Iceberg Think Tank | “Nezha 2” is becoming beyond criticism

Being obsessed with the box office success of “Nezha 2” is no different from being obsessed with Olympic gold medals back then. It just proves that after 40 years, many people have not changed in their cognition and mentality.

By Niu Jiao

The box office of “Nezha 2” can only be described as terrifying.

On the first regular Saturday after the just-passed holiday, “Nezha 2” achieved a box office of 790 million yuan, a figure that even exceeded its single-day box office during the Spring Festival, and the total box office of “Nezha 2” also exceeded 11.2 billion yuan on this day.

The latest news is that as of the morning of February 18, the total box office of “Nezha 2” has exceeded 12.1 billion yuan, ranking among the top ten highest-grossing films in film history, and it is only a matter of time before it challenges the global animation box office champion and becomes the “number one boss”.

It’s hard to imagine that this is the result of normal market viewing. Behind this terrifying box office is the result of “joint efforts” from official to the public.

“Joint efforts” is not only reflected in the soaring box office numbers, but also in the “united in hatred” public opinion field.

01

First of all, “Nezha 2” is becoming untouchable.

At least during the Spring Festival, there were no problems with the doubts and criticisms of “Nezha 2”, and those who refuted it only refuted it based on their own preferences and viewpoints.

But in the past few days, many articles criticizing “Nezha 2” have been refuted, and the refutations have nothing to do with the content, but with the “overall situation”.

Film critic Zige, who was under attack, said on Douban that someone scolded him: Criticism is okay, but you need to be discerning and wait until the records that should be broken are broken before criticizing. If you criticize at a critical moment, you are not aware of the times and will ruin the big picture.

Zige’s readers are relatively rational, at least they didn’t put the hats of “wrong position”, “undermining unity”, and “handing over knives” on the author.

In the eyes of many people, “Nezha 2” is no longer just a movie, it also carries the important task of winning glory for the country. They found the pride of Xu Haifeng shooting the first Olympic gold medal in “Nezha 2”, how can they allow others to pour cold water?

It’s okay if the article is scolded, but the most bizarre thing is that even cities are scolded, just because they didn’t contribute enough to the box office.

Writer Wei Zhou wrote in an article: So far, this film has occupied the box office champion in all provinces and cities across the country, and the only exception that has not been conquered is Shanghai. Some people sneered at this – “Shanghai doesn’t care about domestic products”, “drinking coffee requires foreign films”.

As a result, even the Shangguan News had to come forward to respond:

Loving one’s own country, one’s own nation, and one’s own culture is a simple emotion. It is based on this that we like “Nezha 2” so much and eagerly hope that this film can go to the international film world, and sincerely cheer for it to break the 10 billion box office record. However, this simple emotion is by no means equivalent to blind arrogance and narrow-mindedness.

People’s expectations for “Nezha 2” have clearly gone beyond the scope of entertainment and art and have moved towards identity politics. This is not a weight that an animated film can bear.

I’m a little worried about director Jiaozi now. If there’s a “misstep” in the future, I’m afraid he will be devoured by the audience who “contributed to the box office” for him.

02

In addition to such “internal contradictions among the people”, netizens also found that Hollywood also put a “black hand” on “Nezha 2”, such as not giving “Nezha 2” film screenings.

The author of an article complained:

The Western market, under the pretext of signing a screening agreement with the movie “Captain America 4”, simply does not arrange screenings for Nezha. As of now, out of more than 9,000 theaters in North America, only more than 300 are showing Nezha; and most European countries are also very resistant, with most not open, and those that are open often only have a single-digit number of theaters showing it.

In the author’s opinion, facing such a historical masterpiece that is about to become the number one animated film in the world, American cinemas are harming themselves and others, and the purpose is to prevent the cultural output of “Nezha 2”.

This article’s viewpoint has received countless support and was even reposted by Hu Xijin’s public account. But I can only say, the author really doesn’t understand Hollywood.

First of all, in the eyes of foreign audiences, “Nezha 2” may not be a “historical masterpiece”. This is like “Wicked Witch of the West”, which sold well in the North American market last year, but didn’t even make a splash in the Chinese market.

Chinese audiences neither understand the Americans’ favorite “Wizard of Oz”, nor are they interested in the form of musicals. Think about it, why do we think that “Nezha 2” will definitely conquer American audiences?

Moreover, “Nezha 2” has screenings in 660 theaters in North America (not the 300 mentioned in the article), which has broken the opening screening record for Chinese films in nearly 20 years. The last Chinese film that could have such a large-scale screening was “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”.

