Outrageous.
A grand event for fans in the first half of the year, if you want to not explode your mentality, you can only be forced to be a Buddhist family.
At this year's Beijing Film Festival, Sir's circle of friends discussed the most:
Grab tickets.
Tickets are harder to grab than train tickets on May Day.
Such an exaggeration?
Even more exaggeratedly, it spawned - 8,000 scalper tickets.
Hou Xiaoxian's "Tragic City" was restored and re-screened, and a price tag of 8,000 yuan was hung on a certain fish, justifiably indicating that "the five-year-old store reputation scalper never makes money from poor sour fans".
There are also people PO 9999 posts asking for votes...
？？？
Indeed, the opportunity to see "City of Sorrow" on the big screen is too rare.
The film was released in 1989, one of the most important masterpieces of director Hou Xiaoxian, this Beijing Film Festival screening, not only a new 4K restoration version, but also a Chinese mainland premiere.
If you are a real fan, come and grab it.
At the Hong Kong International Film Festival in March, it made the Grand Theatre of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre sold-out with thousands of seats.
This time, 6 seconds sold out, which was also expected.
But the question is, what ticket needs to be fried to 8,000 yuan?
"Only fools buy", one might say.
It seems that you can easily bring this matter with 100% off if you don't buy it.
But is absurdity behind a movie?
Whether to buy or not to buy is actually the sadness of Chinese fans.
01
Scalpers have become the norm
Can today's fans still easily and purely integrate into the festival?
This may have long been a luxury.
Speaking of "Tragic City", which was hyped to 8,000 yuan this time, there are three screenings, respectively on April 25, 26 and 29, and the first two have the main creator post-screening exchange session.
At 12 noon on April 18, the 13th Beijing International Film Festival opened online ticket sales.
Sir also set a ticket alarm clock.
The first time I clicked in, the seats were already red.
A seat was specially selected, but as soon as it was submitted, it showed that the seat had been snatched up.
When I refreshed and went in, the page was all red - no votes.
Not being able to grab tickets for popular movies is a situation faced by most fans.
In fact, in less than 5 minutes, from the classic old films "Fallen Angel", "Rouge Button", "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Casablanca", to "Disappearing Her" and "Look at One Bridge" and other new films have been sold out.
It's not over.
Shortly after the ticket rush ended, Sir saw the screenshot of the 8,000 tickets.
According to the "Nine Pai News".
Some fans went to the Internet to collect tickets as soon as possible, and the original price of this film was 120, and the second-hand ticket price at that time was 800 yuan, which has doubled nearly 7 times.
When I added the seller's WeChat and asked for the price, the price had risen to 1200 yuan. Ask again the next day, and it becomes 3,000 yuan a piece.
When the market falls, the price remains more than 5 times the original price.
On the 20th, the quotations of more than a dozen sellers are still ranging from 600 yuan to 1400 yuan.
On the 22nd, Sir searched again, and the price remained high.
Sir was still not dead, and asked "City of Sorrow" with a price tag of 100 yuan, thinking that there was such a conscientious seller.
But I didn't expect it to be exchanged, but this is the result:
Not only "City of Sorrow", "Disappearing Her" starring Zhu Yilong, although it has been set for June 22.
However, due to its good reputation at the Hainan Film Festival and its extensive fan base, it was once fried to 6,000 yuan.
There are also members of the Douban "Beijing International Film Festival" group who reported that some people sold "2001: A Space Odyssey" for 500 yuan.
Money, who earned it?
Scalper.
Sir specifically asked Lao Zhang, a senior scalper:
In his opinion, "City of Sorrow" 8,000 pieces a piece will definitely not be sold. However, as a means of hype to attract everyone's attention, the ticket price can be set higher.
Hearing him say this, Sir reflected on his own delicate psychology.
I'm ashamed to say that it is precisely because "8000" has reduced Sir's sensitivity to price, and at one point I thought that the ticket of 5 or 600, well, seemed to be quite cheap.
The film festival has been a bitter scalper for a long time.
"Thief Family" at the 2018 Film Festival became a big hit that year.
