Why are there so many bad domestic movies this year?

Discussing the quality of a film is a somewhat subjective topic, but at least judging from the relatively popular audience evaluation based on Douban fan ratings, the good films that remained in the audience's mind in 2015 include "The Master", "Labyrinth of the Heart", "Here is the Return of the Great Sage", "Mr. Six", "The Burning Sun", "12 Citizens", "A Spoon" and other films, and their ratings are all around 8 points.

What about this year? More than eight months have passed, and judging from Douban, there are very few domestic films that can pass the passing score of 6. According to statistics from Zhihu netizen "Liu'er", among the 170 domestic films released from January to early August this year, 93% of them scored below 7 points. With 2 points being the lowest Douban score, there were 64 films with a score below 3.5, and 122 domestic films with a score below 5, accounting for 71.8% of the released films.

Let's move our focus to the present - the summer season with 90 films released can be described as a disaster. Films such as "The Legend of the Gods", "Baby Boss", "Sicily of Lies", "My Best Friend's Wedding" and many others were rated 5 points or even 4 points or below 3 points.

Of course, bad movies are made every year, but why are there so many this year? What do they have in common? Should the IP, the young actors, or the "debut" director take the blame? Yiyuguancha (WeChat ID: yiyuguancha) sorts them out for you.

IP movies started off hot but ended sadly

Let’s first look at this set of Douban rating data:

"Summer in the Sky", 5.4 points;

"Grave Robbers' Chronicles", 4.9 points;

"Go Fighting: Royal Treasure", 4.4 points;

"So You Are Still Here", 4.0 points;

My New Sassy Girl, 3.4 points;

"Legend of the Gods" scored 3.1 points.

None of these movies scored more than 6 points out of 10. What do these movies have in common?

They all involve a Chinese film industry term that was extremely hot last year: “IP”.

"Summer Is Here", "Grave Robbers' Chronicles", and "So Young: You Are Still Here" all have novels of the same name, "God of War: Royal Treasure" has a popular variety show behind it, and "Legend of the Gods" is backed by the nationally famous novel "The Investiture of the Gods". The novels and variety shows behind these movies are all lumped together into a term that even Hollywood filmmakers don't quite understand: "IP".

What is an IP movie?

Douban netizen m89 gave a very vivid explanation: "The capital is so anxious that it is feverish + the original author who is full of money-grabbing + the screenwriter who can only copy and paste + the art director pretending to be the director + the "cult leader" and his followers = the audience who accepts everything."

Who is more keen on investing in IP movies?

Almost all companies in the industry talk about IP, and some new entrants of capital and companies are particularly eager to buy IP and sell IP movies.

• In addition to Shanghai Film Group, the attractive IP of "Grave Robbers' Chronicles" also includes Southern Capital and Xiaomi Interactive Entertainment, which were established in early 2014, and LeTV Pictures, which was established in late 2011.
  

• Shanghai Ruyi Film and Television Production Co., Ltd. and Shandong Jiabo Cultural Development Co., Ltd., which invested in "Summer Is Here", were both established in 2013. Jiabo Culture's main works include the third and fourth parts of "Tiny Times" and "So Young 2", while Ruyi Film and Television's production list includes a large number of IP movies, "So Young", "Old Boy", "Tiny Times 3" and "Eternal Love" which is currently in production.
  

• Ferris Wheel Culture, which invested in and participated in "My New Sassy Girl" and "Go Fighting: Royal Treasure", was established in 2010.

Chen Shaofeng, deputy director of the Institute of Cultural Industries at Peking University, said in an interview with Yiyuguancha that in addition to the fact that this year is a "small year" with few good films, the main reason is the current money-oriented mentality of the domestic film industry. "The film industry was very hot in the past two years, which led to a lot of investment from outside the film industry. However, a large part of these investments came in with the mentality of making quick money, resulting in the obvious "joke-like and entertainment-oriented" mentality of many domestic films. Domestic films as a whole are too obviously driven by business, and are on a downward slope as a whole."

In fact, if you take a closer look at the producers of a film now, you will find that there are five or six or even more than ten. Among them, there are not only new and old film companies, but also various capitals with words such as "fund" and "investment".

The impetuous atmosphere seems to have also affected some big-name or old-line film companies. Wanda's "The Quick and the Furious" this summer suffered a failure in both word of mouth and box office, while "Legend of the Gods", which Bona participated in and attracted a large number of stars, caused nationwide complaints.

