(Original title: The dark horse of the Spring Festival “Bear Bears”: The cumulative box office of the first 9 movies exceeded 5.7 billion, and adults still have to make money)
Apart from Jia Ling who lost 100 pounds during this year’s Spring Festival, the biggest surprise is “Bear Infested”. The tenth film in the series performed better than expected at the box office, surpassing the works of Zhang Yimou and Andy Lau, and directly ranked among the top three.
Did “Bear Infested” become a dark horse “all because of the support of his peers”? Or are there really “two brushes”?
“Bear Infested: Reversing Time and Space” beats Zhang Yimou
The pre-sale period for the 2024 Spring Festival stalls, which lacks super blockbusters, is full of suspense. However, unexpectedly, just four days later, the ranking of the Spring Festival stalls has been basically settled.
According to Maoyan Professional Edition, as of 18:41 on February 13, “Hot”, “Flying Life 2” and “Bear Infested: Reverse Time and Space” were in the top three. Among them, “Bear Infested: Reverse Time and Space” not only beat Zhang Yimou “Article 20” and Andy Lau and Ning Hao’s “Mr. Red Carpet” have also set various records in mainland film history.
It ranked first in attendance on the day of its premiere, and directly broke the three-year box office record for an animated film in mainland China in one day. It is also the best-performing animated film in a single day during the Spring Festival. So far, “Bear Infested: Reversal of Time” ranks among the best-performing animated films in mainland China during the Spring Festival. Ranked first in the box office list of animated films, Maoyan Professional Edition predicts that its total box office in the mainland will exceed 2.3 billion.
Although many netizens describe “Bear Bears: Reverse Time and Space” as a dark horse, in fact, the industry has always been very optimistic about “Bear Bears”. In addition to Fang Huaqiang, the holder of the “Bear Infested” IP, more than 20 companies including Wanda Film and Television, Hengdian Film and Television, and China Film participated in the film, and their capital strength cannot be underestimated.
This firmness comes from the certainty provided by “Bear Bear”. The “Bear Bear” series of movies that has been “ignored” is actually a hidden boss. The cumulative box office of the first nine movies has exceeded 5.7 billion, and it has also set a new record for Chinese animated films in the UK. , Germany, Russia and other countries.
Huaqiang Fantawild, which holds the “Bear Infested” IP, is the biggest winner. According to the first half of 2023 report, Huaqiang Fantawild achieved revenue of 2.87 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 43%, and a net profit of 290 million yuan, which was a loss in the same period last year. Nearly 130 million yuan, a significant year-on-year turnaround from loss to profit, breaking the trend of continuous losses since 2021. Huaqiang Fantawild’s “Bear Infested” IP contributed a large amount of revenue to the company. In the first half of the year, revenue from digital animation was 370 million yuan, an increase of 55% over the same period last year.
Why is “Bear Infested” so effective?
Among many Spring Festival films, “Bear Bears: Reversal of Time” enjoys its own “unique bonus”. Although the audience of moviegoers has always been mainly young people, “watching movies” during the Spring Festival is a “family-style” entertainment. Activities must take into account the needs of various family members. Children are a stable and unique group of movie viewers during the Spring Festival.
The “Bear Bears” series of movies accurately meets the Spring Festival movie viewing needs of “families with children”, but this is not simply a story about “misplaced competition”.
For most people who don’t know much about the “Bear Bears” series of movies, this is just a “movie for kids”, but Huaqiang Fantawild’s ambitions go beyond that. In recent years, the “Bear Bears” series of movies have been iterating on content, gradually shifting the target audience from young children to all ages.
“Bear Bears: Wild Continent” tells the meaning of happiness, “Bear Bears: Return to Earth” promotes the concept of environmental protection of the earth, “Bear Bears: Come with Me “Bear Core”” and “Bear Bears: Reverse Time and Space” both use artificial intelligence As the core of the content, judging from the theme of the film alone, “Bear Bears” is already catching up with current trends and exploring profound issues.
The fact that the “Bear Bears” IP can last for a full ten years is also related to the stability of the team’s main controller. In contrast, “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf” is a domestic animation IP that became famous earlier than “Bear Bears”, “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf” 》After a series of capital operations around 2010, the main creative team gradually disappeared, and a large number of early main creative personnel left. “Bear Bears” has more possibilities for “long-term planning” in a relatively stable environment, thus establishing its position in the Chinese animation industry.
How far is “Bear Bears” from Oriental Disney?
Chinese creative or content companies always dream of becoming “Chinese Disney”, and Huaqiang Fantawild is no exception.
Huaqiang Fantawild, which has made great achievements in major movies, is also trying to develop its own offline live entertainment. On February 11 this year, Taizhou Linhai’s Bear Haunted Happy Harbor officially opened. It is the first bear-haunted IP created by Huaqiang Fantawild This is the first time that Huaqiang Fantawild has integrated an open commercial block into the park. Previously, most of the parks owned by Huaqiang Fantawild were closed parks, but the model of this open park is similar to that of Shanghai Disney Resort.
From this perspective, Huaqiang Fantawild is moving closer to its goal of “Chinese Disney”.
But on the other hand, the emergence of “Disney-style parks” does not mean that Huaqiang Fantawild has changed from “quantitative change” to “qualitative change.” The key to Disney’s success lies in its massive IP reserves and continuous content innovation capabilities. Huaqiang Fantawild’s only IP is “Bear Infested”.
In addition, although the content of the “Bear Bears” series of movies has received more recognition, it is still far from the top international animation IPs. For example, although the Douban score of “Bear Infested: Reversing Time and Space” is currently as high as 7.1, many viewers in the hot reviews pointed out that the plot of the film “has a strong Marvel flavor” and is highly similar to “Avengers 4”.
Huaqiang Fante wants to become “Oriental Disney”, and “Bear Bear” does not need to become the next “Marvel”.
