Super Zoo

During the third week of the summer season, in the second week following the release of Terror Animal City, the box office battle was evenly matched among three movies. Each of the three films achieved a weekly box office of over 100 million yuan. "Tiny Times 4" and "Monk Comes Down the Mountain" respectively earned 100 million and 140 million yuan at the box office, while Terror Animal City swept up an impressive 160 million, becoming the box office champion of the week, and successfully staged an incredible counterattack! Adding the earnings from the previous week, the total two-week box office for Animal City reached 225 million yuan! A movie with an investment of tens of millions, where both the crew and actors were relatively unknown, managed to collect over 200 million yuan in just two weeks, causing quite a stir within the industry. All major websites rushed to publish articles about it. "Phenomenal film!" "A domestic film with integrity!" "Can bad money always drive out good money?" A particularly representative article entitled "Vengeful Rebound" was published on Baidu Zhihu. The article posited that while the amazing success of Terror Animal City certainly could not ignore its intrinsic qualities—especially the pioneering feat of using animals throughout the filming, which in some ways could be said to stand alongside epoch-making innovations like 'wire-fu' and 'CGI effects'— "Just that wouldn't be enough for such a somewhat immature film to achieve a rapid reversal of fortunes. The crazy surge in box office to some extent is inseparable from the audience's vengeful psychology... In recent years, as the mainland box office market has boomed, many filmmakers seem to have focused more on the concept of 'blockbusters,' with everything needing to be on a grand scale—massive investments, A-list directors and actors, large-scale promotions... Such grandiose movies often overlook the most essential elements of film, failing to tell even a simple story well, riddled with plot holes; unable to clarify a simple moral, they become needlessly complex; agonizing and groaning internally, they may look spectacular on the outside but are hollow at the core, turning cringe-worthy content into something supposed to be fun, filled with outdated platitudes from twenty-year-old coastal magazines... Audiences were fooled time and again; after an overwhelming promotional campaign, they entered the cinemas full of hope, only to be presented with one terrible film after another... Against this backdrop, Terror Animal City emerged like a dark horse, telling a complete, honest story based on universal values, with a healthy worldview and genuine originality in the story itself, along with special technical methods. Coupled with the direction of the experienced yet not-so-famous Guo Zijian, at least it met the standards in terms of cinematography, plot, and editing... This film was made with sincerity, not treating the audience like idiots to be fooled or pigeons to be plucked... The audience's eyes are sharp, the market is fair, and if a film doesn't deceive its audience, they will not fail to reciprocate... Among a host of bad films, the small budget national production Terror Animal City unexpectedly soared to astonishing box office heights, to some extent, the box office phenomenon of Animal City is an eruption of the fooled audience's accumulated anger and resentment over many years... " Aside from online comments, many people in the film industry, especially academic scholars, also spoke out. The quality of Terror Animal City itself, just like its Douban rating, slightly above 7, was decent. The experts' comments were not so much to flatter Animal City as they were calls to action, leveraging the explosive box office phenomenon of Animal City to make their point. The domestic theater market is so driven by market forces that film scheduling is entirely based on the market. Popular themes and blockbuster imports secure astounding numbers of screenings even before their release. However, some domestic and art films, the ones with depth, struggle to receive attention, let alone scheduling, because they do not conform to market preferences. In fact, it has been proven that art films, although not as profitable as commercial blockbusters, can still find a market and earn tens or even hundreds of millions if they are scheduled rationally. Of course, since we're talking about theaters, prioritizing films that perform well at the box office and increasing their screenings is not inherently wrong. But according to the current practices of the theaters, films with artistic value and depth simply have no chance to survive. On one hand, it's difficult for art films to be released and get screenings; on the other hand, audiences interested in these films can barely find a place to watch them. Thus, a notion has arisen that Mainland viewers are of a low level and poor quality, only worthy of watching trashy films. Look at that lousy film, it obtained a box office of ten billion, whereas that so-called art film only made a few hundred thousand... In some respects, it is not that the audience lacks standards, but that the theaters monopolize the scheduling and crudely push trashy films onto the viewers, leaving them no choice. Then they turn around and criticize the audience for having low standards and only being fit to watch garbage films. If this continues, who would bother to make these unrewarding art films? The survival environment for art films in China is indeed worrisome. Many experts have called for adopting the Western model, suggesting that while commercial theaters thrive, the state should also establish a small number of art house theaters to allow art films to survive. "Huh?" Suming couldn't understand. How could Terror Animal City ever be classified as an art film? He even received a letter from an associate professor at the director's department of Beijing Film Academy, hoping to co-sign an appeal. How, out of nowhere, did Terror Animal City turn into an art film? By association, have I become an artist too? What a joke. Since childhood, my greatest artistic achievement was probably drawing stick figures without clothes during class. Wang Hao was good at that too; I even learned from him how to sketch a human figure on paper, cutting a hole between the legs, then sticking a finger through it from behind... It seems the living conditions for artists are indeed cause for concern if even someone like me can be included in the ranks of artists... Suming reflected a little and then agreed to co-sign the appeal. After all, people are making appeals every day, and no one really takes them seriously. After hearing about this, Zhao Yun shook his head with a mysterious smile, saying something that made Suming's heart skip a beat. "Don't forget you have another identity, as a National People's Congress representative..." Zhao Yun said with a look of someone who enjoys watching trouble unfold, grinning from ear to ear. Fuck, they wouldn't expect me to submit a proposal, would they? So which side am I on, representing the business world or the art circle? Luckily, the professors in the industry knew when to stop and didn't ask for more, so Suming temporarily put the matter aside. In the fourth week, several long-awaited blockbusters were finally released. As expected, including films like Tiny Times, Animal City, and Monk Comes Down the Mountain, the number of screenings for previous movies was significantly reduced to make way for the new releases. The competitive film industry moves quickly, and the hype around Animal City was soon overtaken by the newly released domestic animated film The Return of the Great Saint. Without any publicity, The Return of the Great Saint was quietly released and managed a stunning comeback in three days, causing a nationwide sensation. In its first week, it earned two billion at the box office and was still climbing rapidly. The other films also achieved notable box office success, particularly Monster Hunt, which showed signs of skyrocketing.