Another spring festival. After the strong spring festival in 2021, the Spring Festival in 2022 failed to go further.
According to the data of cat’s eye professional edition, as of 18:00 on February 6, the box office of the Spring Festival in 2022 was 5.88 billion yuan, while the total box office of the seven-day Spring Festival in 2021 was 7.842 billion yuan and 5.903 billion yuan in the same period in 2019. This year’s box office performance is in contrast to that of regular films. The topic of “movie tickets are too expensive” once rushed to the microblog hot search, causing many netizens to discuss. Take “shuimen bridge of Changjin Lake” (hereinafter referred to as “shuimen bridge”) as an example. The single ticket price of IMAX version in a cinema in Beijing on the first day of the Lunar New Year is as high as 179 yuan.
High ticket prices are becoming a new label for the Spring Festival. Zhu Yuqing, director of the special fund for investment and financing of the China Film Co.Ltd(600977) foundation, believes that the role of the Spring Festival should be to cultivate the audience, not to push the audience away. “Films should become popular cultural consumer goods, so we must follow the logic of supply and demand and produce the symbolic value required by the market.”< Spring Festival poster: 2022
According to the data of Lighthouse professional edition, as of 18:00 on February 6, the total number of tickets issued for the Spring Festival was 111 million, and the average ticket price was 52.9 yuan. The average ticket price in the same period in 2021 was 48.9 yuan, compared with 44.7 yuan in 2019, an increase of nearly 19% in three years.
But the daily economic news reporter observed that since the fifth day of the new year, ticket prices began to fall. Behind the price increase and price reduction, there is not only the market sentiment that the audience does not pay, but also the operating dilemma that the cinema is too dependent on the schedule.
The average price of movie tickets for the Spring Festival increased by nearly 10% year-on-year, and the average person time decreased by nearly 30%
According to the report of Lighthouse Research Institute, in the six years from 2016 to 2021, the average ticket price of national films increased from 33.1 yuan to 40.3 yuan, an increase of 21% and a compound annual growth rate of 3.3%. In addition, affected by the epidemic in the past two years, the annual average attendance rate also fell from 14% in 2016 to 8%, and the average attendance rate in first tier cities fell the most, as high as 10%
“2021 China Film Co.Ltd(600977) Market Annual Report” source: screenshot of the report
As of 17:00 on February 6, the total number of film viewers of Watergate bridge, the killer is not too calm and miracle stupid child, the top three of the 2022 Spring Festival, were 45.382 million, 25.086 million and 12.31 million respectively, with average ticket prices of 54 yuan, 52.8 yuan and 52.2 yuan. In contrast, the total number of film viewers of “Chinatown detective 3”, “Hello, Li Huanying” and “assassinating novelist” in the top three of the Spring Festival archives in 2021 were 71.993 million, 56.249 million and 10.698 million respectively. This year’s top three ticket stalls in the spring festival attracted more than 56 million film viewers, a year-on-year decrease of more than 40%.
In terms of the number of film viewers per scene, the top three of the 2021 Spring Festival are 70, 68 and 40 respectively, while the Spring Festival this year is 50, 40 and 28, with a year-on-year decrease of more than 50%. In addition to the lack of attraction of high-quality blockbusters, the ticket price regarded as “unreasonable” has also become a railing between the audience and the cinema.
It is not the first time that the audience is dissatisfied with the price rise. In March 2021, the consumer rights analysis report on public sentiment released by the China Consumer Association showed that the consumption of negative information during the Spring Festival holiday mainly focused on the viewing service, and some of the audience make complaints about the price of Tucao movie tickets.
According to the 2021 strong film road released by the daily economic news, the box office contribution rate of the holiday season in 2021 is close to 70%. In 2021, there were 27 films with a box office of more than 200 million, of which 60% were released in large schedules.
The centralized release of holiday films has become the norm. For the audience, the movies released together and the rising ticket prices make watching movies more and more a “Holiday Limited” consumption mode. High ticket prices may bring high box office in the short term, but at the same time, the decline in the number of film viewers is also very intuitive.
Rao Shuguang, President of China Film Co.Ltd(600977) review society, said: “the decline in the box office of the film market this year is understandable, but I didn’t expect that the number of film viewers decreased significantly three days before the Spring Festival, which is one of the issues worthy of attention.” According to statistics, the number of film viewers in the first three days of the Spring Festival this year decreased by 27.66 million compared with the same period last year. Rao Shuguang said: “under the premise of high ticket prices, many people originally wanted to see three films, but they may only see two. If they originally wanted to see two films, they may eventually see one. Some people who want to see one film will not go if they don’t do well. That’s why there are so many fewer film viewers.”
Senior filmmaker Gao Jun told the daily economic news reporter: “reasonable regulation of ticket prices and content diversification are absolutely the top priority!”
