There it is! Adapted from the highest and lowest scores of summer movies | Super Family | Movies
The summer box office is booming. According to real-time data from Lighthouse Professional Edition, as of 11:54 on July 22, the total box office of the 2023 summer season has exceeded 10 billion yuan, with "The Disappearing She", "In the Octagonal Cage", and "Three Thousand Miles in Chang'an" temporarily ranking among the top three on the summer box office chart.
Last weekend, the summer season saw a fierce competition between Chinese and foreign blockbusters. The previously underestimated imported film "Barbie" turned the tide and once scored a high score of 8.9 on Douban, becoming the highest rated film in the current summer season; The happy Fried Dough Twists comedy "Super Family", whose "Want to See" popularity was significantly ahead, had a very cold start, and its rating dropped to 4.0, which is likely to be the worst film in this summer or even the whole year.
Some film critics say that during the summer season of fierce competition, every time a film is produced, the main viewers will appear. From the gains and losses of the two films, it can also be seen what the audience truly needs at present.
Barbie's Shanghai Film Production Counterattack
On July 21, "Super Family", which was released on its first day, won the national box office crown without accident. Happy Fried Dough Twists produced+family comedy+Shen Teng, which was once verified by the market as the standard configuration of box office sales. Moreover, before the release of the film, the number of people who "want to see" the film exceeded one million.
However, on the same day, many Shanghai cinema managers were surprised to find that the best-selling film was not "The Superb Family", but "Barbie", which was released on the same day with almost no pre release announcements. The trailer was identified by many viewers as a "bad movie". Although the first day screening of "Barbie" was only 2.4%, Douban's opening score was 8.8, even rising to 8.9 at one point, and its reputation quickly spread on social media.
On July 22nd, the reporter found that the afternoon performance of "Barbie" was almost full at a cinema in Xujiahui. The cinema did not have any posters or surrounding materials related to the film, but many viewers wore pink or Barbie themed costumes to watch. The whole audience laughed incessantly until the end credits were played, and about half of the audience still sat in their seats unwilling to leave.
On its first day of release, "The Superb Family" accounted for 36.9% of the production, while "Barbie" only accounted for 2.4%. With two films scoring 4.4 and 8.8 respectively, in just one day, the offensive and defensive momentum has already changed. On July 22nd, a cinema in the center of Shanghai almost all the important shows were scheduled for "Barbie", while "Superpower Family" only had nighttime shows. A cinema manager told reporters that when scheduling, more reference is made to the proportion of local scheduling and box office data. If the latter is higher than the former, it indicates that the film has a higher cost-effectiveness and can be increased in scheduling.
According to Lighthouse Professional Edition data, on July 21st, Barbie's film production in Shanghai accounted for 5.3% of the total, with a box office share of 8.4%; The two data points for "Super Family" are 33.0% and 25.4%, respectively. As of 17:00 on July 24th, the proportion of film production for "Barbie" in Shanghai has reached 14.3%, higher than the 10.2% of "Super Family". From a national perspective, the production of the two has also been adjusted to 8.9% and 12.6%, respectively.
Hollywood blockbusters cannot compete with domestic films, and this summer has become an increasingly prominent phenomenon. The IP sequel to the series "Mission Impossible 7: Deadly Liquidation" led by Tom Cruise, which is also a super long blockbuster lasting over 160 minutes, has far surpassed the domestic original animated film "Chang'an 30000 Miles" in terms of film production and box office performance, despite its decent reputation. This confirms the shrinking demand in the imported visual effects blockbuster market and the failure of Hollywood's conventional approach. Barbie's ability to make a comeback from The Amazing Family not only garnered good reviews, but also sparked people's thinking about IP adaptation methods and the comedy market's essential needs.
IP adaptation should keep pace with the times
Although the themes and visuals of "Barbie" and "The Amazing Family" are completely different, both are comedy and fantasy genres, and both rely on well-known IPs. "Super Family" has a comedy brand of Happy Fried Dough Twists, and "Barbie" is a best-selling toy developed by Mattel.
Barbie's high reputation in China may not necessarily be due to the Hollywood model still having its place, but more importantly, it has found the correct way to open IP movies. Like high scoring IP adaptations such as "Super Mario Brothers" and "Dungeons and Dragons: Grand Theft Glory" released this year, the film presents the world of Barbie dolls in its original form, with Barbie parks that are almost proportionally enlarged from toys, flashy pink themed houses, cars, rescue equipment, etc., and "Barbie" played by Margot Robbie and others also replicates Barbie dolls' classic styling and outfits.
