Film marketing: Films want to make money, lineup schedule and promotion

four years ago, Andy Lau invested in a series of films directed by newcomers, one of which was called "Crazy Stone." the film received rave reviews after its screening at the Shanghai Film Festival that year, and was a huge success at the box office after its official release. It also won the popularity of the later director Ning Hao. Four years later, Andy Lau invested in a new director's work & mdash;— "the Race". The humorous and inspirational comedy film has an equally good reputation, but the market response was extremely lacklustre in the first weekend after's release. Some cinemas show only one "fight ring" a day, and it's almost a foregone conclusion that they lose at the box office.

the two films are of good quality, but the endings are very different, which makes people wonder: what are the factors that determine the success of a film market? Quality, schedule, or publicity? The reporter interviewed Gao Jun, a senior issuer of Beijing New Film Union. He believes that the quality of the film (including the star lineup) is the basic factor for success, the schedule is the crucial factor, and publicity is the catalyst for the box office & mdash;— if a film itself is of poor quality and poor schedule, no matter how good the publicity will be at the box office.

< strong > < / strong >

"Race" and "Crazy Stone" are both works directed by newcomers, and even the investors are the same & mdash;— Liu Dehua. Andy Lau himself spared no effort to promote both films and personally gave the platform to the new director. "Crazy Stone" eventually became popular at the box office and won the popularity of Ning Hao. When "the Race" was released, the reporter learned from major cinemas in Beijing that the film has fewer rehearsals, and some cinemas have only one show a day, which is not only inferior to the best-selling Hollywood film Prince of Persia. It can't even compare with the new old film, "Special Mission of agents."

Gao Jun believes that the success of "Crazy Stone" is very accidental, and the element of luck is large, so it is difficult to copy. & the film makers of ldquo; Stone had no confidence at first and planned to sell off the distribution rights for 1.1 million yuan, because no one was willing to buy it, so they had to issue it themselves. & rdquo; Gao Jun said that Stone was very lucky. It first won word of mouth at the Shanghai Film Festival, and then it was released in a domestic film protection month. & ldquo; released mostly theme movies that month, and Stone became the only commercial film with few competitors at the box office. & rdquo; is not so lucky by comparison. There is no such platform as the film festival to do word of mouth, and the release time is in June this year. A total of nearly 30 films were released in June, almost one a day on average, including blockbusters such as "Spy". In this highly competitive environment, as long as it is not for films with strong box office appeal, such as the Tangshan earthquake, cinemas will not be able to give too many screenings. In addition, a steady stream of new films have been released since then, and as long as they do not perform well at the box office in the first two days, they can easily be withdrawn from the cinema. Therefore, Gao Jun believes that the schedule is a crucial factor in determining the box office of a film.

< strong > du Lala wins in publicity < / strong >

compared with the schedule, the impact of publicity on the box office is much weaker. Publicity is more like a catalyst, which can make a good film with a good schedule do better at the box office, but not a film with a bad schedule and bad quality at the box office. Among the films released this year, the promotion of du Lala is quite successful. To be fair, the film quality of du Lala is only medium. Many audiences were disappointed and thought that du Lala, which was originally a love film, was not packaged as a workplace film to attract audiences. Nevertheless, du Lala eventually grossed more than 100 million at the box office. Among them, the commercial marketing and publicity throughout the film has played a big role.

from the beginning of material selection, the film accurately targets the target audience on female white-collar workers. There are enough gimmicks to adapt a best-selling workplace novel, and Xu Jinglei herself directed and acted herself, which can also attract the attention of fans. Before the film was about to be released, Xu Jinglei took the lead creator to publicize it everywhere. From the light box road signs in the city to the cover of the fashion magazine that month, you can almost see the shadow of "du Lala". On the other hand, the affair between Xu Jinglei and the hero Huang Lixing also lost no time to spread. The attraction of gossip has always been strong, and the two men have to face ldquo; gossip-rdquo; problems awkwardly or freely wherever they go.

however, such a means can only be used once. Gao Jun believes that at a time when the box office is good but the audience has already expressed disappointment, if du Lala is going to make a sequel, great efforts must be made on quality. & ldquo; Xu Jinglei can no longer be a director and had better not be an actress, because some audiences have already said that she is pretending to be young, and she can be a behind-the-scenes producer to make the film better. & rdquo;

< strong > "Dongfeng Rain" loses in quality < / strong >

even if you can get a good schedule, there will be a lot of publicity. If the quality of the film itself is not good enough, these means alone will not create a miracle at the box office. The so-called quality refers not only to the artistic level of the film itself, but also to the subject matter and the box office appeal of the creator. For example, "three-shot surprise" was released on New year's Day last year. It's not really an artistic level, but the film's director Zhang Yimou has a strong box office appeal, and the box office appeal of the leading actors Zhao Benshan and Xiao Shenyang is not weak. Therefore, the commercial quality of the film is not poor.

A negative example of this is the ldquo; espionage blockbuster rdquo; the East Wind and Rain, which is released at the same time as du Lala. East Wind and Rain is known as a commercial blockbuster, but in editing, it is easy for ordinary audiences to learn art films and play leaping thinking. The lines are also full of literary and artistic skills, often endowed with a modern poem & mdash;—“ I am the bat in the dark, half a bird and half an animal. Although Fan Bingbing, the star of hellip;…”, has a certain appeal at the box office, she can't beat the director and screenwriter to pull the film away from the audience. The publicity of the film is overwhelming, with large posters everywhere from the bus body to the subway entrance and the airport passageway. The film side is constantly releasing the news that ldquo; Fan Bingbing is disfigured and starring in rdquo;. In the end, the film, which invested more than 100 million yuan, grossed only tens of millions at the box office, a fiasco.

in Gao Jun's view, "the East Wind and Rain" is an example that no matter how big the publicity is, it can't save the box office. The market quality of ldquo; "East Wind and Rain" is not good, which is well known to cinema managers who have seen the movie in advance. In fact, if it didn't do so much publicity, the box office might be worse than it is now, but it wouldn't be much worse. After spending so much effort and money on publicity, it was futile in the end. & rdquo; promotion can only be a catalyst for the movie box office.