Making a small fortune in silence? Survey on the current situation of domestic horror film market

although the box office is not high, there is an interesting phenomenon-almost every week, you will find a new horror movie to be released. See the title of the film, how is the pen fairy, dish fairy, chopstick fairy, scary XX, XX scary, the impression seems to have been shown 800 times, simply can not tell; see the actors, or there are no stars, or let you send out "TA is out of date" such a sigh.

original title: do not want to make progress? Make a small fortune in silence? Investigation on the current situation of domestic horror films

this large number of horror films do not have a road show or even a decent premiere. you don't know when it will be released, but when you look back at the box office, you suddenly find that, relative to the extremely low cost, they are not selling as badly as they thought. What is the market environment for horror films?

on the 12th day of its release, "Capital 81 2" grossed more than 200 million at the box office. Together with the previous film, it became the leader in the domestic horror film with more than 2 billion box office, and defended the gold-lettered signboard of "IP, the first domestic horror film."

it is difficult to pass 10 million. Since 2012, only 33 domestic horror films have grossed more than 10 million yuan at the box office, of which 15 have grossed more than 20 million yuan and only six have grossed more than 50 million yuan at the box office. In fact, the box office of most domestic horror films is in the range of hundreds of thousands to millions.

although the box office is not high, there is an interesting phenomenon-almost every week, you will find a new horror film to be released. See the title of the film, how is the pen fairy, dish fairy, chopstick fairy, scary XX, XX scary, the impression seems to have been shown 800 times, simply can not tell; see the actors, or there are no stars, or let you send out "TA is out of date" such a sigh.

this large number of horror films have no road show or even a decent premiere. you don't know when it will be released, but when you look back at the box office, you suddenly find that they don't sell as badly as you think they cost. Year after year, one crop of horror films come forward one after another, which on the one hand shows that there is indeed a demand in the market, on the other hand, it has also been analyzed that horror films are actually the type of "making a fortune in silence."

what is the market environment for horror movies? Let us not only care about the box office "Capital 81" series, but also approach the other half of the small-budget horror film "Jiangshan".

< strong > the horror film market is hot and icy. < / strong >

has been released for nearly three weeks, grossing a total of 2.4 million yuan at the box office. For the horror movie "hit the Evil 31," which costs 3 million, this result certainly cannot satisfy the producer Laixi and director Li Kelong.

in 2013, another horror film, Flower Curse, directed by Li Kelong, earned 2.7 million of the production cost and nearly 2 million of the publicity fee, and finally grossed 6.2 million at the box office. What worries Li Kelong even more than the box office is that the cost of "hit evil 31" has not only not increased, but also reduced, far less than the cost of "Flower Curse". The cost of releasing is even lower, pitifully low. "

just a week after the release of "hit the Evil 31", the aircraft carrier "Capital 81 2" in the field of domestic horror movies came.

as of July 18, "Capital 81 2" has been released for 13 days, and the box office has exceeded 200 million yuan. Although there is still a gap compared with the nearly 420 million achievement of "Capital 81" in 2014, it has fulfilled the expectations of Chen Hui, the boss of Hengye Pictures.

Chen Hui did not disclose the exact cost of Capital 81 2, saying only that it was "a little higher than the first movie," but he admitted that box office expectations were based on cost projections, so we can roughly infer that the cost of "Capital 81 2" is about 60 million.

in 2014, "Capital 81" took advantage of the time, place and people-the film itself is a quantitative upgrade of the horror film, which is obviously different from the films released at the same time. Wu Zhenyu is very popular with "where is Dad going?" so the success of "Capital 81" at the box office is difficult to replicate. After a rational analysis of the current market environment, Chen Hui believes that 200 million is the ceiling of the current horror movies, and "Capital 81 2" has just broken 200 million.

"hit evil No. 31" and "Capital 81 No. 2" represent the ice and fire of domestic horror movies. On one side are huge investments and good box office results, while on the other side are small-cost investments of less than 5 million and box offices that seem to be living beyond their means. In 2017, for example, except for "Capital 81 2" which grossed more than 100 million yuan and "Die Fairy Legend 2" grossed more than 10 million yuan, all the other horror films did not exceed 6 million yuan at the box office. Among the top 20 horror films of the year, there are even films that grossed less than 1 million at the box office. The same is true in 2016 and 2015, when the overall box office structure of horror films was in the shape of a pyramid, with a large number of horror films grossing less than 10 million at the box office to form the base, with a few films with a volume of 20 million. Works that grossed more than 20 million at the box office are definitely the "pyramid spires" in the field of horror films.