The film not only focuses on restoration, but also gives these "reconstructions" more meaning. After watching the movie, you will find that the highly restored fairy tale scenes in Barbie Park serve as a contrast to the real world and serve as an important dramatic contradiction in the film. During the battle between Ken and Barbie, Barbie's clothes were thrown down from the air one by one, and a close-up and introduction of the clothes were also added in mid air. While incorporating IP elements, the film also added humor. Moreover, the movie is full of popular culture and real-life memes, which are not difficult to understand. For example, the opening screen pays homage to 2001 Space Odyssey, and the main line drama technique imitates Truman's World. When roast about the differences between male and female audiences in viewing preferences, the examples are Zack Schneider's edited version of Justice Alliance and Godfather. The contemplation on topics such as body shape and appearance anxiety in movies, as well as the exploration of gender and intergenerational thinking differences and ways of getting along, make many people feel like they have found their own big screen "mouth replacement" when watching movies.
On the other hand, except for the cast and the performance poster of Happy Fried Dough Twists in a certain scene, there is almost no IP element in Super Family. The film is adapted from the Russian film "Super Family", with the protagonist changed to a Chinese person living in Russia, while the antagonist is able to speak fluent Chinese for some reason. Moreover, the superpowers such as invisibility and floating, which played an important role in the original version, were virtually non-existent in the adapted version, making the story's logic far fetched.
As a non narrative toy IP, Barbie captures an important point in the film adaptation: why Barbie dolls became popular and how to find their meaning and value in the present? A good IP adaptation should keep up with the times and seek out the points of IP value that can resonate with the present, which cannot be separated from profound insights into real life. The movie "Super Family", which focuses on family emotions, lacks a real-life atmosphere, and the focus of "a family is dragging each other down" is even more difficult to resonate with. Relying solely on actors' awkward performances to create humor is fatal for comedy films.
Audiences need stronger motivation to watch movies
Barbie and The Amazing Family have one thing in common: they both have an Allen. The difference is that Allen in Barbie is a supporting role who roast that no one cared about him, while Allen in Superpower Family is a male leading actor - but it's no use. The audience is looking at "content". Once upon a time, someone invented the concept of "content content", which used the lens content of actor Shen Teng to verify the quality of comedy films, and believed that the combination of Shen Teng and Ma Li was the true guarantee of comedy box office.
The reporter once discussed why comedy films starring Chang Yuan were not funny. If Chang Yuan's problem lies in the feeling of being hypocritical after the comedian takes off his burden, Allen's problem is that he was originally a comedian, but without the comedian, everything is too serious and formal. In comedies, both of them are more suitable for supporting role. Of course, the more fundamental problem is not Allen's or Chang Yuan's acting style, but the script of mid waist comedy is generally unqualified. The success of "The Shy Iron Fist" may not be due to Mary's brilliant opponent scenes, but because Mary, as one of the main actors, determines its head comedy configuration, including the script. The essence of high content is also a manifestation of a head comedy configuration.
From the perspective of production level, "Superpower Family" is actually not low. The film was filmed in six different locations both domestically and internationally, spanning over 170 days of filming with over 1700 special effects shots, far surpassing the dark horse film "The Killer is Not Too Calm", but also exposing the script issues of comedy films. The villain, in order to retaliate against society, piled up the money of the entire nation on the rooftops of banks in the form of cash, while the "super capable family" used fireworks as weapons to prevent the villain army from setting off fireworks and burning the cash. Such a story is difficult to establish from the script outline, and even the best comedy performance cannot save it.
The gains and losses of the summer season may prove two points. On the one hand, the era of relying on market demand to win has come to an end. As audiovisual bombardment becomes commonplace, the audience becomes increasingly concerned about the logic of the script, and the details need to withstand scrutiny. What the audience wants to see is the carefully calculated "Kangaroo Pulling the Car" in "Walking on the Moon Alone", rather than the visual spectacle of the train being temporarily transformed into a sled in "Superpower Family", which only talks about the visuals without logic.
On the other hand, for commercial films, the era of writing scripts behind closed doors has come to an end. When social topic attributes become the focus of movie promotion, it is necessary to bring in-depth thinking about life during production and respond to common concerns in the creative process. "Barbie" goes without saying, and the traditional cultural theme of "Three Thousand Miles in Chang'an" can also rely on small audiences reciting poetry in the cinema to refresh the screen. To bring the audience back to the cinema, a stronger motivation to watch movies is needed. Although comedy films have their own hot selling attributes, it is worth considering what the value, significance, and creative necessity of the work are in addition to teasing the audience.
