New Trend, New Drama Style ｜ Market Analysis of Big Screen Drama from January to May ｜ Special Planning

Compared with node-intensive 2021, in the first half of 2022, the number of nodes in China’s big-screen drama market dropped sharply, and the proportion of recommended dramas decreased by nearly 30%.

Realism’s creative concept of "small but true" is deeply rooted in people’s hearts, the fireworks of life penetrate into the content texture, and the concern for small people shows universal feelings. Realistic creative methods are popular, and works on environmental protection, home decoration, winter Olympics, food and other topics have been mapped to realistic issues.

In the first half of the year, the big-screen drama market tried to achieve a multi-dimensional breakthrough in life expression, authenticity expression and youthfulness expression, showing a natural and flexible style and rich and diverse themes. According to the data of 64 cities of CSM Media Research, the drama market of Shangxing Channel in China presents the following main characteristics.

Multi-platform cross-construction theme series

Strong "return" of traditional large-scale themes

In the first half of 2022, the big-screen drama market of Shangxing Channel in the evening prime time (hereinafter referred to as the late yellow file) showed two main characteristics.

First, multi-platform cross-construction theme series. Each satellite channel launched different plays in different schedules, but they all formed a meaningful series matrix. Among them, there are "other people" series, which are based on "people" and "home" to express the true feelings of the world, including "The World", "Dear Children", "The Covenant of a New House", "Heart House" and "Old Best Friend". "Landscape" series: The content is closely related to the great rivers and mountains of the motherland in ancient and modern times, covering the ballad of the sea, the spring breeze is green in Jiang Nanan, the warmth of Sanquan Creek, the green hills are silent, the canal is romantic, the mountains and rivers are bright, and so on. "Fengyun" series: "From the Wind and Cloud on the Lanes" shows flying in the blue sky, and "The Wind Rises in Longxi" focuses on the spy war in the Three Kingdoms. In addition, there are reminiscence series: Stories in Time, Meeting Time, etc.

Second, there is a warming trend in traditional large-scale themes. From January to May, 2022, 49 first-round dramas were released in the evening yellow file of Shangxing Channel. The four traditional themes of urban life, romance, social ethics and modern legends each accounted for 10, 7, 6 and 5, and 28 dramas, accounting for 57% of the total, regained the screen and reappeared the high-light momentum of the past. Compared with the grand scene in which the theme of "upstart" emerges endlessly in 2021, the novelty of minor categories in the first half of 2022 is quite satisfactory. Among them, there are 5 dramas featuring the changes of the times, 4 with youth themes, 3 with anti-spy/spy wars, 2 with contemporary themes, and 1 with military life, major history, biographies, military struggles, commercial wars, rural areas and cases involved. Shangxing Channel only broadcasts six first-round dramas in the evening prime time (hereinafter referred to as the prime time), so there are fewer kinds of themes, including cases involved, changes of the times, urban life, youth, romance and military life.

Pay attention to the daily life of small people

"Small but true" becomes the mainstream of narrative.

In the first half of 2022, the broadcasting style of Chinese drama market changed greatly, and "small" and "true" complemented each other and became the mainstream. On the one hand, small incision and big narrative, little people and big feelings, small perspective and big theme; On the other hand, the main characters on the screen are more grounded, focusing on ordinary people, radiating workers, chefs, doormen, grassroots cadres, kannika nimtragol, athletes, teachers, soldiers, etc., covering decoration, food, environmental protection, sports, marriage, life, etc., and a number of excellent works with profound thoughts, exquisite art and excellent production have emerged.

From January to May, more than 30% of the dramas with an average audience rating of 1% broke in the first round of the evening yellow file of Shangxing Channel; There are five plays with an average audience rating of over 2%, including The Covenant of a New House, Perfect Companion, Heartbeat on the Tip of the Tongue, In the World, Spring Breeze and Green Jiang Nanan. The protagonists of these series are not important figures, and they are basically implemented in "small" roles. In the creation of drama series, we pay attention to the use of the word "truth" and pursue the natural expression of life-oriented narrative, so the plot looks real and credible, and the character view is amiable and lovely, which can arouse the audience’s empathy.

The main melody drama pursues the expression of truth. "Spring Breeze and Green Jiang Nanan" focuses on "eco-environmental protection" and pushes "dare to tell the truth and do practical things". The rhythm is compact and lively, and the total ratings of Jiangsu Satellite TV and Zhejiang Satellite TV exceeded 2% after one week of broadcasting. Renowned works are changed into screenwriters to pursue true feelings. According to Liang Xiaosheng’s adaptation of The World with the same name, it depicts a little person’s "fireworks under the eaves", which is full of simple feelings in the world. The feelings of father and son, husband and wife and friends make people cry and cleanse their hearts. The actors collectively offer "cosmetic" acting skills, which has become an annual quality drama in one fell swoop. The average audience rating of CCTV-1 comprehensive channel is 2.25%, the Douban rating is 8.1, and the Douban rating is nearly 180,000. Industry drama pursues industry truth. The Covenant of New Houses focuses on the "true and false" decoration and exposes many industry insiders. It is a refreshing work, with the audience rating exceeding 2.6%. Family drama pursues the truth of plot and characters. "Dear Children" set off public opinion, which resonated with the audience, and the audience rating exceeded 1%. Costume drama pursues historical truth. "The Wind Rises in Longxi" tells the story of spy war with the background of the Three Kingdoms period. On the basis of historical truth, the master created a reasonable imagination, film-level shots and brain-burning plots, which won the audience’s affirmation and achieved 1.72% ratings on CCTV-8 TV drama channel.

