According to statistics, as of 22 o'clock on April 6, the cumulative box office of Qingming files in 2024 will be nearly 840 million, which has successfully surpassed 822 million yuan in 2021, creating a new high box office in Chinese film history. "What kind of life do you want to live", "Godzilla vs. Kong 2: Rise of Empires", and "Kung Fu Panda 4", ranked among the top three at the box office of the schedule.
"The World of Grass and Trees", "Yellow Sparrow is Behind!", and "Let's Shake the Sun Together" ranked fourth to sixth in the 2024 Qingming box office list. With the blessing of new and old works, the Chinese mainland film market ushered in another round of movie-watching climax.
Animated film schedule three times in a row
It is not surprising that the Qingming file in 2024 will create a new high box office in the same period in Chinese film history.
On April 4, the box office on the first day of the 2024 Qingming Festival reached 366 million yuan, surpassing the box office of 309 million yuan on the first day of the Qingming Festival in 2021, creating a new high for the box office on the first day of the Qingming Festival in mainland film history. "What kind of life do you want to live", "Godzilla vs. Kong 2: Rise of the Empire", and "The World of Grass and Trees" won the top three at the box office on the day.
On April 5, the single-day box office of Chinese mainland film market reached 312 million yuan. "What kind of life do you want to live", "Godzilla vs. Kong 2: Rise of the Empire", and "Kung Fu Panda 4" have become the top three at the single-day box office. This pattern of ranking the top three at the single-day box office also continued until April 6.
The collective quality is online, which has become one of the important reasons for the box office of Qingming stalls to create a new high in 2024.
According to statistics, the average score of the top six Douban box office in the schedule is 7.1 points. Among them, "Let's Shake the Sun Together", "What kind of life do you want to live", and "Yellow Sparrow is Behind!" ranked among the top three in the word-of-mouth ranking of Douban scores with 7.9 points, 7.7 points, and 7.2 points respectively.
Hayao Miyazaki's farewell work "What kind of life do you want to live" lived up to expectations and won the box office championship. This is also the third consecutive time that an animated film has won the box office championship after "Elf Hotel 4: Transformation Adventure" in 2022 and "Lingbud Journey" in 2023. From 2018 to 2021 (except for 2020), live-action films won the box office of Qingming three times in a row.
As of 21:30 on April 6, "What kind of life do you want to live" has reached 398 million yuan. Hayao Miyazaki, who is over 80 years old, has inspired countless filmmakers with his spirit of moving forward on the road of film creation.
The film's title pays homage to the 1937 book of the same name by novelist Genzaburo Yoshino, but the story is entirely original by Hayao Miyazaki. In an interview, Miyazaki once said that he once thought it was a work that could not be completed in his lifetime.
The history of the Qingming file in the mainland film market is always strikingly similar. The first work of the "Godzilla vs. King Kong series" released in 2021 has won the runner-up at the box office of this schedule. "Godzilla vs. King Kong 2: Rise of the Empire", which was released after three years, will become the second place in the box office list of Qingming files in 2024.
The visual effects of the film bring the shock to the audience, which well makes up for the regret caused by the lack of plot. At present, the cumulative box office of the film has exceeded 600 million yuan, temporarily ranking first in the box office list of imported films in Chinese mainland in 2024. "What kind of life do you want to live" and "Dune 2" ranked second.
As the fourth film in the series, "Kung Fu Panda 4" failed to bring too many surprises to the market in terms of narrative rhythm and story structure. It is not easy for the film to achieve the third place at the box office in 2024 during the Qingming Festival. The cumulative box office of the film temporarily ranks fourth in the box office list of imported films in Chinese mainland in 2024.
The schedule is a thriller and horror movie, and it is difficult to find a hit
In terms of domestic films in the Qingming file in 2024, "The World of Grass and Trees", "Yellow Sparrow is Behind!", and "Let's Shake the Sun Together" performed well. All three films are realistic works.
Among them, Jiang Qinqin, Chen Jianbin and Wu Lei starred in "The World of Grass and Trees" is an anti-pyramid scheme work, focusing on social hot spots, and Han Yan's "Life Trilogy" finale "Let's Shake the Sun Together" focuses on the seriously ill people, using the lens to carve the warmth and coldness of the world. Both films have a certain relevance.
It is worth mentioning that "Let's Shake the Sun Together", which was withdrawn from the Spring Festival stall and re-screened, has a cumulative box office of more than 200 million yuan. According to statistics, the film was released for 6 days during the Spring Festival, and the box office was only 93.143 million yuan. This kind of phenomenon of withdrawing and re-screening the box office surpassing the box office of the first round of screenings is very rare. In between, the box office of "Chinese Ping Pong: The Jedi Strikes Back" and "Mr. Red Carpet" were not ideal.
The posthumous work "Snow Leopard" by Wanma Tsedan, a representative of Chinese-Tibetan-themed films, has a Douban score of 7.4 and a good reputation. The film has won the Golden Kirin Award at the 36th Tokyo International Film Festival. The film became the box office champion of the Tibet Autonomous Region for two consecutive days on April 5 and April 6. The nostalgia of the people in his hometown for this excellent director is vividly reflected on the big screen.
The only thriller horror film in the 2024 Qingming file, "Midnight Strange Talk", has a box office of just over one million in 3 days after its release. Throughout the past ten years, the number of such works is not only scarce, but also extinct.
According to statistics, since the statistics have been available, the highest-grossing film with thriller and horror elements in the Qingming file of Chinese mainland film history is "Pen Fairy Horror 3", which was released in 2014 and achieved a box office of 35.271 million yuan. In the past, most of these popular works appeared in the summer file. For example, "Notes on Tomb Robbery" and "Beijing No. 81", which were released in the summer of 2016 and 2014, achieved a box office of 1.003 billion yuan and 412 million yuan respectively.
The Qingming horror thriller is hard to find, which is not only related to the length of the holiday, but also closely related to the volume of the finalized works. For example, a work like "Midnight Strange Talk", which has no IP, no stars, and no large-scale publicity, is difficult to have a good market box office performance in any schedule.
In addition, since the birth of online movies in 2014, it has also caused a serious diversion to the audience of this type of film in the theater market. For example, online movies containing thriller and horror elements such as "Strange Tales of Yin and Yang Town", "Open the Coffin", and "Coffin Mountain Tomb" continue to be popular. Among them, "Strange Tales of Yin and Yang Town" has a box office of 40.414 million points, becoming the box office champion of online movies in 2022. Perhaps the horror thriller is the only genre film with box office gold content that surpasses the same type of cinema movies.
Bao Bell's self-directed and self-starred comedy "Big "Anti" faction has obvious advantages in schedule types. The film starred Wei Xiang, Jia Bing, Yu Yang and other comedy filmmakers. At the premiere of the film, Wang Baoqiang, Qiao Shan, Wu Yue and other celebrity friends also cheered for the director.
Although the film's starring cast is relatively luxurious, the box office trend of the film is not as expected. How to transform from a qualified comedian to a good comedy director, Bao Bell is still exploring.
As we all know, the Qingming file has the function of a barometer of the box office trend throughout the year. The popularity of the 2024 Qingming file is also a good sign for the box office trend throughout the year. With the blessing of the Qingming file, the box office of the Chinese mainland film market in April has exceeded 1.1 billion yuan, and the annual box office has exceeded 17.6 billion yuan.