光明与黑暗的票房之道

　　黑暗电影未尝不是王道，而喜庆电影也未必总是王道

　　雷德利·斯克特给马特·达蒙饰演的马克·沃特尼示范在“火星”上行走——实际上是在约旦的瓦迪拉姆。《火星救援》是一部跟《阿波罗13号》一模一样的广受喜爱的作品，里边只致力于解决手头的难题，没有反派角色。

　　“And they all lived happily ever after.”

　　“最终他们都过上了幸福的生活。”

　　Conventional wisdom says that if you can utter that phrase about the characters in a film， chances are it will be a hit with the public. People go to the movies for escapism； they don’t want to pay money for a downer.

　　传统观念认为，如果你能用这句话来描述电影中的角色，多半它能成为炙手可热的电影。因为人们去观影是为了逃避现实，他们不想花钱买沮丧。

　　Wrong.

　　错。

　　Like anything else in this industry， it all comes down to the execution. An unhappy ending doesn’t necessarily mean failure. Just ask James Cameron after Titanic became the No. 1 film of all time and effortlessly snagged the Best Picture Oscar. When I saw that film in 3D a few years back， people were still crying and yelling at Rose to let Jack onto her makeshift life raft. You could also talk to Clint Eastwood. He had the biggest hit of his career with AmericanSniper， a bleak flick that takes an uncompromising view of the perils of war. Nothing released in 2015 could beat American Sniper—and there was certainly no shortage of happily-ever-after stories.

　　如同这个行业任何其他事物一般，归根结底都在于执行。不是合家欢的结局并不一定意味着失败。只要问问凭借《泰坦尼克号》成为全时票房第一，并轻松夺得奥斯卡最佳影片的詹姆斯·卡梅隆。当我几年前看电影的3D版本时，人们仍对着萝丝哭泣和叫喊着，盼望杰克钻进她的救生筏里。你也可以问问克林特·伊斯特伍德，凭借《美国狙击手》他迎来职业生涯中最大的逆袭，这部灰暗的电影对战争危险秉持着不妥协的立场。2015年上映的影片中不乏大团圆结局的故事，但无一能够胜过《美国狙击手》。

　　The second half of 2015 has been filled with a handful of dark films. Some have succeeded， others haven’t.

　　2015年下半年已经有一群黑色电影扎堆。有一些成功了，另一些惨淡收场。

　　As of this writing， Sicario is coming off a strong nationwide expansion， and it’s poised to show healthy staying power in the weeks to come. Sicario is one of the best films of the year， but it’s not easy to sit through. Not only is it incredibly violent， but it doesn’t offer a lot of hope when it comes to stopping the drug trade in Mexico. That’s a double downer. Yet when you combine Denis Villeneuve’s tight direction with Roger Deakins’s brilliant cinematography and a great performance from a talented ensemble， you have a film that moviegoers can’t resist， even if it doesn’t send them out of theaters with a spring in their steps and a smile on their faces.

　　在撰写本文时，《边境杀手》正攻城略地势如破竹，且预期在今后的几个星期内保持良好的走势。《边境杀手》是今年最好的电影之一，但耐着性子看完并不容易。这不仅在于令人难以置信的暴力，而且说到阻止墨西哥毒品交易，电影也没有给出多大的希望。这是一种双重的沮丧。然而，当你将达尼斯·维纶纽瓦严谨的执导方式、罗杰·狄金斯卓越的摄影与有天赋的演员们的精彩表演结合起来，你当即拥有了一部观众无法拒绝的电影，即使电影没能让观众走出影院时脚步轻盈、满脸笑容。

　　In a rare miss for Universal this year， Everest failed to make dark work. I remain baffled as to why this film wasn’t a bigger hit. It has the same I-just-want-to-reach-through-the-screen-and-stop-this-character-from-making-a-stupid-decision moments that Titanic has. Also， it’s not entirely bleak. Some people do make it back， after all. The suspense is top notch， and the character development is impressive for a film that crams in a lot of characters. Still， Everest didn’t catch on the way it could have despite an early release on IMAX screens that delivered strong box office and solid word of mouth.

　　环球影业今年难得地马失前蹄，《绝命海拔》的黑色风格黯然落败了。我仍然百思不得其解为什么这部电影未能造成爆炸性轰动。它与《泰坦尼克号》一样，都有那种冲动瞬间，恨不得能冲进银幕阻止主角做出愚蠢的决定。同样，它并不完全地惨不忍睹，毕竟有些人确实活着回来了。电影的悬念是顶尖的，对一部角色云集的电影，人物刻画令人印象深刻。尽管《绝命海拔》在IMAX银幕的先前上映带来强劲的票房和良好的口碑，但却没能乘胜追击。

　　It’s definitely possible that Everest was overshadowed a bit by anticipation for The Martian. Would The Martian be as successful if Mark Watney didn’t make it back from Mars？ I doubt it. Watney goes through so much in the film that audiences would certainly pelt the screen with popcorn if he died. The Martian boasts one of the most emotionally satisfying endings of the year， and a huge portion of its success is thanks to that. But what if Watney were trapped on Mars with his wife and had to sacrifice himself so that she could live？ Well， that might have resulted in even more box office than the sci-fi flick is already generating. People would now be calling it Titanic in Space instead of Cast Away in Space.

　　绝对有可能是由于《火星救援》的预期令《绝命海拔》黯然失色。如果马克·瓦特尼（主角）没能成功从火星返回，《火星救援》还会如此成功吗？我表示怀疑。瓦特尼饱经风霜，如果他不幸牺牲，观众肯定会朝银幕怒砸爆米花。《火星救援》自诩拥有今年最满足情感的结局，其绝大部分的成功归功于此。但如果沃特尼与妻子困在火星上，且必须牺牲自己来换取妻子的生命呢？好吧，这甚至可能会带来比这部科幻片更多的票房。人们会称它为《太空泰坦尼克号》而不是《荒岛余生》。

　　The fall/holiday season will bring more dark films. If TheHunger Games： Mocking jay—Part 2 sticks close to the book，then it will prove again that dark can work on a blockbuster scale. Many Star Wars fans are already theorizing that a major cast member will die， and fans of the Rocky franchise are predicting the same fate for the Italian Stallion. Are we worried about the commercial prospects of those films？ Absolutely not. Does it mean Hollywood has finally figured out how to make dark commercially viable every time？ Far from it.

　　今秋/假日季将有更多黑暗电影。如果《饥饿游戏3：嘲笑鸟（下）忠实于原著，那么它将再次证明黑暗题材对大片系列同样适用。许多《星球大战》的粉丝已经推论电影的一个主要角色将死亡，而《洛基》系列粉丝则预测“意大利种马”会有同样的命运。我们会担心这些商业片的前景吗？绝对不会。这是否意味着好莱坞终于领悟如何每次都制作出黑暗的可行商业片了吗？远非如此。

　　菲尔·康崔诺