As the first Hollywood blockbuster to be introduced in 2022, “The Matrix 4” has attracted much attention from domestic audiences, but its box office performance is “indescribable.”
On January 14, 2022, “The Matrix 4” will be released in mainland China. According to the data of Maoyan Professional Edition, the box office from January 14 to January 16 was 17.124 million yuan, 18.803 million yuan, and 11.71 million yuan respectively, totaling 64.761 million yuan.
As of the press release, Maoyan Professional Edition data shows that “The Matrix 4” only ranks fifth at the box office, and the top four are all domestic films.
“The so-called ‘Hollywood’ movies may have fallen from the altar.” Wang Peng, an associate professor at Renmin University, accepted the “Hollywood”securitiesA reporter from the Daily said in an interview: “As China’s economic strength continues to increase, the younger generation has more profound ideas about new technologies, social realities and thinking about the future, and no longer ‘looks up’ to the so-called imported films; And Hollywood blockbusters lack innovation and overly identical routines, which also causes audiences to experience aesthetic fatigue, making it difficult to resonate with the younger generation.”
The main creators are all back
Film critics are polarized
“There are two pills in front of you. The red pill represents the real but cruel reality, and the blue pill represents the virtual but beautiful dream. Which one do you choose?” After 18 years, the “Matrix” series has launched a sequel, including Starring Keanu Reeves, Carrie Ann Moss and other former creators have all returned, and one of the original directors, Lana Wachowski, personally directed the film.
December 4, “Warner Bros. Movies” officialWeiboA teaser trailer for the film was released, but there were few comments. According to the official introduction, the plot of the film follows “The Matrix 3”, and the protagonist Neo who lost his memory returns to the matrix: one is the daily world created by the matrix, and the other is the real human world. In order to find out whether the “reality” he is in is true or false, Neo has to make a choice again. He will rediscover himself and lead humans to continue to resist in the virtual world made by machines.
The reporter observed that the film critics are polarized. Some viewers said, “The sequel of pure feelings, the story adds some simple modern ideas to the past and tells it again, vividly interpreting what is called a dog tail sequel.” It’s about the difficult love of middle-aged people”, and even the director complained about the characters in the movie, “Didn’t you agree not to make a sequel to “The Matrix”?” But there were also many viewers who said, “It’s pretty good. , I like it very much, I am very moved.”
As of the press release, 59,000 viewers on a film review website gave an evaluation of 5.7 points, while the ratings of the first three films were 9.1 points, 8.6 points and 8.8 points respectively.
Chinese young playwright director Xiang Kai told reporters: “The Matrix 4’s cliff-like fall is reasonable. With the continuous improvement of audiences’ aesthetic values, Hollywood’s inherent cultural logic is no longer sought after by Chinese audiences.”
Shooting a sequel has become “fried cold rice”
The big IPs of the past “didn’t work”?
Some film critics believe that “The Matrix” has become a follower of forced IP adaptation from a pop culture maker back then.
Coincidentally, the largest IP movies of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “The Bourne Bourne” also “overturned” in the fourth sequel “by coincidence”.
Xiang Kai believes that in recent years, relying on big IP to cut “leeks” has made many producers taste the sweetness, and these so-called big IPs have not made any progress in innovation in recent years, from stories to characters and even proud of them. The spiritual core collapsed almost completely.
A professional movie fan told the reporter: “Successful trilogy is often planned in an orderly manner, the time interval is not long, the team remains fixed, the style is consistent, the world view is unified and complete, and there is a sense of interlocking, layer-by-layer advancement, and step-by-step in-depth look and feel. , it was done in one go. A lot of the fourth part was made by force, and the old IP was smashed, and some directors, screenwriters, and starring changed. The time gap is too long, it is difficult to be that flavor again, and the audience’s taste has changed. “
“There are fewer and fewer good stories, and the problem of Hollywood IP sequels is becoming more and more obvious. Hollywood’s lack of innovation has greatly reduced the quality of IP works, causing domestic audiences’ disgust.” Analysys senior analyst in the mutual entertainment industryanalystHu Yuxin said so.
Some people in the industry also believe that the box office performance of “The Matrix 4” was partially negatively affected by the online diversion effect. It is reported that at 3:01 EST on December 22nd (16:01 on December 22nd, Beijing time), HBOMax, a streaming media platform owned by Warner Bros., also launched the movie simultaneously.
However, it is inevitable that pirated resources also flow out immediately. The pirated resources about “The Matrix 4” on the Internet have already emerged in an endless stream.
In this regard, the above-mentioned industry insiders told reporters: “The results of the double-end screening have both advantages and disadvantages. However, the box office failure of “The Matrix 4″ also marks the complete end of the Warner Academy Network synchronization experiment.”
It is reported that “Wonder Woman 1984” is the first film of the synchronous experiment of Warner Academy Network, and the global box office has stopped at 166.5 million US dollars; now at the time of the strong recovery of the global theater chain, “The Matrix 4” still failed to achieve explosive growth, according to According to comScore, “The Matrix 4” grossed $69.8 million in 76 countries and regions.
“Hollywood fever” cools down in China
The rise of domestic films
As of the press release, Maoyan Professional Edition data shows that “The Matrix 4” ranked fifth at the box office. The top four are “Through the Winter and Embrace You”, “Manslaughter 2”, “Li Mao as the Prince”, and “The Great Movie of the Wangwang Team”, all of which are domestic films.
It is not new for Hollywood blockbusters to lose to domestic films. Hollywood’s share of China’s box office market has plummeted by 9.5 percent as of August 2021, according to consultancy ArtisanGateway.
In 2021, “Dune”, which is regarded as a sci-fi masterpiece, has a domestic box office of only 253 million yuan; as a classic IP with 24 works, “007: No Time to Die”, its box office is only 414 million yuan.
“This reflects the changes in the domestic audience’s viewing needs,” said Hu Yuxin: “In the past, audiences preferred to watch so-called ‘blockbusters’ that are more visually and audibly shocking, but today’s audiences are watching movies. I prefer to choose good works that can resonate emotionally with me and have a variety of story types. At present, some films have problems such as old-fashioned stories and weak storytelling, which has gradually cooled down the ‘Hollywood fever’ in China. In addition, due to the continuous impact of the epidemic, The difficulty in releasing overseas films has also led to a decrease in the number of imported films in the past two years, and a smaller proportion of good works.”
In contrast, domestic films, 2021Chinese filmThe whole line became popular, and the box office and the total number of screens both led the world. The box office in 2021 is 47.258 billion yuan, an increase of 125.3% compared with 2020; the total number of screens is 82,248, and the total number of screens on display is 1.7 times that of the North American market. Among them, the epic war “Changjin Lake” produced by China Movie Metropolis topped the annual list with a box office of 5.773 billion yuan.
Hu Yuxin believes that the overall production level of domestic films has been significantly improved in recent years, includingthemeMore diverse, the story is closer to life, and the special effects are more realistic, especially the reality-themed films, which are popular and popular. In the future, with the “14th Five-Year Plan”Chinese filmThe release of the development plan,Chinese filmThe creative market will get better and better.
(Article Source:securitiesDaily Network)
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