Behind the total box office of the summer break exceeding 20.4 billion yuan is the success of young film stars

Today, the three month summer vacation in 2023 will end. According to the Lighthouse Professional Edition, the box office of the summer vacation in mainland China exceeded 20.4 billion, and the number of movie viewers exceeded 500 million, continuously breaking the record of the highest box office of the summer vacation in Chinese film history.

(Data pictures are for reference only)

Looking back at the summer vacation, the "famous scenes" continued - "The Lost She" and "The Starry Sky Under the Sea" were romantic and cruel, "Chang'an 30000 Miles" and "The Scenery of the Tang Dynasty" were intoxicating, "The desperate gamble" pointed to "overseas online fraud", "The First Goddess" was a brilliant adaptation of traditional culture in the current context, and "In an Octagonal Cage" made Wang Baoqiang fight a turnaround.

Behind the gratifying data is that the film quality is excellent and the audience likes it. These blockbusters are all the first or second works of the new director, except the First Goddess. The emergence and growth of new film forces have accumulated valuable resources for the future of Chinese films.

Close up of summer vacation file

Succeeded in receiving the baton, and the young directors handed in a brilliant report card

This year's most popular summer vacation file has produced a number of blockbuster movies, with box office and public praise flying at the same time. They are full of topics, or focus on the spread of traditional culture in the current, or pay attention to overseas social realities such as online fraud, domestic violence, family education, or boldly march into rare legal subjects... Young directors have successfully taken over in the growing process.

Since its release at the Dragon Boat Festival, "Lost She" has always led the way with its super hot topic. At present, the box office has exceeded 3.5 billion, and the directors are Cui Rui and Liu Xiang. This is Cui Rui's first feature film after his return to China, and has received the support and help of Director Chen Sicheng. It is reported that Chen Sicheng also gave him the episode of "Young Detective Group in Chinatown" to direct. Another director, Liu Xiang, was born as a photographer. His last feature film was No Come Soon in 2021, which is his second work.

The film "30000 Miles in Chang'an" of light chasing animation is the first work of directors Xie Junwei and Zou Jing, which triggered a heated debate on the whole network after its release. Many experts said that through Chang'an 30000 Miles, "they saw that domestic animation is colliding and talking with traditional culture in a powerful manner, rather than labeling Tang poetry on the altar", and "Chinese animation has found its own driving force - oriental poetry".

In terms of realistic films, "In the Octagonal Cage" is the second work of director Wang Baoqiang, which is based on real events. The story of the little people's counter attack has aroused universal resonance. As the second work of the director's bid for the Olympic Games, "All in One" has a strong topic and outstanding box office performance, which has exceeded 3.4 billion yuan.

There are many other new directors, such as Qin Haiyan, the director of the anti domestic violence film "I Pass the Storm", Xia Mingze and Yan Kai, the directors of the comedy cartoon "Tea No.2 Middle School", Su Liang, the director of the family education film "Learning Dad", Li Taige, the director of the legal film "The Last Truth", and so on.

These young filmmakers who have a clearer understanding of the film industry have injected "fresh blood" into the summer market, and let us see the possibility of more development of domestic films.

Shoulder heavy responsibilities, tell Chinese stories well, and improve the soft power of Chinese culture

It is worth mentioning that on August 29, the 6th China Film New Power Forum was held in Changchun, Jilin Province. With the theme of "New Era, New Journey, New Power - Film and Audience Together", nearly 100 young film producers, producers, screenwriters and directors attended the forum, including the main creators of this summer's films such as Wang Baoqiang, Olympic bid, Xie Junwei, Zou Jing, Yan Kai, Su Biao, etc, They are representatives of new generation directors and screenwriters.

The representatives of the new generation of writers and directors believe that filmmakers have a unique mission different from other industries. Creators should focus on the people's daily life, show the most real people, the most vivid emotions, and touch the hearts of audiences; We should place the individual fate changes of the characters in the background of the times to show the spirit and style endowed by the times; We should tell Chinese stories well, show Chinese characteristics, and integrate Chinese culture into our works; We should continue to innovate, meet the audience's expectations and have the courage to make bold breakthroughs in themes, types, styles and forms.

Mao Yu, the Executive Deputy Director of the Film Bureau of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, said in his speech that the new force of Chinese film is thriving and has created a large number of works that have been widely praised in the market in recent years. From 2013 to 2019, the National Film Administration has sent 16 batches of 213 people to Hollywood, divided into directors, screenwriters, animation, production management, actor brokerage and other categories for learning and exchange. Under the promotion of multiple measures, a large number of directors and writers, such as Ning Hao and Wu Jing, have come to the fore, gradually growing from a new force of Chinese film to a backbone of Chinese film. At the same time, they take the initiative to cultivate new film talents with their own creative experience.

