How did the Internet help boost the box office success of movies like "Monster Hunt"?

The summer vacation is not even halfway through, but the domestic film market has already delivered an impressive performance. Last week was undoubtedly the craziest week in the history of the mainland film market: the single-day box office was 435 million, setting a new record for the single-day box office in the Chinese film market; the weekly box office reached 1.761 billion, breaking the single-week box office record in the mainland film market.

"Monster Hunt", "The Pancake Man" and "The Monkey King: Hero is Back" are the main forces driving the box office sales this summer, especially "Monster Hunt", which had a cumulative box office of over 1 billion yuan yesterday. The industry predicts that it will break the highest box office record for a mainland movie previously set by "Lost in Thailand" this weekend.

Box office success is inseparable from the improvement of domestic film quality and film consumption levels, but it cannot be ignored that the Internet is contributing more and more to the development of the film industry and box office growth. From investment, publicity, distribution to ticketing, the traditional film industry is increasingly dependent on the Internet.

Film investment: Internet companies are entering the market

In 2014, major domestic Internet companies and video websites took the first step to enter the film market. IQiyi Pictures, Youku Tudou, Tencent Video, and Alibaba Pictures quickly became new forces that could not be ignored in the industry. Yu Dong, president of Bona Film Group, even made the statement that "all future film companies will work for BAT." The voice of the Internet subverting the traditional film industry is becoming increasingly loud.

Movies invested by Internet companies have been released one after another and have been put on the market for market testing. However, this kind of crossover is not easy. In fact, last year, the movies invested or produced by video websites included relatively successful cases such as "Old Boy", but also box office failures such as "The Golden Age" and "One Step Away".

After the initial trial last year, Internet companies are trying to use their own advantages to integrate with the Chinese film industry and upgrade their models and gameplay. From the functional point of view, the role played by video websites is no longer satisfied with simple publicity and distribution or joint production and investment, but requires more dominance, and in-depth participation in project incubation, project establishment, investment, production and distribution.

"Although the development of the film industry is inseparable from the Internet, movies, as the crown product in the field of film and television entertainment, have very high requirements for creativity, creativity, capital intensity, and full-chain operational capabilities, and the investment risk is also quite high." Sun Zhonghuai, vice president of Tencent, once stated that Tencent Video will adhere to open cooperation, contribute unique full-platform operational capabilities, reduce risks and increase returns for partners, and promote good film projects to multiply the effect, value and influence.

The recently popular "Monster Hunt" is invested and deeply participated by Tencent Video. "Monster Hunt" is part of the "Add Wings to the Tiger" film plan released by Tencent Video in June last year. Since 2014, Tencent Video has invested in "Dragon Blade", "Monster Hunt", "Lost and Love", "Gardenia Blossoms" and other works.

In fact, in addition to "Monster Hunt", movies such as "See You Tomorrow", "The Pancake Man" and "Tiny Times" all have Internet companies with rich resources behind them. They not only invest in offline production, but also provide online interactive resources and marketing channels, using multiple platforms and channels to help promote the films.

Movie promotion: The Internet plays an indispensable role

Internet companies have communication channels that can easily reach hundreds of millions of people, and have become the most important promotional channel for film investors and producers.

Taking "Monster Hunt" as an example, in order to cooperate with publicity and marketing, Tencent Video's multiple self-produced programs cooperated in the production of video promotion. Tencent Entertainment and other Tencent portal channels also planned a large amount of related content, using the most core and heavyweight hard advertising resources to comprehensively recommend "Monster Hunt". It is understood that on the day of the movie's release, the Tencent Video App also sent a full push notification. On that day, the number of plays of the "Monster Hunt" album exploded, breaking the single-day traffic record for theater trailers.

In the process of film promotion, the changes brought about by the Internet are also reflected in social media. In the past, film promotion tended to be held offline, but now, while retaining the original promotion methods, online social channels such as WeChat and Weibo have become new fronts for film promotion.

Social media influences the audience through interpersonal relationships, and plays a role in changing the audience's attitudes and behaviors. Opinion leaders are part of the audience and can influence a part of the audience. They have a huge influence in communication activities and can achieve a communication effect of one person against a hundred or even greater.

During the movie promotion period, it is a common practice to let some "big V" on WeChat and Weibo post comments related to the movie. On the other hand, every participant in social media is also a receiver and transmitter of information. With a little "guidance", spontaneous dissemination is easy to occur. Compared with expensive advertising promotion, these are more effective.

The significance of social networks is not only to spread the film after it is released. Social networks have already begun to play a role since the film project was launched.

