Look at this, before the celebration, it is not far from the end.
By February 9th, 19, the box office of this movie was only 654.38+200 million. If you put it on an unknown director 10 years ago, you might have a billion-dollar celebration.
However, for a national treasure director like Zhang Yimou, the movie Hero directed by him in 2002 earned 250 million RMB at the mainland box office and 654.38+77 billion USD at the global box office, which is obviously unacceptable.
The same thing happened in Xiaogang Feng.
Last year, the romantic movie "If the Cloud Know" directed by him was released for 76 million yuan in three days, and finally only got 654.38+59 million box office.
No matter from the commercial box office or artistic value, this film has not received enough gratifying response.
This made Xiaogang Feng, 6 1 year-old, even have self-doubt for the first time, and sent a short essay on Weibo, feeling that he was "an old hero".
Two years earlier, Feng Dao, who had to personally cook the bad reviews, was simply gentle this time.
In the past, the audience who cursed the audience's garbage in the media, ungrateful, and even brought private goods in the movie "Private Custom", "How cheap is your movie? An illiterate person can sit down and be happy. "
Now, he will write a short composition to thank the 2.5 million audience who walked into the cinema. I don't know if he bowed to another reality.
Chen Kaige is even worse.
He has never had a successful moment at the box office. When I was young, I sealed the gods early and have been supporting myself until now.
The artistic value of movies has gone forever since Yellow Land and Farewell My Concubine. After the promise, Jiang Lang became more suspicious of his talent.
In the last two years, Chen Kaige has been a variety instructor for two consecutive seasons.
Although the skill of training actors is still excellent, more people see the true tonality of Chen Dao after his descent, and politely advise Chen Dao not to touch the script again.
Some people even posted a bet on Douban, asking whether it is difficult for Chen Kaige to make another top three movie in Europe or for Jing M Guo to make another movie with Douban score of 8.
Although this question is absurd, it points to another reality.
Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Xiaogang Feng, the fifth-generation directors who were originally called the standard-bearers of China films, finally came and were asked, "Is Lian Po too old to eat?" .
In terms of age, Zhang Yimou 1950, Chen Kaige 1952 and the relatively small Xiaogang Feng 1958 are all over 60 years old.
Although the age has reached the retirement line stipulated by the state, their creative desire has not stopped.
In 20 18, Zhang Yimou filmed for one second, and then in 20 19, he was announced to be a finalist in the main competition unit of Berlin Film Festival, although he finally withdrew due to technical reasons.
Then in May of 20 19, he was still directing the film "Rock-solid", and in September, he was already directing the new film "Above the Cliff".
Xiaogang Feng didn't rest either. 20 16, I'm not Pan Jinlian, 20 17, Fanghua, 20 18, mobile phone 2 and 20 19. Only Yunzhi keeps the high-yield frequency of making a movie every year.
In "I am not Pan Jinlian", Xiaogang Feng, who was nearly 60 years old at that time, was still exploring different forms of innovative films, and even learned the shooting methods used by Canadian young director xavier dolan in the film "Mommy", which changed the lens format of domestic films for the first time.
Among the three, even Chen Kaige, who is relatively low-yield, has made The Legend of the Demon Cat, Flowers in the Dust (not released) and My People, My Motherland (directed) and The Battle of Changjin Lake (about to start shooting).
Although their voices have weakened in the past two years, their efforts for the film have not stopped.
For a group of filmmakers who are over 60 years old but still have such a strong desire to create, it is really not the time to hand over their works.
In terms of time, this time a year ago, it has entered the most crowded publicity period of the film industry at the end of the year, but this year seems to be a bit depressed.
Since the filming of 1997 "Party A and Party B", which can be regarded as the first New Year movie in China, Xiaogang Feng, the whole New Year file should never be so deserted.
By the end of 1 1 this year, China's total box office was only 165 billion, and countless filmmakers felt deeply in the circle of friends. The epidemic has set China's box office back ten years (20 1 1. 1 billion).