Broaden the track of industry drama

Including elites in the workplace and ordinary workers.

Industry drama is the highlight of the vertical subdivision of the track in the layout of satellite TV platform, which is prone to explosions, such as "Anjia" and "Mounting Taiwan", which have become classic works in recent years. In the first half of this year, industry dramas continued to expand "upward" and "downward" under the concept of realistic creation.

Up, industry dramas are heading for the main theme, including Beautiful Days, which shows the development of China’s locomotive industry, Green Hills Without Ink, which shows the development of China’s forestry, Sanquan Creek Warming, which is the upgrading of China’s agriculture, Police Honor, Happy Police Officer Wang, which focuses on grassroots policemen, and Blue Flame Assault, which focuses on firefighters. The military life dramas include Ace Troops, Special Forces Series, Special Warfare Glory and Special Warfare Action. "Ace Force" shows the history of China’s military development with a span of nearly 40 years. After being broadcast on Jiangsu Satellite TV, the audience rating broke 2%. "Glory of Special Operations" focuses on the personal growth of the members of the special operations armed police. After the broadcast of Zhejiang Satellite TV and Shanghai Oriental TV, the total audience rating is 1.45%. "Special Operations" projected the lens to the international anti-terrorism battlefield, landed in the sub-yellow file of CCTV-8 TV drama channel, and gained 0.73% results.

With the opportunity of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the ice and snow drama became a new theme industry drama in the first half of the year. "Beyond" focuses on short track speed skating. After its first broadcast on CCTV-1 comprehensive channel on January 9, 2022, it landed in Shanghai and Beijing, with a total score of 1.5%. "The Name of Ice and Snow" focuses on the key events of the Winter Olympics "Figure Skating, Short Track Speed Skating and Traditional Cross-country Skiing". It was first broadcast on Beijing Satellite TV on February 5, 2022, followed by five satellite TV stations in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hebei, Jilin and Heilongjiang, artistically presenting the fighting spirit of Chinese ice and snow athletes.

"Downward", the industry drama is subdivided all the way. There are developments in the inheritance of urban workplace dramas, including the legal drama "The Law of Ladies" which depicts female lawyers, and "Please call me director" which adheres to the idea of "overbearing president falls in love with me". Themes are sinking, including the home improvement drama The Covenant of a New House, Welcome with the doorman as the protagonist, and Dress Up with fashion magazines as the carrier. Since "Dressing Taiwan", "The Covenant of New Houses" once again depicts ordinary workers with strong colors, bricklayers, plumbers, big bosses and top designers in the same box, with a strange and simple style and interesting and informative stories. The audience rating of the drama broke 1% on the first day after it was broadcast on CCTV-1 comprehensive channel, and then it climbed steadily.

"Middle-aged drama" shows a blowout momentum.

Focus on women’s awakening

With the popularity of "Sister Who Rides the Wind and Waves", there has been an upsurge of women’s awakening in China, and film and television creators have keenly captured this trend, and "her theme" has been popular for a while. At the end of 2021, this kind of theme was further extended, and it began to pay attention to the hearts of middle-aged people, focusing deeply on the marriage dilemma and value remodeling of middle-aged women, which was quite topical. The popularity of Xiaomin’s Home has led to the rapid rise of "middle-aged drama".

In the first half of 2022, the "middle-aged drama" with different styles rushed to the beach TV platform, trying to explore how urban women should break the shackles of marriage, balance their careers and families, find themselves again, and "wake up, start again and grow again" from different angles.

Hunan Satellite TV took "Perfect Companion" (broadcast on January 5, 2022) as the opening drama, describing how middle-aged working women balance the dilemma of family and career, and the audience rating exceeded 2.4%; Then "Two Conjectures of Marriage" (broadcast on February 21st, 2022) was broadcast, which described the "flash marriage" life of 30-year-old professional women in light comedy style. Beijing Satellite TV played "Our Marriage" (broadcast on February 23, 2022), and the stay-at-home wife returned to the workplace and grew up with her husband, which triggered a heated discussion among the audience. Zhejiang Satellite TV and Shanghai Oriental TV broadcast "Heart Residence" (broadcast on March 17, 2022), which tells the inspirational story that foreign kannika nimtragol began to pursue her own value after becoming a single mother.

