Can topic movies become a new track?, Over 502 million summer movie viewers broke the record

After breaking the box office record in the 2023 summer season, according to data from Lighthouse Professional, as of 17:41 on August 30, the total number of viewers in the 2023 summer season exceeded 502 million, breaking the record for the highest number of viewers in Chinese film history.

At present, the top five films on the 2023 summer season viewership rankings are: "The Disappearing She" with 84.811 million viewers; "All in One" is 83.959 million yuan; 56.817 million in "The First Part of Fengshen"; 54.122 million in "The Octagonal Cage"; "Chang'an 30000 Miles" is 43.48 million.

Number of viewers

The domestic films of "frequent blockbusters" have supported this summer. These blockbusters cannot be produced without excellent film quality. What is more noteworthy is that they all have the common characteristics of high theme topics and strong marketability, and their publicity on the Tiktok channel has yielded excellent circle breaking effects. This has worried many high frequency audience or experienced fans. Many people believe that the promotion of short videos in summer this year has become the mainstream, which is making topic movies a new track, and even worry about the gradual "Tiktok" development of cinema movies. How to view the phenomenon of short video promotion and topic movies this year, and is there a need for more topic movies in the future?

Is "Topic Party" the biggest winner in summer movies?

"Oh my god, as soon as I finished watching 'All for One', I received a text message from the Shanghai Anti Telecom Network Fraud Center." Mr. Yuan, a fan who walked out of the cinema, couldn't help but laugh and cry. As a loyal fan of the "Zhou Zhou You Film Festival" in Shanghai, he didn't originally want to watch this commercial film despite his love for art films. However, the frequent short videos and discussions among people around him made him unable to resist exploring the truth. This small episode outside the cinema made him believe in the success of the film on a practical level.

All in one go

As the first film to reveal the full industry chain of overseas online fraud, "All in One" has launched the slogan "more people watching, less people being deceived", and its social significance has extended beyond the film. Recently, there have been frequent news hotspots related to telecom fraud in northern Myanmar, with even Chinese Academy of Sciences doctors among the victims, which perfectly complements the plot in the movie "All in One". The film is based on tens of thousands of real fraud cases across the country. As the director discovered after conducting extensive preliminary research on the Olympic bid, "the people who fall into the trap have nothing to do with gender, age, education, or major." Obviously, this topic has a national significance.

As of 16:00 on August 28th, the box office of "All for One" has exceeded 3.4 billion yuan. "According to the box office forecast of Lighthouse AI, the box office of" All in One "is predicted to reach 3.913 billion yuan, which is expected to surpass" The Disappeared She "and become the top box office winner this summer." Chen Jin, a data analyst of Lighthouse Professional Edition, said that only "All in One", one of the top five films at the box office in the summer, was released in August, and the film was very popular in the Tiktok channel. The topic of "movie all in one" was broadcast more than 21.5 billion times. The picture of ticket purchase was close to the average of the market, and the audience was broad. After the release, the proportion of audiences over 35 years old increased significantly, and a large number of family users were influenced by word of mouth. Enter the cinema.

"Previously, the most popular films were IP films, such as Marvel series, Mission Impossible series, Speed and Passion series, etc. But this year, IP films seemed to have lost their awesome all of a sudden, instead, the topic films became popular. In the world, the topic Barbie also surpassed the IP film Super Mario Brothers to become the box office champion in 2023." Mr. Yuan came to a conclusion after watching most of this summer's films: topic films are emerging. On social media platforms, there are many netizens who share similar views with him.

However, scholars hold different views on this. Film critic and visiting professor at the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts, Sun Mengjin, believes that from a global perspective, the mainstream market is still dominated by IP films. However, this year, there are two overseas films - "Oppenheimer" written and directed by Nolan, which tells the life of the "father of the atomic bomb" Oppenheimer, and "Barbie", which focuses on female consciousness, both have a good reputation. "Oppenheimer can be considered a masterpiece in terms of ideology and the degree of achievement of any film profession. In Nolan's body, one can see the ambition of a filmmaker to consciously improve themselves. However, he admitted that he is not particularly optimistic about the box office of Oppenheimer in the Chinese market." Firstly, the film lasts for three hours; secondly, its humanistic temperament may not be acceptable to most audiences. "

Oppenheimer

In terms of domestic films, he believes that "Chang'an 30000 Li" is a true dark horse in this year's summer season. "Its positioning for teenagers is very accurate, and it has achieved long-term box office success through word-of-mouth word-of-mouth." Fengshen No.1 "meets the needs of ordinary audiences in terms of scene scheduling and aesthetic orientation." Excluding "Oppenheimer" which was just released on August 30th, currently in the Douban rating of summer season films, "Chang'an 30000 Li" and "Barbie" are tied for the top with 8.3 points, followed by "Fengshen No.1" which is 7.9 points, and "Chang'an 30000 Li" and "Fengshen No.1" are both in the top spot. With the release of the film, Douban's rating has continued to rise. "The Disappearing She" and "All in One", which are regarded as "topic movies" by netizens, have experienced a situation of high opening and low closing, both currently scoring over 6 points.

