Author: Titan
Every year is said to be the hottest Spring Festival stall, this year's Spring Festival stall is indeed burst again!
Not only the box office exploded, word of mouth exploded, the ticket price also exploded...
Burst up the Spring Festival stalls
The Spring Festival stalls that can't be exploded
The total box office of the first day of the Chinese New Year in 2022 reached 1.478 billion yuan, which is the second best single-day box office performance in the history of Chinese mainland films, second only to the first day of the Chinese New Year in 2021, and 20 million yuan higher than the 2019 New Year's Day before the epidemic.
The total box office at the beginning of this year was higher than the same period in 2019, but the number of people was greatly reduced.
In terms of single films, the box office data can also be described as eye-catching, "Chosin Lake's Water gate Bridge" won a box office performance of 640 million yuan on the first day of release, second only to the historical record of 1.011 billion yuan of "Detective Chinatown 3", ranking second in film history. The result also set a new Tuesday box office record for Chinese mainland film history, which was previously held by "Hello, Lee Huan Ying".
In addition, the only comedy movie in this year's Spring Festival file, "This Killer Is Not Too Calm", was released less than two days ago, and the box office exceeded the global box office of "This Killer Is Not Too Cold". "This Killer Is Not Calm" is based on the Japanese film Magic Moment, the former's three days of release at the box office more than twice the worldwide box office of the latter.
Compared with the box office performance, this year's ticket price performance is also very prominent, summed up in one word - "expensive".
The capitalized word "expensive".
According to Watch Movie magazine, the average ticket price of a Movie in the United States on February 2 was $9.11, or about 57.9 yuan, while the average ticket price of a Chinese mainland movie was 60.9 yuan. This also means that on this day alone, the average ticket price of Chinese films has surpassed that of the United States.
To some extent, the fact that ticket prices can be so expensive is a sign of the recovery of the vitality of the film and television industry, and it can also reflect the strength and resilience of China's economy. But in the face of diversification of entertainment, people are becoming more sensitive to ticket prices. This sensitivity is truly transmitted to the number of moviegoers.
Although the total box office of the first day of the Chinese New Year this year won the second box office in the history of the film, the number of moviegoers was only 25.09 million times, which was only higher than in 2017 and before. The single-day box office on the second day of the Chinese New Year fell by 27.88% compared with the first day of the Chinese New Year, which is the second decline in the history of Chinese mainland films.
In the case of a sharp decline in the number of people, some theaters will increase prices, and such a result can be imagined.
No zuo no die，one more try.
Raising the ticket price can not make up for the loss caused by the loss of people, but it has exacerbated the loss of moviegoers, and the total box office in the first 4 days of this year's Spring Festival is 23.6% backward from 2021, and the number of moviegoers is also lagging behind by 24.4%. The pre-sale amount on the fifth day of the Chinese New Year is only half of the fifth day of the New Year last year.
The soaring ticket prices and the loss of audiences have also made more and more people think, why is the ticket price of this year's Spring Festival so high? Is this high fare situation permanent or temporary?
The hotel charges a Spring Festival service charge
Why should movie tickets be scolded when the price increases?
To say how high the increase in the Spring Festival stalls this year is, it depends on how to compare.
The average fare floating space of 20% is indeed not low compared to previous years. But compared to other service industries, this increase is not outstanding.
The staff of a theater line in Luzhou, Sichuan Province, told the New Weekly reporter that the ticket price of her theater line in previous years was about 35 yuan around 35 yuan, and this year it rose to about 45 yuan, "only up 10 yuan." The staff member said: "Barbershops, restaurants, foot spa shops will also add Spring Festival service fees during the Spring Festival, their increase is much higher than this, why only criticize the movie ticket price?" ”
The Spring Festival service fee of online ride-hailing is not low compared to the fare.
