Art films growing in the cracks: Over 100 million is not the norm. How to reach the largest audience?

"22" wins in sincerity, the director wins the trust of the elderly with "sincerity", and the film wins word of mouth with "sincerity".

in the environment of "talking about Heroes in terms of billions" at the box office of a Chinese single film, the box office of "22" appears to be "ordinary". However, this is a documentary, a documentary featuring comfort women survivors, with a serious theme and low-key expression, and the figure of 170 million yuan is twice the total box office of Chinese documentaries last year (82.92 million yuan). As a result, it has become another phenomenal film worth discussing besides "Wolf Warriors 2" this summer. Is "Fairy Tales" created by "22" an accidental case or an exhilarating signal? Is the spring of art movies really coming?

< strong > once upon a time, "being able to stay in the cinema for more days" meant that after the filming of all the "ambitions" < / strong >

"22" was completed, the crew was stretched and unable to finish the work. Later, the crowdfunding won 1 million yuan, 200000 yuan for post-production and 800000 yuan for distribution expenses. It took a lot of trouble to enter the cinema line this summer. Before the release, when the creators ran the "roadshow" in several cities, the director cautiously expressed his "ambition": to stay in the cinema for a longer time, attract 200000 viewers and strive for more than 10 million yuan at the box office. For a film with less than 1.5% of the premiere day, this is indeed a "luxury" wish.

shortly before the release of "22", Zhang Yang's documentary "Gang Rinpozi" grossed more than 100 million at the box office, which is considered to be an important breakthrough in the commercial cinema line. Even so, looking back on the release experience of several documentary films in the past few years, we have to admit an objective fact: the situation facing documentaries in the Chinese film market is not optimistic-

December 20, 2013. The release of "tempering" directed by Zhang Qiaoyong is regarded as the first step for "documentaries to enter the cinema". "thousands of training" records how boxing infiltrated the lives of an ordinary middle school coach and changed the lives of several young people in the depths of Daliang Mountain in Sichuan Province. The film, which was released in 70 cities, was "the largest documentary in Chinese history", while it finally had 383 screenings and grossed 70,000 yuan at the box office.

I am me, directed by Fan Lixin, was released on July 25, 2014. The film, set in Happy Boys, records the inner conflicts and bewilderment experienced by a group of teenagers during the draft. Fans of "Fast Man" did not create the expected box office for the film. "I am me" went offline three days after its release, with a cumulative box office of 4.9 million yuan.

my Psalm won the Golden Lord award for best documentary at the Shanghai International Film Festival in June 2015, but the release of the film was delayed until 2017 and the box office stopped at 3.15 million yuan.

< strong > under the pressure and gap of commercial films, their screening space is still limited < / strong >

Chinese documentary films can reach the box office of 10 million, few and few. Himalayan ladder, which was released in October 2015, is a rare one. To find a limited audience in the pressure and gap of commercial films is the current situation of documentary films in China. Because of the box office results of "Gang Rinpozi" and "22", the conclusion that "documentaries will be the growth point of China's big screen box office" is likely to be an over-optimistic miscalculation. The "counterattack" of

"22" is to a certain extent caused by the "current situation". On the day the film was released, it was World comfort Women Day, and the second day was the anniversary of Japan's unconditional surrender. The emotional energy radiated from this has directly become the driving force for people to enter the cinema. Moreover, the number "22" itself constitutes a powerful story: from 1938 to 1942, more than 200000 "comfort women" were recruited by the Japanese army in China, and by 2012, there are only 32 surviving "comfort women" in the country. Director Guo Ke felt that the lives of those suffering old people were dying one after another, filming the 43-minute short film "32". In 22, 10 of the 32 elderly people died one after another, and the number became "22." Guo Ke began filming the feature film "2014." Two days before the film was released, Huang Youliang, an old man in the film, died. By August 14, there were only eight of the 22 grandmothers left in the film.

in terms of artistic techniques, "22" cannot be regarded as a "clever" work. Its audio-visual language is simple and simple, and even lacks a self-consistent internal logic, but it is better than sincerity. The director wins the trust of the elderly with "sincerity", and the film gains word-of-mouth reputation with "sincerity". "22" and the recent "Gang Rinpozi" have one thing in common: both rely on word-of-mouth to increase attendance, in exchange for more screenings, and "tenaciously" strive for screening space in the rapidly changing commercial cinema line.

< strong > "over 100 million" is not normal, and a sound projection environment still needs efforts < / strong >

with the increase in the capacity of China's film market, the audience's demand for diversity of works increases, which is a major prerequisite for the extraordinary benefits of "Gang Rinpozi" and "22". At a time when the art cinema line and the long-term projection mechanism are not perfect, the arrangement of documentaries and literary films is still in a weak position, and they can only rely on word-of-mouth in a short period of time after release as a bet. The production rate and screening time are "rich" and "gambling".

in this process, the quality of the work is the last word, but it should also be noted that the audience's "tap water" is an uncertain factor, and a considerable number of viewers will "enter" by mistake, and these "mistaken" viewers may not be able to keep. The dual encounters of "Gang Rinpozi" and "Soul on the Leather Rope" are ready-made examples. Both films are directed by Zhang Yang. Although a documentary and a feature film have similar backgrounds, there is little difference between the completion and artistic level of the film. "Gang Rinpozi" was released in a relatively mediocre schedule, and the box office is expected to be between 20 million and 30 million yuan. Unexpectedly, this film, which is different from ordinary commercial films, set off a movie craze and finally grossed more than 100 million yuan. When the good news spread frequently at the box office, the scholar Ishikawa posted a Weibo post that poured cold water, saying that "there are many people who browse Weibo and doze off in the cinema." Two months later, "Soul on Leather Rope" was released, and the time came to test the audience-as a result, the box office of "Soul on Leather Rope" barely exceeded 3 million yuan, much lower than expected and almost bleak.

the box office of "Gang Rinpozi" and "22" is certainly encouraging, and the frustration of "Soul on the Leather Rope" also makes it clear that a sound art film projection environment still needs to be worked hard. "over 100 million" is not the normal projection of this kind of film. A stable audience, good projection channels and long-term projection mechanism are still in the process of "searching up and down". When the box office results of "22" make capital ready to move, let's not forget that this is a film that almost can't get into the cinema. Don't forget that every year after the Shanghai International Film Festival and all kinds of film festivals, there are too many films that can't get more opportunities to meet the audience. How can this kind of film reach a wider space outside the film festival? Can these films be seen by audiences other than young writers and artists? Can you make the cinema accept the difference of the product? Compared with one or two "over 100 million" cases, let as many "small good films" release their energy as much as possible, this can be called "the Spring of Art Movie".

Edit: mary