《變形金剛4》瘋狂吸金 國內市場如何應對？
The new Transformers movie is breaking records left and right, but not everyone is happy about it.
Transformers: Age of Extinction, which opened in China on June 27, has been making waves at the Chinese box office. Its midnight opening screenings raked in 20.8 million yuan ($3.35 million), trumping the previous high of 13 million yuan set by Iron Man 3 a year ago. Its first-day tally of 196 million yuan nudged aside The Monkey King, which, just six months ago, grossed 122 million yuan on its first day of release. The new Michael Bay movie also set a new record in one-day sales with 214 million yuan.
Other records broken by Transformers 4, as it is popularly known in China, include: 63 percent of all screens for a single day, a record previously held by Feng Xiaogang's Personal Tailor (58 percent); and 614 million yuan in first-weekend grosses versus 468 million for the 3-D version of Titanic.
But this second number is more significant if compared with its US first-weekend total, which is $100 million according to Boxofficemojo, a website that counts box-office figures for all US films.
Factoring in currency conversion, 621 million yuan means the movie's performance in the United States seems to be slightly better than in the Middle Kingdom. But if 630 million yuan, a figure used by China Film News, a more official source, is chosen, its China performance actually edged ahead.
We do not need to quibble about such small discrepancies. All figures point to the undeniable popularity of the movie in China. Yet, in its home market it is not even considered a good popcorn movie for the summer season.
On Rotten Tomatoes, a US website that aggregates film reviews, it got only 17 percent positive reviews, and even audience members who liked it added up to just 60 percent. In comparison, China seems to be made up exclusively of "fans of loud, effects-driven action", to quote the website's definition of the blockbuster's target audience.
That was making Chinese regulators of the film industry quite uneasy. Just before it opened, Zhang Hongsen, director of film bureau under the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, admonished China's film exhibitors, telling them not to get carried away with excitement. Left to their own devices, he said, they would have given over all their screens to this one movie, which he said would be "irrational".
What Zhang had in mind is the ratio of contributions from domestic versus imported films.
Early this year, Chinese films were beating foreign competition hands down, pushing box-office numbers from domestic films comfortably past the half-way point and almost to 60 percent. In recent months, the overall ratio has been in precarious balance and now the latest installment of this Hollywood franchise is expected to tip the scale far in favor of imports.
From the perspective of a film critic, my concern is that the euphoria over setting new records is sending the wrong message to the public, i.e. only spectacle-oriented blockbusters are good movies. It does not really matter whether it is a Chinese release or one from Hollywood. The Monkey King is a terrible film and even its special effects are of poor quality. However, it made more than 1 billion yuan during the year-end holiday season.
The biggest irony in this round of face-off is worthy of a black comedy.
While Chinese film companies moved the schedules of their new releases to avoid a head-on collision with the Hollywood juggernaut, Enlight Pictures decided to tackle the beast with a screwball comedy. It put The Breakup Guru, a directorial debut by actor Deng Chao, in the same opening slot.
Everyone said this would be suicidal, but surprise, surprise, it returned 150 million yuan during its first weekend, a very respectable performance for this genre.
Wang Changtian, CEO of Enlight Media, explains that people had underestimated the power of the smaller cities where moviegoers have a special affinity for this kind of low-brow comedy. The high growth of new screens in recent years is concentrated in this market segment.
Coincidentally, this movie was attacked by a cultural authority who went to a preview. He says it is so tasteless and low-brow it should not qualify as a comedy.
Come to think of it, the best defense against a Hollywood blitz is not a quality film made in China, but a low-brow comedy that appeals to the basest of your laugh instincts. If you expand the vista to the past year or two, it is quite clear that the high growth of China's film market is correlated to the lowering of quality.
Not only is art-house fare relegated to the peripheral, but even quality drama helmed by A-list directors, such as Zhang Yimou's Coming Home that failed to reach 300 million yuan at the box office, is not enough to provide a semblance of counterweight for the barrage of trash hurled our way.
