In the last month of 2012, the most popular Lunar New Year festival of the year is here as scheduled.
Originally, there were three blockbuster movies in November this year: "The Stolen Five Years", "Kuai Ben: Happy Home", and "Pi", which pushed the Lunar New Year breakout period directly to early November.
It's a pity that the highly anticipated war disaster blockbuster "1942" failed miserably, abruptly interrupting this box office boom and failing to continue its momentum.
It wasn't until December 6th that the second part of the "Ghost Blowing Lamp" series, "Longling Labyrinth", hit the global film market, completely igniting the domestic film market and ushering in the climax of this year's box office explosion!
On Thursday, the 6th, "Pi" has been in theaters for half a month, but the box office is still strong, with 18% of the film schedule, but the 3D screenings are mostly shared by "The Caves of the Dragon Ridge".
However, "1942" failed at the box office and its film schedule dropped sharply to 26%.
"Longling Caves" accounts for 45% of the film schedule nationwide. Due to the priority screening contract signed by Huayi and imax, there is no imax version, only Huaguo Giant Screen, 3D, and 2D versions.
"1942" was not only distributed by Huayi, but also jointly distributed by China Film and Television, which meant that Han and Tang Media had to face a joint attack by Huayi and China Film in terms of promotion.
Moreover, Huayi is in a cooperative relationship with Wanda and Ahli, and they are also biased towards "1942" in terms of film arrangement and channel promotion of the Ahli series.
Even so, "Longling Labyrinth" relied on the strong reputation and quality of the previous film "The Secret of the Dragon" to hit a super high box office of 92 million yuan on the first day!
"Pi", which has only been released for half a month, still maintains an incredible trend with its strong reputation. It received 19 million on Thursday and 369 million in 15 days of release.
"1942" took in 16 million at the box office on Thursday, plus 5,500 in the first three days, bringing the total box office to 213 million, breaking 200 million in 8 days.
Since publicity and film arrangement did not prevail, these two blockbusters were suppressed abruptly.
45% of the films scheduled took nearly 70% of the box office, which is already overwhelming without any suspense.
The following Friday, the box office of "Longling Grottoes" successfully exceeded 100 million, reaching 103 million, becoming the second Chinese film to exceed 100 million in a single day.
On Saturday, the box office of "The Mysterious Grottoes of Longling" did not increase much. All shows were completely saturated, and it only received 109 million.
The 109 million in a single day also surpassed the 104 million in a single day set by "The Martian", setting a new single-day box office record in Chinese film history.
On Sunday, the box office dropped to 98 million, and the total box office in the four days of release was 402 million!
400 million in four days, "The Mystery of Longling" once again set a first-week box office record in the history of Chinese-language films!
During the same period, its two rivals, "Life of Pi", took in a box office of 80 million in the three weekend days, with a total box office of 449 million in 18 days of release.
"1942" earned 71 million in the three weekend days, with a total box office of 284 million in 11 days of release.
At the same time, another South Korean biology disaster masterpiece "Invasion of the Ironworm" undoubtedly reincarnated as cannon fodder.
This summer movie, which defeated many Hollywood blockbusters in South Korea and took in US$28 million, only took in US$4 million in the first four days of its domestic release.
The big hit of "Cave of the Dragon Ridge" is already destined, and one billion is almost certain. The only guess now is whether it can break the record of "The Martian".
The media that had been treading on Feng Xiaogang for more than a week now had work to do again. While treading on Feng Xiaogang, they were praising Wu Ershan to the sky.
The "Painted Skin" series and the "Ghost Blowing Lamp" series, these four movies alone have a total box office of more than 2 billion, making him a truly great director of commercial films.
The male lead Chen Kun has also become the second most popular actor in the Mesozoic era after Liu Ye.
Although Liu Ye only followed Tang An to make two consecutive films that exceeded 1 billion, the success of "The Secret of the Dragon" and "Longling Labyrinth" is also mainly due to the director and IP.
Among the new generation of actresses, Tang Yan, like Yang Mi, has no problem crushing all the actresses born in the 1980s. Liu Yufei, who was the first of the four little actresses at the time, is far incomparable in her achievements on the big screen.
Every year when the Lunar New Year comes, there is a feeling of a change of dynasty. Jiang Wen, who had been struggling for many years in the past two years, stood up and made money.
Zhang Yimou's "Jinling Thirteen Hairpins" failed to produce any overseas revenue and could hardly recoup its original investment. It became the straw that broke the camel's back, leading to the breakup of the two films and the failure of the new film.
This year Feng Xiaogang also hit the street.
What followed was the rise of some new-generation directors, such as Wu Ershan, Xu Zheng, Guo Jinming, Wang Wei, and Teng Huatao.
The rise of these people is related to the media of the Han and Tang Dynasties.
...
After Tang An finished reading this article about the reshuffle of the entertainment industry, he closed his computer and walked to the conference room.
Several department heads and subordinate department managers were present and were already waiting. When they saw Tang An coming in, they stood up quickly.
"Everyone, please sit down."
Tang An waved his hand and sat down on Zhu's seat. Without talking nonsense, he looked at the director of the distribution department.
"Mr. Cheng, are the major theater chains still unwilling to adjust their film schedules?"
Cheng Hai replied, "Chairman, in addition to the four theaters Poly Wanhe, Jiangzhe Times, Hengdian, Jinyi and Zhujiang, which have given them sufficient film schedules to the maximum extent, Wanda and China Film Department still prefer "Pi" and "One Piece". "942", other theater chains remain neutral and adjust according to the market."
Tang An was a little helpless. With 400 million in four days and such a high box office, the film schedule only increased from 41% on the first day to 48%, not even half of it.
Although the Han and Tang Cinemas and four other cooperative cinemas accounted for nearly 25% of the national market share.