If there is a cold reception, it should be that Chinese films have always been cold in North American theaters. Except for Kung Fu films, the audience for Chinese films in the North American market is basically Chinese people. So it is the audience that determines the screenings.

Back then, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” was able to have large-scale screenings, thanks to its winning the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. In other words, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” went out of the circle.

And this time, “Nezha 2” can receive the same treatment, precisely because it has become the box office champion in Chinese film history. This made the American theaters decide to take a chance.

To put it bluntly, such screenings are a rational choice of the market for the quality of the film, large-scale screenings mean costs, and “Nezha 2” first needs to prove its box office appeal.

But many people believe that the screenings in American theaters are not based on the market, but on politics. Some people even fabricated the rumor that “the US Department of Commerce banned the film ‘Nezha 2’ on the grounds of ‘national security’.”

The relevant statement said:

On February 5, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued an emergency executive order, announcing that the Chinese animated film “Nezha 2: The Devil Child’s Sea” was included in the entity list, prohibiting the film from being distributed, screened, and streamed in the United States. This is the first time the US government has implemented a comprehensive ban on cultural and entertainment products since TikTok and Huawei.

The public account “Pengpai Mingcha” believes after an investigation: There is no evidence to show that the film was blocked from being released in the United States. The relevant film was officially released in the United States, Canada, and other places around February 14.

“Nezha 2” did not make the United States feel like a formidable enemy as many Chinese netizens believe. Film critic Zhou Liming, who lives in the United States, said: “Both professional media and popular media in the United States have behaved very calmly. There was neither astonishment nor a sour expression. To put it bluntly, they don’t care at all.”

As expected, Zhou Liming, whose “position is wrong”, was subjected to criticism from netizens.

03

In these true and false rumors, the emotions of netizens were aroused. Many people began to call for a boycott of Marvel’s “Captain America 4” online.

Some cinemas even took advantage of “patriotism” and announced that they would only show “Nezha 2” and not “Captain America 4”.

Many netizens also quoted Nezha’s lines to express their determination: “It doesn’t matter if my (box office) dies or not, I want Captain America’s (box office) to die.” No, have you asked Nezha for his opinion?

Some netizens also found a solid reason to boycott “Captain America 4”: This film is linked with the Japanese anime “My Hero Academia”, which is suspected of insulting China, which is unbearable!

“Captain America 4” was thus “shot” and became a target, only because it chose the wrong release schedule. At the critical moment when the box office of “Nezha 2” was about to reach the top, it dared to compete for screenings.

To be honest, this bad film, which is known as the “749 Bureau” of the United States, does not pose a threat to “Nezha 2” at all, and the netizens are making a mountain out of a molehill.

But it doesn’t matter, for netizens, as long as they can create an atmosphere of internal and external troubles, it is enough to promote the increase of the box office of “Nezha 2”.

However, this is ultimately self-deception.

Why do so many people care about the screenings of “Nezha 2” in the North American market? Because they know that the current box office miracle is supported by the single market of China.

As early as after the Spring Festival, “Nezha 2” was already the box office champion in the history of a single market, but in the box office rankings, there are dozens of Hollywood films ahead of “Nezha 2”. Hollywood films have always harvested box office globally.

This makes the box office of “Nezha 2” look like it’s “self-congratulatory”, so netizens are obsessed with the screenings in North America, in fact, they still hope to be recognized by the world.

In this way, netizens have fallen into a contradictory emotion of both rejecting foreign film competition and yearning for the recognition of foreign audiences.

As for “breaking the Hollywood box office monopoly”, first of all, you need to know that this “box office monopoly” is the result of market choices, and not based on a movement inspired by ideology.

If a box office miracle is built in a non-market-oriented way, what ultimately harms is only those domestic films that compete with “Nezha 2”. The box office they could have obtained was used to rewatch “Nezha 2” three, four, or even five times.

Being obsessed with the box office success of “Nezha 2” is no different from being obsessed with Olympic gold medals back then, it just proves that after 40 years, many people have not changed in their cognition and mentality.

As writer Wei Zhou said: “The inner trauma that has been carved since modern times has not yet healed: inferiority and arrogance are two sides of the same coin, we are too eager to embrace the symbols that make us feel good, because that is ‘us’.”

However, even if Nezha, who said “I am the master of my own fate”, finally overturned the monopoly of Yuxu Palace, what does all this have to do with the people of Chen Tang Pass?