This is the coldest Qingming file in the past decade. According to the lighthouse data, as of 17:00 on April 5, the box office revenue of Qingming stall (from April 3 to April 5) this year was 112 million yuan, and the cumulative box office revenue excluding service fees was only 100 million yuan. Ten years ago (2012), the box office revenue of Qingming reached 145 million yuan (excluding service fee).
Zhu Yuqing, CEO of juyinghui, told the Securities Daily that the dismal box office at the Qingming Festival this year was caused by multiple factors. The direct reason was the “film shortage + large-scale closure of cinemas” caused by the epidemic. The indirect reason was that the high ticket prices of the Spring Festival hurt the hearts of some fans. The fundamental reason was that the films supplied were not attractive enough and the types were not rich enough, which made the audience of generation Z (post-95) lose their enthusiasm and motivation to watch movies in cinemas.
“Losing money every day,” a theater manager in Beijing told reporters. He had expected the desolation of Qingming, but he felt sad after experience. The average attendance rate was 4%. More than a dozen theaters received more than 500 people a day, sometimes two or three viewers at a time.
three imported films struggling schedule
Qingming Festival is an important period connecting the Spring Festival and may day. Last year, 11 films were released in Qingming Festival, with a total box office revenue of 822 million yuan. Among them, “my sister” and “Godzilla vs. King Kong” became popular, which also made the industry look forward to this period.
However, under the background of repeated outbreaks, the Qingming file is expected to turn cold this year. On March 25, the four domestic films “life events”, “detective war”, “you are my spring” and “a week’s friend”, which were originally scheduled to be released at Qingming Festival, announced the withdrawal of their files at the same time, which directly led to the shortage of scheduled films.
Three imported films are on schedule. Lighthouse data show that as of 17:00 on April 5, the box office revenue of Qingming Festival was 112 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 86%. The top three films at the box office are “spirit Hotel 4”, the fall of the moon and “escape from the chamber of Secrets 2” released on March 25.
In an interview with Securities Daily, Zhang Rongdi, an industry analyst at lighthouse Research Institute, said that this year’s Qingming file was greatly affected by the epidemic, and the number and box office volume of films released could not be compared with those in the past few years. The main market is mainly imported films. Among them, the previous work of “escape from the secret room 2” was released in 2019, with a box office of 233 million yuan, which has a certain audience base.
“At present, the supply of 51 films is sufficient, and 10 films have been fixed, including head films such as” keep you safe “and” Hello brother “. There are 38000 and 34000 want to see them respectively, which is worth looking forward to.” Zhang Rongdi said.
Recently, China Film Co.Ltd(600977) said in response to investors’ questions that although the repeated epidemic has had a certain impact on the film industry in the short term, the long-term trend of the China Film Co.Ltd(600977) market has not changed.
cinema line M & A acceleration
On the other hand, affected by the epidemic, more than 50% of cinemas were closed. As of May, the total number of cinemas in the country was 5568, which was only 46% of the total number of professional cinemas.
A media industry brokerage analyst told the reporter of Securities Daily that the large-scale closure of cinemas may last for a period of time. Small and medium-sized cinemas with “poor family background” will encounter a survival crisis again. The industry reshuffle is an inevitable trend, and the market share of large film investment companies will be further improved in the future.
From the financial point of view, in 2021, cinema listed companies have turned around their losses. According to Citic Securities Company Limited(600030) industry classification, as of April 5, 17 A-share film and television companies had disclosed performance forecasts, of which 6 continued to lose and 9 reversed losses, including many cinema enterprises.
For example, Wanda Film Holding Co.Ltd(002739) it is estimated that the net profit attributable to the shareholders of the listed company will be 90-130 million yuan in 2021, while the loss in the same period of last year will be 6.669 billion yuan.
Under the influence of the epidemic, Wanda Film Holding Co.Ltd(002739) has not stopped its expansion. By the end of 2020, Wanda Film Holding Co.Ltd(002739) had opened 700 cinemas in China, while by the end of 2021, the number of cinemas opened had increased to 790.
Wanda Film Holding Co.Ltd(002739) in response to investors’ questions, the company plans to build 60-70 cinemas and develop 50-100 asset light cinemas each year, so as to improve the market share through the development strategy of both light and heavy.
In addition, Hengdian Entertainment Co.Ltd(603103) , the company achieved a net profit of 136675 million yuan in 2021 and a loss of 481 million yuan in the same period of last year.
In response to investors’ questions, Hengdian Entertainment Co.Ltd(603103) said that the epidemic has accelerated the withdrawal of some shadow investment companies. At present, there are not many M & A projects in the whole industry. The company began to search for some M & A targets a few years ago. At that time, it thought that the risk was relatively large and did not actually land. After the epidemic, the overall mentality of industry participants is more stable, including the judgment of the industry and the evaluation of the value of cinemas. With a more reasonable and stable attitude towards the acquisition transaction, the buyer and the seller may be more likely to reach an agreement in the next step.
