following the “worst Valentine’s Day” and “worst Tomb Sweeping Day”, the “May Day” which is second only to the Spring Festival in importance in the first half of the year also came to an end
According to the data of Lighthouse professional edition, cat’s eye professional edition and other platforms, the total box office (including pre-sale) of “May 1st gear” (April 30-may 4) in 2022 was 297 million yuan. Compared with last year’s “May 1st best box office in history”, this achievement is less than one fifth of last year’s box office of 1.673 billion, and even returns to the level ten years ago, only about 60 million more than the “May 1st” box office of 234 million in 2012P align = “center” box office data of “May 1st” over the years source: cat’s eye
Compared with the previous performance of the film side with “100 million”, this year’s “51 files” all report the box office with “tens of millions” units. During the schedule, none of the films grossed more than 100 million yuan. The box office of the first “I really hate long distance love” was less than 90 million yuan, and there was no more than 100 million yuan in a single day. The highest day was on May 1, labor day, with a box Office of 814723 million yuan.
multiple films withdrawn
Although the closing box office of 297 million yuan was particularly bleak compared with the result of 1.673 billion yuan last year, under the epidemic, the performance of “may first gear” this year has exceeded the industry expectations.
Xiang Kai, a young Chinese playwright and director, previously predicted that the total box office of “May 1st” films this year will be about 500 million, not more than 800 million, but only if most films do not withdraw.
However, before the “May Day” this year, many films have withdrawn their files 4 / 18, the animated film “the great pig movie ocean diary” announced the cancellation of the release plan of “May 1st”. Subsequently, “Hello, brother”, “procuratorial situation”, “Hello, Beijing”, “keep you safe”, “meet you”, “awakening of the Mini World” and “I’m Tyrannosaurus Rex” also announced their withdrawal one after another
These withdrawn films include comedies, cartoons, crime films, love films, etc., with rich themes and attractive cast. For example, Ma Li, Chang Yuan and Wei Xiang starred in “Hello, brother”. The three actors are partners again. The previously starring “this killer is not too calm” won more than 2 billion box office in the “Spring Festival” this year. In addition, “keep you safe” is directed by Dapeng, starring Dapeng, Li Xueqin and Yin Zheng. Procuratorial Fengyun is a crime film directed by Mai Zhaohui, starring Huang Jingyu and Bai Baihe. Many films directed by Dapeng and Mai Zhaohui have triggered a lot of discussion.
After these films that were originally favored by the market were withdrawn from the file, finally released in the “May 1st file”, only the youth film “I really hate long distance love”, the female inspirational theme “fist, Mom”, the animated film “villain alliance”, the documentary “captain Everest” and the historical war film “deadly gold”
On May 2, Dong Wenxin, general manager of Jinan Belle Palace Cinema, wrote in his diary on the closure of the cinema: “the market performance of the May 1st file has also exceeded everyone’s expectations. It exceeded 80 million yesterday, and the total box office in the three days has exceeded 200 million. People can’t help guessing that if one or two hot films can accompany” I really hate long distance love ” If we don’t withdraw the file, will the market exceed 100 million a day? I believe it will be exceeded. Unfortunately, there is no chance to prove this conjecture. “
The final results showed that the “May Day” market did not exceed 100 million in a single day this year. From April 30 to May 4, the single day box office was 597049 million, 814723 million, 680398 million, 542219 million and 33.465 million respectively. It peaked on May 1, labor day, and then gradually fell back.
In addition to the collective withdrawal of several films, another major reason affecting the box office of “May 1st” this year is the epidemic situation in first tier cities. Although in recent years, with the formation of film viewing habits in low-level cities, the structure of cinema box office and film viewing person times has declined year by year, first tier cities, especially Beijing and Shanghai, are still the two most important ticket warehouses according to the data of Yien, among the top 20 box office cities in 2021, Shanghai and Beijing ranked first and second with 2.45 billion and 2.18 billion respectively affected by the epidemic of going north, the box office of the first tier cities of “May 1st” dropped significantly in 2022. According to the report of insight into the market data of May 1st film in 2022 issued by lighthouse Research Institute, first tier cities accounted for 10% of the box office, while the box office of the first tier cities of “May 1st” accounted for 16.2% last year
market waiting for good content
Under the capricious epidemic situation, the film makers are more cautious about the choice of release time. The situation of setting, withdrawing and re setting has occurred repeatedly in the past two years. However, from the perspective of the audience, the epidemic is not the only factor that affects the audience’s willingness to watch the film.
According to the data released by the lighthouse Research Institute, this year, the average operating rate of “51” cinemas is 67.6%, which is nearly 12 percentage points higher than the 55.8% operating rate on April 28 as the final ring of the film industry, the release of new films and the arrival of large schedules stimulate cinemas to reopen.
But to attract the audience into the cinema, it still depends on the film itself. As a netizen said: “for me alone, this may day cold has nothing to do with the epidemic. The cinema is nearby, but these films really don’t have the desire to see.”
Judging from the film results, the top five box office results of this year’s “May 1st” are “I really hate long distance love” 87.934 million, “bad guys alliance” 71.509 million, “magical animals: Dumbledore’s mystery” 32.901 million, “marginal Walker” 23.364 million and spirit Hotel 4: transformation adventure “23.281 million p align = “center” box office ranking of “May 1st” films in 2022 source: Lighthouse Research Institute
Among them, “I really hate long distance love” is the only love film in May 1st this year. Last year, your wedding, which was released on May 1st, finally grossed 789 million, and the producers behind the two films were Beijing Enlight Media Co.Ltd(300251) .
Low cost youth love films have always been the advantage of Beijing Enlight Media Co.Ltd(300251) and such films tend to become a dark horse at the box office in fixed schedules, and Beijing Enlight Media Co.Ltd(300251) has indeed achieved high return on investment for many times. On April 22 this year, Beijing Enlight Media Co.Ltd(300251) released the record of investor relations activities. When answering the analyst’s questions, the company’s executives said: “the company’s method is to increase the production of certain types of films with relatively low cost, such as youth love, comedy and small social films; cultivate new people to become the main creative team and starring stars of the films.
The cost of these films is low. Once the box office performance is good, it is easy to make a profit, and there will be copyright income as a supplement. ”
In addition to the newly released “I really hate long distance love”, this year’s “Valentine’s Day” is also the main investment of Beijing Enlight Media Co.Ltd(300251) and “we look like love” which will be released in the summer also uses Beijing Enlight Media Co.Ltd(300251) ‘s artists and new directors. However, the first two love films did not achieve the previous market effect “a decade of warm words” has grossed 167 million, with only 2.8 points in Douban. At present, I really hate long distance love has no score in Douban, but most popular comments give the film one or two stars
It can also be seen from the box office trend that the audience is not satisfied with the quality of this type of domestic love films. During the schedule, the box office of “I really hate long distance love” peaked on May 1, and then declined day by day. On May 3, the box office of “bad guy alliance” surpassed. The DreamWorks animated film scored 7.5 points in Douban.
Xiang Kai said that small and medium-sized films can also have high box office. The key is to see the theme and content. For example, films with themes such as family affection, love, idol youth and so on, as long as the content is excellent and viewable, they can be produced at medium and small costs, and there is no need for too big actors to drive the box office. The key problem is that at present, the film market still produces a number of films whose content is not hard and the production team is not strong. It is necessary to rely on traffic stars to drive the box office. However, it has been proved that the effect of traffic stars can not stand the test. The films produced by this model are not popular among the audience, and the pillar of the film box office should eventually return to the theme intention and content quality.