A person from a film investment company told Yiyuguancha that the market has been relatively good in the past two years, with a large influx of external capital. The investment and financing pressure on many film projects is less than before. Overall, there are many people who want to make quick money, and the atmosphere is more impetuous than in previous years. Therefore, even old film companies will be affected in their mentality.

We do not think that new film and television companies and capital will not bring high-quality products. For example, Jiabo Culture, which participated in the investment of "Summer Is Here" and the last two parts of "Tiny Times", also participated in the well-received "A Spoon". But generally speaking, the "newcomers"' rush for IP movies and the erratic quality of the films are obvious manifestations of the current market. .

In fact, for domestic moviegoers, the bad movies under the effect of hot money may not recede immediately after this year, and it is very likely that this year is just the beginning. Since December last year, the number of film projects has increased sharply by 100 to 200 per month, and during this year's Shanghai Film Festival, a number of film companies, including more than a dozen newly established film companies, announced a list of more than 400 films.

With so many projects, on the one hand there is a talent gap, and on the other hand how many audiences are needed to digest them and help these enthusiastic companies recover their costs?

"Fresh meat" is popular, so the movie is of course half-baked

For a movie, if the IP is over-emphasized, it is easy to ignore the elements other than the fan economy, such as the professionalism of the director and actors. In addition to the "group" movies that attract a group of stars, there are more and more movies starring "fresh meat" entertainment stars who are not professional filmmakers, which has become one of the main reasons for the popularity of bad movies this year.

The previous film had already earned more than 700 million yuan at the box office three years ago, but the sequel "So Young" starring Wu Yifan only grossed 335 million yuan. The film was also criticized by netizens as "the story is not well told, and an idol like Wu Yifan who has not received professional acting training, without the supervision of a big director, his performance is completely out of tune"; "The Lost Tomb" starring Lu Han was also commented by netizens as "awkward close-ups throughout, whether it is Lu Han's acting skills or Ma Sichun's dubbing".

Screenwriter Wang Hailin believes that the "big IP + young actors" model is worthy of caution. Young actors do not need acting skills, and dramas do not require skills. All they need is IP. Movies created in this way have no technical threshold and can be quickly copied. It is a de-technological tendency and is of no benefit to the film industry.

"For fan-oriented IP movies, fans can only guarantee a part of their consumption. How much box office revenue can be ultimately generated still depends on the movie itself and is determined by the overall quality of the movie. It is not a bad thing if non-professional stars can be used well to make good movies. However, for many domestic investors, whether it is a story IP or a fresh-faced star, they only care about the support of the fan economy behind it, rather than how to make a good movie. Therefore, the 'IP+fresh-faced star' model is more likely to produce bad movies in China. The star pay for such movies is generally very high, but sometimes the box office is not low, which is a harm to the industry." An industry insider analyzed in an interview with Yiyuguancha.

In fact, it is not terrible for “fresh meat” actors to be in the limelight, as the actors at least have the appeal to fans. What is terrible is the “fresh meat” directors who may turn the entire film into a disaster.

Sun Jianjun, who made his film directorial debut three years ago, turned "The Secret: Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" into a feast of complaints from netizens. Now, Xu An, who has a background in special effects technology, is making his film directorial debut, and "The Legend of the Gods" has also caused complaints from the whole nation.

When talking about the collective inaccuracy of the leading actors in the film, a director even expressed his anger to Yiyuguancha, "The director himself must first have sufficient skills and experience. How can you guide the actors if you haven't even taken an acting class? At present, some cross-border directors are blindly directing, and the actors can only follow blindly."

“For a good movie, every shot has to be carefully crafted, and every minute of editing requires repeated consideration. Directors who come from special effects or other fields will definitely lack in directing performances and storytelling. The main reason why these people can become directors without receiving professional training is the lack of directors in the industry,” the above director analyzed.

In fact, the lack of directors is already a commonplace issue. Wang Changtian said in a media interview this year, "The Chinese film industry is short of about 200 directors. China now has about 300 films released in theaters each year, and basically needs 300 relatively mature directors. But I have looked at the entire industry and found that there are only about 100 directors that can be used in the market, and Guangguang can only cooperate with 50 to 60 of them. This shows how big the gap in good directors is."

Chen Shaofeng also believes that the use of new actors and directors in many films also exposes the lack of talent in the domestic market. "The domestic film industry needs to slow down and build a long-term development mechanism. The impetuous atmosphere of wanting to enter this industry and make a fortune is not beneficial to the development of the industry."

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.