In December, more than 40 movies made a sprint for 55 billion to see the Lunar New year.

This year's New Year's lineup can be called luxurious, who can win in this battle, become the box office word-of-mouth double harvest champion?

Original title: Sprint 55 billion box office, just look at the New Year

Chen Kaige directed ancient costume fantasy blockbuster "The Legend of the Demon Cat" trying to reproduce the Tang Dynasty elegant demeanour.

At least 40 films have been released in turn, with big directors returning with new works, Golden Horse award-winning films that are hot, and new attempts at genre films... This year's lineup of New Year's Eve is luxurious. Who can win in this battle and become the champion of box office word-of-mouth double harvest? Whether the total box office in 2017 can exceed the 55 billion yuan mark depends on the New Year's Eve.

The biggest attraction is

that the directors compete head-on with the new film

Yuan Heping and Xu Ke against Feng Xiaogang, Chen Kaige "hit" Jackie Chan, and the competition between these Chinese film celebrities is the biggest attraction of this year's New Year's Eve. On December 15,"Qimen Dunjia" and "Fanghua" were released on the same day. Although directed by Yuan Heping, Xu Ke acted as producer and screenwriter, continuing the style of "Longmen Flying Armor" before, focusing on "3D fantasy martial arts." The scenes presented in the film, such as underground Taizu Temple, above-ground Longmen Grottoes and extraterrestrial visitors, break through the category of previous martial arts films. If "Third Master" and "Xu Laoguai" jointly presented to the audience is a visual feast, then Feng Xiaogang's "Fanghua" is a nostalgic tear gas. The film eulogizes the youth of a group of young boys and girls in the army cultural troupe. It once experienced the withdrawal of files in the National Day file. Now it is released again, which has aroused the appetite of many viewers.

On December 22,"Legend of Demon Cat" and "Blood of Machine" were released on the same day. "Legend of Demon Cat" is Chen Kaige's second magic theme after "Wuji," adapted from the Japanese novel "Shamen Konghai," telling the story of poet Bai Letian and monk Konghai working together to investigate the truth of Yang Guifei's death. The film cost as much as 250 million yuan, setting the highest cost of Chinese films. Chen Kaige even built a city for the film, hoping that the audience could really feel the elegant demeanour of Tang Dynasty. Jackie Chan can be called a "model worker" this year, with "Kung Fu Yoga" for Spring Festival,"British Confrontation" for National Day, and "Blood of Machine" for New Year's Eve. In addition to teaming up with Luo Zhixiang to amuse the audience, he will also fight on the roof of Sydney Opera House.

And some quite innovative types of films are likely to become New Year's "black horse." Deng Chao and Ruan Jingtian starred in "The Light of the City of Psychological Crime," which is the only crime blockbuster in the New Year's Eve at present; the urban love film "If the Prince Sleeps" is Disney's first Chinese-language film, telling the love story between ordinary office girls and two male gods; the Chinese version of "Worry Grocery Store" brings Dongye Guiwu novel to the screen, which may create a warm healing style film;"The Second Generation of Demons" focuses on monsters in modern cities. The settings and special effects are refreshing... In addition, the literary film "Old Beast", which has just returned from the Golden Horse Awards, has also announced its entry into the New Year's Eve section.

Film critic Parrot Shi Hang said "Fanghua,""Legend of the Demon Cat" and "Light of the City of Psychological Crime" were the three films he was most looking forward to this year. "Fanghua" is about whether kindness will be treated well, which is the topic that we Chinese are most concerned about. I hope the film can be seen by the audience completely and in time. "The Legend of the Demon Cat" is Chen Kaige's return to the magic world, hoping that he can bring us the carnival of film aesthetics, as well as the real poetry of Tang Dynasty in his mind. There was a version of Light of the City of Mental Sin before, so I have to compare this version. I want to see what the result of this PK between the two directors will be."

Competition is fierce

, imported films also want to share a

piece of the world in previous years, usually domestic films, imported films in the past two years also began to join the battle, from a piece of the piece. At present, there are more than 10 imported films released this year, concentrated in the middle and early December, mainly war, animation and disaster, such as war film "Viking: Battle of the King,""Darkest Moment," cartoon "Fireworks,""Paddington Bear 2,""Love Van Gogh," disaster film "Shark Sea,""Go Forward," etc. Due to the lack of blockbusters, most industry insiders believe that these imported films will not have a particularly large impact on the box office of this year's New Year. "Chinese New Year films are generally better than imported films, so don't worry that imported films will compete with domestic films at the box office." Bona International Studios Tongzhou Tuqiao store manager Bai Jiawen said.

More than 40 films were released in a month, averaging at least 10 per week, and 12 more on December 1. Moreover, some films that have not yet been filed are very likely to announce "killing" the New Year file at any time. For cinemas and cinemas, a richer variety of films is certainly a good thing: more films, more audiences entering cinemas, box office and sales revenue will increase. But can the market accommodate so many films?

"In terms of the overall market, it's OK now because there are enough multiplex theaters, but for a particular film, it's not easy to say whether there is room." Bai Jiawen admitted that according to the quality of the film to predict, some films will be in the competition "sacrifice." " There will definitely be some crying and some laughing. Some will be at the bottom of the box office, while others will be at the cinema for a day trip. These all need to be tested by the market."

For each film, the more lively schedule means more severe competition, only good quality, the audience will pay, otherwise, the release space will be squeezed by those more popular films. "Audiences have higher and higher requirements for the artistic level and industrial level of movies. It is more and more important for the decision-making of movies to be good or bad." Yin Hong, a professor at Tsinghua University, said that audience word-of-mouth is increasingly driving the box office.

As a result, it is difficult to predict

that there is a chance to impact the 55 billion yuan mark

. Liu Kailuo, vice president of Alibaba Entertainment Group's Youku business group, believes that according to the current annual output data of more than 700 domestic films, it is normal to release more than 10 films a week on average, that is to say, there will be so many film competitions no matter which period.

Just a week ago, China's box office this year had exceeded 50 billion yuan, and in the next month, will the annual total box office exceed 55 billion yuan? Liu Kailuo said,"As of November 28, the annual box office of Chinese films this year has reached about 50.5 billion yuan, and there are still about five weeks left before the end of 2017." Based on 52 weeks in a year, the average weekly box office of Chinese films this year is about 1.07 billion yuan. In the next five weeks, there may be a few weeks where the weekly box office will not reach 1.07 billion yuan, or there may be a few weeks where it will exceed this average. Therefore, there is still a chance that the annual box office will exceed 55 billion yuan. It depends on the overall box office performance."

In contrast, Bai Jiawen's attitude was more conservative. He predicts that the December box office will not exceed 4 billion yuan, probably around 3.5 billion yuan, if so, the annual total box office will not exceed 55 billion yuan. "Although the overall box office revenue of domestic movies is rising, the box office growth of individual cinemas is slow, and some are even declining." He said it would be helpful for cinemas to boost single-screen revenue if blockbuster films like Wolf 2 could reappear.

Editor: Mary