How did "Your Name" achieve box office revenue of over 100 million yuan in a single day and gain both good reputation?

  "Your Name." opened on December 2. According to Maoyan Professional Edition data, it earned 75.7473 million yuan in box office on the first day, accounting for 45.9% of the box office and 33.1% of the attendance. It should be noted that the film's first-day screening accounted for only 29.8%, which is not very outstanding. And because of the strong pull of "Your Name.", the market also opened with an impressive result of 165 million yesterday, a surge of 210%. So far, the film has earned 187 million yuan in box office, and the single-day box office is expected to exceed 100 million yuan, and the market has also risen to 237 million, which can be called the "savior of the market."

The film started its record-breaking journey in China, with the midnight screenings totaling 2.24 million, setting a record for the midnight screenings of 2D animated films in 2016 and ranking second in the history of imported animations; the pre-sales of the first weekend exceeded 55 million, winning the annual 2D film pre-sales championship. Currently, the film has set the second place in the first-day box office of imported animations and the first place in the first-day box office records of 2D animations.

It is reported that on Douban, more than 80,000 viewers gave the film a rating of over 9 points, and the film currently has a Douban score of 8.8. On Maoyan Movie, it even scored 9.8 points, which is the highest animation score in history.

1. The “least Makoto Shinkai” Makoto Shinkai is so beautiful that the audiences are moved. Will he be aiming for an Oscar in the future?

Some viewers said that compared with Makoto Shinkai's previous works, Your Name is the "least Makoto Shinkai" work. The problems that Makoto Shinkai has always been criticized for, such as confusing narrative and lack of character modeling, are completely absent in this film, reaching a new height that Makoto Shinkai has never achieved before.

Makoto Shinkai's previous works all had unhappy endings, but this time the ending is very heartwarming. According to the director in a previous "roadshow", "When preparing this film, it coincided with the post-311 earthquake in Japan. The people were in a low mood and needed spiritual comfort. Therefore, the ending was set to be brighter, hoping to give the audience some encouragement and hope."

It is reported that the production team of this film is unprecedentedly strong. They include Masashi Ando, ​​who has participated in the production of works by Hayao Miyazaki and Satoshi Kon, Masaga Tanaka, who is good at character design, and designers from Toho Studios, etc. And absorbing more of the "essence" of Japanese comics also makes its works show more exquisite beauty.  

But Makoto Shinkai still sticks to his most distinctive creative features. For example, the themes of time and space interweaving and communication barriers are fully reflected in this work. The director continues to tell a touching and fresh love story, and the popular elements of time travel and body swapping are also included in this work. One netizen summarized his story as "a story about an underage girl who wakes up and finds that a strange man has entered her body." Although such a story is not too "innovative", it is enough to make girls cry and boys cry in the theater, which is enough to show his sensational skills.   

The biggest advantage of Makoto Shinkai's animations is their impeccable wallpaper-like images. Unlike other Japanese animation directors, Makoto Shinkai's works are all shot from real scenes, and then the colors and details of the images are adjusted and rendered using software. This makes his style more delicate and beautiful, and the details are also highlighted to the greatest extent possible.

In "Your Name.", Makoto Shinkai deliberately used some depth of field, vignetting, fisheye, and out-of-focus lenses, combining two-dimensional and three-dimensional. Some pictures are as realistic as real-life photos, but show a more refined beauty.

Makoto Shinkai previously concluded that the reason for the global box office success of "Your Name" was that it found a balance between audience needs and self-expression.   

"Your Name." not only successfully became a "global box office harvester", but was also successfully shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film. With its outstanding global box office contribution and extremely high audience reputation, many people believe that this film has a great chance of winning the Oscar.

2. "Your Name." may just be the "beginning", and may it open up a larger Japanese anime market in the future?

December has become the last chance for major film and television giants to hit their annual performance targets, and major companies have invited their main players to participate, such as LeTV's "The Great Wall", Huayi's "The Wasted Time", Bona's "The Swordsman" and "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children".    

Guangguang undoubtedly adopted a "multi-insurance" strategy. For example, at the beginning of the month, Your Name took the lead, in the middle of the month, Su Youpeng's The Devotion of Suspect X and the co-production with Tencent's Youth, two small and medium-cost films, continued to stir the market, and at the end of the month, Wang Baoqiang's directorial debut Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons 2 successfully concluded.

