“During the Chinese new year, I wanted to go to a movie with my family, but I found that the price of a movie ticket exceeded 100 yuan.” Wang Chen, who lives in Chaoyang District, Beijing, called this year’s film “despised”.
In the just past 2022 film spring festival, the high film ticket prices triggered a heated debate. According to the data of the state film administration, during the Spring Festival from January 31 to the sixth day of the first month on February 6, 2022, China Film Co.Ltd(600977) box office reached 6.035 billion yuan, ranking the second in film history, and the corresponding record high average ticket price of 52.8 yuan.
The high ticket price deterred many spectators. According to statistics, the number of film viewers in the Spring Festival in 2022 reached a new low in recent four years, only 114 million, a decrease of 46 million compared with the Spring Festival in 2021. On social media, many netizens said that the main reason why they didn’t choose to go to the movies was “the ticket price is too high”.
With the high popularity of the public make complaints about the high ticket prices, the relevant departments and film producers have responded accordingly. The state film administration and the China Consumer Association have made their voices one after another, and a number of Spring Festival films have announced price cuts one after another. At present, movie ticket prices have fallen.
Experts interviewed by the reporter of the rule of law daily believe that there are a series of factors such as capital considerations behind the setting of film ticket prices for the Spring Festival, but the high price will undoubtedly affect the willingness of potential audiences to watch the film. Although high ticket prices can make the film makers profitable in the short term, they may have a negative impact on the film market in the long run. Therefore, we should be vigilant against unfair high prices and strengthen market supervision when necessary to ensure the orderly development of the film market.
Controversy over excessive ticket prices
Some viewers choose not to watch
February 1st, new year’s day. Wang Chen wants to go out with her family after lunch. Her mother proposes to see the movie “Four Seas”. Wang Chen took out her mobile phone and clicked on the ticketing software. As a result, she found that “the ticket price of the cinema near her home is frighteningly high”.
Wang Chen recalled that the cheapest ticket price for the film in the nearby cinema that day was more than 70 yuan, and the most expensive was the VIP Hall of a cinema, with a ticket as high as 298 yuan. And not just a movie, all the movie tickets are much more expensive than usual. She calculated an account: for a family of four, it would cost at least 300 yuan to see a movie.
“It’s too expensive to look down on.” Finally, Wang Chen and her family reached a consensus: stay at home and watch TV.
High ticket prices do not only occur in big cities such as Beijing. Ms. Jing, who lives in Mian County, Hanzhong City, Shaanxi Province, found that during the Chinese new year this year, the lowest ticket price for an ordinary 2D film in her county is 58 yuan, while the highest ticket price here is just over 30 yuan.
“Originally, I thought I was more free during the Spring Festival. I made an appointment with my family and friends to brush several Spring Festival films. As a result, the ticket price was so high. Finally, we only chose a comedy with good reputation during the whole spring festival.” Ms. Jing told reporters.
Like Wang Chen and Ms. Jing, there are not a few people who are “scared” by the high ticket prices of Spring Festival films. The China Consumers Association recently released the “Spring Festival consumer rights and public opinion analysis report” (hereinafter referred to as the “report”), said that during the Spring Festival archives monitoring period, there were over 200 thousand negative information about “movie” category, and the daily public sentiment Tucao mainly make complaints about the fare. The average ticket price of the Spring Festival this year reached a new high, and many consumers who are willing to watch movies are deterred by the high ticket price.
In mid February, reporters searched the social media with the keyword “Spring Festival fares” as the key word, and found that the “high tents” make complaints about the high price of tickets during the Spring Festival. Netizen “@ strawberry milk cover to ice and three cents sweet” posted an online document on February 3, saying “can the ticket price be cheaper? Can such an expensive ticket see the leading actor directly”, and uploaded a screenshot of the movie ticket purchase page, showing that the ticket price of a movie varies from 109 yuan to 119 yuan according to the number of shows.
Ren Chao, a professor at the school of economics and law at East China University of political science and law, believes that the audience obviously can’t accept the phenomenon that the ticket prices of films in the Spring Festival rise year by year. Affected by the epidemic in the past two years, many cinemas have poor business conditions and hope to make up for the losses through the high popularity and high ticket prices of the festival, but this is only an emergency measure, and the effect is not ideal. Instead, the audience will choose to watch less or not because of their aversion to the high ticket prices.
Many factors affect ticket prices
Repression blocks cultural consumption
The report released by the China Consumer Association quoted the comments of the microblog netizen “@ ticket checking staff in hall 3”: (Spring Festival movie tickets) are very expensive, which has reached an outrageous level. The consequences of the soaring ticket prices have appeared at the box office on the second day of the year. There is a direct avalanche, which is 500 million less than that of last year. It is the first time in the last four years that it is less than 1 billion, and the number of film viewers has fallen more horribly, 10 million fewer than in 2018.
According to the China Consumer Association, behind the hot public opinion debate on “the most expensive Spring Festival file in history and ridiculously expensive ticket prices” in social media is the rising demand for cultural consumption, which has been suppressed and blocked to some extent.
Why is the price of this year’s Spring Festival movie tickets “outrageous”?
According to Ren Chao, the rise of film ticket prices during the Spring Festival is closely related to the film ticket pricing itself. In China, movie ticket prices are mainly set by cinemas themselves. Generally, the producer or distributor of the film negotiates the pricing with the cinema and signs a contract to reach a minimum distribution price through agreement. According to this agreement, the cinema cannot sell tickets at a price lower than this value. On the basis of no less than the issue price, each theater will adjust the final ticket price flexibly according to the market factors such as operating cost, number of film viewers, box office trend and ticket prices of surrounding competitive cinemas.
