As of February 10, the total box office of the seven films released during the Spring Festival has exceeded 7 billion yuan.
The 2022 Spring Festival finally ended with a box office performance of 6.026 billion yuan in 6 days, compared with the highest box office record of 7.843 billion yuan in 2021, which regressed significantly (down 23% year-on-year), but still won the second place in the box office history of the Spring Festival file. Compared with the box office, the decline in the number of moviegoers in this year's Spring Festival is more obvious - the total number of moviegoers in the Spring Festival in 2022 is 114 million, lower than the 160 million in the 2021 Spring Festival, even lower than the 132 million in 2019, and 145 million in 2018 (there is no Spring Festival in 2020).
The box office performance is not ideal, and the decline in audience enthusiasm for movies is the "symptom" of this year's Spring Festival slot, and a major reason behind it is the high ticket price of the theater. According to statistics, the national average ticket price of this year's Spring Festival stall is 52.8 yuan, while the national average ticket price of the Spring Festival slot in 2021 is 48.9 yuan, and the average ticket price of the Spring Festival slot in 2019 and 2018 is only 44.7 yuan and 39.7 yuan. Although the national ticket price of the Spring Festival slot has been increasing year by year, this year may have touched the limit of audience acceptance. The film market has not yet returned to pre-epidemic levels, but it is becoming more and more expensive to watch movies during the Spring Festival.
Detective Chinatown 3
During the Spring Festival, the national average ticket price of "The Water gate Bridge of Changjin Lake" was once as high as 60 yuan, compared with the main films in previous years, the average ticket prices of "Detective Chinatown 3" released in 2021 and "The Wandering Earth" in 2019 were 71.4 yuan and 57.2 yuan respectively. In first-tier cities like Beijing, it is almost impossible to find shows with ticket prices below 100 yuan (all movies) during the Spring Festival. The high ticket prices have deterred many viewers, and the decline in the number of moviegoers is also reasonable. According to the data of Lighthouse Professional Edition, the average ticket price of the Spring Festival pre-sale in 2022 reached 56.6 yuan, while the same period in 2021 and 2019 was only 48.9 yuan and 44.7 yuan, with an average annual growth rate of more than 8%.
The Wandering Earth
Why are movie tickets getting more expensive? The reasons behind the complex, one of the more important factors is that the recovery speed of the film market in 2021 is not as fast as expected, and the cinema that has been hurt by the epidemic for two years is difficult to survive, and it is difficult to return a mouthful of blood during the peak of the Spring Festival movie viewing.
The annual box office of the mainland film market in 2021 was 47.036 billion, which is much higher than the 20.314 billion in 2020, but far lower than the 64.149 billion in 2019, 60.688 billion in 2018 and 55.88 billion in 2017. Factors such as insufficient production capacity of domestic new films, the non-Release of important slots such as blockbuster non-Spring Festival slots, and the failure to introduce many Hollywood blockbusters (such as "Spider-Man: Heroes Without Return") have made cinemas falter in 2021.
The Spring Festival stall has become a life-saving straw for cinema practitioners, and the Spring Festival box office in 2021 accounts for more than 16% of the annual box office. By 2021, this proportion is less than 10%, indirectly illustrating how dismal the overall box office at other times in 2021 will be. The more this is the case, the more the filmmakers and theaters pay attention to the Spring Festival, coupled with the impact of the epidemic on the seat limit and other reasons, the Spring Festival ticket prices are also getting higher and higher.
"Fame and Fame"
On Weibo, the theater manager of Jinan Paragon, "Miss Dong Talks about Movies", said that this year's Spring Festival, the minimum distribution ticket price of many filmmakers has risen to 35-40 yuan, plus the service fee of the online platform, if there is no subsidy, the lowest ticket price for the audience to buy tickets online is 40-45 yuan. She also pointed out that to change this situation, a comprehensive development of the external and internal environment of the market is needed. From an external point of view, if the epidemic gradually dissipates, some audiences are no longer afraid of theater viewing, the theater does not have to close frequently, and the seat limit is also canceled, and the audience's enthusiasm for watching movies will be greatly enhanced.
Sniper
From the perspective of the industry, if the supply of domestic films is stable throughout the year, the overall reputation is high, and there can be high-reputation and high-box office films every month (the example she gave is "Fame"), and the audience will also pay more in the activity of watching movies. In short, regardless of the external and internal environment, it is necessary to be "stable", such market anxiety will be reduced, the proportion of the Spring Festival box office will drop to normal years, and ticket prices will gradually return to normal.
In response to the high box office of the Spring Festival file, various filmmakers have also begun to act. Since February 7, the ticket price of "Sniper" has been reduced to 30-35 yuan (5 yuan each, and the A-class cities refer to the north, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen), which is the first film in the 8 new films in this year's Spring Festival file to reduce the settlement price. Today, "Miracle Stupid Child" also announced that from February 11, the minimum settlement price will be lowered to 2D30 yuan / person, IMAX2D40 yuan / person, China Giant Screen 2D and other special versions of 35 yuan / person.
The Spring Festival file has ended, how the follow-up film will be performed, and what kind of actions the film will have, let us wait and see.
"Miracle Stupid Kid"