What qualities does a movie need to be a hit? We watched the top 150 domestic box office movies in 2023

In 2023, the film market will make great strides in recovery.

According to the latest data released by the State Film Administration, the total movie box office in 2023 will reach 54.915 billion yuan, an increase of 83.4% compared to 2022.

However, competition seems to be more intense than before the epidemic. Data shows that there will be 509 new films in 2023, which has returned to pre-epidemic supply levels. Considering that there is still a gap of nearly 10 billion in box office data compared with 2019, this means that money is not as easy to earn as in the past.

The film market, audience tastes, marketing methods, etc. are all undergoing profound changes after the epidemic. How to "make" a hit movie? We analyzed the top 150 box office movies in 2023 and found the following conclusions:

To become a hit movie, the release date is very important!

According to data from the Maoyan Research Institute, the box office of large-scale movies in 2023 will account for 62.4% of the annual total, compared with 38.8% in 2020 and 50.1% in 2019. The most popular among them is the summer season. Among the top 150 movies at the box office last year, 37 were released in the summer season, far exceeding the number in other periods.

Among the top ten movies at the box office, summer movies account for half. Among them, two excellent films, "All or Nothing" and "The Lost Girl", took over 100 million at the box office on their first day of release.

In terms of box office structure, the summer box office in 2023 will reach 20.62 billion yuan, a record high. Compared with the same period in 2022, it has increased by 125.7%. Even compared with 2019 before the epidemic, the box office has increased by 16%.

The summer season contributed almost 40% of the annual box office, a 10% increase compared to 2019.

It is easy to create blockbusters in the summer season, which also leads to a large number of movies.

According to statistics, a total of 136 new films were released during the summer last year, a year-on-year increase of 47.8% compared to 2022, and 11 more films compared to 2019.

In terms of ticket prices, the Spring Festival stalls are the most expensive.

According to statistics, the average ticket price of movies during the Spring Festival in 2023 is 52.3 yuan, ranking first in ticket prices. The New Year's Day period follows closely behind, with an average ticket price of 44 yuan.

The 520 ticket is the cheapest during the holiday period, about 38 yuan.

It is understandable that the Spring Festival ticket prices are high. On the one hand, there is a strong demand for movie viewing during the Spring Festival, and it is often difficult to get a ticket. On the other hand, last year’s Spring Festival movies were longer.

Unlike previous Spring Festival movies that lasted between 95 and 110 minutes, the most popular movies during the Spring Festival last year were all far longer than 110 minutes. For example, "Amores" is 159 minutes long, "The Wandering Earth 2" is 173 minutes long, and "Unknown" is also 128 minutes long. Under the influence of long duration, it is also reasonable for theaters to increase the ticket price of a single movie.

From the perspective of movie themes, the dark horses in 2023 must be suspense and crime films.

There were not many suspense films last year, only 8, but they accounted for 16.5% of the annual box office. This proportion is the peak in the past five years. After all, suspense films accounted for only 0.3% of the box office in 2022. Although it is higher in 2021, it is only 3%.

Among the top 150 movies at the box office, there are 33 crime and suspense-themed movies, second only to more mainstream themes such as comedy and adventure. There are also many crime suspense movies from last year among the top ten historical box office movies of the same theme.

For example, the crime film "All or Nothing" started with a telecom fraud narrative and won a box office of 3.848 billion yuan, making it the current box office champion of crime movies. The runner-up was "The Disappearance", which tells a story of female revenge.

The Spring Festival blockbuster film "Man Jiang Hong" took the first place in the box office of suspense film history with a box office of 4.544 billion yuan.

Another distinctive feature of this type of film is that there are far more realistic themes than historical ones, which means that the audience is more likely to feel immersed in the films that are closely related to reality.

Judging from the copywriting of 63 posters released for 25 suspense and crime movies, the producers also closely focused on the selling points of "reversal" and "true story" to attract audiences.

Contrary to the rise of crime films and suspense films, comedy films, which were box office darlings in previous years, "failed".

Although 17 comedy films were released last year, the box office has shrunk severely: according to Tuopu data, in 2022, the box office of comedy films accounted for 25.2% of the total box office, but by 2023, this proportion will only be 9.7%.

In 2021 and 2022, among the top three box office films, the runner-up and third runner-up are both comedies. In 2021, "Hello, Li Huanying" and "Detective Chinatown 3" won box office of 5.4133 billion yuan and 4.5146 billion yuan respectively; in 2022, "Walking Alone on the Moon" and "This Killer Is Not So Calm" also achieved box office 3.1 billion yuan and 2.6 billion yuan.

But in 2023, the animated comedy with the highest box office - "Bear Bears", with a box office of 1.486 billion yuan, is far less than the previous two years.

The performance of literary and artistic films last year was also mediocre. Even though two literary films, "Winter" and "Wonderful Journey", entered the top 150, they received average reviews after being broadcast. Many viewers expressed their confusion after watching them. However, these literary films Ranks poorly in Maoyan ratings.

Origin: Domestic films lead the way, while imported blockbusters are weak

Among the top 150 movies at the box office, 99 are from mainland China.

Among them, the top ten movies at the box office are all contracted by domestic films. "Man Jiang Hong", "The Wandering Earth 2" and "All or Nothing" rank among the top three at the box office, accounting for 8.2%, 7.3% and 7.0% of the total box office respectively.

Judging from the trend, the box office share of domestic films is fluctuating and rising.

In 2019, domestic films accounted for 64.07% of the box office for that year, and by 2023, this proportion rose to 83.77%. The box office share of imported movies dropped from 35.93% in 2019 to 16.23%.

First, previously popular Hollywood blockbusters and science fiction blockbusters are no longer popular.

Because the public is desensitized to 3D technology and tired of stereotyped plots, the box office performance of Hollywood blockbusters is not satisfactory. For example, "Avatar: Path of Water" was originally expected to have a box office of more than 3 billion yuan, but in the end it only took in 1.697 billion yuan, which is not even as good as "Avatar 1" 13 years ago.

And sequels like "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" and "Mission: Impossible 7" are far less successful at the box office than their predecessors.

Second, the number of imported films has also declined.

Compared with 2019, the number of imported movies in 2023 dropped by 35.66%. In 2019, the number of imported movies accounted for 22.79% of the year's total and contributed approximately 35.93% of the box office. But by 2023, the number of imported movies will drop to 16%, and the box office share will also drop to 16.2%.

Although imported blockbusters have been underwhelmed, many of the films that received both word-of-mouth and box office success last year were remakes.

For example, "The Disappearance", a remake of the Soviet film "A Trap for the Bachelor", set a record for the highest box office for a remake in mainland film history, reaching 3.523 billion yuan, and its Maoyan score also reached 9.2.

The success of remake films is also inseparable from localization.

For example, in the original version of "The Tale of Hachiko", the "Hachiko" in the story is a Japanese Akita dog, but in "Hachiko", he is replaced by a Chinese pastoral dog, and the name is changed to "Hachiko" to add a down-to-earth atmosphere. Chongqing local elements. Many original elements are also added to the core of the story, which not only shows the emotions between humans and animals, but also integrates urban development and family relationships under the changing times into the story, making it more Chinese-style.

Judging from the consumption data on New Year's Day, the film market is expected to continue to improve in 2024.

According to Beacon Professional Edition data, the box office on New Year's Day in 2024 reached 1.535 billion yuan, an increase of 53.19% compared to the same period in 2019, and also exceeded the highest record of 1.303 billion yuan on New Year's Day in 2021. However, although the market will be hot, it may not be easy to make money. If you do not understand the changes in audience tastes and continue to invest in movies in the past way, you are doomed to fail.