Since 1980s, the fifth-generation directors, represented by Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Tian Zhuangzhuang, have sounded the clarion call of China's films, and have been guiding and cultivating China's film audience's aesthetics and preferences as standard bearers.
More than a decade ago, there was a folk ranking of "Zhang Yi, Chen Er and Feng San" in the film circle, and this ranking will be changed by the real-time influence of the works made by the great directors of that year.
At that time, the film market was still dominated by a few people in the red circle. After all, at that time, those who could afford film art, rock art and literature art were basically big brothers and big daughters who carried on the family line.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Xiaogang Feng took turns to sit at the top of the film market, among which Xiaogang Feng, who is good at commercial films, topped the list.
If time goes back to 2005, you will find that Chen Kaige, whose box office was short, won the annual box office crown with the box office of Promise 1.8 1 100 million, even surpassing Jackie Chan's Myth, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and prequel trilogy.
Even the romantic musical "If Love" full of literary colors won 30 million box office that year.
Compared with Chen Kaige's Legend of the Demon Cat three years ago, the box office was 250 million, and the investment of 526 million was not enough to return the book, while the literary film Hello China released in Zhou Xun two years ago only ended tragically with a score of 7938 1 000.
If the box office market in China has not expanded at a rate of about 5 billion per year, we will really start to wonder if there is something wrong with the movie market.
13 years have passed. Is it because the market doesn't buy big directors and famous actors, or is it really time for the new generation of China films to change their old ones?
Let's take a look at the top ten annual box office lists of domestic films in the last five years.
Of the 50 films, only 15 was produced by famous directors from Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Among the fifth and sixth generation directors, only Zhang Yimou's The Great Wall and Xiaogang Feng's Youth are on the list.
Moreover, in these 50 films, more than one-fifth of the directors became monks halfway, and their previous identities included editors, actors, screenwriters, singers and so on.
Five of the directors are making movies for the first time. They are Wen Mu Ye, Wang, Rene Liu and Jiao Zi.
On this list, post-80s 13, post-70s 9, post-60s 13, post-50s 5.
The youngest director is Yao Tingting, born in 1986. Her film "I'm Waiting for You at the End of Time" was just released last month, earning more than 500 million box office. The oldest directors are Zhang Yimou and Tsui Hark, who were born in 1950.
From the genre point of view, comedy movies account for 44%, which has become the biggest guarantee for high box office.
In addition, there are some types of dramas that are light suspense and social reality, which have also become the secret recipe to ignite the market.
Comparing the film types made by great directors in recent years, Zhang Yimou's Return, Shadow One Second, Xiaogang Feng's I'm not Pan Jinlian, Fanghua, If I Don't Know, Chen Kaige's Legend of the Demon Cat, Jiang Wen's Evil Doesn't Press Right, One Step Away, these film types almost avoid all the market-winning keywords on this box office list.
In this way, a temporary box office disappointment seems inevitable.
Not only that, in terms of quantity, directors born after 1980s and directors born after 1960s have also reached a delicate balance in this list.
To some extent, this box office list means the transfer of power.
The first film in China's film history came from Jason Wu's Wolf Warriors 2, with great acting and great director. China's first sci-fi blockbuster "The First Experience of Electric Shock" was produced by the post-80s director Frant Gwo, China's first animated film was the screen debut of the post-80s director Jiao Zi, China's first film that perfectly combined social reality with commercial value, and it was also the debut of the post-80s cutting-edge director Wen Mu Ye.
These "new directors" have brought enough surprises to China's films, no matter from the breakthrough of theme, the innovation of mode, or the harvest of social practical significance and commercial value.
This was unimaginable in the film industry fifteen years ago.
Trying to compare the first five years after entering the Millennium with the top ten box office of domestic movies in the last five years, we will find that domestic movies have inadvertently completed a cultural sinking.
The film industry has advanced to an abnormal development state that can be driven only by capital without professional driving.
The change is not big, but the times first catalyzed the change of the film.
A large amount of capital and quick money have poured into the film and television industry, and the most valuable profession of directing has become a "I can do it" business in today's era.
