As the summer season continues to heat up, as of July 15, "Catch a Baby" starring Shen Teng and Ma Li has been doing well at the box office since it started screening on July 13. As of press time, the film's cumulative box office (including pre-sales) It has exceeded the 500 million yuan mark and has become a strong dark horse in this summer's season.

As of press time, the cumulative box office of "Catch a Baby" has exceeded 500 million

From "The Richest Man in Xihong City" to "Walking Alone on the Moon", Happy Twist has proven its market appeal many times during the summer season. As one of the most watched films this summer, "Catch Me" has attracted much attention since it was released. The film stars Shen Teng and Ma Li, the national CP duo, returning again. Their unique comedy style and profound social implications add new meaning to the comedy expression of Mahua movies. On July 13, the film started screening nationwide, and on the first day it won the Japanese crown with a box office of 156 million yuan, becoming the first summer film to have a single-day box office of over 100 million yuan, and driving the market to reach 300 million yuan that day. , setting a new record for the summer season.

"Catch a Baby" sweeps away the decline of summer movies

In the first half of this year's summer season, theaters were unexpectedly deserted, with news similar to that of only one or two viewers at a movie appearing frequently. Throughout June, theater chains only handed over a box office report card of 2.233 billion. In comparison, June 2023 achieved a box office of 4.137 billion, with a gap of nearly half.

The top three box office picks in June this year, "There's a Canteen by the Clouds", "I Don't Want to Be Friends with You", and "Sweep the Gangsters: Never Give Up" only received 350 million, 190 million, and 180 million box office respectively. It failed to surpass "The Disappearance", which was released on June 22 last year - within 9 days, it received more than 1.7 billion in box office.

"Catch Me", which was released in the middle of the summer season, swept away the previous decline in theaters, and with a two-day box office of over 350 million yuan, it made a strong announcement: "I won't pretend anymore, I will show off, and I am what everyone expects" "The first movie." The three-day box office result of nearly 500 million is very close to last year's summer box office champion "All or Nothing".

Although it is still in the "screening" stage, the film schedule of "Catch a Baby" has exceeded 37%, the prime screening ratio has exceeded 40%, and the box office share and movie attendance have exceeded 60%. As a "demand screening" film, "Catch Me" has been extremely popular since its release, ending "Silence"'s streak of dominating the box office charts since its release. It is also far ahead of all other movies combined.

According to Beacon Professional Edition data, the box office of the market on July 13 last Saturday was 309 million, which was the first time since May 3 that the market exceeded 300 million in 70 days. Among them, "Catch a Baby" grossed 157 million on the first day of screening, contributing more than half of the box office of the market, and its driving role was obvious. The film continued to be screened last Sunday, and the box office exceeded 100 million for two consecutive days. It also achieved a reverse decline in the box office, and was the best in all provinces across the country. The box office hit the top, which also led to a sharp increase in the box office on Sunday to 345 million, and the market popularity heated up rapidly.

Lighthouse analyst Chen Jin said that from the backend ticket purchase data, it can be learned that among the film’s ticket purchase portraits, viewers aged 25-29 account for a prominent proportion, which is also the largest group of people in the current film market.

Another noteworthy data is that the screening of "Catch a Baby" quickly attracted a large number of viewers to buy tickets on the spot that day, which shows the national popularity of the "Shen Ma Group".

Under the leadership of "Catch a Baby", the number of moviegoers in theaters has increased significantly, and the market value on this Monday is nearly 200 million yuan.

Douban scores 7.5, reputation and controversy coexist

On the third day of screening, Douban released a score for "Catch a Baby". More than 75,000 netizens gave it a score of 7.5, which is considered a "high-scoring player" in the comedy category.

In the minds of many viewers, "content" has become an important criterion for the funnyness of a comedy. In addition, the Shen Ma team has reunited on the screen since "Walking Alone on the Moon", both in terms of audience expectations and topicality, it can be said to be full. On social networks, some netizens combined the classic screen images of Shen Teng and Ma Li together, and the laughter and feelings came to their hearts.

