On March 12, the movie "Avatar", which was released in China in 2010, was re-screened, with a box office of over 100 million yuan in the first weekend. A month later, the first two works of "Lord of the Rings", which were released in China in 2002 and 2003, were restored in 4K and landed on domestic theaters one after another. The box office for the first weekend both exceeded 20 million yuan. At the moment in the film and television industry, re-screening of old films is commonplace, but it is worth thinking about whether re-screening must be a guarantee of word-of-mouth and box office?
At 1 pm on April 18th, the main content of the movie "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" has been broadcasted. There are still audiences who have been reluctant to leave in the cinema on the 7th floor of Deji Plaza, Xinjiekou, Nanjing. Shi Hui waited until the movie's subtitles were all played before getting up.
"I have never seen "Lord of the Rings" in a movie theater." Shi Hui said that after she watched the movie "Lord of the Rings" on the computer in college, she became interested in the Middle-earth world portrayed in the film and went to read the original. The novel has become a die-hard fan of the "Lord of the Rings" series and will revisit the classics on the video website every year. This re-screening gave her a chance to make up for the movie ticket. A few days later, the movie "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" was re-screened, and Shi Hui planned to use the last day off before the May Day holiday to add a ticket for his feelings.
At 10 am on April 18th, in a cinema in Xinjiekou, Nanjing, the audience was waiting for the movie "Lord of the Rings: The Angel of the Ring" to be screened.
"Most of the people who watch movies like "Avatar" and "Lord of the Rings" are young people." said Zhang Jun, the operation director of Nanjing Dahua Theater. Some fans missed the premiere of classic movies for various reasons. Come relive the classics. "When we are arranging the film in the theater, we will appropriately increase the number of weekend and evening prime time shows, so that young people can watch it after get off work."
The re-screening of old movies in China is not a new phenomenon. The biggest selling point is feelings. For example, "Titanic", which occupied the top spot of the global movie box office for 12 years, was released in China in 1998. It was re-screened in April 2012, when the slogan on the Chinese poster was "Revisit the Epic Love Classics".
Re-screening of old films has mixed box office performance
"To be honest, it did not meet our expectations." Zhang Jun analyzed that "Avatar" was a big hit in theaters when it was released, and many people have seen it in theaters; "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" is subject to double-sided Flanking, there was a small hit film "My Sister" in the Qingming file before, and the new series "Detective Conan: Scarlet Bullet" from the classic animation "Detective Conan" at the same time as the re-screening. Compared with the new film, the old film attracts The power seems insufficient.
According to statistics from the National Film Fund Management Committee, the movie "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" re-screened last year ranked 23rd in the country at the box office of the year, and the movie "Spirited Away" re-screened in 2019 ranked at the national box office that year 29.
It can be seen that the re-screening of the film is not the "antidote" at the box office. At present, the highest-grossing film in the country is "Titanic", which is as high as 946 million yuan, but most of the remaining films stay at the 10 million yuan level. In 2018, many new and old movies have broken the threshold of 100 million yuan, but they are hard to reach the score of "Titanic". The highest box office is "Spirited Away", which reached 488 million yuan.
In recent years, more movies have been re-screened in March-April after the Spring Festival and after the summer and National Day. Taking 2019 as an example, the annual box office revenue of movies exceeded 64.2 billion yuan, of which the box office revenue of the Spring Festival file, summer file, and National Day file for more than three months accounted for more than 40%. Only two films, "Spirited Away" and "The Pianist on the Sea", were re-screened that year, with a box office of over 100 million yuan, accounting for less than 1% of the annual box office revenue.
Re-screening can't just rely on selling feelings
"We still welcome old movies when there is a shortage," Zhang Jun said. According to statistics, in the first 20 days of the theater’s full resumption of work after the epidemic last year, 29 of the 44 films screened in domestic theaters were rescreened films, and the number of rescreened films accounted for more than 65% of the total source. The rescreening box office Accounted for 44.5% of the box office after the resumption of work.
According to expert analysis, in the context of the epidemic, new releases of old films have played a certain role in boosting the domestic film market. Compared with new films, re-screening saves the cost of production. The quality of the film has been tested by the market. It has a certain reputation and can help theaters restore passenger flow at a relatively low cost.
But at the same time, many old films are newly released like "old wine in a new bottle": the distributor not only plays emotional cards, such as childhood memories "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", but also plays technical cards, such as the restoration film film "Red "Sorghum" and the disaster film "2012", which is remade in 3D and has a more visual impact, also have additional content cards. For example, the film "The Grand Master" released in 2013 added a part of the plot when it was rescreened in 2015.
There are many kinds of publicity stunts, but how many old movies can be successfully "secondary consumption"? Audiences of similar routines may not always buy it. Take the works of Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki as an example. Most of the films he directed are fantasy, but they also contain philosophy, which left a deep impression on many audiences and accompanied the growth of many "post-80s" and "post-90s" audiences.
In 2018, the animated film "My Neighbor Totoro" directed by Hayao Miyazaki was released in China. This was the director's first film released in China, and it finally earned 174 million yuan at the box office. Then in the second year, another animated film by the director appeared on the domestic screen-Spirited Away, which won the Best Animated Feature Film Award at the 75th Academy Awards, as well as popular domestic actors Zhou Dongyu, Jing Boran, Peng Yuchang and others re-dubbed the film. With the blessing of feelings and traffic, the film's box office exceeded 400 million yuan. However, Hayao Miyazaki's third domestic film, "Ponyo on the Cliff", which was nominated for multiple film awards, had a box office of just over 28.41 million yuan.
It is undeniable that old movies have a certain market potential, but for movie fans, it is not easy to relive classic movies on the big screen. The traffic and time costs of viewing movies at specific film festivals or academic screening institutions are relatively high. The current dedicated line The screening system is not yet mature. Therefore, how to make better use of the waste heat of old films has yet to be explored slowly.
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