The new weekly reporter's hometown is a county town in Luliang, Shanxi, and the movie ticket price here has also risen from more than 30 yuan in previous years to more than 40 yuan, and the increase is close to That of Luzhou. But not every region is so "reasonable", the ticket price of the county next door to the reporter's hometown has risen to more than 60 yuan, such a price is usually high in the north, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, and it is difficult to imagine the pricing of a county.
In the Spring Festival in previous years, there will be many fans "through the customs", that is, to watch the main movies of the Spring Festival file, but in the context of this year's high ticket prices, there are many fewer fans who have passed the customs clearance, and people's movies are more selective, and some even do not watch one, to make up for the American drama "Excitement" and "Messenger of Peace", especially after the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, more people watch the event at home, reducing the cinema viewing.
The staff of Luzhou Cinema Line also said: "In the past two years, due to the large environmental impact, the operation of the cinema line has been relatively bleak, and the profits of film and television companies are not impressive, and a consensus of 'Spring Festival price increases and recovery of losses' has been formed from upstream to terminal." Many film and television companies have risen a lot to the distribution price of the theater, and the theater cannot lose money and make money, and naturally it is necessary to increase the price to balance the income and expenditure. Public opinion cannot push the responsibility for price increases to the cinema. ”
The staff of a theater in Guangzhou told the New Weekly reporter: "This year's fans are so sensitive to ticket prices, there may be another potential reason, that is, the proportion of comedies in the Spring Festival this year is small. According to previous years, people's preference for watching movies during the Spring Festival is comedy and family fun, but this year, the proportion of such movies is low, only "This Killer Is Not Calm", and the reputation is not too good. This will also make the audience feel that the ticket price is not worth it. ”
"This Killer Is Not Too Calm" is the only comedy film in this year's Spring Festival file.
Objectively speaking, it is not fair to always compare this year's Spring Festival stall with last year's Spring Festival stall. Affected by the epidemic in 2020, theaters across the country are closed to fight the epidemic, and there is a psychology of "retaliatory movie watching" in the climax of the Spring Festival in 2021. The content structure of the film is also more reasonable, both the works of big IP such as "Detective Chinatown 3" and the high-reputation works of "Hello, Li Huanying", and both works are comedies.
On the other hand, this year, the big IP and high reputation are not family fun series, the only comedy movie is still a remake, the word of mouth is far less than the original, it is not surprising that there are many complaints, and the high ticket price has become the best punching bag.
Movie ticket price anxiety at both ends
The industry moves to the left and the audience to the right
Not only in China, but also in the global context, the epidemic has had a profound impact on both the supply and demand ends of the film and television industry.
For the demand side, the audience's movie-watching mentality has changed a lot in the past two years, from going to the cinema to watch movies without anything to now "not entering the theater unless necessary". What is "necessary"? One is a movie that is very interesting to itself, and the other is a visual effects movie with a large IP, or it will only be watched during the eleventh long holiday and the Spring Festival file, otherwise the "such resources" on the mobile phone will be good.
Take the New Weekly reporter himself, for example. In 2019, the number of times reporters entered the theater exceeded 80 times, on average, they entered the cinema once every 5 days, and often brushed twice and three times. But 2021 became less than 20 times — and many fans are similar to this number.
The decline in the frequency of viewing movies is also reflected in the attendance rate.
It's not that I've seen fewer movies, on the contrary, I've watched more than 160 movies in 2021, more than double the number of movies in 2019, but the vast majority of movies are not in theaters.
This change in the demand side is actually a kind of mapping of the supply side. Since the epidemic, more foreign films have been released in the mix-and-match mode of "cinema + streaming media" or even the exclusive mode of streaming media. This makes the spread of pirated resources often ahead of the introduction of domestic cinemas, and to a large extent, this trend has also had a negative effect on the cinema audience.
For the supply side, in addition to the change in the distribution model, the concept of content production has also undergone some changes, becoming more "short-sighted", ignoring the polishing of the script, and paying more attention to piling up stars and popular elements, preferring to spend more money on publicity than investing more in content creation, because this money comes quickly.
