"Wolf Warrior Phenomenon": Winning a big victory in a gamble that was not a big gamble, the film market gradually melted

if Chinese films can rely on local talent and stars to bring excitement similar to Hollywood blockbusters, English-speaking American action blockbusters will become less essential.

as of today, Wolf Warriors 2 has grossed more than 5 billion yuan, beating "Titanic" and ranking third at the global single market box office. The runner-up and champion of this record are Star Wars 7 and Avatar, which swept the world respectively.

for the promotion of Wolf Warriors 2, Zhang Miao, general manager and producer of Beijing Culture and Film Division, hired four poster companies to produce film poster materials. These poster companies probably did not expect that in the 20 days of the release of Wolf Warriors 2, they would work overtime to produce nearly 50 posters that grossed more than 100 million at the box office, and updated five posters in their busiest days.

what's even more unexpected is that on the evening of Aug. 13, they will begin working on a new poster series, Wolf Warriors 2, the ranking of film box office history around the world. "Wolf Warriors 2" beat Forrest Gump at the box office at 18:59 on the 13th to become the top100 at the global box office. This list, which is monopolized by Hollywood films, has been broken by Asian films for the first time. As of today, Wolf Warriors 2 has grossed more than 5 billion yuan at the box office, beating Titanic to become the third place at the global single market box office. The runner-up and champion of this record are Star Wars 7 and Avatar, which swept the world.

< strong > Movie frenzy < / strong >

this is not the first time that Wolf Warriors 2 has broken the record. Since its release on July 27, the action movie has set new records for the Chinese film market every day.

on July 27, with a film schedule of only 14.5%, the box office grossed more than 100 million in four hours, breaking the record of more than 100 million yuan at the box office. On July 30th, in its opening weekend, it earned more than 357 million yuan at the box office in a single day, setting a new one-day box office record in Chinese film history. After that, he set a new one-day box office record for a Chinese-language film three times. On July 31, the box office exceeded 1 billion in 85 hours, breaking the box office record of 7, 8, 9 and 1 billion. On August 5, the box office overtook Fast and Furious 8 to become the box office champion of the year. Since its release, the single-day box office has exceeded 200 million for 11 consecutive days, and exceeded 300 million in the first weekend and the next weekend, which is an unprecedented achievement in the history of Chinese films.

at 21:25 on August 7th, "Wolf Warriors 2" overtook "the Mermaid" and exceeded 3.4 billion at the box office to become the top box office in the mainland. Every second since then has been a new record, read a Wolf Warriors poster released that night.

accompanied by "Wolf Warriors 2" singing all the way at the box office, it was a national carnival of the audience. Wu Jing's Weibo followers soared by nearly 3 million after the movie was released, and the popularity of related topics remained high. Several netizens said on social media that Wolf Warriors 2 watched the real-time box office several times a day after its release, as if it had invested, and that the prediction of the final box office of the film has also become a hot topic on Weibo Wechat, from 2 billion to 4 billion to 5 billion. On the evening of Aug. 7, when "Wolf Warriors 2" reached the top of the box office, netizens on the WeChat group of a Beijing movie fan were scanning the data, waiting for the box office to win, and even launched red envelopes for 3.4 billion of the new Chinese film records.

this kind of revelry is not just online. Zhang Miao, who has participated in several road shows with Wu Jing, recalled that Wu Jing's popularity soared with the success of the film since its release on July 10. Distributors in many cinemas and regions told Zhang Miao that he had never seen a star produce so much cohesion and influence in so many years. "it is no longer a question of whether to watch Wolf Warriors 2, but a question of watching Wolf Warriors 2 several times." Wu Lixiang, founder of Entertainment Capital, said at a Wolf Warriors 2 seminar. Sha Dan, program planner of the China Film Archive, also said that of the 90 yuan worth of movie tickets, his family alone contributed three. "my wife watches it twice alone, because Wu Jing is very kind to women in the film, so I have to watch it again."

< strong > "Wolf Warriors phenomenon" < / strong >

the movie was such a hit that it exceeded everyone's expectations. Niu Jing, vice president of Qitai Culture, who is a guaranteed participant in Wolf Warriors 2, thinks that 99.99% of people may not have expected such a result. Chen Changye, a production company owned by China Film, said that since the first week, the film has entered a "demon" state. Even Beijing Culture, the guarantor of the film, which is very optimistic about the box office, said that the initial expectation was "12 for 15".

