The first domestic popular science films to hit the big screen in theaters in 24 years, "Searching for Nature: Earth's Past" and "Searching for Nature: The Invisible Force", will be released nationwide on July 14 and July 21 respectively. The theme of this release is "Don't lie in bed during the summer vacation, get up early and learn science", and it will implement a unique segmented distribution model.

The release poster reads "Don't lie in during the summer vacation, get up early and learn science."

The film was created by popular science writer Wang Jie for 10 years and presented to children. It was "escorted" by 3 academician-level scientists and 15 professor-level scientists. Through a carefully designed storyline, it connects the unsolved mysteries in four major scientific fields, including paleontology, geology, fluid mechanics, and astronomy. It is also entertaining, interesting, and scientifically rigorous, "so professional that every detail can stand up to scrutiny."

"Searching for Nature: Earth's Past" and "Searching for Nature: Invisible Power" have been screened in more than 200 cities across the country since the end of March this year. So far, the two films have been screened nearly 1,300 times, with more than 50,000 viewers going to theaters in advance to watch the films, and have gained a high reputation among parent-child groups. For popular science films, which are not "mainstream" types of films in theaters, Daxiang Preview, which is responsible for the promotion and distribution of the films, has made effective attempts at special distribution such as line distribution and targeted distribution.

Screening

"Sub-genre" and "niche" films are popular among parent-child groups

As a popular science writer and popular science film and television creator, Wang Jie, the director of "Searching for the Secrets of Nature", has published more than 20 popular science works, including books and films, and won multiple awards. Among them, the popular science book "The Shape of Time - A History of Relativity" won the 8th Wenjin Book Award of the National Library, and the science fiction novel "Time Cage" won the 18th Hundred Flowers Literature Award.

"Searching for Nature: Earth's Past" and "Searching for Nature: Invisible Forces" are phenomenal science films he created specifically for children. They cover four chapters: exploring the Cambrian period, geomagnetic reversal, the mystery of turbulence, and fast radio bursts. They all take the discoveries and achievements of Chinese scientists as their starting point, "telling our own scientists' stories in our own language." In addition to telling scientific stories and imparting scientific knowledge, the films also aim to cultivate children's scientific thinking.

As the only two popular science films released in theaters in the past 24 years, "Searching for Nature: Earth's Past" and "Searching for Nature: Invisible Forces" are very unfamiliar "sub-types" in the current film market that have not yet been recognized by the audience. The audience has not yet developed the habit of going to the cinema to watch popular science films, which poses a great challenge to publicity and distribution. However, "sub-type" films also have their unique "advantages": these two popular science films have a relatively clear and vertical audience group - the parent-child education group. In other words, the two "Searching for Nature" are typical "segmented" films aimed at specific audience groups rather than the general public.

The film's niche nature was quickly revealed at the beginning of the preview: within two weeks of the preview, more than 200 screenings were held in more than 70 cities across the country. Among the organizers of the preview, teachers are "a standout". A biology teacher from Nantong, Jiangsu, initiated two previews in a short period of time, gathering a total of 580 parent-child education audiences to watch the film, and successfully influenced a parent audience to convene a large-scale preview of 130 audiences. A school principal was also deeply touched after watching the film and planned to hold a preview of popular science films in the school. Parents exclaimed: "The children watched it motionless and forgot to eat popcorn." "It turns out that popular science movies can also make children so fascinated and so exciting!" Just as the name of the film preview event "Exploring the Secrets of Nature·Spark Preview Plan", with each screening, the light of science is gradually spreading.

Screening

Screening

Small and medium-cost films compete in the summer season, and continue to explore "cost-effective" distribution by audience and distribution channels

After more than three months of previews, "Searching for Nature: Earth's Past" and "Searching for Nature: Invisible Power" are about to be released. There are nearly 20 animated films in this summer season. Facing the "must-fight" parent-child movie-watching group, Daxiang Preview decided to avoid "homogeneous competition": different from the traditional national film release and release, it will be a "cost-effective" segmented and distributed distribution. Daxiang will learn from the "Scientific Children's Day" activity planned for the Children's Day, continue to build parent-child consumption scenarios, and carefully plan the "Don't lie in bed during the summer vacation, get up early to learn science" screening event: during the long summer vacation, instead of "lying in bed", it is better to get up early for a popular science movie - I believe it can hit the pain points of parent-child audiences.

In terms of distribution, considering the fierce competition in the summer film schedule, "Searching for the Secrets of Nature" still takes a different approach: it solicits theaters that are interested in scheduling films from theaters, film management companies, theater chains, and single theaters across the country (currently more than 1,500 theaters have signed up), and combines the activity concept of "watching movies early" to strive for the earliest screening of the day. These non-prime time schedules, which are relatively "useless" for other summer films, can completely become "effective scheduling" for parent-child audiences, and reversely deduce the "segmented scheduling model" from the "segmented audience", and then truly realize "segmented viewing". Daxiang Preview hopes to explore a new path for the popular science film "Searching for the Secrets of Nature" and similar "sub-types" and small and medium-cost films in the public screening market.

Regarding the original intention of designing niche distribution, Wu Feiyue, founder of Daxiang Preview, said, "The film projects promoted by Daxiang are usually non-commercial films without IP blessing and without the participation of popular stars. This characteristic determines that we must abandon the high-profile publicity of traditional commercial film promotion and use the limited promotion budget on precise promotion channels to strive to attract those potential niche groups to the greatest extent, rather than the 'masses' that commercial films want."

In addition to the public screening, "Searching for Nature: Earth's Past" and "Searching for Nature: Invisible Forces" will also reach more audiences through campuses and other means. The Daxiang Preview team believes that at a time when small and medium-cost film promotions are facing increasing challenges, it is difficult to achieve a sustainable positive cycle in the creation chain of "sub-type" films such as popular science films through the box office of theater screenings alone; on the contrary, if we can jump out of the single-plank bridge of theater screenings, explore secondary market opportunities such as campus markets and science and technology museum markets, and actively develop various derivative products such as books and courses, it may bring more opportunities for such films.