It is worth mentioning that although "Chang'an 30000 Li" and "Fengshen First Part" are not topic movies themselves, the films bring out topics, such as the discussion about whether it is appropriate to change the meeting place of Li Bai and Du Fu from Luoyang to Chang'an in "Chang'an 30000 Li", which has been trending on social media multiple times.

Behind "topic movies", audiences and marketing methods have changed

According to data from Lighthouse Professional, as of 17:41:2 on August 30, the 2023 summer box office has reached 20.493 billion yuan. Considering the rising ticket prices, the record high number of viewers is undoubtedly more favorable news for the Chinese film market compared to box office.

Summer box office

According to data from Lighthouse Professional, 52.7% of viewers this summer are entering the cinema for the first time this year, a significant increase from 44.6% in 2019.

"I believe this is also the reason for the frequent popularity of summer films, which has brought low-frequency audiences back into the cinema. Multiple films such as" The Disappearing She, "" All in One, "and" Three Thousand Miles in Chang'an "have attracted over 10% of new audiences, and this ability to attract new audiences has far-reaching implications for the sustained and healthy development of the Chinese film market," said Chen Jin. At the same time, the proportion of viewers who watched twice, three times, or more during this summer has basically returned to pre 2019 levels, which has a very positive significance for the recovery of the film industry. "High frequency users are an important foundation in the film market, and their increased vitality is a positive signal of market recovery."

"30000 Miles in Chang'an"

According to the Lighthouse Database, in the overall ticketing profile of the 2023 summer season, the proportion of female ticket buyers is outstanding, reaching over 60%, making it the highest proportion of female viewers in statistics for the summer season. In terms of age, the proportion of viewers aged 35 and above is also a new historical high during the summer season, and the proportion of three or more people watching movies in groups has also reached a new high. Many parents bring their children to watch movies together, proving that films promoting traditional culture such as "Three Thousand Miles in Chang'an" and "The First Episode of Fengshen" have been recognized.

"This year's summer performance can be said to be the best in nearly a decade, but there is actually a rebound in overall social consumption, and the summer tourism index has also increased significantly," said Sun Mengjin.

"After three years of the pandemic, the film industry has experienced a period of high box office and enthusiastic audience response for the first time, especially during the summer season when there were box office hits, which is a gratifying phenomenon." Tang Weijie, Vice President of the Shanghai Film Critics Society, noticed that many senior film fans, when analyzing the characteristics of recent hit movies, unanimously believe that the film market has shown a downward trend compared to several years ago. Although Shanghai still holds a leading position in box office in a single city, the main force of ticket holders has shifted from first tier cities to second - and third tier cities, towns, and so on. Another noteworthy phenomenon is that this summer's box office performance of American blockbusters such as Mission Impossible 7 and Barbie was lukewarm, with only good results achieved in first tier cities such as Shanghai. "Setting aside Hollywood's clich é s, in terms of production precision, 'Mission Impossible 7' is superior to its predecessor, but now the mainstream audience of this generation is no longer appreciative of such movies."

In his view, whether it is the popularity of topic movies or the decline of Hollywood blockbusters, they are all related to the changes in the audience unconsciously, and behind them are the profound changes in the media field in the past decade. "Young people nowadays value topics more. They are originally the main users of various new media and are accustomed to obtaining information from them. The creative staff of film production companies also exhibit a youthful characteristic. This makes movies have a new media topic in terms of themes and casting, or are determined by big data." Tang Weijie believes that the new changes in the film market and audience are worth further in-depth research.

In an interview with the media, the bid for the Olympics once responded to doubts about "big data topic shooting". "We never considered using big data as a means when we conceptualized it." He said that during the preparation, we actually did not study the market at all, and many people even suggested that this is a niche topic because they believe that people who have been scammed are a minority group compared to those who have had love and family relationships. "But after our work started, we found that this was not the case. The current market response also confirms our decision."

"Many TV dramas do indeed incorporate topics from the planning stage, which is more commercialized than movies," said Ms. Huang, who works on film topic selection. "The incubation period of a movie can be as little as three to five years, making it difficult to predict topic movies. There are also many comprehensive conditions that need to be evaluated in terms of topic selection.". In her view, the 2014 release of "Dear" and the 2018 release of "I Am Not a Medicine God" were both social topic films in terms of theme, but they did not trigger controversy over "topic films" at that time. "Rather than saying that the way movies are chosen has changed, it's better to say that in recent years, the way movies are promoted has changed and more emphasis has been placed on topic marketing."