therefore, when films such as the Phantom of the Palace and Capital 81 explore the possibility of the development of horror films through escalating production costs, most horror films are still on the brink of survival. Among the top 20 horror films in 2017, "shock" and "thriller" both grossed less than 1 million at the box office, while "hit 31", which grossed 2.4 million at the box office, still ranked 12th on the list. "Capital 81 2" took the lead with 200 million at the box office, surpassing all other horror films this year combined. Top horror films are only a handful, with only six horror films grossing more than 40 million yuan at the box office between 2012 and 2017. A large number of low-budget horror films make up the other half of the box office.

so, what is the foundation of these horror movies?

< strong > the theme of horror is the rigid demand of the market < / strong >

the answer is very simple-horror films have a fixed audience, it is easier to enter the cinema, the cost is lower, and there is not so much box office pressure.

Li Kelong confirmed the answer. His horror film Flower Curse grossed 6.2 million yuan in December 2014, while one of his comedies, Red envelopes, grossed only 240000 yuan when it was released in March 2015. "it's true that it's easier for small horror movies to get into the cinema. Although it is going from bad to worse, the consensus is still there. Some people still watch horror films, and small romantic comedies may have no harvest, but no matter how bad the horror movies are, some people still watch them. " After making a number of small-budget romantic films, comedies and horror films, Li Kelong has sensed the rules of the market.

Lai Xi, the executive producer of "hit evil 31", is also well aware of this. The investment side of this play is Chinese-funded Tangfeng Film and Television Culture and Media Co., Ltd., which was just established last year. The boss is Yang Kun. Yang Kun is not the singer we are familiar with, but a friend of Laixi in his hometown. The company tried to make a movie for the first time. Laixi, who has starred in many small-budget horror films and comedies, has given some advice. now it is very risky to invest in films, and horror films have a fixed market, so it is better to choose horror films in the first one.

according to the data for the five years from 2012 to 2016, more than 10 million films and about 5 million films firmly occupy the top 20 at the box office each year, even if the horror films rank 20th at the box office. It also earns about 5 million at the box office. Although the overall market trend has experienced rapid progress and calm after the explosion in the past five years, the field of horror films has been quiet and almost unaffected by the market.

these figures are enough to show that although horror films are minority, they are indeed a rigid demand for a certain market share, coupled with the fact that high-cost top producers are not interested in this cupcake, leaving a lot of market space for small-budget horror movies. And those comedies, romance films and other big genres are occupied by big investment, big card films, want to enter the small-budget films may only be reduced to cannon fodder. Therefore, for those investors who do not have much money or experience, horror movies are the first choice for them to enter the market.

Hengye Pictures also made its first bucket of money from horror films at first, and gradually entered the mainstream market. Since investing in "different Apartments" in 2008, Hengye has released more than 20 horror films one after another in recent years. Now looking back on the horror films invested by Hengye over the past decade, Chen Hui said that what satisfied him most was the "different apartment", not only because this low-cost horror film with an investment of 1.8 million brought him a box office return of 20 million. But also because the play proved his judgment of the market, but also gave him a chance to enter the mainstream market: "although the production story is not very good, but at that stage, I began to try to make thrillers." This is my judgment on the market, we need such a movie. "

< strong > the era of" making a small fortune in silence "is over? < / strong >

Li Kelong's "Flower Curse" is a typical small-budget horror film, and its 4 million production and distribution cost basically represents the scale of investment in a large number of horror films today. The cost of "different Apartments" in 2008 is 1.8 million, the production fee of "Midnight Taxi" in 2009 is 1.13 million, and by 2017, excellent horror films such as "possessed" can be completed at an ultra-low cost of 70, 000 yuan. Overall, it is not a problem for small horror films to keep the cost below 5 million.

take "Flower Curse" as an example. According to the algorithm that "the box office is three times the investment to make a profit", the 4 million cost should have earned 12 million of the box office to get back the capital, but in fact, the curse only sold 6.2 million. Did the play lose money?