Changes in supply and demand have prompted more films to be more willing to pile up in large slots, because in the case of general coldness, the number of viewers in large slots is higher.
The roll during the file period, only the price increase, will depreciate the golden file in the long run.
Well-known film and television bloggers @TNABO the North American box office list, they believe that "for theaters, what they see is: there are many people entering the cinema during the big slot, even if the film is mediocre; and almost no one on weekdays, especially in domestic blockbusters are not very good, imported blockbusters are uncertain in the case of not being able to enter - if you want to keep short-term interests to survive, a more secure way is to continuously increase ticket prices during the popular movie-watching period, and strive to earn what you usually lose." ”
Such industry changes, making the industry to the left, more aggressive price increases, and the audience to the right, in terms of viewing more conservative, since so expensive, naturally to choose a good reputation, valuable feelings of the film to enter the theater, other times can play games, to socialize, anyway, there are a lot of entertainment methods.
Under the double heaven of ice and fire
If you run out of fish, there will be no fish tomorrow
In the 2022 Spring Festival stall, the most expensive ticket price is close to 200 yuan, but this ticket price has not set a new historical record.
In 2019, when "Avengers 4: Endgame" premiered at zero point, an IMAX movie ticket price as high as more than 300 yuan is difficult to find, and this is still the theater pricing, scalper speculation price is higher, thousands of yuan have.
It can be seen that if a film can hit a certain feeling of fans, high ticket prices are not a thing. The point is that not every movie can have such a volume and appeal, and not every moviegoer has such a strong interest. For most people, watching movies is just a pastime, and it's one of the ways.
Entertainment is diversified, and watching movies is no longer just a necessity.
It is not difficult to analyze that short-term ticket price increases can indeed boost the box office, as evidenced by the second-day box office record in film history set on the first day of the New Year this year.
But doing so is tantamount to quenching thirst and reducing the enthusiasm of the already demoralized moviegoers. If even the big slot is disenchanted, it will usually be less watched, which in turn will dampen the enthusiasm of film and television creators and cause more irreparable impact.
The film and television industry is very important for a country. First of all, this industry is related to upstream and downstream industries, which can drive economic development and create many employment opportunities. More importantly, the boom-bust index of the film and television industry can also become a barometer reflecting the degree of economic prosperity. Often, the more prosperous the economy, the stronger the film and television industry.
But these are not the most core meaning, from the macro level, film and television works can shape the soft power of the country; for the micro level, some film and television works can also promote the progress of individual cases and even legislation.
China's most recent typical case is "I Am Not a Medicine God", which not only achieved high word-of-mouth and high box office, but also promoted the reform of China's imported drug management and medical insurance, so that more patients can enjoy medical treatment within the scope of affordability.
Excellent film and television works can promote the innovation of the social agenda.
If the high ticket price situation is maintained for a long time, or even the price increases every New Year's Festival, the number of fans who choose to watch movies in theaters is bound to be less and less, and the relevant significance mentioned above will become a yellow flower of tomorrow.
Although we can also understand the industry's demand for blood return, but the exhaustion of the fish will be no fish tomorrow.
In the short term, the limelight of price increases can be braked for a moment, and even gradually decreased. We have seen that compared with the first day of the Chinese New Year, the average ticket price of the fifth day of the first year has dropped by more than 3 yuan.
The industry can also launch preferential tickets and second bargains through coupon packages, studio cards, etc., and then make up for losses through popcorn or peripheral sales, which is also one of the feasible ways.
Perhaps in the short term, the temporary recovery of "ticket compensation" is also a good choice to boost the market.
But in the long run, it still needs big IP and high reputation works, original or imported, can not be too short-sighted, thinking of making quick money on shoddy manufacturing. A moment of quick money is easy to make, but that is overdrafting the future.
Expensive, yes, but don't mess around. I hope that a wave of high fever in this year's Spring Festival file can trigger industry thinking and launch more good works, so that the audience has entertainment and the industry can prosper, which is the way to high-quality development.