Self-media communication made "The Monkey King: Hero is Back" a box office miracle

When Lost in Thailand suddenly became popular for no apparent reason three years ago, I wrote an article calling it a milestone in social media detonating the box office. This just-okay domestic comedy set several domestic film box office records thanks to the popularity of topics on Weibo, and even the market value of its investor, Light Media, soared.

This year's "The Monkey King: Hero is Back" is another milestone. If the success of "Lost in Thailand" belongs to Weibo, then "The Monkey King: Hero is Back" belongs entirely to WeChat, but they are both successful products driven by self-media.

By last weekend, the box office of "The Monkey King: Hero is Back" exceeded 400 million in 9 days, and it seems that it is no problem to surpass the 612 million box office record of "Kung Fu Panda 2". No one could have imagined the surging box office of this domestic animation, because just two weeks ago, no one knew about this work. In just a few days, the popularity of "The Monkey King: Hero is Back" is comparable to the effect of spending 200 million on advertising on CCTV. After "The Monkey King: Hero is Back", companies that still ignore self-media communication will definitely be far behind the times - except for those who don't need communication at all.

The producers said they were losers and couldn't afford to hire a troll army, so the word of mouth from social media was all "tap water". This is half credible and half uncredible. The credible half is that the producers must be losers and don't have much money for large-scale publicity, but the uncredible half is that they must have done something, at least on the WeChat public account, they released a lot of materials, clips, etc., which released the first driving force for the social media topic to take off.

Of course, I have always believed that purely relying on human factors will never create a phenomenon-level hot topic on the Internet. The right time and place are more important factors. Objectively speaking, "The Return of the Great Sage" is definitely not a milestone work in art. It is just qualified and of normal quality. However, the Chinese audience's praise for a normal work is a contrast to the mentality of the masses who have suffered from Qin for a long time. It can be seen how seriously the many brain-dead domestic works before have destroyed the minds of the audience, so that they cheered enthusiastically for a domestic work of average quality and spread the word.

Domestic films such as "Let the Bullets Fly" and "Lost in Thailand" have both set off social media fire, but the most spectacular scene in the viral spread of word-of-mouth was performed by the army of "tap water", which completely established its reputation and prestige. This was a milestone. If it is to be replicated, the background and roots behind it are worth exploring.

An important background before the explosion of "The Return of the Great Sage" was the long-term plight of domestic animation, and the fact that this plight was gradually known to the mainstream population. Therefore, when forwarding articles praising "The Return of the Great Sage", everyone was filled with sympathy, a sense of justice, and expectation, and the message spread from ten to a hundred, a hundred to ten, and ten to ten. It fits with the good side of human nature and makes everyone willing to lend a helping hand.

For example, even a financial account we run, "Zhengshang Neican" (zsnc-ok), with about one million followers, was actively used as a "tap water" in this way. As shown in the picture, it used the following title:

Among them, "Chinese animation can be so awesome" is the core emotional resonance factor and the main driving force for forwarding. Although this WeChat post was placed last, it eventually received nearly 50,000 views and about 2,000 forwardings. Similar forwardings are everywhere on WeChat.

Behind the box office miracle of "The Return of the Great Sage" is the retaliatory expression of love and praise by long-disappointed fans, but before the advent of social media, these love and praise were just saliva, but now, driven by self-media, it has finally formed a huge wave of "tap water".

Finally, topics alone cannot constitute box office and purchasing power. The counterexample is "Private Tailor". You must cater to topics that have "positive energy" and are in line with the goodness of human nature.

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.