Behind the Chinese box office empire, the joys and sorrows behind 55 billion "good results"

55 billion box office is the most brilliant answer in China's film market this year. But due to the quota of imported films, China has been the world's largest untapped source of profit for Hollywood.

55 billion at the box office is the most brilliant answer in China's film market this year. But due to the quota of imported films, China has been the world's largest untapped source of profit for Hollywood.

according to data from the Film Bureau of the State Administration of Press, publication, Radio, Film and Television, as of November 20, the annual box office of 2017 Chinese films exceeded 50 billion yuan, a record high.

but the domestic box office has been booming all the way, and the trend of great progress has not stopped. "Journey around the Dream", which was released on November 24th, earned 1 billion yuan at the box office in just 24 days. Then, Feng Xiaogang with "Fang Hua", Xu Lao Qi with "Qimen Dun Jia" into the New year, the vigorous box office campaign in the second half of December officially began, Chen Kaige's "Legend of the Cat", Deng Chao's "the Light of the City of Psychological Crime", Jackie Chan's "Machine Blood" also came in, and 43 new films (data from Yien Film think Tank) will work together to help the Chinese film box office hit the 55 billion mark.

in 2017, 86 Chinese and foreign films grossed more than 100 million, 14 more than 1 billion, and the number of viewers is expected to exceed 1.6 billion. There is no doubt that the Chinese film box office has handed in a quite dazzling report card.

< strong > the "joy" behind China's high-box office film market < / strong >

< strong > 1. Happy growth: the annual total box office growth of the Chinese film market is higher than that of the North American film market. < / strong >

in 2012, Chinese films overtook Japan with a total box office of 17.073 billion yuan, becoming the second largest film market in the world after North America. Since then, the Chinese film box office has entered the fast lane.

the national box office totaled 21.7 billion yuan in 2013, increased to 29.6 billion yuan in 2014, leaped to 44 billion yuan in 2015, maintained at 45.7 billion yuan in 2016, and is expected to reach 55 billion yuan in 2017, with an annual growth rate of no less than 30 percent, demonstrating the great potential and broad prospects of China's film market.

meanwhile, box office receipts in North America totaled $10.8 billion in 2012, slightly increased to $10.9 billion in 2013, fell to $10.3 billion in 2014, rebounded to $11.1 billion in 2015, and peaked at $11.4 billion in 2016, with an unstable annual growth rate of up to 7% and a minimum of 5% negative growth.

it is an indisputable fact that the growth rate of China's box office market exceeds that of North American box office growth. The reason:

① & nbsp; the number of screens in urban cinemas in China was only 13000 in 2012 and reached 50, 000 at the end of 2016. China has become the country with the largest number of screens in the world, and box office growth has mainly benefited from this.

② population dividend brings huge film market share.

< strong > 2. Happy to find a new way out for genre films in Chinese movies: turning theme films into commercial blockbusters. < / strong >

from 2014, "outwitting Tiger Mountain" began to lay the groundwork, to 2015 "Wolf Warriors" cast stones to ask the way, to 2016 "Mekong Action" word-of-mouth box office win-win, until 2017 "Wolf Warriors 2" exploded the film market with $5.68 billion at the box office, and the attempt to commercialize the theme film in the film market has been a great success.

A good balance has been struck between patriotism and film professional narration, and the dogmatic didactic tone has been replaced by the hot-blooded commercial hero film model. The film with the main theme began to accept the law of the market, and found the direction of development according to the most basic genre of film creation.

< strong > 3. Joy in the new force of directors: young directors have become the main force in the film market. < / strong >

in response to a reporter's question in November, the Deputy Director of the State Administration of Press, publication, Radio, Film and Television specifically pointed out that "for three consecutive years, the creation of Chinese film new forces represented by young talents has accounted for more than 60% of the share of domestic films in the Chinese film market."

in 2017, the most significant change in Chinese films is that content has become the real iron rule of the market for Wang, and stars gather together. Big IP? Special effects? All are no longer popular this year, mules are drawn out for a walk, the old director Yu Wei is no longer, and the new director is seizing the market. Among the top 20 films at the box office in 2017, there were seven domestic films, of which five-Wolf Warriors 2, Shameful Iron fist, riding the Wind and waves, wreaking havoc in Tianzhu and the Legend of Wukong-were made by young directors.

< strong > 4. Xi also has spring in minority movies: literary and art films have achieved good results at the box office. < / strong >

"Gang Rinpozi", "22", "beloved Van Gogh", "Carnival" and other minority literary films have all achieved good results at the box office. The themes of the films shown in cinemas are becoming more and more diversified, and the audience is gradually beginning to form layers, which is undoubtedly a shot in the arm for the development of literary and art films.

