Integrated lighthouse, cat’s eye and other data platforms, as of 17:50 on May 1, the single day market box office exceeded 60 million, which exceeded 60 million for the first time since March 6. At present, it has exceeded the whole day box office of yesterday’s market (59.49 million).
As of press time, the total box office (including pre-sale) of “May 1st” has exceeded 130 million yuan. The top three films at the box office of the current schedule are: I really hate long distance love, 41.98 million, League of bad guys, 24.82 million and magical animals: the mystery of Dumbledore, 16.39 million. The first two are the new films of “May 1st”, and “magical animal: the mystery of Dumbledore” has been released since April 8.
Although it cannot be compared with the daily box office of 457 million yuan on May 1, 2021, it is not easy to break through 60 million in a single day against the background of repeated epidemics.
Since March this year, important ticket warehouses such as first tier cities have faced repeated outbreaks, and cinemas have been closed. On March 11, affected by the epidemic, all cinemas in Shanghai will be closed from now on and have not yet opened. On April 29, Beijing also missed the “May 1st gear”. The Beijing Municipal Film Administration issued the notice on further improving the epidemic prevention and control of cinemas during the May Day holiday, which mentioned that according to the current needs of epidemic prevention and control in the capital, in order to ensure the safety of epidemic prevention in the capital, cinemas in the city will temporarily suspend film screening activities during the May Day holiday (April 30 to May 4).
Starting from this year’s “Qingming Festival”, the operating rate of cinemas across the country has been maintained at about 50%. With a total box office of 120 million yuan, the “Qingming Festival” has reached the lowest box office value in the past decade (except 2020). However, the operating rate of cinemas across the country has been rising slowly recently. According to the lighthouse professional cinema business map, as of April 30, the total number of operating cinemas in China was 8008, and the national cinema business rate was 66.4% (cinemas with box office reports), an increase of 463 in a single day.
This year’s “51 file” reproduces the collective withdrawal of “Qingming file” films. On April 18, the Pig Man movie ocean diary announced the cancellation of the release plan originally scheduled for April 30. Then, new films such as “procuratorial Fengyun”, “Hello, brother”, “keep you safe”, “meet you”, “Hello, Beijing” and “awakening of the Mini World” also announced their withdrawal from the “May 1st file” a few days later and released again at a selected time.
At present, the films still released in “51” according to the original plan include the youth love film “I really hate long distance love”, the documentary “Captain Everest”, the animated film “bad guys alliance”, “the fantasy adventure of the little mermaid”, “the adventure of the stupid bird” and the feature film “punch, Mom”. “I really hate long distance love” was produced by Beijing Enlight Media Co.Ltd(300251) ( Beijing Enlight Media Co.Ltd(300251) ). Last year, the “May 1st” Beijing Enlight Media Co.Ltd(300251) also launched the love film “your wedding”, and “your wedding” exceeded 173 million box office on May 1, 2021.
Reviewing the box office records of “May 1st” in recent years, we can find that the box office of “May 1st” is increasing year by year (except 2020). The national box office of “May 1st” in 2021 was 1.674 billion yuan, 1.527 billion yuan in 2019, 1.006 billion yuan in 2018, 784 million yuan in 2017 and 650 million yuan in 2016.
On the whole, sun Jiashan, an associate researcher of the Chinese Academy of Arts, believes that it is difficult to be optimistic about the “May Day” this year. “In addition to the reasons for the epidemic, the small schedule capacity is small, there are no blockbusters, the supply of films is indeed limited, and the audience’s mood for watching films is not high.”
However, sun Jiashan believes that there can be three small slots between the Spring Festival and summer, which is very valuable and has positive industrial significance for the film box office structure. “Because they can support the gap between the Spring Festival and summer, it is not only valuable to the box office structure and cinema operation, but also helpful to the adjustment of the production capacity structure of film types. Real blockbusters will only be released in the large schedule, so small and medium-sized films will have more space in Qingming, Dragon Boat Festival and may day.”