Because the movie has just won the Cannes Palme d'Or, movie tickets have only begun to sell, and they have been sold to 700-1000 in a certain fish transfer channel.
In 2019, the Shanghai Film Festival's "Sea Flower", the original price of 80 movie tickets, in a transfer platform, soared to 2,000 yuan, and even two consecutive tickets at 1,000-28,000 yuan.
The Hollywood movie "Interstellar" bought 800-1000 yuan.
Some people even sold the documents of the staff of the Shanghai Film Festival for 2,600 yuan.
Shanghai Film Festival, the hardest hit area of scalper tickets.
In 2021, "Mints" "Arashi: 5x20th Anniversary Tour "Memoirs" 2000+.
The North Film Festival also followed closely, in 2021, although it is still during the epidemic, the Japanese animation "Akira", the original price of 120, fried to 500.
△ In 2021, Variety reported on the outrageous ticket price of scalpers at the Shanghai Film Festival
Don't think that scalpers just appear on a certain fish.
Offline scalpers also abound.
According to "Phoenix Network", they will each entrench themselves in their own theater bases.
Shout at every audience member who comes to see the movie: "Buy tickets and refund tickets!" Buy tickets and get a refund! The theater manager, waiters, and security guards next to him all turned a blind eye.
(I believe that all those who have seen the performance in the theater are also familiar with poisoned rice)
Scalpers have been trading tickets for a long time.
In the fifth issue of "World Cinema" in 1997, Russian film critic Ta Mushtakova recalled the scalper "pomp and circumstance" of the second Shanghai Film Festival in 1995 in the article "Listening to the Voices of Others":
Jean Baker's "Alyssa's Lover" was unashamedly carried by ticket sellers to thirty to forty dollars a piece, selling for only two dollars in the box hall, but the high-priced tickets were still sold out.
In the last century, there were few imported films, and China was thirsty for films.
Today, internationalization, convergence, and the Internet is also popular?
But the result?
Still hungry and thirsty.
02
Regarded as a fan of leeks
Year after year, every year is full.
The mentality of buying high-priced scalper tickets is like a yellow cover, and it has always been a wish to fight a wish.
Speaking of which, it still can't escape "real fans".
Because some screenings of the film festival are present, the main creator is present.
In other words, a movie is also equivalent to a star meeting.
For example, in this year's hit film "Disappearing Her", Zhu Yilong's fans came to admire it, just to see the idol, and did not hesitate to ask for votes.
Sir asked the scalper Lao Zhang about the movie tickets of "Sad City" and "2001: A Space Odyssey" at the Beijing Film Festival, and the reply of the "professional old cow" was:
Although this "Disappearing Her" is not sure if there are really stars appearing.
But in the eyes of scalpers, this movie has a huge revenue value, the demand for tickets is not much, but the price can be speculated, and the ticket price can range from eight or nine hundred.
According to this old Zhang's experience, the movie of an actor surnamed W can be sold for more than a thousand after screening, but, ironically, compared with the star's meeting scene, the box office is not necessarily high when the movie is released.
You can even judge the value of a top star in business and fan base by the level of scalper ticket prices.
In 2017, the Shanghai Film Festival "Daylight" starring Saito Gong, Aya Ueto and others attended the post-screening event, such a movie ticket, bought 2,000 yuan.
In 2019, after the screening of "Thief Family" at the Shanghai Film Festival, starring Matsuoka Moyu, Shiro Hinoki and others attended the main creator meeting, and because of this, they were fried by scalpers to 1,000 yuan a ticket.
Not only film festivals, but now after the opening of the epidemic, major film publicity teams have started celebrity roadshows, especially this year's Spring Festival files, which have also become the hardest hit area for scalpers.
When Sir participated in the premiere of "Manjiang Red", he also saw fans looking for scalpers at the entrance of the theater to "ask for tickets".
And "The Wandering Earth 2", a movie ticket for a road show, was fired to 500-2200 yuan in different cities.