CCTV-8 TV series channels successively broadcast "Middle-aged dramas" such as "I have you in this life", "Dear Children", "Happy Duet" and "Lady’s Law", and the ratings of the first two dramas both broke 1%. Since June, the upsurge of "middle-aged drama" has warmed up again, with intensive broadcasting: CCTV-8 TV channel launched "Come on Mom" in the yellow file on the evening of June 5, Hunan Satellite TV broadcasted "Wife’s Choice" in the yellow file on June 6, and Beijing Satellite TV and Shanghai Oriental TV broadcasted "Lin Shen Seeing Deer" on June 7.

It is noteworthy that, as the era of small fresh meat gradually drifted away, a group of Mesozoic actors with high national standards gradually provoked the main beam. The actresses included Christina, Zhou Xun, Tanya, Yolanda, Li Xiaoran, Yin Tao, etc., and the actors included Lei Jiayin, Pan Yueming, Zhang Luyi, Huang Xuan, Chen Kun, Guo Jingfei, Wang Yang, Zhong Hanliang, etc., all of which performed well in major dramas.

Romantic dramas are even more grounded.

Youth theme is passionate and inspirational.

In the first half of 2022, Shangxing Platform launched a series of dramas with youthful emotional expressions for young audiences, and made new explorations in the main theme of differentiated competition and collaborative communication. The "romance" market showed new trends and new drama styles.

First, the traditional romance theme adheres to the realistic creation method, and the rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea are mixed into dreams and reality, and there are signs of "landing". For example, although Heartbeat on the Tip of the Tongue is still the inner shell of the idol drama "The President of Cold Noodles and Mary Su", when it comes to the elements of "food", the style of painting has a pyrotechnic effect, and it has the effect of warming the heart. After its first broadcast on Zhejiang Satellite TV (broadcast on January 13, 2022), it won 2.3% ratings.

The second is an anti-elite routine. The protagonist touches ordinary people, and the story abandons the popular sadomasochism and sweet pet style, presenting a plain and routine daily work, with a warm and fresh style and a natural upward tone, which adds a layer of realistic struggle to the story. For example, "Welcome" staged the story of the little doorman attacking and chasing the stewardess, which truly and vividly described their living and working conditions. After the broadcast of Beijing and Shanghai Oriental TV (broadcast on May 18, 2022), the total audience rating exceeded 1.9%.

Third, the content of youth-themed works is grounded, inspiring and full of positive energy. The representative works are "Beyond" and "The Name of Ice and Snow", two winter Olympic dramas with outstanding realistic style, thrilling and exciting competition scenes, which make the audience excited and glorious. In addition, there are "Guo Ping Pong Career Drama", "Glory Ping Pong", fire rescue drama "Blue Flame Assault" and youth inspirational comedy "Dream Chasers League", all of which show a positive tone.

To sum up, in the first half of 2022, China’s big-screen drama market surged with heat, innovation and many bright spots. The realistic theme work "In the World" has become the annual quality benchmark, and the main melody works such as "Spring Breeze and Green Jiang Nanan", "Police Honor", "Transcendence" and "Special War Glory" are deeply rooted in people’s hearts. Urban dramas such as "The Covenant of a New House", "Welcome to My Dear Child" have been successfully broken, and dramas such as "Perfect Companion", "Heartbeat on the Tip of the Tongue" and "You in this Life" have quite a healing effect. Looking forward to a more exciting second half.

(The author is the TV research manager of China Guangshi Sophomore Media Research Co., Ltd.)

Special Planning | Striving for High-quality Development in Steady Progress | Mid-year Survey of 2022 Drama Market

New Trend and New Drama Style: Market Analysis of Big-screen Drama from January to May

Analysis of the network communication pattern of drama market from January to May 2022

Striving for stability and moving towards high-quality development: a mid-year survey of 2022 drama market

Multi-themes Covering the Main Melody Carrying Flags: An Observation on the Market Trend of Drama in the Second Half of 2022

Dialogue with You Xiaogang, President of China TV Drama Production Industry Association: Drama creation should have content, emotion and temperature.

Dialogue with Zhao Yifang, Founder and Chairman of Huace Film and Television Group: Sticking to "Content is King" and Creating "Spiritual Prosperity" Film and Television Boutique

Dialogue with Ren Xu, General Manager of Mango TV Copyright Center: Intensive cultivation ecology promotes deep integration of dual platforms

Dialogue with Zhu Liqing, Director of the Film and Television Channel Center of Beijing Radio and Television Station: The drama market is constantly innovating, and the effect of "reducing costs and increasing efficiency" in the industry is outstanding

Dialogue with Chen Qiqing, Deputy Director of the Content Copyright Sales Department of Jiangsu Radio and Television General Station: realistic works shine brilliantly.

Dialogue with Yang Bei, Vice President of iQiyi and General Manager of Copyright Management Center: Reflecting the change of the times, the progress of China and the call of the people.

Ren Peng, Vice President of Dialogue Perfect World Film and Television: The ultimate goal of the film and television industry is always high-quality content

Sun Hao, Vice President of Dialogue Yaoke Media: Promote the industry to meet challenges with the spirit of second pioneering.

The second half of 2022 is worthy of attention.

Image source: Douban

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