< strong > the "worry" behind China's high box office film market < / strong >

< strong > 1. The worry lies in the box office polarization: 5.68 billion yuan competes for 169yuan, and the level of domestic films is mixed. < / strong >

the undisputed top spot at the box office in 2017 was "Wolf Warriors 2", which reached 5.68 billion yuan, while the worst film at the box office was "Ginseng in my hometown", which grossed 33.62 million times. Ironically, this is not the only film that has grossed 100 yuan and 1000 yuan. Among the films released in 2017, domestic films accounted for more than 90%, while imported films accounted for only 10%. However, the box office share was evenly split, indicating that the problem of low quality of domestic films is still very serious, and popular styles such as Wolf Warriors 2 don't appear every year. Every year, domestic films produce hundreds of unattended films with one-day trips to the cinema, which highlights the problem of blind film investment and lax censorship. In a benign market, a hundred flowers should blossom, rather than relying solely on a few popular styles to take the lead. This year, the total box office of the top five domestic films reached 12.2 billion, accounting for more than 40% of the total domestic box office.

< strong > 2. Worry about" schedule dependence "in domestic movies: release in a pile. < / strong >

for distributors, the choice of schedule is related to the level of the box office, and each prime period has become the life and death barrier for film and television companies to compete for life and death, but the results are indeed impressive:

the total box office in summer (June-August) is about 16.3 billion yuan.

National Day Mid-Autumn Festival (October 1-8) grossed 2.629 billion yuan.

the Lunar New year data have not yet come out, and I believe it is still high all the way. However, the root cause of the film gathering in various schedules is the lack of confidence in the content quality of the film itself. For many domestic films with small and medium-sized investment, they often face attacks from Hollywood blockbusters and domestic blockbusters, and there is no way to escape. Even if they enter the prime time and strive for survival in the cracks in the arrangement, they will only make cannon fodder for nothing.

< strong > 3. Worry is hard to find in high-quality domestic movies. < / strong >

Wolf Warriors 2 failed to be nominated for the Academy Award for best foreign language film, which made many "spiritual shareholders" sigh, but in the final analysis, although the story structure and core values of the film have been in line with the world, there is still a certain distance between the overall level and the classics.

more than that, of the more than 400 new films released throughout the year, there are only 8 points on "No problem", "Carnival", "22", "Love" and "defender", and there are only a handful of good films that have a good reputation.

< strong > the next step in China's high-box office film market: to become a film power < / strong >

at the end of November this year, the Film Bureau set the goal of 2020: to become the largest film market in the world, with an annual box office of 70 billion yuan. With the support of policies and the prosperity of the market, the Chinese film market is now facing a period of golden opportunity, and it is only a matter of time before it surpasses the status of the North American box office.

but it is precisely for this reason that we should see that Chinese films are now only a big country in film production and consumption, not a powerful country.

although the cake is getting bigger and bigger, most of it is still divided by Hollywood movies.

to reverse this situation and seize this rare golden opportunity, Chinese filmmakers should work harder to achieve double "corner overtaking" at the box office and content quality.

< strong > 1. Don't rely too much on fans at the box office. < / strong > the box office of "three generations and Ten Mile Peach Blossom" finally let investors see that "IP+ Meat + Flowers" is not a panacea, there is no good story and quality performance, even though it claims to have tens of millions of fans, it is still taught to be a man at the box office. Even in the era of fan economy, Aidou is not a real box office appeal, in a benign film market, the appeal is always high-quality content, 2017 let us see the decline of star box office appeal, this is a good start.

< strong > 2. The attempt of domestic film theme needs to be diversified. < / strong > the success of "Wrestling Dad", "the Invisible Guest" and "Genius Gunners" at the Chinese box office is undoubtedly a good demonstration for domestic films. These three films belong to sports films, suspense films and youth films, which are not popular types of films, but they are still wonderful. The next step is to hope that domestic films will no longer blindly follow the trend and make more efforts in the selection of themes and types, which can also make the audience refreshing and obediently buy it.

< strong > 3. Produce high-quality movies with universal values. < / strong > movies are the representatives of the soft power of a country. China has grown into the ticket warehouse of the world, but there are still few domestic films that can express the face of contemporary China and show the spirit of contemporary Chinese people. Although cultural differences exist, it can be summed up as follows:

① is not good at genre films.

there is still a lack of time for ② to integrate the universal humanitarian values of "freedom, equality and justice" into the film.

ending: the box office of 55 billion yuan is the most brilliant answer in this year's Chinese film market. But due to the quota of imported films, China has been the world's largest untapped source of profit for Hollywood. China's box office market is getting bigger and bigger, and it is looking covetously at this piece of fat. Chinese elements and Chinese special editions in mainstream Hollywood blockbusters are constantly confirming this. Only by forming a virtuous circle of large audiences, investment and talents can the Chinese film market grow into a film power that can compete with Hollywood films. The first step of Chinese film is to "bring in" and the next step is to "go out." only in this way can we live up to the hegemonic position of the world's largest film market in the future.

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