But the opponent is unprecedentedly powerful!
Wanda favored Huayi, and the China Film Department released "Pi" and "1942" at the same time. Five of its cinemas, which are in the top ten and one in the top fifteen in the country, also favored these two films.
These are six theater chains in the top ten in the country and one in the top fifteen in the country, which is much better than the two in Tang An's place that are in the top ten and the two in the top fifteen.
The other two theater chains in the top ten in the country, Moying United and Han and Tang Cinemas have nothing to do with each other. Dadi Cinemas is competing for the market with Han and Tang Cinemas in third-tier cities.
Fortunately, the two sides are still competing legitimately, and it has been half a month since "Pi" was released, and "1942" did not do well at the box office.
Unless the enemy is dead and the net is broken, it is impossible for the other party not to arrange a film for "The Mysterious Cave of Longling". In that case, we will kill one thousand enemies and suffer eight hundred losses.
But Tang An had no choice. The theater chain of the China Film Department had arranged quite a few films, and China Film still had a distribution fee to earn from those two movies.
What's more, when "1942" was released, it was only halfway through the slate of films. At that time, there was only one "Pi", but now "The Mystery of the Dragon Ridge" is indeed facing two blockbusters.
It's just that after "The Secret of the Dragon", the IP "Ghost Blowing the Lamp" has become the largest IP in the country, and nearly half of the series of "Longling Labyrinth" has been saturated.
Fortunately, "Twelve Zodiac Signs" won't be released for another two weeks, so it won't have much impact.
From another perspective, this can also be regarded as a kind of hunger marketing.
Tang An could only ask the publicity and marketing department to increase publicity efforts, and the theaters still had to negotiate with the distribution department one by one.
Before the meeting ended, Director of Publicity and Marketing Department Zhu Mo mentioned the matter of starting ticket reimbursement in advance, but Tang An still refused.
"Now that the box office is saturated, there is no point in paying for tickets. "Twelve Zodiacs" will not bring much resistance to "Longling Labyrinth". The real test will be during the Spring Festival."
The vote replenishment and online voting functions have not been launched yet, which is the key to whether "囧" can win during the Spring Festival.
...
The Lunar New Year festival is still going on. Although only 48% of the films are scheduled, only one low-budget movie will be released from the 10th to the 16th.
For seven days this week, "The Mysterious Cave of Longling" still undoubtedly occupied the top spot at the box office every day, taking in a super high box office of 460 million yuan in seven days.
After eleven days of release, the total box office was 862 million, once again breaking the box office record for the next week, breaking the record of 500 million, 600 million, 700 million, and 800 million at the fastest time.
Such a strong box office is even higher than that of "The Martian" at the same time. Some media are already boasting that "Longling Labyrinth" has great hope of breaking the Chinese film box office record set by "The Martian".
The two movies "Pi" and "1942" have finally begun to lag behind, with box office receipts of 100 million and 60 million respectively this week.
The total box office was 549 million and 344 million respectively.
At this time, the film schedule of "Longling Labyrinth" also began to increase significantly, rising to 60% on the weekend.
However, "Zodiac" will be released in a few days, and "Big Shanghai" starring Zhou Yunfa, Hong Jinbao and Wang Xiaoming will be released at the same time.
In the third week, "Longling Labyrinth" has consumed most of its potential in the first two weeks. Coupled with the release of new films, 60% of the film schedule only lasted four days, and fell back to 38% again.
This week, it took in 220 million in a single week, a drop of 50%, with a total box office of 1.082 billion, becoming the fourth Chinese-language film to have a box office of over 1 billion.
"Pi" entered its fifth week of release, and the box office inevitably suffered a big decline. It only took in 35 million in a single week, and the total box office was 584 million.
"1942" took in 15 million in its fourth week, with a total box office of 359 million. Let alone 500 million, there is no hope for 400 million.
The newly released "Zodiac" created Cheng Long's personal best start, taking in a super high box office of 240 million in the first four days, ranking first at the weekly box office!
The second billion-dollar movie has appeared, and the Lunar New Year season has really reached its peak.
The next week, "Zodiac" took in 270 million, ranking first at the box office for two consecutive weeks, with a total box office of 510 million.
"The Mystery of Loll Ridge" barely exceeded 100 million this week, with a total box office of 1.182 billion, surpassing "Detective Chinatown" and "Edge of Tomorrow" successively, becoming the runner-up in the box office of Chinese-language films.
As for "Big Shanghai" during the same period, it was still reduced to cannon fodder, barely taking in 80 million at the box office in 10 days.
Time has entered January, and the smoke of the Lunar New Year season is still filling the air. Thanks to the New Year's Day holiday, the decline of several movies is not significant.
Until January 14, 2013, after 25 days of screening, "Twelve Zodiac Signs" had earned a super high box office of 840 million, and was expected to exceed the 1 billion mark.
And "The Mystery of Longling" has been released for more than 40 days. At this time, the potential of this purely commercial movie has been exhausted.
1.26 billion, which is still 40 million away from the 1.3 billion mark, which is almost impossible to achieve.
The 2012 Lunar New Year period has also come to an end, and Hantang Media has dominated the Lunar New Year period for three consecutive years.
In Feng Xiaogang's disastrous defeat, three of the four major directors were cast aside one after another, and only Tang An was left.
The tepid Cheng Long wrote, directed and starred in the movie, which has a box office impact of one billion.
Li Bian made a box office of 600 million with a movie starring an Indian, and it was a hit all over the world.
Wu Ershan has become the second domestic commercial director, second only to Tang An in terms of total box office and single film box office.
Chow Leap-fa is still on the street, and "Let the Bullets Fly" didn't make him any better. He seems to have been completely defeated by the domestic review mechanism.
In recent years, the domestic film market seems to have suddenly changed.