Su Beiqi, founder of Beijing shuoguo Lianlian culture media Co., Ltd., who has participated in the publicity and distribution of films such as “22” and “bloody battle hacksaw ridge”, told reporters that before 2017, there was a phenomenon of “white hot competition in ticketing platform” in the film market. In addition to various ticketing websites, all cinemas and cinemas also tried to make online electronic ticketing platform, Low price movie tickets have become the product of competition. In addition, the ticket subsidy was allowed at that time, so the ticket price of the film was naturally relatively low. “With the suspension of ticket supplement in recent years, the competition of major ticket platforms has basically ended. The investors behind e-commerce do not continue to invest in the ticket platform, and the ticket price will go up immediately.”
In the view of Subei Qi, the changes of film ticket prices in recent 10 years are actually related to a series of changes such as the rise of e-commerce, the competition of ticket platform and the stability of market share.
In addition to the factors of film ticket price pricing, Ren Chao believes that the reason for the high ticket price of films in the Spring Festival also lies in the important holiday significance of the spring festival itself. In a year, the demand for film viewing in the Spring Festival is the strongest. There are a large number of film viewing in the Spring Festival, which is the peak period for relatives and friends to go out and get together; Many people are willing to pay for the entertainment activities of the festival, and the high labor cost of the Spring Festival are the reasons why the ticket price of the Spring Festival is higher than usual.
In addition, Ren Chao mentioned that the impact of the epidemic is also one of the factors. “In the past two years, affected by the epidemic, the number of online films has decreased, the cost of killing the epidemic has increased, and the income of movie watching snacks and drinks has decreased sharply. When the epidemic is serious, cinemas often have to close down and limit the flow, and the long-term low box office has caused heavy losses to cinemas. The Spring Festival is a good opportunity, and many cinemas take this opportunity to raise ticket prices and look forward to taking the opportunity to” partially recover their blood “.
”
Yang Min, a lawyer at Beijing Yingke Law Firm, told reporters that the Spring Festival is one of the most popular schedules for film viewing, and the profit demand of cinemas as operators has also pushed up ticket prices; At the same time, during the epidemic prevention and control period, local epidemic prevention departments required to limit the attendance of cinemas, which also indirectly promoted the increase of ticket prices.
The China Consumer Association said that the structural problems of screen surplus and content shortage in the film market, as well as the various practical challenges of epidemic fluctuations and policy impact, have forced cinemas to alleviate the dilemma of tight cash flow by raising ticket prices. It may be understandable from the perspective of short-term stop loss of the industry, but the fact that the number of viewers has generally decreased and the frequency of viewing has continued to decline, It shows that simple ticket price dependence is tantamount to fishing with all the benefits and drinking poison to quench thirst.
Listen to more consumer opinions
Guide benign market competition
Film ticket prices remain high, which has aroused the disgust of the masses and attracted the attention of relevant departments.
On February 3, a person in the cinema media broke the news that he had received a notice from the state film administration that “the high ticket price has affected the overall image of China Film Co.Ltd(600977) and the negative emotions of the audience have a strong response. The state film administration is highly concerned about this and requests all film managers and cinemas to quickly adjust the scientific pricing”.
On February 5, the film “sniper” lowered the minimum settlement price with the cinema, becoming the first film to reduce the price limit among the eight new films in the Spring Festival this year; Subsequently, films such as “shuimen bridge of Changjin Lake” and “miracle · stupid child” also reduced prices one after another.
On February 17, the reporter searched through the ticket purchase platform and found that taking several cinemas in Chaoyang District of Beijing as an example, the ticket prices of several Spring Festival films have basically returned to the daily level, most of which are below 50 yuan.
Do you need to take care of the excessive movie ticket price? How to manage?
The China Consumer Association said that seeking the balance between the path dependence of cinema profits and the reasonable bearing range of consumers, and seeking the benign interaction between the long-term and healthy development of the industry and the improvement and upgrading of cultural consumption require continuous research and exploration by relevant industries and departments.
As a member of the film and television industry, Subei Qi called for a rational view of the phenomenon of “the most expensive Spring Festival file in history”. She said that it is indeed a problem that the high ticket prices affect the film viewing enthusiasm. If we want to solve this problem from a macro perspective, we must first solve the program content. Only by continuously launching good-looking films can the audience continue to consume.
“The reality after the epidemic is that people who used to watch movies every week now watch one movie every month; people who used to watch four or five movies during the spring festival may only watch one movie now. In fact, this is a problem of the ecology of the whole film and television industry. How to solve this problem from the macro perspective of the market is a top priority.” Subei Qi said.
Ren Chao said that China has already liberalized the right to set the ticket price of films, so the ticket price of films has always been dominated by cinemas, which is a market behavior. The state film administration and other relevant departments can regulate it by formulating guidance. The formulation of ticket prices needs the guidance of the government rather than too much intervention. The adjustment of the market and the will of the audience are the important factors that determine the reasonable range of ticket prices. If the market appears to bid up prices or extremely unreasonable sky high price shadow tickets, the price regulation department can intervene in regulation, but it has not yet reached this level.
Ren Chao said that China Film Co.Ltd(600977) industry is in the growth stage, so it is necessary to give some free space to the market mechanism, let go and boost the development of China Film Co.Ltd(600977) industry, listen to the voice of the market and the opinions of consumers, and guide benign competition in the market. Government departments should intervene when it is extremely necessary. Only in this way can we bring a burst of innovative vitality and orderly film market and promote the sustainable development of cultural and entertainment industry and even economy and society.