Several films counter attack the box office, and film and television companies are still the mainstream
Although this year’s Spring Festival is difficult to copy and exceeds the 2021 Spring Festival, we can still see some changes and trends in the current film market from the box office changes of this most concerned schedule.
As of 17:00 on February 6, the total box office of the Spring Festival reached 5.825 billion yuan. The top three at the box office were “Watergate bridge”, “this killer is not too cold” and “miracle stupid child”, with revenue of 2.45 billion yuan, 1.325 billion yuan and 643 million yuan respectively. The average ticket price of the three films is more than 52 yuan, and the average attendance is only 50, 40 and 28.
As the sequel of the new China Film Co.Ltd(600977) box office champion film “Changjin Lake”, the airborne Spring Festival file “shuimen bridge” was highly expected by the market, and finally it did not disappoint the market. The box office exceeded 1 billion one day after its official release. As of February 6, the film broke 74 records and led the Spring Festival.
It is reported that, unlike the previous work “Changjin Lake”, which was shot by three directors, more than 90% of the scenes of “shuimen bridge” were directed by Tsui Hark. Chen Kaige and Lin Chaoxian claimed that they had few directing scenes in “shuimen bridge” and only signed and supervised the production. But what remains unchanged is the huge production team. The film is also led by Bona film. According to the information of cat’s eye professional edition, there are 22 final producers and co producers.
Except for the first two films of “sniper” and “sniper”, Zhang Yiqiao failed to enter the box office
publicity posters for movies “Four Seas” and “sniper” source: Douban
Directed by Xing Wenxiong and starring Ma Li, Wei Xiang and Chen Minghao, “this killer is not too calm” has occupied the runner up position since the second day of junior high school and maintained the same position all the way. “Four Seas” fell from second to fifth, with a total box office of 468 million as of 17:00 on February 6. Gao Jun said: “this year’s Spring Festival is popular for anti super and counter attack. But there is a shortage of film types, especially family comedy.”
Looking back at the 2021 Spring Festival, “Hello, Li Huanying” is a family comedy. The long tail effect of the film is full, and the counter attack on Chinatown detective 3 once ranked second in the box office list of China Film Co.Ltd(600977)
“this killer is not too calm” poster image source: Douban
“This killer is not very calm” is adapted from the Japanese comedy film “magic moment”.
It is reported that the film was produced by 7 companies, such as Xinli media, Zhejiang happy Film Co., Ltd., and 15 companies jointly including jowl, panning tiktok and so on. It can be seen that whether it is large-scale or relatively small-scale production, group heating has become the mainstream choice in the current China Film Co.Ltd(600977) industry.
The supply of blockbusters in the market is insufficient, and the box office in the holiday season is under pressure
The direct impact of the reduction in film viewing is that the cinema is cold. According to the statistics of the state film administration, by the end of September 2021, there were 14235 cinemas and 80743 screens in China, which has been the first in the world for six consecutive years since 2016.
The huge market capacity undoubtedly needs enough film support. However, due to the outbreak of the epidemic and the cold of the film and television capital market, the content output of the film market is not high in recent years. According to the road to strong films in 2021, China produced 650 films in 2020, a year-on-year decrease of 37.32%. The total output of films in 2021 is 740, which is still a gap from 850 in 2019.
When the “fuel” is insufficient, the only expectation of major cinemas is to wait for “King bombing”. In 2021, “Chinatown detective 3” and “Hello, Li Huanying” ignited the Spring Festival, and the total box office of the two films accounted for more than one fifth of the annual box office. However, the “King bombing” can not be met, so the holiday file has become a decisive place for all kinds of films. The marketing and film arrangement come around the holiday file, and the ticket price has been significantly higher than that on ordinary days.
The ticket price of Shuiqiao, the leading film in Mianyang, has been reduced by 20.57 yuan on February 9, 2029, which is the lowest, compared with the ticket price of Shuiqiao, which has been reduced by 20.57% on February 9, 2029.
Zeng Maojun, President of Wanda culture group and President of Wanda film and television group, once said: “the schedule effect is becoming more and more obvious, causing films to be released together and form an inner volume during the schedule, which can not effectively release the box office potential of films.”
Image Source: screenshot of 2021 strong shadow road Report
According to the road to strong films in 2021, the contribution rate of holiday box office in 2021 is nearly 70%. The wide box office contribution rate makes the holiday stalls a “city” that can not be lost. Therefore, after many viewers were persuaded to retreat due to high ticket prices this year, cinemas have adjusted their prices in an attempt to save the audience.
In the final analysis, the lack of films in the market to attract audiences into the cinema is the key. This is not only the dilemma of the China Film Co.Ltd(600977) market, but also the global market. Take the North American film market as an example. In the past two years, the cinema market suffered from the weak epidemic situation, and the explosion of spider man: no return of heroes injected a booster into it. In North America, more than 20 million people entered the cinema to watch the film at the first weekend, breaking records one after another.
For the film industry, the only thing that can save the film market is the film, not the ticket price.