Now that Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons 2 has been rescheduled, Guangguang seems to be under more pressure than ever before. However, the film's performance in the first two days of its release can give Guangguang peace of mind. With its strong performance, it is expected to compete with the focus film The Great Wall in mid-December.

It is reported that as many as 9 Japanese anime have landed in China this year, including some IP sequels, such as the latest theatrical version of "Crayon Shin-chan", the currently showing "Detective Conan: Darkest Nightmare" and "One Piece: Gold".

As the global box office of animated films continues to rise, Japanese anime, which targets adults as the main audience, undoubtedly has a huge advantage. After all, it is adults who play a decisive role in the box office contribution of theaters. In a previous interview, Makoto Shinkai, the director of "Your Name.", positioned the audience of his work as those over 25 years old.

Although Japanese animation is still very prosperous, it is undeniable that without the "leader" Hayao Miyazaki, Japanese animation is still on a decline. In addition, the strong impact of Hollywood's 3D family animation and European animation has also made it urgent for Japanese animation, which lacks strong special effects support and has a long time span for hand-painted creation, to find a market outlet.

Today, "Your Name." is a global hit, and it has undoubtedly become a reliable fulcrum. Next year, more Japanese animation may enter the Chinese market. At last year's founding press conference, Color House Pictures, a subsidiary of Enlight Pictures, announced a list of 13 animation companies it invested in. In the future, animation may also become a more prominent module in Enlight Pictures' "performance".

3. Will more "niche" films follow the template of unpopular masterpieces in the future?

In fact, every year, there are always some successful cases where films gain popularity online and are subsequently introduced to China. However, due to the rampant piracy of Chinese online resources and the narrow audience, most films have mediocre box office performance in China. This time, the various promotional methods used by "Your Name." may provide inspiration for more films.

The release date of "Your Name." was announced very soon before its release, but the results were relatively amazing. Because the animated film lacks a strong promotional point, its promotion before release is even more difficult. This time, the leading importer, Guangguang, worked with Dongbao to facilitate the "roadshow" of director Makoto Shinkai in China. Makoto Shinkai's name has long been known to many fans, and many fans are naturally looking forward to it. In the industry, Makoto Shinkai's visit to China has set off a wave of discussions about animation creation.

In addition to the roadshow with celebrities participating, the film also asked the Mayday band to create the film's Chinese promotional theme song "Want to Write You into a Song". This method is actually not popular in other niche films. And because of the filter, it became popular in WeChat Moments, which is something other films have never thought of. This also fully demonstrates that the film importer uses the attributes of the film to promote it.

According to industry insiders, Maoyan Films, a subsidiary of Guangxian Holdings, has provided a large-scale and high-value ticket subsidy for "Your Name." - there is no limit on the number of tickets during the pre-sale period, and each ticket costs only 10 yuan. This also made the pre-sale box office of this film exceed 55 million, successfully "warming up" the film.

In addition, Bilibili officially posted a notice before, "This is the first time that Makoto Shinkai's film has been released in theaters in mainland China. The first thing that came to our mind is that there are many Makoto Shinkai fans on Bilibili. In the past few years, a total of 4,131 users have watched Makoto Shinkai's animation works on Bilibili. We think these users should be the first to see "Your Name" in China, so we planned an event to invite these 4,131 users to watch the movie for free."

It is reported that Bilibili cooperated with Wanda Cinema Line to book 465 screenings of "Your Name" at Wanda Cinema Line on December 3, with a total of 110,334 seats.

Whether it is the traditional "roadshow" and large-scale ticket subsidies, or the Chinese version of the promotional theme song or the unexpected popularity of filters and the "booking" of the B station to give away tickets, we can see that in a short period of time, the importer used all available promotional points to build momentum for the film. Not only did it increase the expectations for the film in China, but it also successfully boosted the overall market.

"Your Name." may have been "repeatedly" watched by fans online, but the fact that audiences are willing to go to the theaters to show their support can still be seen as the "unremitting efforts" in the early stages of the film. This may also provide more reference for some less popular films that are not dominant.   

The core of a film's competition is of course that "content is king", but the choice of release date and early publicity are equally important. Animated films have always been very popular, and "Your Name" may just be a "beginning", and it may still bring greater surprises to the audience.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.