Audiences crowded the theaters for a long time, and the number of moviegoers hit the highest level since the epidemic
The Spring Festival file blows the clarion call for the recovery of the industry market
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The Spring Festival of the Year of the Rabbit is the first 7-day long holiday after the “Class B and B Control” of the new crown epidemic. The “good start” of the Spring Festival file has boosted the confidence of the Chinese film industry and has also become a weathervane for the rebound of residents’ consumption.
“Resurrected! Recovered!” With the perfect ending of the 2023 Spring Festival, every filmmaker and movie fan is rushing to tell each other. The Chinese film market, which has been silent for three years, finally ushered in a full recovery after the epidemic was lifted.
In the movie theater, there are crowds of people, and there are no empty seats, and there is an endless stream of audiences who come to line up to buy and exchange tickets. In the waiting area of the movie theater, the adults walked into the movie hall with a smile on their faces, holding the children holding popcorn in their hands. With a total box office of 6.885 billion yuan, it ranks second in the Spring Festival stalls over the years. The filmmakers who competed to win the box office finally “smile”!
According to data from Tianyancha, there are currently more than 67,000 movie theaters across the country. Guangdong, Beijing, and Jiangsu have the largest number of movie theaters, with the highest number of more than 8,300, and Chongqing in the west also has more than 1,300 movie theaters.
Rekindle the passion for watching movies
A total of 7 new films will be screened during the Spring Festival this year. According to statistics from the National Film Specialty Office, the movie box office exceeded 1.2 billion yuan on the first day of the Lunar New Year, ushering in a “good start”. From New Year’s Eve to the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, more than 100 million people walked into the cinema, and the prime-time attendance rate of popular movies exceeded 80%. The film industry swept away the haze of 2022.
The “good start” of the movie Spring Festival file is inseparable from the gradual return of offline consumption “fireworks”. Nowadays, shopping, eating big meals, and watching movies have become the “standard equipment” for many consumers’ festival activities. With the blessing of the Spring Festival atmosphere, theaters and shopping malls attract each other, and the film market and offline business recovery resonate at the same frequency, forming a good atmosphere of high popularity, warm market and hot consumption.
Word of mouth is the core element driving movie consumption. The quality of this year’s films has been hailed as “the strongest Spring Festival file in history”, and almost every film is remarkable. “There are animations, comedies, and main themes… This year’s Spring Festival film configuration is really great.” Ms. Lin, a veteran movie fan in Chongqing, said on January 29 that she watched 3 movies a day, and she was completely addicted.
“This year’s Spring Festival movie has an average length of 130 minutes, which is unprecedented, but the ticket price has fallen for the first time since 2016. It is a real ‘increase in quantity but not price increase’.” The relevant person in charge of Emperor Cinemas said that this year’s ticket price level is relatively high. It has played a certain supporting role in stimulating the audience’s enthusiasm for watching movies and realizing the reversal of the box office market.
The data shows that the average ticket price for the Spring Festival stalls in 2023 is 54.4 yuan, which is 3.6 yuan lower than the average ticket price of 58 yuan for the same period in 2022. This marketing method of exchanging “price” for “quantity” has fully released the consumption potential of the film market.
“A family of 3 or 4 people watching a movie, plus popcorn and drinks, can easily spend more than 200 yuan. Salary workers still feel a little bit distressed.” Wang Zhu, business manager of Chongqing Shapingba Cinema, said that in the past few years, movie ticket prices have fallen. It is gradually rising, and this year, on the basis of past ticket prices, it has become the consensus of all parties to control the increase.
“Some audiences had already arrived at the cinema before 8:30, and it was basically full since the afternoon. After the door opened, the popcorn machine kept on going.” Selling popcorn at Times Cinema in Jiulongpo, Chongqing Sister Liu said that she can sell about 300 barrels a day, and there hasn’t been such a “hot” scene for a long time.
In order to bring a stunning visual feast to the audience, some studios have upgraded the theater equipment, enhanced the color and contrast of the picture, and strived to provide the best viewing experience for movie fans.
“In the UME Shapingba Jinsha Tianjie store, in addition to the well-known IMAX hall and 4D movie hall, we also have newly upgraded projection equipment, and the brightness of the screen has been greatly improved. Playing 3D movies and movies with higher picture requirements All have outstanding performances.” said Wang Xing, a staff member of Chongqing UME Cinema.
The horn of recovery has sounded
After experiencing many difficulties such as the lack of Spring Festival stalls in 2020 and the three-year control of cinema attendance during the epidemic, as the terminal of the film industry, theaters have the most intuitive experience of the industry’s tide changes.
