"Thank you for your likes. It makes everyone look forward to the second episode. I think it is a particularly big compliment for us. The audience feels recognized. Then we will continue to work hard and strive for a second episode." – This is what Wu Jing said at the road show of "The Bodyguard".
The 2026 Spring Festival is coming to an end. For several days in a row, Brother Fei has made a detailed analysis of the Chinese New Year box office. The championship has been confirmed, and the runner-up has gradually become clear, that is, "The Daredevil" has fallen behind for 3 days, and the big counterattack has begun.
There are more and more people watching the movie, and the audience participating in the discussion are very passionate. Some said that the final box office of "The Bodyguard" can exceed 2.5 billion; some said that Chang Guiren, played by Jet Li, should not die; some said that Xie Miao, Donnie Yen and Zhao Wenzhuo would be invited to guest star in the sequel, etc.
Judging from the feedback, the audience hopes that "The Bodyguard 2" will be released smoothly. In fact, Yuen Woo-Ping's sequel to "The Bodyguard" has been approved. I think that the first domestic box office exceeded 1.5 billion, and then relying on overseas copyright income to recover the cost and make a small profit is not a big problem.
In other words, "The Daredevil 2" has a very good chance of being put on the agenda.
1. Box office analysis during the Spring Festival.
On February 22, the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, the mainland box office rankings were released. The market closed another 670 million in a single day, a decrease of 560 million from the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. It dropped 45.66% year-on-year on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year last year.
We all know that "Nezha 2" became more and more popular last year, but there is a lack of such movies this year, so the downward trend is very obvious. As of press time, the total box office for the 2026 Spring Festival has exceeded the 5 billion mark.
It can be predicted that this Spring Festival period will be the worst in recent years, because only "Flying Life 3" has a box office of 2.6 billion during the period, which can be said to be in the lead.
The movie theater manager's schedule for this film still remains above 36%. The box office revenue on the sixth day of the new year is 330 million again, and the cumulative total box office in the mainland has reached 2.616 billion. The situation can be seen from the data, that is, the strong is always strong. It is harder to beat its movie schedule than to reach the sky.
3 days of reverse decline! The counterattack of "Dartman" begins! The second tier mainly revolves around "The Daredevil", "The Silence of Insects" and "There Are Bears Every Year".
On the first day of the Lunar New Year in "The Bodyguard", I ranked fourth and was beaten by Zhang Yimou, who was bald.
On the third day of the month, it overtook "Bear Bears", on the fourth day of the month, it overtook "The Silent Insect", and on the sixth day of the month, it continued to reverse its decline, overtaking "The Silence" in both film schedule and box office, firmly holding the runner-up position.
The film's film schedule has risen to 18.2%, and the attendance rate is 23%, which is almost the same as "Flying Life 3". On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, it once again grossed 119 million, surpassing the box office of "The Silent Insect" by 30 million, and its total box office was 690 million.
The film has successfully broken the mainland film history record of 689 million martial arts films held by Tsui Hark and Xiao Zhan's "The Condor". The next step is to see how high it can raise the ceiling of this genre of films.
In other words, the counterattack of "The Daredevil" is inevitable.
The predicted box office has increased significantly from 900 million to 1.5 billion. When the Spring Festival is over and people who travel and return to the city return, the stamina of "The Bodyguard" will surely increase. So, we can really look forward to it.
The film's budget cost is either 500 million or 700 million. If the stamina is strong enough, it will have the opportunity to break through 1.5 billion in the future and challenge higher results. What do you think the final box office of "The Bodyguard" will be?
The third runner-up was Zhang Yimou's "The Silence of the Insect". On the sixth day of its release, the film's daily box office dropped to 90.9 million, with a total box office of 789 million, 100 million ahead of "The Bodyguard".
Based on the calculation of exceeding 30 million per day, in 4 days, the total box office of "The Bodyguard" will officially surpass "The Silence of the Insect".
Zhang Yimou acted free and easy this time, ranking second in pre-sales, and the number of films scheduled for the first day was over 27%, but the reputation was average. Even with the support of big traffic stars such as Yi Yang Qianxi, Zhu Yilong, Liu Shishi, and Yang Mi, it still couldn't stop the box office from falling.
The investment cost of "The Silence of the Insect" is basically the actors' remuneration. The plot is the same as the modern version of "River Red". After the first wave of fans contributed to the box office, without word-of-mouth effect, the box office will not take off.
"Bear Bears" grossed another 80 million in a single day, with a total box office of 637 million, and the predicted box office is 1.1 billion; Jackie Chan's "Panda Project 2" has a total box office of 175 million; Wang Hedi's "Starry Dream" has a total box office of 76.27 million.
On the third day of its release, Huang Zihua's "The Night King" grossed a total box office of 53.77 million. After grand openings in Guangxi and Guangdong, it has gradually expanded to the whole country. However, the film schedule is still maintained at 3.2%, and the probability of a box office explosion is almost gone.
2. The reputation of "The Bodyguard" has been fully released.
If you think about it, why "The Bodyguard" was able to counterattack, the reason is actually very simple, that is the word-of-mouth effect. When I first started writing "The Bodyguard", many people thought that I had received money from the film studio and said that the article I wrote was "Guangzi".
Little did they know how powerful the “tap water effect” is, the latest word-of-mouth results for the Spring Festival stalls are revealed:
"Flying Life 3" Douban score dropped another 0.2 points, currently at 7.4 points;
"Starry Dream" also fell 0.1 points to 6.9 points;
"There Are Bears Every Year" scored 6.8, which is quite satisfactory;
"Project Panda 2" doesn't need to be rated at all. In fact, there is no need to wait for the rating of this film. I have said it before, people under 14 years old can watch it happily, but the older they get, the more they can't sit still;
Only "The Bodyguard" maintained its 7.5-point high.
