Crowdfunding brings ‘ The Summer Is Gone’ to cinemas on Friday
The Summer Is Gone, director Zhang Dalei’s maiden film and winner of the best film award at the 2016 Golden Horse awards, hits cinemas in the Chinese mainland on Friday.
At the film’s premiere on Wednesday, Zhang explained that since Summer is an art film, many cinema chains were not willing to screen the film since this genre often performs poorly at the box office. This forced the studios behind the film to turn to a “crowdfunding” method to get the film into cinemas.
According to the director, the studios worked together with certain online ticket- selling platforms to establish a way for moviegoers to “vote” to see the film. Those interested in seeing the film could head to participating platforms and choose where and when they wanted to see the film. Once a preset quota for a venue was reached, the cinema arranged to screen the film at the agreed upon time.
IQiyi Pictures, one of the studios behind the movie, said that a total of 100 screenings for the film had been scheduled through this new method.
Summer tells the story of a family living in a film studio in Hohhot, capital of North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, during the 1990s through the eyes of a child.
Talking about potential box- office earnings, Zhang said he doesn’t have any expectations and only hopes to “make ends meet.” He also added that in his opinion, it is “not appropriate to talk about box office for an art film such as The Summer Is Gone.”
Zhang also revealed that a sequel is already underway that will feature the original cast and focus on the life of the film’s main character as a 16- year- old.