Moon Man is controversial why it is not as good as goodbye mr. loser.
Special feature of 1905 film network filmMoon ManThe box office broke 2.9 billion, striding towards 3 billion, and became the highest-grossing feature film in Mahua FunAge. At the same time, it also became the box office champion of the summer file in 2022.There is no absolute perfection in the world, just standing in the highest position, and there are naturally many discussions behind it.

Whether it’s as high as 100% "including Teng" or the long-lost "Shen Ma Combination", the configuration of Moon Man seems to meet the audience’s highest expectations for "Mahua FunAge". After the first screening in the industry, many forecasting platforms gave an expectation of 4 billion or even 5 billion.

In terms of word-of-mouth, many people in the industry gave the evaluation of "Mahua FunAge’s Best", but with the fermentation after the film was released, Douban’s score has now dropped to 6.8, which is the same as that of the film jointly created by the director before, far less than that of "Mahua FunAge".

Judging from the current box office trend, it may not be close to the box office predicted in the previous period. What is the problem behind it? Perhaps under the "highest" expectation before the screening, the audience’s requirements have gradually become higher, and the feedback from watching movies is not as good as expected, which has become an obstacle on the road.
To put it more strictly, it is "expected management".So, for a film, how to manage the audience’s pre-screening expectations?

We try to find out the relationship between "expectation" and "result" from Moon Man to the "low attention to Bogao box office" of "Mahua FunAge" films at the beginning of the year.
Why is Moon Man not satisfied?
"Not funny enough" is the key to many viewers’ disapproval of Moon Man.Obviously, "Mahua FunAge" was born in 2015, and its comedy style, which was immersed in the stage in the past, quickly attracted many audiences and even broke the pattern of the comedy film market in the past.

In recent years, it has become a walking expression pack, various on-the-spot reactions, or interactions on variety shows, full of laughter. With the wonderful propaganda operation of movies, "including the amount of smoke" has become the core point for the audience to certify the quality of movies.

Back to Moon Man itself, we tried to find the answer from some viewers who were dissatisfied with the film.
"The first half of the movie is funny, and it is also a typical’ Mahua FunAge’, but those jokes are not as wonderful as before (the movie), and even some stalks can be guessed. Then the sci-fi elements are more important behind the story, and the comedy effect is reduced, which makes the story longer and the visibility is not high. " Some fans of "Mahua FunAge" express themselves, which is similar to the feedback of "dissatisfaction".

Just like a highly praised comment on a certain platform, "I hate stuffing sensational parts into comedies, which makes me almost unable to laugh from the second half, and it is not suitable for stuffing sensational parts into comedies."

Although Moon Man is a comedy+sci-fi movie, the label "Mahua FunAge" comes first, and the audience is more expecting comedy, and sci-fi is a seasoning. Only with the advancement of the film, more and more plots with a sense of mission develop, and the tonality of the story itself gradually moves towards the direction of tears.
As every comedy creator says, comedy is more difficult than tragedy. Especially with the popularity of various video platforms, the development of punchline by netizens has already surpassed the past comedy market.

Shen Teng once said in our interview, "All used jokes can’t be used, not only your own, but also those used by others. Then you came up with it yourself, and others played it first, so you can’t use it anymore. Now the audience has seen and heard too many things. If you can’t think of a few locks of hair, just fool it. There is no such thing. "

Looking back at "goodbye mr. loser", the "Mahua FunAge" at that time was not known by too many audiences. The outside world had no expectations for the "three noes" film at that time, and even the team itself did not trust the market in the southern cities. In the end, the audience’s expectations have already passed the box office, giving the best answer.
The same is true of the market performance of the movie "This Killer is Not Too Cold".No Shen Teng participated, although the starring role was played.Ma LiThe stunt, but actually a senior member of the "Mahua FunAge"Wei XiangSupporting the whole film. The overall attention before the screening was not high, or even optimistic, and the first day of filming was in the last file. The counterattack became the best ending of this movie.

And Shen Teng said after the screening, don’t say "including the amount of smoke" in the future, so to speak "including the amount of air".Now, looking back at everyone’s concern about "containing Teng", it is more about the expectation of the actor’s performance in the film and the chemical interaction between the actor and the film.
Moon Man is already the most mature work of the whole "Mahua FunAge", from the film industry to the cooperation between teams. But ultimately, it is not up to standard, which makes people wonder, when the audience is looking forward to the "Mahua FunAge" movie, what are they looking forward to?

Although sensational has become Moon Man’s original sin, the sensational and moving plots of those "Mahua FunAge" films in the past are not absent, but for the creative team with more macro stories, how to combine their own characteristics may be the key. The audience understands the creative progress of the team from the works. As everyone knows, this is also a beautiful "two-way trip".
Expectation management behind it
There is a question in front of us. When the film is facing the market and publicity plays the role of advertising, can it be intervened in the early stage?
We interviewed Ms. E, who is engaged in publicity and marketing. First of all, as an audience, she personally recognized Moon Man. In addition, she was in the industry and had been observing many actions of this film.
"What impressed me deeply in the early stage of the film was’ containing Teng’ and’ Shen Ma combination’. But on the whole, it has always strengthened the elements of science fiction in various materials, and the previous directors participated in space activities, all trying to convey to the audience that this is a science fiction movie. "

However, the audience’s cognition of domestic sci-fi movies always stays in harmony, which is a relatively traditional hard sci-fi. "And Moon Man is a genre-integrated work with comedy bonus. For many viewers, when they see Shen Teng, they will want to laugh. Maybe this is the key to the gap."
Manager Wang of a cinema in Suzhou talked about this phenomenon. "We have our own fan base. I saw many people discussing it, but I didn’t expect Moon Man to go like this. Some people were touched, but others felt a bit like The Wandering Earth."

Moon Man is not an isolated case. Another movie in the summer file has a similar "goods are not right".
Manager Wang said that many people’s impressions of the previous works and the cognition of Mozart in Outer Space thought it was a science fiction movie, but they didn’t expect it to be a children’s movie, and the overall impression was very poor.
Ms. E saw the difficulty of the propaganda team. "Obviously, we can see that the propaganda is trying to manage the audience’s expectations. From the later materials, they all highlight Mozart and the state of the children. The styles of the later posters are very childlike."

Just, can every material reach the audience?
No propagandist can guarantee, "Personally, I always think that publicity is like’ brainwashing’ to make the audience accept some settings of this film. After all, after the film finally came out, we also knew many problems mentioned on the Internet, but we couldn’t modify the make-up. We could only weaken it by constantly adjusting the propaganda strategy. "
Nowadays, most films are screened before screening. From the feedback of the audience, we sort out all kinds of problems that a film may encounter, and then modify it according to the progress, or adjust the direction according to the pilot report in terms of propaganda strategy.

It’s just that every movie has its own destiny, and it’s only relative to do all kinds of expected management.
Every work has the audience’s own interpretation and expectations. Perhaps for the audience, balancing their expectations will inevitably have different surprises. For the film itself, how to ensure everyone’s expectations with the work is the most important thing.


































