As the first Hollywood blockbuster introduced in 2022, “matrix 4” has attracted the attention of Chinese audiences, but the box office performance is “unspeakable”.
On January 14, 2022, “matrix 4” was released in China. According to the data of cat’s eye professional edition, the box office from January 14 to January 16 was 17.124 million yuan, 18.803 million yuan and 11.71 million yuan respectively, totaling 64.761 million yuan.
As of press time, according to the data of cat’s eye professional edition, “matrix 4” only ranks fifth at the box office, and the top four are domestic films.
“The so-called ‘Hollywood’ films may have fallen off the altar.” Wang Peng, an associate professor of Renmin University, said in an interview with Securities Daily: “With the continuous enhancement of China’s economic strength, the younger generation has more profound ideas about new technologies, social reality and future thinking, and no longer ‘look up’ to the so-called imported films. The lack of innovation and too similar routines of Hollywood blockbusters also makes the audience aesthetic fatigue, which is difficult to resonate with the younger generation.”
all main creators return to
film reviews are polarized
“There are two pills in front of you. The red pill represents the real but cruel reality, and the blue pill represents the virtual but beautiful dream. Which one do you choose?” After a lapse of 18 years, the matrix series has launched a sequel. All the former creators, including starring Keanu Reeves and Carey Ann moss, have returned, and Lana wozhuosky, one of the original directors, personally operated.
On December 4, the official microblog of “Warner Brothers film” released the film pilot notice, but there were few comments. According to the official introduction, the plot of the film follows matrix 3, and the Lost Hero Neo returns to the matrix: one is the daily world created by the matrix, and the other is the real human world. In order to find out whether his “reality” is true or false, Neo had to make a choice again. He will recognize himself again and lead mankind to continue to resist in the virtual world made by machines.
The reporter observed that film reviews are polarized. There are people who say “pure love is a sequel. When the story is added, some simple modern ideas are retold, which vividly explains what is called” a dog’s tail “.” without great philosophical thinking, it is more like exploring the hardships of love among the middle-aged people “from the science fiction category, even the directors make complaints about their roles in the movie. “Didn’t you agree not to make a sequel to the matrix?” But many viewers said “very good, very like, very moved”.
As of press time, 59000 viewers on a film review website gave an evaluation of 5.7 points, while the scores of the first three were 9.1 points, 8.6 points and 8.8 points respectively.
Xiang Kai, a young Chinese playwright and director, told reporters: “it is reasonable for matrix 4 to fall like a cliff. With the continuous improvement of the audience’s aesthetic values, the inherent cultural logic of Hollywood is no longer sought after by the Chinese audience.”
make a sequel and become “fried cold rice”
the old big IP “doesn’t work”?
Some film critics believe that the matrix has become a follower of forced IP adaptation from the maker of popular culture in those years.
Coincidentally, the previous “treasure Raiders” and “heavy espionage” the largest IP film also “coincidentally” rolled over one after another in the fourth sequel.
Xiang Kai believes that in recent years, many producers have tasted the sweetness of cutting “leeks” by big IP, and these so-called big IP have made no progress in innovation in recent years. From stories, characters and even proud spiritual core, they have almost completely collapsed.
A professional fan told reporters: “Successful trilogies are often planned in an orderly way, with a short time interval, a fixed team, a consistent style, a unified and complete world outlook, and a sense of interlocking, layer by layer and step-by-step. Many of the fourth ones are hard broken. They fry the old IP and eat the old capital. Some directors, screenwriters and stars have changed. The time gap is too long to be that flavor again, And the audience’s tastes have changed. “
“There are fewer and fewer good stories, and the routine problem of Hollywood IP sequels is becoming more and more obvious. The lack of innovation in Hollywood has greatly reduced the quality of IP works, which has aroused the disgust of Chinese audiences.” Analysys analysis mutual entertainment industry senior analyst Hu Yuxin said.
Some people in the industry also believe that the box office performance of matrix 4 is partially negatively affected by the online diversion effect. It is reported that hbomax, Warner’s streaming media platform, also launched the film at 3:01 on December 22 (16:01 on December 22, Beijing time).
However, it is inevitable that pirated resources also flow out at the first time. Pirated resources about matrix 4 on the Internet have long emerged in endlessly.
In this regard, the above industry insiders told reporters: “the results of double ended screening have both advantages and disadvantages. However, the disastrous box office defeat of matrix 4 also marks the complete end of the synchronization experiment of Warner hospital network.”
It is reported that “Wonder Woman 1984” is the first film of Warner academy network synchronous experiment, and the global box office stops at US $166.5 million; Today, with the strong recovery of global cinemas, matrix 4 still fails to achieve explosive growth. According to comScore, matrix 4 has earned a total of US $69.8 million in 76 countries and regions.
“Hollywood fever” cooling down in China
domestic films rise with the trend
As of press time, according to the data of cat’s eye professional edition, “matrix 4” ranked fifth at the box office. The top four are “hug you through the cold winter”, “manslaughter 2”, “Li Mao as the Prince” and “Wang Wang team’s great contribution films”, all of which are domestic films.
It is not new that Hollywood blockbusters are inferior to domestic films. According to the data of artisangateway, a consulting firm, as of August 2021, Hollywood’s share of China’s box office market has plummeted by 9.5%.
In 2021, dune, regarded as a science fiction masterpiece, grossed only 253 million yuan in China; As a classic IP with 24 works – “007: no time to die”, the box office was only 414 million yuan.
“This reflects a change in the viewing needs of Chinese audiences”, Hu Yuxin said: “In the past, audiences would prefer to see the so-called ‘blockbusters’ with more shocking visual and auditory effects, but today’s audiences are more willing to choose good works that can produce emotional resonance with themselves and have multiple story types. At present, some films have problems such as old stories and weak storytelling, which has gradually cooled the’ Hollywood fever ‘in China. In addition, affected by the epidemic situation The continuous impact and difficulties in releasing overseas films have also led to a decrease in the number of imported films in the past two years and a smaller proportion of good works. “
In contrast, domestic films will be popular in China Film Co.Ltd(600977) in 2021, leading the world in both box office and total number of screens. The annual box office in 2021 was 47.258 billion yuan, an increase of 125.3% compared with 2020; The total number of screens is 82248, which is 1.7 times that of the North American market. Among them, the war epic “Changjin Lake” produced by the Chinese film capital topped the annual list with a box office of 5.773 billion yuan.
Hu Yuxin believes that the overall production level of domestic films has been significantly improved in recent years, including more diversified themes, closer stories to life, more realistic special effects, especially realistic films, which are popular and popular. In the future, with the release of the “14th five year plan” China Film Co.Ltd(600977) development plan, China Film Co.Ltd(600977) creation market will be better and better.
