to save his lover. The life is indifferent to it, and this deviation of values reduces the audience's acceptance of the work and naturally limits the scope of dissemination of the work. Another example is the "Bear Haunted" series. Although it also follows the telling norms of Hollywood genre stories, the story temperament has obvious exclusive regional cultural characteristics, which determines that it can only be accepted within a relatively fixed audience. On the other hand,"Animal City" also features anthropomorphic animal characters as the main characters, but can easily transcend the limitations of cultural divisions. It has to be said that it benefits from the international creative concept. Its character design, behavioral motivation, narrative logic, etc. It has reasonable assumptions, strong realistic considerations, and even can be matched in different cultural contexts. For the current animated film market in China, works of this size and production level must create creative concepts within a larger pattern and vision, so as to produce cornerstone and benchmark works.

Among works with box office below 10 million yuan, there are widespread shortcomings such as low content, flat characters, far-fetched stories, rough production, outdated creative concepts and vague market positioning, making it difficult to discover even effective marketing points. As the market returns to rationality, this kind of large-scale and low-level duplication of construction needs to be converged in a timely manner. Winners in the animated film market have always been the type of family fun that takes all sizes. If you blindly submit to the young, the creative concept of getting high if you don't want to be low should be revised in time. There are also some brand effects that have never been established at all, but they deceive themselves and continue to create sequels in an attempt to achieve the naive approach of "quantitative change to qualitative change". It is also time for self-examination, because the market's self-elimination mechanism has been formed. What is gratifying is that the huge market space of the second dimension has attracted a lot of capital attention, and at the same time, some young animations have begun to expand to older ages. I believe that crowded schedules, childish stories, vague concepts, narrow patterns, and unsatisfactory production will no longer be the key words in the 2017 China animated film market.

Editor: Mary