When a film project is launched, the director and creators often speak out through social platforms, interact with netizens, release news, and collect opinions; during the preparation period, they can also use social networking platforms to announce information, cast lineups, and plan related topics, and they can also create shadow accounts; during the shooting period, the film can post set photos and plan surrounding topics on social networks, allowing celebrity creators to interact with fans on social networks; during the production period, the topic can continue to ferment; the publicity period is even more critical, and they often find "big names" or some "jokers" on social networks to promote the film in conjunction with hot topics; and when it comes to the release period, word of mouth is spread through social networks, and various online activities are organized to help the film expand its influence.

Online ticketing: convenience + subsidies

When the audience's enthusiasm for watching movies is aroused and they want to go to the cinema, the maturity of online ticketing brings convenience to the audience and gives rise to impulse buying behavior.

In addition to not having to queue, many viewers are willing to go to the cinema because of the low prices offered by Internet ticketing platforms after subsidies.

"In the past, if you didn't have a student ID, the price of watching a 2D movie was about 60-80 yuan, and a 3D movie was even more expensive, about 120 yuan, which was too expensive," a student from the Beijing Film Academy told Tencent Technology. However, the rise of online ticket purchases has brought the cost of movies down to an acceptable level for people.

Tencent Technology found that, taking July 20 (Monday) as an example, WeChat Movie Tickets (Weipiaoer) cooperated with Wanda to launch a ticket rush, with 2D films in Wanda cinemas across the country priced at 9 yuan each and 3D films at 19 yuan each; Maoyan launched special seat selection starting at 19.9 yuan; Guevara launched a 68 yuan three-ticket package, Ping An Bank credit card 10 yuan movie watching and other activities; Taobao Movies offered limited 8.8 yuan and 18.8 yuan ticket rushes.

Obviously, online ticketing platforms are very busy this summer. The "battle of low-price movies" has already begun. It is reported that for films like "The Pancake Man" and "Monster Hunt", Taobao Movies will subsidize the lowest ticket price of 30 yuan plus 2 yuan (1 yuan system fee and 1 yuan ticket collection fee), and subsidize the theater 22 yuan.

Data shows that in 2013, online ticket sales only accounted for 8% of the total, but in 2014 it was close to 30%, with nearly 300 million people watching movies through online ticketing platforms. In March of this year, the transaction volume of online ticket sales exceeded offline sales.

Public data shows that in the first half of 2015, the total box office of the Chinese film market reached 20.363 billion yuan, of which online box office revenue (including online seat selection and group purchase) accounted for 62.5% of the total box office, of which third-party network agency box office accounted for 45.2% of the total box office. Online ticketing platforms have become an important channel for audiences to choose when consuming movies.

This situation is exactly the opposite of the United States. Ten years ago, American movie theaters and Internet companies introduced online ticket purchase functions, but today, only 13% of moviegoers choose to buy tickets online. In addition, audiences have to pay extra fees to buy tickets online.

In contrast, the generous subsidies from domestic online ticket purchasing platforms have indeed played an indelible role in the explosive growth of the Chinese film market box office.

Of course, with the implementation of the "Movie Ticket Marketing and Sales Specifications", the subsidy method will also be standardized. The "Specifications" stipulate that e-commerce and other sales agencies can actively carry out promotional activities, but the movie retail ticket price and event ticket price must not be lower than the agreed ticket price in the distribution and screening contract.

Movie content: Internet culture imprint

If the online ticket purchase and movie promotion mentioned above are external reasons, then the movie content is the internal reason for the high box office. Several popular movies in recent days have one thing in common: they are deeply imprinted with Internet culture.

The narrative strategies and content of movies are being integrated into the Internet era. As movies born in the Internet age, the content contains a kind of "nonsense", "cuteness", "diaosi culture" and various "Internet language" that the post-80s and post-90s have.

In fact, many full-industry chain operations based on Internet native IP are also emerging. Zhang Qiang, CEO of Alibaba Pictures, believes that since the main audience of movies are young people on the Internet, movies, from actors to lines, must meet their aesthetic tastes. Big stars and big directors are not a guarantee of box office success. In comparison, they are more willing to trust data such as sales, clicks, and word of mouth of popular literature.

The recent popular movies have indeed reworked the Internet culture. "The Pancake Man" is derived from the Internet drama "Diaosi Man". The film has a tonality that conforms to the characteristics and tastes of the times, enough to attract a large number of matching people, establish a community to meet their social needs, and establish a connection with users in all aspects. Only by understanding the culture of the Internet generation can we finally convert users and attention into more box office.

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.