As a "twist comedy", in addition to its thoughtful cast, "Catch a Baby" also explores topics such as family relationships and parent-child interaction in modern society from a unique perspective. The title of the film "Catch the Doll" does not refer to the old educational saying of "grabbing from the doll", rather than picking out a stuffed toy from a claw machine. The male protagonists Ma Chenggang, played by Shen Teng, and Chunlan, played by Ma Li, obviously live a wealthy life, but they adopt a poverty-stricken education policy for their child Ma Jiye. They believe that the fragrance of plum blossoms comes from the bitter cold, pretending that their families are poor, and even put on a show, hoping that the child will be able to do so. Grow and become talented.

Netizens jokingly called it "Chu Ma's World", which aptly describes the state of children being kept in the dark. Based on this plot setting, the back-and-forth between the child discovering the flaw and the parents trying to cover it up has become the main thread of the plot, and it is also the way in which a lot of baggage is thrown away. From the most basic appeal of comedy, "Catch a Baby" seems to have met the audience's expectations. The dense laughter and the audience popularity of the Shen and Ma combination have made many netizens say that it is "very funny."

The creative team follows the absurd world view of "Xihong City", and the theme directly points to "Chinese-style education", which will inevitably give the audience a sense of immersion. Some people thought that they expected to watch a comedy to relax, but "were educated a lot"; some netizens were replaced by Ma Jiye and felt that the education method they received was full of deception and oppression. This also became the expression of some viewers that they "cannot buy it" for the film. The reason for "can't laugh".

Back to reality, education has never been a comedy. The audience's substitution for the film also shows that the problem of "Chinese-style education" is widespread. The imaginary background still resonates deeply. Countless children carry heavy expectations like a mountain from their parents. When Ma Chenggang said to his son The phrase "You also control our lives" has also made countless Chinese parents feel mixed emotions.

The summer season is highly polarized, with hundreds of movies to watch and demand to be released.

Driven by "Catch a Baby", as of press time, the 2024 summer box office has exceeded 4.3 billion. "Silence", "There's a Shop in the Clouds", "Catch a Baby", "Inside Out 2", "I Don't Want to Do It With You" "Where Are My Friends" is temporarily among the top five at the box office; in terms of cities, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Chengdu are temporarily among the top five at the box office, maintaining the same ranking as last year's summer season. The first-tier cities' box office share increased from 17.5% in the same period last year to 18.4%.

However, it is worth noting that the summer market shows an obvious head effect, with top films occupying most of the box office and film scheduling resources. "Catch Me" and "Silver" accounted for more than 80% of the box office. Click-to-screen screenings seize the market space of originally scheduled films. "Down to Earth", which was released last week, has the highest score of 7.9 for a domestic film in the summer season and has received a lot of spontaneous love from the audience. However, the current box office is less than 17 million yuan.

According to the release calendar of the Beacon Professional Edition, as of 12:00 on July 15, 106 films have been released or scheduled for the 2024 summer season. Among the key films to be released are the new domestic classic IP series animated film "The Guardian of the Pleasant Goat and the Big Big Wolf" ” and the Japanese animation “Your Name. "Re-released, the fantasy action film "Under the Stranger" directed by Wu Ershan and adapted from a domestic comic book was released at the end of July, the imported blockbuster "Deadpool and Wolverine", the youth film "Failure", directed by Xu Zheng and released in August The realistic theme "Retrograde Life", the feature film "Decryption" directed by Chen Sicheng, the feature film "The Negative Makes the Positive" directed by Wen Shipei and starring Zhu Yilong, the new light-chasing animation series "White Snake: The Floating Life", the science fiction comedy "From" starring Zhang Ruoyun and Zhong Chuxi Safe Evacuation in the 21st Century" etc.

There is still a lot of potential to be released in the summer season. Lighthouse analyst Chen Jin said when looking forward to the follow-up of the summer season, "The box office trend of "Silence" is still strong in the second week after its release. The cumulative box office has exceeded 860 million. The film's female audience The proportion of 63.1% is very outstanding; in addition, the animated films "Despicable Me 4", "Inside Out 2" and "The Fall" also drove a large number of parents to enter the cinema in mid-to-late July, and "Under the Stranger" and "Death". With the release of blockbusters such as "Samurai and Wolverine", I believe the market will continue to grow in popularity."