"Noah’s Ark in May" poster
Have you ever imagined standing up and waving glow sticks with the people around you in the cinema and dancing with the singers on the screen? This is no longer hypothetical. Mayday, a Taiwanese rock band with the title of "Concert King", announced recently that the film documenting its "Noah’s Ark" concert series will be fully released on September 19. It is understood that this film is the second concert film of Mayday. After the success of the first box office, the film industry is very optimistic about the prospects of this film. However, the industry is not optimistic about whether such concert films can become a new trend in the domestic film market.
70 yuan to experience 40 concerts
Mayday’s "Noah’s Ark" global tour has been going on for nearly two years. Little known is that during the Mayday tour, a film crew has been shooting close-up, using 3D cameras to capture different angles of Mayday’s 71 concerts in 40 cities, and skillfully fusing 71 performances into a complete movie through the connection of music and pictures.
In fact, as early as two years ago, the production unit had gathered the essence of 44 concerts in Mayday and created the first Chinese 3D concert movie through simple story series. Since most of the film footage was taken from the concert, and the appeal of Mayday itself, the film has been basically recovered through sponsorship and copyright sales before it was released. After the release in the Chinese mainland, it also easily earned 30 million yuan at the box office.
"Noah’s Ark in May" is purer and bolder than the first musical film with a plot interspersed. The film has no plot, it is almost a concert scene, and the selling point is to "sit in the cinema and be in the first row of the concert". Huang Yiping, the publicity director in charge of the promotion of the film, said, "The last time, because it was almost the first time for the mainland to contact a concert film, the response and acceptance were unknown, so the plot was interspersed in the concert. But the experience of the last time gave us confidence."
It is understood that, unlike the previous works, this new film will increase the number of premieres at zero. The film also opened a pre-sale ticket activity in Taiwan, and enthusiastic fans snapped up 40,000 pre-sale tickets in a short period of time. The popularity is staggering.
At the world premiere of "May Day Noah’s Ark" held on September 7, May Day’s management company believes that the head of music revealed that the film’s Taiwan premiere pre-sale has earned NT $13.80 million (equivalent to RMB 2.819 million yuan), which is quite good.
It is reported that the Chinese mainland zero point market pre-sale covers a total of 105 theaters in 27 large and medium-sized cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Changsha, Wuhan, Nanjing, Hangzhou, etc. The pre-sale tickets are about 25,000. This means that more than 20,000 fans will be the first audience to experience this unique concert film in advance.
Many fans said that compared with the high ticket price of the concert, a 3D movie ticket of about 70 yuan can make Mayday near, and the wonderful clips of dozens of concerts such as the shocking Bird’s Nest 100,000 live are all in the film, which is very cost-effective.
The earlier small-scale release of Beyond That Day did not pay for itself
Young fans are the mainstay of movie audiences
Unlike traditional movies, concert movies have no plot, and the whole film is basically only music and concert scenes. Whether it is planning or release, there will be many difficulties. Producers need to do a lot of communication work for media, theaters and even distribution companies.
The reporter learned that both of Mayday’s concert films were distributed by Pony Pentium in mainland China. When it comes to the reason for choosing to cooperate with Mayday, the relevant person in charge of Pony Pentium bluntly said that it is the influence and efforts of Mayday – Mayday’s large number of fans and strong power are indeed one of the basic conditions for the popularity of their concert films, because the mainstream audience of the film is still dominated by young people. "Tickets for Mayday concerts are difficult to buy, and they are relatively expensive. Nowadays, as long as you spend the money of a movie ticket, you can feel the atmosphere of the scene, which is what young people like."
However, fans are not the only factor in the success of a concert film. The veteran rocker Cui Jian has encountered a waterloo: Cui Jian’s musical film was released in May this year, and the film showed Cui Jian’s concert footage through 3D technology, trying to let the audience experience Cui Jian’s rock spirit up close. However, the film’s release road was quite bumpy. The film was completed in 2011, but it was shelved for more than a year. It is understood that the film also approached Pony Pentium about distribution cooperation, but was rejected by the other party. The reason why people in the film industry are not optimistic about the film is very simple. The current mainstream audience of the film is young people between the ages of 20 and 30, which overlaps with Mayday fans. Most of Cui Jian’s fans are already middle-aged people in their 40s. Although the film has a good reputation, its box office results are very unsatisfactory, and it is almost impossible to return the money.
Why is it that singers who also have a huge fan base have a world of difference in the box office of their concert movies? In this regard, Pony Pentium admitted that popularity and fans are not the guarantee of the box office, and finding the right positioning is the most important thing. "Cui Jian has influenced a generation, but his main audience may be around 40 years old, out of the current movie audience environment. Mayday fans have a large age span, and the overlap with movie audiences is relatively high." In fact, even in Europe and the United States, established bands like U2 are no match for Justin Bieber on the big screen.
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