Actors, screenwriters, writers, singers ... Anyone who has done some related industries in the film and television industry can sit behind the monitor and scold Fang Qiu.
It is true that there are countless bright prospects, but more are a lot of uneven bad debts.
Taking stock of the top ten domestic films in the box office in recent five years, the average douban score of these 50 films is roughly calculated as -6.5 1.
This is already a relief score.
Fortunately, although the market is deformed, in general, the audience still has the basic ability to distinguish.
But the failure of the big director is only because of the box office. Does the market choose to "abandon" them?
At the just-concluded 33rd Golden Rooster Awards Ceremony, two heavyweight nominations were particularly eye-catching, one from the winner and the other from the winner. The most amazing thing is that these two nominations came from the same movie-The Beneficiary.
On the day before the Golden Rooster Awards Ceremony, it was the organizing committee that presented the short-listed nominees with commendation certificates.
Host Dapeng and host Ada stood on the stage, which seemed a bit out of place with other finalists. People who accidentally cut into this video may think that this is the scene where they are filming the fifth season of Diers.
At this year's Golden Rooster Award, The Beneficiary won five nominations for best directorial debut, best actor, best actress, best art and best editing, and finally won the best directorial debut award for its director's Olympic bid.
Seeing the success of the Olympic bid, it is easy to think of Ning Hao 14 years ago.
Ning Hao, a newcomer who was still unknown at that time, was selected by the "Asian Rising Star Director" program initiated by Andy Lau. He won 3 million yuan for his debut film Crazy Stone and was shortlisted for the Golden Horse Award for Best Director.
Ten years later, in the autumn of 20 16, the bad monkey film company in Ning Hao launched a support plan for young directors who influenced the new film pattern in China. 1* *10 young directors joined, and the Olympic bid was one of the beneficiaries. The producer of his debut is Ning Hao, the initiator of this program.
Not only he, but also Muyewen is a rising star of this project.
The box office 3 billion "Can't survive" won him two best cutting-edge director/best director debut trophies, Golden Horse and Golden Rooster, and also brought back the first championship trophy in Xu zhēng's life.
The producer of this film is also Ning Hao, and of course, the leading actor Xu zhēng.
Moreover, the 20 19 annual box office ranking 10 "Sheep without Shepherd" was also directed by Sam Quah, who was produced by Chen Sicheng and was also shortlisted for the 33rd Golden Rooster Award for Best Feature Film.
Ceng Guoxiang, who has won the title of Zhou Dongyu twice and completed golden slam three times, is a new director who has only emerged in recent years.
Paul Hu, who won the Fabbrizi International Film Critics Award and the Golden Horse Award for Best Film at the 68th Berlin Film Festival, is also a new director.
No matter from the box office market or the artistic value of the film itself, these cutting-edge directors have already started a prairie fire.
Everyone used to believe in ensuring box office and guiding people. Now, these new directors can do the same.
Looking back on this box office list, compared with the popularity of genre films in recent years, Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, two writers and directors with strong personal styles and characteristics, were born in the best era of China films. They grew up in the most barren but energetic era in China, and experienced the unique scars and memories of social transformation, which doomed their works to be biased towards the projection and reflection of personal experiences and the imprint of the times, and would not make moves to please the market.
For example, the movie One Second, which is being shown in Zhang Yimou, has been commented that it is not so much a story with a sense of time as a love letter written by Zhang Yimou to the movie.
Zhang Yimou even wrote a personal letter for the film, including a sentence.
I will never forget a scene of watching a movie when I was a child. I am secretly excited and happy, just like dreaming.
Zhang Yimou used to dream in his own movies, and now he dreams in his own movies.
This is the function of a great director. For China's films, their role should be to guide, cultivate and awaken, not to submit and please.
For example, the interpretation of aesthetics and tragedy in Chen Kaige's films, and the annotation of times culture in Zhang Yimou's films.
However, regardless of whether or not the great director effect is still invalid, it is precisely because of their existence that these rising stars have jointly formed the new future of China films.