Special feature of 1905 film network How big a stir will the withdrawal of a movie cause? After May 6th, the May 1st movie starring, was announced to be temporarily withdrawn, for a time, the audience talked about it, and the director suspected that tears were spilled in the live broadcast room and rushed to the hot search. The film producer released at the same time even bluntly said, "Pay for it, admit it. But not embarrassing. " Implies this "fight but run" behavior.
In this program, we invited Professor Zhi Feina from China Academy of Art to talk with us about whether the box office is not good or not.
"Withdrawing files" multiple-choice questions
Why "withdraw the file"?
When a movie is released, it can usually be divided into the following three situations:
one
Force majeure factor
The first situation in which a film is withdrawn is influenced by force majeure factors in the film production or schedule environment. For example, in 2022, in order to present a better production effect, a document was issued announcing its withdrawal from the National Day file of that year.
2
Wrong schedule selection
The second reason why movies choose to withdraw files is that the tone of movies doesn’t match the schedule selection. For example, because of the failure of schedule selection, the film announced that it would withdraw from the Spring Festival file in 2023 and switch to the Qingming file in 2024.
three
The film quality is poor.
The last kind of movie is that there are some problems in the quality of the film itself. Even if the film is re-released, it is difficult to change its fate.
"Withdrawing files" is not a panacea.
From the perspective of market development, a market with full and free competition is allowed to withdraw files. The withdrawal of files is the result of the film’s independent choice, which should be understood and respected, but the act of withdrawing files after the film is released is harmful to the film, the theater, the audience and the whole film industry.
First of all, the temporary withdrawal of files has impacted the credibility of the film, which is a big loss for the director and the film itself, which may lead to a decline in the reputation of the film, which is also very harmful to the brand benefits of the main creation.
Secondly, the marketing preparation and film arrangement made by the cinema before the release of the film will be destroyed with the withdrawal of the film, which will further affect the benefits of the cinema during this period, which will also detract from the overall image of the film industry to a certain extent.
Finally, the temporary withdrawal of the film has a certain impact on the audience. Withdrawing files will kill the expectations of some "potential" audience attracted by the marketing in the early stage of the film and erase the audience’s enthusiasm for watching movies.
As a kind of cultural product that provides the audience with freshness, film products will be labeled as "old works" after being released, and their competitiveness will be significantly lower than that of new works in the same period. In this regard, Zhifina said: "In fact, it is difficult to change the fate of a film after it is released."
Take the movie "Viva La Vida", which was withdrawn from the Spring Festival in 2024, as an example. After the film was changed to Qingming, the box office did increase, and it broke through the 200 million yuan mark one week after its release. However, compared with the previous two films, the third film of "Life Trilogy", as the director, reached 510 million yuan in the first round of box office after its release in 2015, while the cumulative box office of films released in the New Year’s Eve in 2021 was as high as 1.432 billion yuan. Obviously, although the quality of Viva La Vida is still the same, its box office is far from reaching its breakeven point.
China’s films ushered in the "era of big file withdrawal"?
At the beginning of 2024, there were eight films scheduled for the Spring Festival, and four films were withdrawn, accounting for 50% of the withdrawal, while eleven films were scheduled for the May 1st, and finally four films were withdrawn. Some netizens joked that 2024 was the "first year of withdrawing files" for China films, and even some media said that China films ushered in the "era of withdrawing files". So, will file withdrawal become the mainstream choice after China movies?
In this regard, Zhifina explained: "Judging from the volume of 500 to 600 films released in China every year, the withdrawal of several films is not a very prominent phenomenon. I think that the phenomenon of withdrawing files in the first year or frequently withdrawing files will not become the mainstream of China films. If the quality of the film itself is guaranteed, there is no need to withdraw files from this film. "
In the Spring Festival of 2021, the film starring,, and, under the fierce competition with Detective Chinatown 3 and other films in the same period, although the film was rarely arranged, due to the excellent quality of the film itself and the careful marketing of the film and the publicity and distribution, the reputation of the film gradually improved, which achieved a turnaround against the wind.
Slot selection tips
In order to avoid the phenomenon of frequent file withdrawal in the film market, Zhifina put forward three suggestions for the film distributor to choose the file schedule in the program:
one
Fine distribution
First of all, the choice of film schedule should not blindly focus on the big schedule such as Spring Festival and May Day. According to the quality and taste of the film, the film producers need to make precise positioning on the release time and audience selection of the film, for example, sub-line distribution, sub-fare distribution, sub-regional distribution, focus distribution and accurate positioning distribution according to the type of film. Red-themed films can be selected as "guaranteed", and fan films can be selected as fans rather than large-scale screening.
2
In-depth communication with cinemas
Secondly, the film producer should communicate with the theater manager. The nature of the cinema manager’s work determines that his preference for films and audiences will be more clear, so the film producer can invite the cinema manager to participate in the evaluation and help the film choose the appropriate schedule.
three
Invite ordinary audience to participate in decision-making.
Finally, the film side should learn to use ordinary audience resources. Before the release of the film, if the film is not sure about the quality of the film, we can try to invite ordinary viewers to comment on it, and then make modifications or complete refined marketing planning.