Director Li Kelong revealed," at that time, the copyright sold to movie channels was relatively high, and the network copyright was also OK. In addition, the cinema line grossed more than 6 million yuan to get back more than 2 million yuan. On the whole, it was a small profit. "

in fact, there are many ways to recover the cost of horror films. Laixi, who has operated too many horror films, says: "in addition to the box office, you can also sell international copyright, movie channels, online account sharing, rural digital cinema chains, and so on. Most horror movies are sold to movie channels for free, but a few of the films I have made have been sold for more than 1 million yuan, and the network has sold for 600000, 800000, and split the accounts. " Rural digital cinema lines are also a relatively special way of getting back money. Comedies and wars are the two favorite types of films in rural digital cinemas, but horror movies may also make a small profit here: "A rural digital cinema line sells for 10 or 20 yuan a game. Depending on the number of hits, some films can sell for four to five million or even tens of millions a year. It's hard to say."

so, many horror films that seem to fail at the box office have actually made a small profit, while those that have already made a profit at the box office have made more money.

Laixi said that at present, none of the horror films he has participated in have lost money, some have made more money, and the worst have been break even. Reviewing the more than 20 horror films invested by Hengye, Chen Hui also said frankly: "90% of them are profitable."

for this reason, horror films have also been evaluated by the industry as a kind of film type of "making a small fortune with silence". Li Kelong recalled, "after 2010, there was a good momentum for two or three years, and the industry consensus was that investing in horror films had a better chance of winning, and eight of the ten films made money, so there was such a trend at that time."

however, Chen Hui, Li Kelong and Laixi agree that the good time for the horror movie "small and Big" is over.

"Capital 81", "embroidered shoes", "Phantom of the Palace" and other films have set a new benchmark for the production of horror films. The audience around 2010 may only ask for scary effects, but now the audience still needs to see stories, actors, special effects, scenes, all aspects must be fully upgraded, this is Chen Hui's experience: "from 2008 to 10, we can fight for the big with the small." at that time, the cost was low. But now a slightly high-level horror film costs at least 10 million, otherwise it will be shoddy. Therefore, the probability of fighting for the big with the small at low cost is not as high as that year, and the success is not so easy to replicate. "

Laixi has seen a lot of market chaos in the field of small-budget horror films: "at present, the overall market is not good, which is caused by many people's desire for quick success and quick profit. I can't call the roll, but there are a large number of people around me who shoot a horror movie for hundreds of thousands, write a screenwriter as soon as I finish writing a press release, become a director as soon as I put down my pen, and the driver also acts as an actor. The result is of course very rough. Doing it is profitable at first, but it hurts the whole industry. "

Li Kelong believes that too many grass-roots teams have made low-quality horror films, resulting in the loss of real domestic horror film audiences: "A swarm of bees swarmed into the horror film production market, completely hurt and vomited the horror film audience." from 2014 to now, it has not recovered, and the audience has been desperate for horror films. "

compared with Flower Curse, the real problem faced by "Flower Curse 31" is that "the copyright fee paid by the (CCTV) movie channel has been reduced, and the online copyright has only a little money. If the cinema line does not blossom, it will basically be a victory."

< strong > horror movie creation "do not want to make progress"? < / strong >

because the investment is low and it is relatively easy to shoot, when horror films were still vacant a few years ago, many companies regarded making horror films as a way to make money and enter the industry quickly. A large number of novice companies are pouring in, which is destined to be unable to bring high-quality works.

so after entering the film industry, have these companies continued to make horror films and pursue breakthroughs in horror film quality?

one possibility is that the films filmed did not make money, and the novice companies walked out sadly. "it's a phenomenon in our industry that we didn't hear an echo from one or two films, and basically all of them ran away," says Li Kelong. Laixi said that after the production of "hit the Evil 31", Yang Kun's company will not make any more horror films in a short period of time, and there is an 80% chance that Yang Kun will cast comedies.

another possibility is Hengye Pictures, which has become rich through horror films. In recent years, it has launched a number of horror films and produced phenomenal horror films such as "Capital 81." it has also led other film and television companies in the industry to shoot high-cost horror films such as the Phantom of the Palace, jointly seeking breakthroughs in horror films. However, after all, Duheng is the only one, and at the best of the market in 2015, Hengye did not take advantage of the victory to launch another horror film, but focused on releasing films such as "Wolf Warriors" that year to build strength for the company's transformation.

the third possibility is to continue to make horror movies while making money. This part of the company does not have the scale and strength of Hengye, and can only pursue a balance between film quality and profitability at a cost of millions. When the market was good a few years ago, there was no need to take the initiative to increase production costs and depress profits. in recent years, the market has gone from bad to worse, and it is necessary to reduce costs to ensure that they will not lose money.

to put it simply, since horror films are a rigid demand, it is the most cost-effective way to make a horror film at a cost of millions of dollars, and it is the safest way to continue to move forward with reference to previous experience. so we will see a large number of "do not want to make progress" small-budget horror movies in the film list.

Edit: xiongwei