The journey to Middle-earth has come to an end, but female consumption has just begun

The extended version of the third part of "The Hobbit", The Battle of the Five Armies, was released at 7:30 p.m. on October 5 at some AMC theaters in North America . The iTunes version was also launched simultaneously. Although the official release of the Blu-ray of the extended version will not be until November 3 , for Middle-earth fans, since the Tolkien Estate will no longer sell the relevant copyrights, the 17- year long Middle-earth screen journey has come to an end.

The six movies have become eternal, the beginning and the end. Legolas dismounted and looked back, Lindir caught a glimpse, the elves of Helm's Deep fell, and the farewell of Lindel... In the minds of the audience, they defined what elves are, what beauty is, and what love is. Even Elrond's forehead, Gandalf's wrinkles, and Saruman's singing will never fade from memory.

The fresh meat that was praised  

Some say that Tolkien spread out a piece of parchment, dipped it in thick ink and built his own world on the white paper. In this world that started from the secret fire, the firstborn children favored by the gods stood at the peak of appearance, followed by humans and dwarves. Tolkien has always been generous with his praise for the appearance of the male characters in his works. It can be said that Peter Jackson did his best to search for "fresh meat" with both good looks and acting skills in order to restore the appearance of the Middle-earth world.

Speaking of the "fresh meat" that Peter made famous, it must be the elf father and son Orlando Bloom and Lee Pace. Orlando, who graduated at the age of 20, played Legolas. As soon as he appeared on the screen, he captured the hearts of countless girls, who fantasized about becoming his girlfriend; and ten years later, countless girls dreamed of becoming his stepmother... Lee Pace, who was not famous before, became popular all over the world with the role of Thranduil.

Thranduil, who is not the protagonist or even the main supporting character, became famous overnight. We have to praise the action and influence of female fans. It is not surprising that the peripherals related to the two were sold out overnight and sold at high prices in the second-hand market.

Consumption driven by appearance

With such good looks, how could a mere 144 minutes of film satisfy the hungry audience? The extended edition is Peter's weapon to make another fortune. The pre-order page of the Blu-ray extended edition was crowded with fans as soon as it was launched, and the signed edition was sold out within minutes - according to unknown statistics, more than half of the fans who bought the signed edition were female fans. You should know that the extended edition of The Battle of the Five Armies is only 20 minutes longer than the regular edition, but it is still the shortest of the Hobbit film trilogy.

Of course, for fans, the extended version is not enough no matter how long it is. Peter has a disease, called: I told you that I have filmed all these but I just won't show them to you. God knows how many clips of male gods bathing in divine light and how many clips of male gods being willful and crazy are hidden in his hard drive. Fans, especially female fans, are crowdfunding to find hackers to hack Peter's hard drive! With so many resources in hand, Peter is not afraid of not being able to get money out of the pockets of female fans.

Let's talk about the box office, which is the most important to investors: The Lord of the Rings trilogy invested $ 426 million and the box office was $ 2.8988 billion; The Hobbit trilogy invested $ 461 million and the box office was $ 2.9168 billion. The female fans who made a huge contribution to this were those who watched the movies twice, three times, or even five times. Pretty crazy, isn't it?

From "male sex consumption" to female-oriented consumption

Spreading from these "fresh meat" with high appearance value, "appearance" has expanded to the consumption level. The main body of following, evaluating and consuming "appearance" has begun to shift to women, and "appearance consumption" has completely become women's consumption of "male beauty".

Today's women have the right to be independent in terms of economy, and their love of beauty makes them the main consumers of entertainment. Female consumption represented by "male beauty consumption" has arrived unknowingly. Look at Li Yifeng, Chen Xuedong, EXO , TFboys , etc., who occupy major portals and popular Weibo. Businessmen with a keen sense of smell have long caught this wave of male beauty.

Society is progressing, and the essence of female consumption derived from "male sex consumption" is not simply to let handsome men serve women. In the consumer culture concept of consumerism, the core value is "consumption". In a consumer society with abundant material resources, the ultimate goal of "male sex consumption" is to attract female consumption and win the attention of the economy.

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.