When the global film market is singing the praises of "Mind Squad 2", this animated blockbuster, which may become the first "1 billion club" movie in 2024, was completely stunned by Chinese audiences.
This "Mind Squad 2", which was released in North America for 10 days, broke $355 million at the box office, and the global box office exceeded $748 million, and performed well in Italy, France, Mexico, Argentina and other Western markets, and even the box office of "Mind Squad 2" in the kimchi country next door to us also reached $30 million.
And the market on our side is obviously a little indifferent to "Mind Agent 2", which has barely broken 100 million after 6 days of release.
For such an embarrassing phenomenon, Disney has a question mark: What do Chinese like?
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Although this set of dialogues has a bit of ridicule on both sides, one thing is still obvious, that is, Hollywood movies in recent years, Chinese people really don't like to pay for them.
My inner feeling is that I have been watching "Transformers", "Avengers" and "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" since I was in school, but now that I am a parent, Hollywood is still making these things, and it will always be the three axes.
Even if they innovate, they just turned "The Little Mermaid" into a black version, seriously provoking our Chinese aesthetics, and our fans' perception of Hollywood Western films has also changed: expectation - not very good - what things, to the end of the current indifference.
In the past few years, in addition to "Avatar 2", which has sold a relatively satisfactory box office result, "Dune 2", which has been blown up this year, has also won 3+ billion mainland box office, which is more than "Man Jianghong", "The Wandering Earth 2" and "Disappearing Her" can not be compared with the box office of billions at every turn.
In fact, in terms of fair roles, there have been many good works in Western films in recent years, but this kind of "disapproval" of mainland audiences has seriously affected the popularity and box office results of Western films.
"Mind Squad 2" is obviously a victim of this.
In 2015, Pixar's original film "Mind Agent" can be said to be amazing, this cartoon is not only the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, Golden Globe Best Animated Feature, but also other related awards with high gold content.
The film is full of imagination, and under the appearance of a young adventure story for children, the film is an extraordinary imagination and creativity from life that only adults can experience.
Core Memory, Personality Island, Abstract Space, Dream Studio, Subconscious Prison...... Nine years later, I can still remember many images in Riley's mind, especially the romantic and sad moment when her childhood friend "Popsicle" voluntarily fell into the memory landfill.
"Mind Squad" is Pixar's first animation without a villain, and it is also one of the top masterpieces of Disney and Pixar.
The second season continues the theme of Riley's growth, as she enters adolescence and enters a new environment, where her former close friends are about to separate from her, and the habitual sense of security given to her by friendship suddenly collapses during this time period, and her emotions become more complex, more enthusiastic, and even out of control.
Self-confidence has also fallen from the highest point to the lowest point.,In the bottom of my heart, I'm still a child.,I like to watch preschool animations; On the one hand, she longs for the senior sister who dyes her hair, disguises herself as cool as the senior sister, and anxiety and low self-esteem occupy all of her life.
In the new environment, in order to win the approval of the captain of the ice hockey team, Riley gives up her original likes and dislikes, completely changes her self-consciousness, and does not hesitate to abandon her former friends and denigrate the band they love
But in doing so, Riley's identity anxiety has not only not been alleviated, but further aggravated. These anxieties and emotions in the movie are not only shared by Westerners, but also by Chinese society.
In particular, the film tries to analyze this complex "growth" to the audience with a scientific and equal attitude, telling us that adolescence is not a flood beast, it is an upgrade of our brain system, leading our body to complete a deeper exploration of the world.
In essence, the theme of "Mind Agent Team 2" was not wrong, and the screenwriter and production are excellent, which can be seen from the current Douban score of 8.4 in "Mind Agent Team 2", and the audience maintains a recognized attitude towards this animated film.
However, the content of animated films with growth anxiety such as "Mind Agent Team 2" has never been a box office darling in China.
Take the highly regarded "Mind Agent" as an example, it has won so many awards around the world, and it has a high reputation of popularity, and it did not get 100 million at the domestic box office in 2015.
So at present, "Mind Agent 2" got 100 million in 6 days after its release, which is already a good result for a growth movie, and it doesn't matter how much the movie itself has to do with it.
You can look at the box office of our domestic film genre to analyze, comedy, main theme, and crime movies are currently the most popular, and unless other types of movies are absolute classics, it is difficult to balance the audience's taste and harvest a large number of audiences.
If Western movies really ask: what does the Chinese market like to watch? I can only answer you: "Whatever it is!" ”