Why is "Wolf Warriors 2" so popular? Wu Lixiang, Sha Dan and Chen Changye gathered together on Aug. 13 to analyze the target audience of Wolf Warriors 2 with big data. The data show that the moviegoers include both young people and elites in small towns. First-and second-tier cities contribute public praise, while third-and fourth-tier cities surround the box office. In fifth-tier cities, the more remote they are, the stronger their willingness to forward and share. It is the strong word-of-mouth effect that broke out in first-and second-tier cities, which brought people who used to pay attention to movies into cinemas. The Wolf Warriors Initiative is definitely not about "the countryside surrounds the city", but that the city affects the countryside.

when the number of moviegoers exceeds 120 million, the audience can no longer be measured by the label of "town youth" or "elite". Zhang Miao was also surprised by the wide audience of the film during the roadshow. "I haven't seen such a wide audience of men, women and children in the cinema for a long time. In the same movie, children are so excited, young people are equally excited, and there are elderly audiences."

at this time, the film has gone beyond the film itself and become a public event and a cultural phenomenon that can not be ignored.

< strong > is not a big bet < / strong >

as the joint producer of the film, the 800 million guarantor and the announcement controller, the share price of Beijing Culture soared along with the box office, and the market value soared by 5.5 billion in just one week. This means that if a retail investor buys 1 million shares before the movie is released, he can earn as much as 560000 in ten days. Compared with the lively box office and stock market, the office of Beijing Culture is as calm as the eye of the storm, with no celebratory decorations, and the staff are busy quietly.

"I was very happy after the box office passed 100 million on the first day, and then I was very excited after 800 million. These two days have calmed down and started to work on other projects." Song GE, chairman of Beijing Culture, was surprisingly calm about the popularity of the film. Zhang Miao also told reporters that apart from the joy of "heaven's reward for hard work" when he spent more than 100 million hours, his mood soon calmed down and had no feeling for the numbers.

this extraordinary calmness may stem from Beijing culture's confidence in the guarantee plan. Song GE and Zhang Miao have repeatedly stressed that this guarantee is by no means gambling. Beijing Culture made three plans for this guarantee, and finally finalized an 800 million guarantee plan with Wu Jing. By sharing the project risk with partners, it began to make money when the box office reached 600 million. Zhang Miao believes that the reason why the guarantee plan has been approved by director Wu Jing is that the design respects the laws of the film.

"what is the law of movies? You can design the minimum value to be very high, and then after you guarantee it, your issuer will get a lot of things, such as you may get more than half, 70% of the income, which I think is very gambling. I think any state of guarantee, you have to understand why I do it and what my purpose is. " Zhang Miao said.

even so, the guarantee of 800 million is still very high-profile. In 2016, the film market entered a cold winter of capital, and the guarantees of dozens of projects ended in failure. when the company announced the 800m guarantee plan for "Wolf Warriors", only one "Tomb robbing Notebook" grossed more than 800m at the box office in 2016. and fell short of expectations relative to production costs. Before Wolf Warriors 2 was released in 2017, not a single domestic film in the Chinese market grossed more than 1 billion yuan at the box office, and there was even an embarrassing situation of not one domestic film exceeding 100 million yuan in the first half of the year.

Song GE believes that this is because some companies do not have the resources and connections of the industry and can only cut into the film and television industry from the perspective of capital when analyzing the failure of "bottom protection fever". "in fact, it is to give money to the director, and when the money is given, it will be a cooperation."

Beijing culture's deeper confidence in bottom guarantee stems from their deep participation in Wolf Warriors 2 from pre-production to post-release. "We are not short of resources," says Song GE. This deep involvement includes the introduction of top Hollywood production teams and the role of "laminating" crews who speak four languages in 26 countries. For example, sound effects docked with the sound effects team of Peter Jackson's sound post-production company Park Road, went to the United States to find the soundtrack composer Joseph Trapanese, asked the photographer of "Pirates of the Caribbean" to shoot underwater to the end, played the villain role with American actor Frank Grillo, and collected Wu Jing from the mainland, Huang Weiliang from Hong Kong and Sam Hargreaves from the United States. Design action scenes that are both entertaining and narrative.

Zhang Miao feels that the collision of the international action team has made the whole film complete the process from boxing to meat to boxing to bone, and then to boxing to heart. This kind of deep cooperation, coupled with Wu Jing's desperate performance, really makes the whole film as good as Hollywood.

in the later publicity, Zhang Miao believes that Beijing culture has also achieved boxing to flesh and bone. On the one hand, it cooperates openly with Pictures Media and Qitai Culture to build a "United Fleet". On the other hand, Zhang Miao says that Beijing Culture has adopted "saturated marketing" in its promotion.

"what is saturated marketing? It's very simple. If I want to send a message with a flat piece of material, I wish I could use four. " Zhang Miao explained that it is now a world of information expansion, and the existing materials can easily be diluted by other information. On the important nodes, enough information has been prepared on the announcement. A lot of publicity work has been done for first-and second-tier cities and third-and fourth-tier cities, and 12 G posters have been made. Aiming at the cities with low network access rate, do a good job in landing media publicity and hard coverage. "the promotion of Wolf Warriors 2 can be seen in even remote cinemas." Zhang Miao believes that the film has exceeded 100 million in the four hours before its release, and the momentum of the box office in the first weekend played a big role.

