Spring Festival in 2024： Look down and pay attention to the ＂joys and sorrows＂ of ordinary people.

According to the data released by the National Film Bureau on February 18th, the box office of Chinese Spring Festival movies in 2024 reached 8.016 billion yuan, setting a new box office record for the Spring Festival movies, with 163 million people watching movies.

From YOLO’s Pegasus 2, which tells an inspirational life story, to Article 20, which shows the power of fairness and justice, to Boonie Bears: Time Twist &hellip, which shows childlike innocence; … This year’s Spring Festival movies are mainly provided by comedy types and animated films, which will drive the audience into the cinema to celebrate the New Year and promote the sustained recovery of China’s film market.

[Get eye-catching box office results]

This year’s Spring Festival holiday is slightly longer than in previous years, the film supply is abundant, the audience’s demand for watching movies has been fully released, and the box office and the number of people watching movies have reached new highs.

Specific to a single film, YOLO led the box office with 2.718 billion yuan, and the box office of Pegasus 2 also exceeded 2 billion yuan. Boonie Bears: Time Twist and Article 20 ranked third and fourth respectively in the box office list.

According to the survey of China movie audience satisfaction released by China Film Archive, the audience satisfaction score of this year’s Spring Festival stalls is 85.9, ranking second among the nine Spring Festival stalls surveyed since 2015.

Poster of the Spring Festival movie in a cinema in Hangzhou (photo by Xinhua News Agency issued by Long Wei)

"The Spring Festival movies reflect the creative concept of going deep into life and taking root in the people. The creators turn their eyes to the grand narrative and pay more attention to the life experiences and growth process of ordinary people." Zhifina, a professor at the China Academy of Art, believes that these films focus on realistic themes, echo the audience’s expectations for film works, and push the box office to continue to rise.

In terms of the audience, Chen Jin, a data analyst of Lighthouse Professional Edition, said that the box office share of third-and fourth-tier cities increased significantly this year compared with last year, and the number of family audiences increased significantly. "It can be said that the Spring Festival is still a significant’ sinking’ schedule, which will help to better stimulate the vitality of relevant markets." Chen Jin said.

In addition, relevant data show that the average ticket price of this year’s Spring Festival stalls has dropped significantly compared with last year. Under the guidance of Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Film Bureau and relevant departments of China People’s Bank, 11 financial institutions, including China Industrial and Commercial Bank, China Agricultural Bank and China Construction Bank, invested more than 30 million yuan in subsidies for movie viewing during the Spring Festival. Through full reduction, coupons, digital red envelopes and other means, the audience’s movie consumption gained tangible benefits.

[Comedy films are in full supply]

Throughout the Spring Festival in recent ten years, the head film is often supported by comedy, and whoever can lead the family fun will win the market. This year’s Spring Festival file is an out-and-out "all-staff comedy" Spring Festival file.

"Comedy elements cover almost all the new films released, and the audience laughs often and tears come from it." Li Xiaojun, vice chairman and secretary general of the Shanghai Film Association, analyzed that YOLO advocated living the "true self"; Pegasus 2 encourages people to stick to their dreams in middle age; "Article 20" profoundly reveals the emotion and temperature behind the legal provisions with comedy as the carrier, and the film focuses on the issues that people are concerned about at present, which is impressive.

Stills of the movie "Pegasus 2" (Photo courtesy of the film)

According to the satisfaction survey of movie audiences in China, YOLO’s main actors’ performances, the visual effects of Pegasus 2 and the positive energy of Article 20 have all been well received by ordinary audiences.

The audience also noticed that "The Movie Emperor", directed by Ning Hao and starring Andy Lau, reflected on all kinds of oddities in the current entertainment field in a humorous way. "Viva La Vida" also chooses to explore the contemporary youth’s outlook on life in a relaxed and humorous way, and the whole film is permeated with an optimistic attitude towards life.

Rao Shuguang, president of the China Film Critics Association, believes that comedy movies are just needed for the Spring Festival. During the Spring Festival, most of the audience walked into the cinema with a relaxed attitude, in order to "have fun." This year, we can see many comedies with thoughts and feelings appearing in the Spring Festival stalls, which brings confidence to the whole industry and is full of positive energy in the Spring Festival.

"Comedy movies can also make people cry. This reflects the kind of responsibility deeply rooted in the times when domestic films develop to a certain height. " Li Xiaojun said.

[Outstanding performance of animated films]

The outstanding performance of "Boonie Bears: Time Twist" in this year’s Spring Festival has attracted a lot of attention. On the first day of the film’s schedule, the box office score exceeded 200 million yuan, and the box office score reached 1.389 billion yuan in the final schedule.

"Boonie Bears: Time Twist" is the tenth film in the series of "Bears Come and Go". The creative team made further innovations in narrative and pictures, telling the story of Logger Vick who came to the metropolis to start his life again. In order to save Xiong Da Xiong Er, he started an adventure journey through time and space, which was close to daily life and integrated with animation, comedy, science fiction and other elements.

Stills of the movie "Boonie Bears: Time Twist" (Photo courtesy of the film)

As "frequent visitors" in the Spring Festival, the box office performance of the "Bear Haunted" series movies has been rising steadily, which is not only due to the parent-child audience base accumulated over the years and the habit of watching movies during the Spring Festival, but also closely related to the continuous pursuit of breakthroughs in film creation.

According to the analysis of relevant experts, with the increase of the age of the audience, the "bears haunt" has also been "growing up", breaking the boundaries of young age and gradually becoming more compatible in content, and trying to explore deeper topics by enriching narrative connotations and attracting audiences of different ages.

In fact, looking at the domestic animated films in recent years, from Ne Zha, to The New God List: Yang Jian, and then to Chang ‘an Three Wan Li, the creators of animated films have been actively exploring the content and expression, which has improved the technical techniques, narrative level and expression of domestic animated films, and also reflected the continuous development of China’s film industry.

In addition, The Lower Bound of Pig’s Tent, which tells the story of Pig’s growth, and Huang Qi: The Cat of the God of Wealth, which combines the festive elements such as the God of Wealth and the cash cow, also appeared on the big screen during the Spring Festival. The film draws nourishment from the excellent Chinese traditional culture, which sets off a jubilant movie-watching atmosphere and provides more choices for family movie-watching groups. (Reporter: Wang Peng, Xu Xiaoqing, Wei Yuyu)