Statistics show that in the Spring Festival file of the Year of the Rabbit, 30% of the audience chose three or more people to watch the film, which reflects the “family carnival” attribute of the Spring Festival film. Among them, the proportion of audiences under the age of 20 and audiences over the age of 40 has increased significantly. Reaching 7% and 20% respectively, the box office revenue and the number of movie viewers have exceeded the total score of the 2022 Spring Festival stalls.
“Affected by the epidemic, movie theaters have been struggling to survive in recent years. The reporter learned from some theaters in Chongqing that on weekdays, employees perform several duties such as screening, ticket checking, cleaning, etc., which is most likely to reduce operating costs.” Wang Zhu said, theaters It also made full use of idle time and space resources, explored multiple revenue models, and began to cooperate with business models such as dramas, talk shows, and script killings. Through film exhibitions, post-screening celebrity meeting salons and themed festival marketing activities, etc., they even tried to develop live broadcasts, group buying and other attempts to interact with audiences, and cooperated in the development of VR games and other projects. But on the whole, most movie theaters still face loss pressure.
The financial report of Jinyi Film and Television, which is mainly engaged in film screenings and theater chain distribution, shows that its net profit has fallen from 107 million yuan in 2019 to a loss of 509 million yuan in 2020, 2021 and 2022 in the first three quarters of 2022. 284 million yuan. Wanda Film and Television, which covers the entire industry chain from film screening to film investment, production, and distribution, will suffer a huge loss of 6.841 billion yuan in 2020, a slight profit of 116 million yuan in 2021, and a loss of 536 million yuan in the first three quarters of 2022.
The reporter learned from the Chongqing Film Bureau that during the Spring Festival this year, a total of 69,417 films were screened, 2.931 million people watched the film, and the box office revenue was 144 million yuan. The number of people and the box office increased by 5.46% and 9.71% year-on-year.
“For the Chinese film industry, the horn of recovery has already sounded. We also hope that through this Spring Festival file, Chinese films will recover, start again, and flourish like yesterday.” Liu Fan, vice chairman of the Chongqing Film Association, said that after the Spring Festival file, The Chinese film market also needs more leading films to be released, and a healthier setting and publicity environment is needed.
“With the optimization of epidemic prevention and control and the normalization of schedules, the industry may accelerate its recovery process after a three-year dormant period. As an important schedule for the beginning of the year, the Spring Festival schedule has important reference significance for the recovery of the annual box office and the normalization of content.” CICC said so in its research report.
Can the good momentum continue
On the first day of the Lunar New Year this year, the box office of domestic movies only received 1.355 billion yuan, recovering to 93% of that on the first day of the Lunar New Year last year. However, this situation has been greatly improved in the follow-up. The single-day box office from the second to the sixth day of junior high school all exceeded the level of the same period in 2022, but there is still a certain gap from the same period in 2021. The overall box office difference is nearly 1 billion yuan.
According to statistics from the National Film Administration, the total box office of movies nationwide in 2022 will be 30.067 billion yuan, which is more than half of the historical record of 64.266 billion yuan in 2019.
“Whether the good momentum of the film market’s ‘good start’ can continue depends on whether there is a continuous supply of ‘fresh blood’ to the market.” Liu Fan believes that during the Spring Festival this year, high-quality works have won high praise from the audience , The high word-of-mouth of the work in turn drove the box office higher. At present, Chinese audiences are becoming more mature and rational in watching movies, especially with the help of social media, the rapid spread of movie word-of-mouth will force the movie market to return to “content is king”.
“This year’s Spring Festival stalls have given the entire movie market more hope and vitality.” The relevant person in charge of Emperor Cinemas said that in third- and fourth-tier cities, the Spring Festival stalls can even determine the survival of a movie theater. During the epidemic, the income from the Spring Festival stalls can reach 2/3 of the theater’s annual turnover. It is expected that the market will pick up next year, accounting for about 1/3.
At present, the competition among enterprises in the domestic film industry is mainly represented by leading enterprises in the Internet industry. Leading enterprises such as Alibaba Pictures, Maoyan Films and Suning Films have entered the film industry through mergers and acquisitions or investment and financing, making the traditional film industry integrate and develop. And industrial upgrading, intelligent manufacturing, digital factories and other related aspects have been laid out, and it also lays a development foundation for accelerating the Internet transformation and innovation of the traditional film industry.
The Galaxy Securities Research Institute believes that looking forward to the whole year of 2023, the reserve of films that were not released as scheduled during the epidemic period, coupled with the increase in the supply of subsequent imported films, is expected to drive demand from the content side to form a double recovery of supply and demand. Under neutral and optimistic assumptions, it is estimated that my country’s box office in 2023 is expected to recover to a level of 65% to 80%, reaching 41.7 billion to 53.1 billion yuan.
(Editor in charge: Zhang Ziyi)
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