In recent years, a large number of domestic films aimed at showcasing China's power have become increasingly eye-catching on the domestic box office charts, with some patriotic themed films catering to the rising nationalist sentiment in China overshadowing Hollywood films.
But there are currently signs that due to a lack of novelty, audiences are beginning to feel tired of movies with this theme.
So far this year, only one film with nationalist overtones has entered the top ten box office in China. According to an analysis of official box office data by The Wall Street Journal, out of the top ten domestic box office films in China in 2022, only two films promoted the values of the Communist Party, less than four in the previous two years.
The latest film with poor box office performance is' The Volunteers: To the War ', a Korean War epic film released by renowned Chinese director Chen Kaige for this year's National Day. As a result, the box office of this originally expected blockbuster film was lower than expected, losing to the romantic comedy "The Ex Files 4: Marriage Plan" and a modern crime thriller directed by Zhang Yimou.
According to data from Maoyan, a Chinese film industry tracking agency, the total box office of "Volunteer Army: Battalion" released on September 28th this year was equivalent to $72 million during the eight day holiday that began on September 29th. According to data provided by Cat's Eye and calculations by The Wall Street Journal, this number is about half of the average analyst forecast of $138 million.
While the film market is weak, the tourism and consumer market situation in China during this year's National Day Golden Week is generally lower than expected. This year's National Day holiday is the longest public holiday since China lifted restrictions on the COVID-19 epidemic.
The disappointing box office performance of 'Volunteer Army: Heroes Strive' shows the fatigue of viewers towards patriotic themed films.
Patrick Wu, 34, walked out of a cinema in central Beijing and said that over the years, he has been following popular nationalist films, watching films such as' My People, My Country ',' The Battle at Lake Changjin ', and' Wolf Warrior 2 '.
And he hasn't seen any main theme movies this year. He said that after reading too much, he felt that the plot of the story was similar. He just watched "Ex 4: Early Marriage" in the cinema.
This may also be because after three years of difficult COVID-19 life in China, movie audiences tend to seek stories that resonate more with them, rather than heroic epics. Professor Yin Hong from the School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University believes that due to the greater uncertainty people now face and the need to make realistic choices, they prefer works introduced into their daily lives.
When referring to the movie "Volunteer Army: Heroes Attack", he said that in recent years, too many film and television works have been released about resisting the United States and aiding Korea.
As the director of the film, Chen Kaige, stated at the premiere, "Volunteer Army: Heroes Attack" is the first of a planned trilogy that describes China's War of Resistance and Aid to Korea. This trilogy format aims to present a panoramic view of the process of the War. This large-scale film took over a year and involved over 3000 staff, starring some of China's most famous film actors, including Zhang Ziyi. The film mainly tells the story of two battles between the Chinese People's Volunteer Army and the United Nations military led by the United States.
The box office performance of Volunteer Army: Heroes Attack was mediocre, which is also part of the reason why the total box office of Chinese National Day films this year was lower than expected. According to the data of the National Film Administration of China, the total box office of this year's National Day films was about 374 million dollars, significantly lower than the total box office of 2019 National Day films before the beginning of the COVID-19, which was 664 million dollars.
This poor performance surprised industry analysts. This summer's Chinese film box office hit a new high, raising people's expectations for the National Day box office.
Although there is no clear definition of Chinese nationalist films in the industry, such films are commonly known as "theme films", which generally refer to the content that promotes the values of the CPC. Some of the main theme films directly tell stories related to party history, while others span different genres, such as Hollywood style action films, but carry nationalist messages.
The recent wave of nationalist films can be traced back to the release of "The Founding of a Republic" in 2009, which is an epic historical film about China's founding. At that time, the patriotic sentiment of the Chinese people reached a peak after the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. In order to attract young audiences, this film invited about 170 well-known Chinese actors to participate.
Starting from 2019, large-scale patriotic films often choose to be released before and after National Day, hoping to take advantage of the prevailing nationalist sentiment.
The director of "Volunteer Army", Chen Kaige, has been highly praised throughout his long career. In 1993, he won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his film "Farewell My Concubine," which is considered by many to be China's greatest literary and artistic film.
Recently, Chen Kaige achieved success with the Korean War epic blockbusters "Changjin Lake" and "The Battle at Lake Changjin II", which were released during the National Day holiday in 2021 and the Spring Festival holiday in 2022. The former grossed approximately $790 million, while the latter grossed approximately $556 million at current exchange rates, making the series one of the most popular films in Chinese history.
Although the "Wolf Warrior" series films were not released during the National Day holiday, they became popular after their premieres in 2015 and 2017. Wolf of War "tells the story of a Chinese hero like Rambo fighting against a foreign mercenary organization. Later," Wolf of War "became synonymous with the increasingly strong diplomatic style of the Chinese government on the global stage.
At the same time, with the continuous improvement of the quality of domestic films in China, Hollywood films have been declining in recent years in the face of domestic films. China limits the number of foreign films screened domestically and reviews violations.
However, the performance of most Chinese nationalist themed films this year lags behind many other types of films.
So far this year, 10 films released in China have grossed over 1 billion yuan (approximately 137 million US dollars) at the box office, which is considered the standard in the industry to determine whether a movie is selling.
The only nationalist film to be shortlisted for the aforementioned best-selling film list is' The Wandering Earth 2 ', a science fiction film about Chinese astronauts and scientists responding to the rapid aging and expansion of the Sun and saving the Earth. The film was released during this year's Spring Festival and attracted many fans with its dynamic space visual effects and combat scenes, with a box office of over 550 million US dollars.
Other films have failed to break through the 1 billion yuan mark. Hidden Blade "is a spy drama about Chinese Communist agents in the late 1930s and early 1940s, with a box office of 127 million yuan. The film 'Born to Fly' has been heavily criticized, as it portrays the story of a Chinese Air Force test pilot in the style of 'Top Gun' and grossed 116 million yuan at the box office.
During the COVID-19, China's film industry suffered a heavy blow. The cinema has been closed for weeks or even longer, and film production has also been suspended accordingly. At current exchange rates, Chinese film box office revenue reached a historic high of approximately $8.8 billion in 2019, with a year-on-year decrease of 68% in total box office revenue in 2020. This number rebounded in 2021 and then shrank again in 2022, dropping to around 4 billion US dollars.