Film Marketing in the Age of the Mobile Media How the Chinese Effectively Promote Their Films Through Douyin (Tik Tok)

Abstract

Hailed as one of Chinas most profitable blockbusters to date, Changjin Lake is a film about the Peoples Volunteer Army fighting in North Korea. The combat troops on the eastern front pursued the enemy with iron-like will and heroic fighting spirit in a cold and harsh environment. They fought heroically and reversed the situation on the battlefield, showing their military strength and national prestige. Released in 2021, it has been reported that Changjin Lake underwent a box office gross of 5.694 billion nation-wide. Given its box office success, it is obvious that Changjin Lake has a pretty good audiovisual quality. However, its stunning audiovisual quality does not account for the only reason behind its domestic success. According to public information released by Changjin Lakes publicity team in October 2021, the films official Douyin account had 2.64 million fans, and its three Douyin videos had more than 100 million views in a single stream while the film was widely shown in cinemas. In total, Douyin videos about Changjin Lake has been viewed more than 11.25 billion times. As exemplified by Changjin Lakes extraordinary market performance, with the popularization of short video genres, Douyin and other platforms in recent years have become an important publicity channel for the promotion of commercial films.