This trend is a perfect replica of Wu Ershan's "Fengshen Part 1". The film was not well-received before its release. After the first wave of word-of-mouth explosion, the popularity of the film surged. The same was true for "Operation Red Sea" that year, and it finally achieved an unexpected box office result.
More importantly, the overseas reputation of "The Bodyguard" has been released. The Rotten Tomatoes score is 92%, the popcorn score is close to the perfect score, as high as 98%, and IMDB also gave it a score of 7.4.
A certain platform conducted an audience survey and scored, and 210,000 people participated in the rating. Five-star and four-star proportions accounted for as high as 73%, and the tap water effect completely exploded.
Although "Flying Life 3" dominated the box office, the audience was dismissive and complained about the film schedule and box office of "The Bodyguard". In the past few days, there has been little activity on "Jingzhe Silent" in the circle of friends. Everyone is discussing "The Bodyguard".
This is the "tap water effect". Once a topic is formed, many people who are waiting to watch will enter the cinema. This is how "Nezha 2" exploded at the box office.
Brothers, go to "Dartman"! When the ticket price drops after the holidays, I will make arrangements for the second time.
3. The box office exceeded 1.5 billion, and Yu Shi’s sequel is on the way.
At the end of "The Bodyguard", Daoma, Shu, Ayuya, Chishiro, Yan Ziniang and Xiaoqi went to Chang'an of the Sui Dynasty to do chivalrous things again.
Going back to the topic at the beginning of this article, Wu Jing said that he is striving for a second film. However, there is a practical problem. This is a comic book adaptation movie. The author Xu Xianzhe has not yet drawn the follow-up plot, and his update speed is quite slow.
He updated three chapters in 2025 and one chapter in 2026. If he wants to make a sequel, he must adapt the original comic. The copyright belongs to Xu Xianzhe, but he didn't draw it. How can he make it?
Therefore, if you want to watch the sequel, you have to update the artist Xu Xianzhe.
However, director Yuan Heping has already planned a sequel, "The Guardian: The Battle of Jiangdu". The plot revolves around "Shu", and the project unit is Xiamen Yuan Heping Pictures.
The first "The Bodyguard" had its pitfalls, but Ayuya's line was the most perfectly written. The "vertical" role played by Yu Shi left the audience a little confused.
Yes, what did this character do before? Why did he want to arrest Yan Ziniang? How to fill this "hole"? Brother Fei believes that if the box office of this film reaches more than 1.5 billion, this sequel can be arranged.
In fact, it cannot be regarded as a sequel. It is more suitable as a spin-off of "The Bodyguard" starring Yu Shi. In this way, the universe of "The Bodyguard" can be formed.
Everyone says that Xu Xianzhe's comics are updated too slowly. How long will it take to wait for him? Don’t forget, now that there is AI, there is a difference between working on it alone and working on it with a group of people.
The first part of "Nezha" had a total team of less than 40 people. The final decision was made by the director Jiaozi alone. In "Nezha 2", there were 1,500 people involved. It took only 5 years from 8 years for the first part to 5 years for the second part.
"The Daredevil" explodes at the box office, and it will make money. The story after going to Chang'an needs to be written by Xu Xianzhe himself. The drawing is very simple and can be drawn with the help of AI.
At that time, it is completely possible to set up a team of screenwriters for "The Daredevil" to draw and film at the same time. As long as the funds are in place, the team and speed will not be a problem.
4. What does Brother Fei want to say about "The Escort".
Martial arts is a unique theme in China, just like the superhero science fiction themes of Marvel and DC. They rely on comics and cooperate with movies to promote this theme to all parts of the world, making us all know Iron Man, Spider-Man, Aquaman, Batman, etc.
Once "The Bodyguard" succeeds, it will not only drive the box office of the movie, but also the entire Chinese comics, Chinese kung fu and martial arts will become more popular.
Think about how popular "Shaolin Temple" was back then?
After watching the movie, thousands of people went to Songshan Mountain to learn martial arts. At that time, Henan’s martial arts schools were number one in the country and were blooming everywhere. A movie sparked an industry and cultivated a generation of talents.
This is the power of martial arts.
If we stop shooting and practicing now, in a few decades, this uniquely Chinese subject matter will probably become extinct. When the time came to film it, I couldn't even find actors who knew how to fight, and the film turned out to be just a show, without the soul.
The year before last, Louis Koo's "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City" was a hit. It was a comic adaptation + modern martial arts, and it made people's blood boil. If "The Bodyguard" hits another wave this year, it can definitely make the martial arts genre bigger and stronger.
Looking back, we have a mass base, and the seeds planted by "Shaolin Temple" have been buried in the hearts of generations of people. Looking internationally, we have successful experience. Ang Lee broke into the North American market with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and won an Oscar. What is that? That's a martial arts movie.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Huo Yuanjia, Chen Zhen, Huang Feihong, Hong Xiguan, and Jin Yong’s martial arts world were numerous, one after another. At that time, martial arts was a national topic, a cultural export, and the most prosperous era of Chinese Kung Fu.
Nowadays, Hong Kong films are in decline, and no one makes martial arts films anymore, but the audience is still waiting. As long as someone makes them, like Yuen Woo-Ping and Wu Jing, and takes them seriously, martial arts can make a comeback.
If "The Bodyguard" becomes successful, it will not only be a victory for a movie, but also a victory for the unique theme of Chinese martial arts films. Let capital see hope, let creators see direction, and let audiences rekindle their enthusiasm for kung fu movies.
This is the real meaning.