She believes that it is justifiable to fully tap the market potential of the Internet's sinking and conform to the trend of the times, but if the film quality does not improve, excessive topic marketing will lead to backbiting. "Audiences will lose trust in similar publicity, leading to a cold box office for other topic films."

Fengshen Part 1

"The success or failure of movie box office nowadays is related to whether there is a topic to guide, especially the proportion of the previous week or even the first three days of film production. The mentality of following the crowd is immediate in box office." Sun Mengjin also believes that "The Disappearing She" and "All in One Drop" have become topic films, and an important factor is attributed to the early marketing methods. The box office of a movie is increasingly inseparable from the role played by the promotional company. "A lot of movies have no topic and need to create topic. As a professional marketing means, it is not difficult to understand. But it is necessary to be alert that, with the change of marketing channels, the right to speak of movies now also mainly comes from the anchors of short video platforms such as We Media and Tiktok. There is a lack of professional and 'truth telling' film review force in the market. A hundred flowers bloom and need different voices."

The market needs more diverse films

It is foreseeable that a group of high investment, large-scale productions, and highly topical films will gradually enter the market in the future. The scheduled release of "Parrot Kill" on September 15th featured the slogan "the first female anti murder movie on a pig killing plate", seemingly continuing the anti fraud theme of "All in One's Name". The announcement of the release of "Ex 4: Early Marriage" for this year's National Day has also been labeled as a "cooling off period for marriage". It remains to be seen whether the success of short video marketing for "Ex 3" can be replicated once again.

Tang Weijie judged that after topic films become a new box office growth point, domestic film producers, distributors, cinemas, etc. will adjust their strategies within a few years. "Film itself is an industry, and profits and box office are the most sensitive points that can touch the industry."

In Mr. Yuan's view, it is a coincidence that so many topic movies are focused on this summer vacation. It is not easy to capture topics that resonate with the whole society. The success of the two topic movies has a certain element of luck and irreplicability. "Anyway, the quality of the movie comes first, and topicality can only be the result, not the purpose."

"There should be more topic movies in the future, but from a rational perspective, the dividend of topic movies is difficult to sustain, and it is not likely to pile up or become a trend just because one or two movies are successful." Miss Huang believes that, in a sense, any social film has a topic. "As professionals, we hope to bring good movies to the audience and allow more truly good movies to be seen. Imagine if the movies released the previous year were" Farewell My Concubine "," Crazy Stone "," I am not the God of Medicine ", and other films, would this year's" Disappearing She "and" All in One "still have such popularity and box office revenue?"

All in one go

Is it beneficial or harmful for the Chinese film market to have more topics about movies? "It is difficult to simply judge whether it is good or bad, just like not taking aesthetics as the primary orientation of film culture. The commercial nature of movies is innate." Tang Weijie introduced that movies have had multiple orientations from the beginning. For example, after the Lumiere brothers filmed "Train in", magician Merier, who runs a theater in Paris, quickly noticed that movies can be used to create some kind of acrobatic visual presentation to attract audiences and extend the commercial value of movies.

He remembered when he was in his twenties watching the movie "Journey to the West", he still felt confused and unable to accept the nonsensical film culture of Hong Kong at that time when he walked out of the cinema. However, he did not expect that the film would win a lot of applause when it was screened at the Beijing Film Academy, and the lines in the film resonated with college students. Today, the classic nature of the film has been proven.

"Movies are emotional, and it is easy to criticize the young audience created by the new generation of media for pursuing topic traffic. However, it is necessary to have a more tangible understanding of them. If you are physically separated from them by a generation, it is difficult to truly understand and identify with why they like these films. In the visible era of the future, they will be the main body of film audiences." Tang Weijie believes that topic movies do not represent passive pursuit of traffic. In a sense, realistic movies themselves are focused on topic topics, and artists need to have a keen sensitivity and attitude towards reality. "The market needs more diverse films. Moreover, we have a film festival mechanism, which cultivates art filmmakers from platforms such as the Shanghai International Film Festival, showcases different styles of films, and further enhances audience literacy. I am not too worried that the market will be monopolized by so-called topic films in the future."

It is worth noting that this summer, some young directors have emerged through topic films, such as bidding for the Olympics and Cui Rui. "Francis Ford Coppola, the director of" Revelation of War, "also wrote commercial scripts like" General Patton. "In order to shoot the movie he wanted to make, he had to first establish himself in the American commercial film industry, which is often seen in film history. We cannot deny the value of a director just because he made a topic movie. When he obtains some resources in the film industry, it is helpful for him to achieve some kind of non commercial creation in the future." Tang Weijie said.