In the past decade, the Chinese film market has flourished, and the proportion of domestic films in the box office has been legendary. At the same time, Mao Yu also pointed out that the burden of building China into a film power in 2035 has historically fallen on the shoulders of the younger generation of filmmakers. In this context, the connotation of new forces is more abundant than ever before. The new force is no longer a fight for survival, but a new force to tell Chinese stories well and improve the soft power of Chinese culture, a new force to promote the healthy development and continuous progress of Chinese films, and a new force to influence the world culture through diversified development.

Summer archives scanning

Huang Bo and Qiu Litao are "the busiest" with three films

In addition to the awesome new force of Chinese film, this summer, audiences who frequently went in and out of cinemas also saw "very busy" directors and actors in many films.

The reporter saw that Huang Bo's current microblog avatar is the character cartoon image of the three movies he is playing, namely Jiang Ziya in "Goddess First", Ding Lei, the hip-hop coach in "Enthusiasm", and Lei Dali, his father in "Learning Dad". The three films were shot at different times, but they happened to be released this summer. Huang Bo laughed in an interview earlier and said: "The pressure is not small, and the motivation is not small."

Director Qiu Litao has basically contracted Hong Kong films for this summer vacation. "Anti drug 3: People Are at the End of the World" was released on July 6, "Assassination Storm" was released on August 18, and "Jedi Chase" was released on August 25.

Many actors have two films released, such as Zhang Zixian's "Enthusiasm" and "Learning Dad", Yan Ni's "The Last Truth" and "Learning Dad", and Gu Tianle's "Drug Eradication 3: People Are at the End of the World" and "Assassination Storm".

Click mapping and key delay, two magic weapons are used well

Another notable feature of the summer vacation archives is the popularity of large-scale advance points and the continuously delayed keys. In recent years, on-demand screening has become the standard configuration of commercial film marketing. Many films confident in their own quality will launch on-demand screening, lock in the first group of audiences, and use it to cultivate public praise to help the film's arrangement rate and attendance rate after release. The big winner of this year's point screening is undoubtedly "In the Octagonal Cage", with the box office of 420 million yuan, accounting for nearly 10% of the market at that time; Although "Chang'an 30000 Miles" did not lengthen the line of spot screening, the scale of spot screening in 342 cities across the country was not small; The first film of Goddess has been released for five days in IMAX, CINITY and other special effect halls. It focuses on the shocking visual effects of the film.

Judging from the final results, among the films selected for spot screening, Douban scored 7.8 for Fengshen No.1, 7.4 for Warmth, 8.2 for Chang'an 30000 Miles, 7.5 for Bajiaotang, 7.9 for I Love You, and 7.8 for Chaah No. 2 Middle School. This high-quality film has helped the audience regain their enthusiasm for entering the cinema.

In addition, the continuously delayed keys have also boosted the box office. "Disappeared She", "I Love You!", and even the May 1st champion "The King of the Sky" are in the "long run". As with the pre screening, the movie that can delay the key is also recognized by the audience.

This summer vacation has brought many "historical highs"

This year's summer vacation showed the grand occasion of "popular money" and "a hundred flowers bloom". There were four films with box office more than 2 billion, the largest number in history. They were "Disappeared She", "desperate", "Goddess First", "In an Octagonal Cage", and "30000 Miles in Chang'an", the fifth highest box office, also broke 1.7 billion.

Chen Jin, a data analyst of Lighthouse Professional, said in an interview that the number of excellent films in the summer vacation was so high that it was able to bring low-frequency audiences back into the cinema.

According to the data of the Lighthouse Professional Edition, 52.7% of the audience in the summer vacation was the first time to go to the cinema this year, a significant increase from 44.6% in 2019

In addition, according to the Lighthouse database, female ticket buying accounts for more than 60% of the overall ticket buying portraits in the 2023 summer vacation archives, which is also the highest proportion of female audience in the summer vacation archives since statistics. It can be said that female audience has not only supported the "half sky" of the film market; In terms of age, the proportion of audiences aged 35 and above also hit a new record in the summer vacation. At the same time, the proportion of three or more people watching movies in groups also hit a new high. There are a lot of family audiences dragging their families to take their children to watch movies.

"It is also worth noting that the proportion of people who watched twice, three times and more during the summer vacation this year has basically recovered to the level before 2019, which also has a very positive significance for the recovery of the film industry." Chen Jin said that many films in this year's Douban veteran fan circle have a good reputation, such as "Chang'an 30000 Li", "Fengshen First" and so on, And they all gained points after the release. High frequency users are a very important basic market in the film market, and their vitality is also a positive signal of the market recovery.

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