If you want to make a great drama film with no effects and no slapstick, wait a few years, say, 10 years, as I would often suggest to those who consult me.《變形金剛4》在各個方面都打破了紀錄，但並非所有人都對此感到高興。
《變形金剛：絕跡重生》自6月27日在中國上映以來，在中國的票房掀起了吸金狂潮。午夜首映場報收2080萬元（約合335萬美元），刷新了一年前《鋼鐵俠3》首映場創下的1300萬元票房記錄。1.96億元的首日票房刷新了六個月前《大鬧天宮》創下的1.22億元首日票房記錄。邁克爾·貝的這部新電影還創下了2.14億元的單日票房記錄。
衆所周知，《變形金剛4》在中國創下的紀錄還包括：以63%刷新了馮小剛《私人訂製》58%的單日排片紀錄；以6.14億元刷新了《泰坦尼克號》3D版4.68億元的首週末票房紀錄。
但如果與美國首週末票房的1億美元——該數據由美國一個統計票房數據的網站“票房魔咒”（Boxofficemojo）提供——相比，中國首週末票房數據更值得注意。
把貨幣兌換因素考慮在內，1億美元（約合6.21億元）意味着該片在美國的表現似乎比在中國好一點。但是如果選擇《中國電影報》使用的數據，同時也是更官方的數據來源——6.3億元，該片在中國的表現實際上略勝一籌。
我們不需要對如此小的差異吹毛求疵。所有的數據都不可否認地表現出該片在中國的火爆程度。然而，在其本土市場，該片甚至稱不上是一部好的夏季“爆米花電影”。
在美國影評網站“爛番茄”（Rotten Tomatoes）上，只有17%是正面評價，喜歡該片的觀衆數量也只有60%。相比之下，中國觀衆似乎都是由“喜歡喧鬧的特效打鬥場面的影迷”組成，這也是該網站對該片目標觀衆的定義。
這使得中國電影行業的監管人員感到十分不安。在《變形金剛4》上映之前，國家新聞出版廣電總局電影局局長張宏森勸告中國影院不要興奮得忘乎所以。他說，一些影院《變形金剛4》“恨不得排100%”，這是十分“不理智的”。
張宏森想到的是國產片與進口片市場份額的對比。
今年初，中國電影輕而易舉地打敗外國片，國產片的票房份額輕鬆超過50%，幾乎達到60%。近幾個月，國產片的總份額岌岌可危，而《變形金剛4》的上映扭轉了局面，使進口片份額佔上風。
從影評人的角度來看，我擔心的是票房創造新紀錄引發的狂喜向公衆發出了錯誤的訊息，如只有場面宏大的大片纔是好電影。這與該片是中國電影還是好萊塢電影毫無關係。《西遊記之大鬧天宮》是一部很糟糕的電影，甚至特效的質量都很糟糕。然而，該片在年終假期報收10億元票房。
這一輪對峙中最大的諷刺稱得上是一部黑色喜劇。
當中國電影公司都紛紛將其新電影檔期排開，避免與好萊塢超級大片產生正面碰撞，光線影業卻決定用一部神經喜劇正面迎擊。它將鄧超的導演處女作《分手大師》排在與《變形金剛4》同一天上映。
每個人都說這是自取滅亡，但大大出乎意料的是，《分手大師》首週末報收1.5億元，對此類影片來說，這個表現算是相當不錯了。
光線傳媒的首席執行官王長田解釋說，人們低估了小城市觀衆的份量，他們對此類低俗喜劇有着特殊的喜好。近年來新電影的高增長率主要集中在此部分市場。
無獨有偶，該影片被一名前去試映會的文化界權威炮轟。他說，該影片毫無品味且十分庸俗，不應稱作喜劇。
細想一下，在與好萊塢的閃電戰中最好的防禦戰略不是一部中國製作的高質量影片，而是一部觸發笑點的低俗喜劇。如果你回顧過去一兩年，十分明確的是，中國電影市場的高增長與電影品質的下降息息相關。
不僅藝術片處在邊緣，而且由頂級導演指導的高質量劇情片，如票房未能達到3億元的張藝謀作品《歸來》，也不足以對抗我們面臨的爛片攻擊。
我經常對那些向我請教的人建議說，如果你想製作一部好的劇情片，並且沒有特效、沒有低俗鬧劇，你可能要等幾年，比如10年。
