Is there still a market for traditional romantic films？
Laiyuan Mixiniu Entertainment
Wen | Xiaofeng
Romance films are gradually divided and begin to transform in type and orientation, while those romance films that have not been upgraded and transformed for a long time begin to face the fate of being eliminated.
Those cases that have been successfully transformed, such as the recent My Love and I want us to be together, are abandoning the logic and rationality of some plots, actively lowering the threshold to cater to young female audiences, and achieving a benign reputation by emotional resonance. Those romantic films that have not been upgraded are still following the rules, and they are still very traditional old projects many years ago, such as "A little tempted", which is being shown.
Traditional romantic films have been eliminated.
The last wave of love movies started with To Our Dying Youth, and there were super explosions in the middle, such as Left Ear, In a hurry that year, You at the same table, which the audience had never seen before. They were generally youthful and beautiful, which could accurately realize the purpose of nostalgia and easily make the audience empathize with their own school years, so a series of explosion projects were produced.
In fact, this kind of projects are still relatively realistic, and even "To Youth We Will Die" is a masterpiece. They are telling stories seriously, at least describing youth sincerely. This realistic style is also an important reason to arouse the audience memories of youth. However, with the "abortion", "terminal illness" and "car accident", with the similar projects really piling up, the audience’s rebellious mentality began to emerge, leading to the subsequent decline in the youth film market.
Now, after entering the era of romance 2.0, youth films have a new direction, and they are giving up realism decisively, because the real scene can’t satisfy the imagination of more female audiences. Nowadays, more romantic and aesthetic plots, or even more cruel stories, have begun to appear. This kind of strong drama, strong sensation and strong tears can stimulate the emotions of female audiences, which is also an important reason why they can pay the bill continuously.
Therefore, a series of explosion projects have been born, such as super explosions such as Ex-3 and Stories More Sad than Sadness, and small explosions of 300-500 million level such as I want us to be together are even more numerous. This also makes the declining love type start to bottom out. After regaining the grip, the love type enters another track, no longer wins by plot, and begins to directly win the audience with emotions, thus gaining a better sense of leaving the scene and making everything more efficient.
These new romantic films are generally very well publicized, and they can easily find marketing points to enlarge them. These are topics that can resonate with today’s female audience. They can also attract millions of praises in short videos, which can quickly form a heat and then turn into people who want to see. People often think that a romantic film is inexplicably popular. In fact, it just has a better topic selection and marketing point, and it can be achieved at one point.
On the contrary, those romantic films that have not been upgraded for a long time and still focus on three or five years ago have ushered in a very tragic fate. These romantic films are very difficult to market at first, and the old topics and contents, whether materials or short videos, are lacking. Young viewers don’t catch a cold, and the heat is too late to get up, which eventually leads to throwing them in the market and can’t arouse a little splash.
Obviously, these romantic films can’t catch the female audience today. They are too far away from the audience. You know, when the audience walks into the cinema to watch a romantic movie, in fact, they are not watching other people’s love, but they can see themselves, at least make themselves associate with it. But nowadays, these traditional romantic movies can’t let the audience see themselves, even they are too far away from themselves.
(this year’s box office bleak romance)
From the report card, we can see that there are many romantic films with big-name stars on the list, but they can’t resonate with today’s post-95 s and post-00 s in terms of lineup, content and topic. This is love that has nothing to do with them. For example, Tomorrow Will Be Fine, Legal Companion, etc. all have well-matched lineups, but the content is too old, so they are eliminated by the audience and the market.
More than 70% of the audience of romantic films are young female viewers. This wave of people is relatively emotional, and they don’t pay so much attention to quality. They prefer a feeling and emotion, so today’s romantic films must be tailored to take into account their feelings. The movie "A little tempted" which is being shown is also a traditional and outdated romantic film. When there is a problem with the choice, the efforts can only be in vain.
"A little tempted", a little bit on the street.
In fact, no matter from any angle, the film is like a project five years ago. It may have been prepared very early, but now it is facing the release node, but it has cleverly avoided the wind and was abandoned by young audiences. "A little tempted" is outdated in all aspects, the most prominent being the following points.
The first is the title. In fact, since the earliest "Gardenia Blossoms", the projects with songs as the title have almost no good results, such as "Brothers Sleeping in My Upper Bed", "I have you all my life" and "Writing Poems for You". In fact, the IP of songs itself is different from the movie market, and it is impossible to form an imaginary thing that fans turn into fans. This conversion rate is negligible.
As a classic old song in Jeff Chang Shin-Che, it still has a good popularity after 70′ s and 80′ s, but it is completely different after 00′ s, obviously too far away from today’s audience. Considering that even Stefanie has become an "unpopular singer" today, the products of the last century, such as Jeff Chang Shin-Che and A Little Tempted, are even more estranged.
Followed by the main creation. Chen Jiashang, the director, has made a splash in Hong Kong at his peak, but his creativity has been declining in recent years. The last film he directed was "Wandering in the Wind" four years ago. Now he is directing a romantic film, but he still lags behind the young creators in handling the young female audience.
The two leading actors, Ren Suxi and Jerry Yan, one is not in line with the aesthetic requirements of the heroine of the romantic film, and the other is that they have been out of breath for too long to resonate with young audiences. Moreover, the two really can’t find any sense of CP, which makes it difficult for the audience to substitute. In short, the attraction of these two people to young audiences is almost zero.
Finally, the content. It is still the product of the romance before it was upgraded, and there are no tricks that can adjust the audience’s emotions, and there is no bridge that makes the audience cry. It is true that these plots are not necessarily good, but they are effective from the perspective of the market and the audience. Therefore, as a romantic film that is well-behaved in all aspects, it must finally accept the defeat in the market.
Even Jeff Chang Shin-Che, as an artistic director, was powerless. After the file was changed from 520 to June 3, he only won 1.87 million box office in the first half of the day, but the official opening of the painting the next day only got 4.6 million box office, which proved that it was a completely anti-market and anti-audience project. Finally, it is expected to fall to the level of 15 million. As a medium-sized love project, it may only recover the cost of publicity.
A project starring a newcomer like My Love can easily break through 800 million+,but a romantic film with a better lineup, A Little Tempted, only won 15 million. This is the differentiation of romantic films, and this is the gap in choosing the wrong direction. After all, movies are audience-oriented, and the audience is self-interested and will only choose projects that are beneficial to them. This differentiation will be more obvious in the future.
In fact, in recent years, most of the love movies are similar to the project "A little tempted", and the box office ranges from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions. The state advocates that the industry needs to be upgraded. In fact, the same is true of the concept of film creation, and there must be a renewal of content. After all, it serves the audience.
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