< strong > "Lighting matches of emotion" < / strong >

even so, the exquisite action scenes, Wu Jing's personal charm, and propaganda are not enough to explain such a hot movie frenzy.

in the Wolf Warriors 2 seminar, "emotion" became the most frequently mentioned hot word. Chen Changye believes that the main reason for the popularity of the film at the box office is that it caters to the mood of the audience at the right point. And the mood also makes the film's victory impossible to replicate.

this emotion arises from a special situation, the situation on the border between China and India, the relationship between China and the Korean Peninsula, and the closed tendency of the whole world in the past two years. Western developed countries are not promoting globalization. Anti-globalization, nationalism, and the rise of another kind of populism are actually closely related to public sentiment.

Sha Dan believes that apart from the 90th anniversary of the founding of the army, the external causes of Sino-Indian-DPRK relations are also inseparable from the values of a generation. "our parents' generation is the post-50s. This generation was born under the red flag of New China. This group of people are particularly patriotic. Because they themselves are people who receive dozens of yuan of wages, and they continue to develop with the development of the country and the country, they have such a (patriotic and nationalist) mood. "

the people betting on the country's fortune are not only their parents, but also the new generation of young people. The post-80s and post-90s generation of millennials have witnessed the rise of China's economy. In 2017, three of the top five Internet companies in the world were Chinese companies. In the same year, the number of Chinese film screens surpassed that of the United States to become the country with the largest number of screens in the world and the largest film market in the world. Before Wolf Warriors 2 was released, there were four non-English films and more than 400 Hollywood films that grossed more than 300 million at the box office. "sooner or later, there are more and more Chinese-language films on the single market box office list." A netizen from Zhihu said in the post "how to evaluate Wolf Warriors 2's entry into Top100 at the global box office."

Wu Jing himself said, "Wolf Warriors 2 has today's box office. This is not my personal artistic achievement, but the audience and I have made history together. The dry wood in the hearts of the audience has been thoroughly sunburned. It's just that I lit a match and lit the audience. This is an outbreak of patriotism among the Chinese people. "

Niu Jing, on the other hand, believes that it is director Wu Jing's personal charm that drives the mood of the film. Indeed, from Wu Jing's passionate "thinking in one place and working hard in one place" before the film's opening, to "defeating White mercenaries" set off in the film's six hot action scenes, the rescued overseas Chinese and African refugees under the red flag, in the missile launch scene, the image of the country has changed from the victim to the protector. Among the numerous difficult action scenes, what Wu Jing is most satisfied with is the fictional passage on his passport at the end of the movie: "when you are in danger overseas, don't give up!" Please remember, behind you, there is a strong motherland! " In the 30 roadshows, Wu Jing repeatedly repeated the slogan: "those who violate our Chinese nation must be punished." All these effectively ignited the mood of the audience.

Zhang Miao recalled that one of the roadshows in Wuhan was attended by soldiers on active duty. Finally, everyone finished watching it and sang the national anthem together. In netizens' comments, words such as "proud" and "tears brimming with tears" also appeared repeatedly.

Film critic magasa believes that an important reason for the success of Wolf Warriors is that it is a "porn", a rare "action porn" in Chinese films. Sadan reflects on the commercial potential and potential dangers of populism reflected in the film's success. "for example, many people will say, if you don't watch 'Wolf Warriors 2' and scold 'Wolf Warriors 2', you don't love China. This is the argument. The more populist argument is more dangerous."

< strong > the ice in the movie market is melting < / strong >

after Wolf Warriors 2 became popular, Sha Dan found that other films in surrounding cinemas, such as "Psychological Crime" and "Alliance of Thieves", were sold only in the first row. "what does it mean? People slowly regained confidence in the films made in China. This movie is really very important. When the Chinese film reaches a very critical, very sad point, it gives us a boost. "

for Hollywood, which has a bleak market and has been seeking the development of China, the success of Wolf Warriors 2 is not good news for Hollywood. Frankly speaking, it is not good news for Hollywood if domestic films can be made in their home market. If Chinese films can rely on local talent and stars to bring similar excitement to Hollywood blockbusters, English-speaking American action blockbusters will become less essential, Forbes admitted in its Wolf Warriors 2 report.

for Zhang Miao, Wolf Warriors 2 gave him the movie Chinese Dream.

many people ask me what I think after Wolf Warriors 2. I hope that more and more Chinese films can break the box office record at a faster rate. And I also hope that more and more Chinese films will not only achieve remarkable results in China, but also that more and more box office proportions will be transmitted back from other important countries in the world. This is a dream of anyone who has something to do with culture. Because the country is strong, your culture is more easily accepted by the whole world. This product, which used to be dominated by Hollywood and almost dominated by film consumers all over the world, I hope that when our country's films become strong, we can also get a share of the world market. "

Edit: mary