△Daily economic news reporter and scalper chat record, the content is from 36Kr "a ticket 2200 yuan, 40,000 photos with Andy Lau, Wu Jing 20,000,
Fans are furious: Who is speculating roadshow tickets? 》
Even, scalpers also auction "group photo price", the value of the star is clearly priced, as long as you can afford the money, you will definitely be able to meet your wishes.
"5K speech, 5 figures for group photo." Some scalpers said that they could not only arrange on-site questions, but also arrange to take photos with Wu Jing, Andy Lau, Guo Fan and others, and the main creators at the scene were "clearly priced".
△: Daily economic news reporter and scalper chat records
What's more infuriating is that real movie fans and people who love movies don't have the opportunity to enter, and those who can afford to watch stars can enter through scalpers.
In the past few days, Sir just finished watching the premiere of "King of the Long Sky", and he searched casually, and sure enough.
The ticket price of a certain fish soared to 3000-5800 yuan.
Roadshows, once used as a means of publicity for movies, have now become the hardest hit area for scalpers.
The filmmakers, stars, and fans did not benefit from it.
But there is nothing to do.
After "Crazy" became popular, Zhang Songwen's value rose, and the movie tickets for "More than Endless" were also hyped up by scalpers, but the box office of 56.46 million after the movie was released was far from being as popular as being robbed.
That is, this kind of ticket speculation cannot be converted into a box office.
Because they grab not movies, but scarcity:
Watch movies ahead of time, or watch stars live.
Once it is released on a large scale, the scarcity is no longer there, and it can't be fried.
Stubble after stubble of leeks could not save the Chinese film market, but was gnawed by scalpers.
03
City of Pathos
Finally, Sir still wants to talk about the fans who are "dead-wrestling" on the film festival.
It is pitiful to say that they are the most pathetic and helpless group in the Chinese film market.
Grabbing and rising are the sounds that have been heard everywhere recently.
Tourist fire.
With the May Day holiday just around the corner, many train tickets have been snatched up, and house prices have soared several times.
There are even news reports that there are no rooms in the hotel, only "sofa seats".
Concert fire.
Tickets can't be grabbed at all.
But both have some revenge consumption.
Not counting the Spring Festival when you go home for reunion, May Day this year is the first small long holiday after the epidemic is released, and too many people want to go on a trip or a performance.
But also because of retaliation, there will be opportunities in the future, and everyone's consumption will return to rationality.
Film festivals are different.
From now on, will the scarcity of movies increase, and will the hunger and thirst of fans be alleviated?
I'm sorry.
Sir has a hard time expecting too optimistically.
"From the Five Things" of the drama "Poison Eyes": What is the culture of fans? In the article, a woman explained to the reporter of "Poison Eyes":
"People sometimes really need to find something that makes them fanatical."
Everyone has the right to be fanatical.
It's just that fans need to pay a twisted premium for an inexpensive hobby.
The scalper's phrase "five-year-old store reputation scalpers never make money from poor movie fans" has hurt the hearts of many people?
In the hearts of fans, the film festival is to let them find a "Jerusalem" where they can place their faith, and it is to let them find a place of "resonance" and "kind".
This road to sainthood is inevitably lonely, said to be "too literary and artistic", and I don't understand why they spend money to squeeze their heads and watch an old film with resources on the Internet.
"Attending a film festival and joining a collective act may feel like finding a fulcrum and not being so lonely."
As a movie fan, Sir can naturally understand her feelings and their obsession and desire for movies.
But this "pilgrimage" route should not have been so narrow.
Look at how the hunger and thirst of Chinese fans are raised.
Instead, it loses the most basic pleasure of watching movies.
For movies released in theaters, the proportion of imported films is already small; Most of the commercial blockbusters are introduced, and even fewer niche literary films, and if not in big cities, there are even no theaters that will arrange the films.
So all the expectations of exposure to the dynamic frontiers of world cinema fell on the festival.
However, even China's "window of world cinema" such as the Shanghai Film Festival and the Beijing Film Festival is not big enough.
Classic films are homogenized year by year, and the quality of films in film festivals is uneven, and they can really be regarded as good movies that are highly anticipated, and there are only a dozen or so.
Especially in recent years, the same movies, too many.
In 2018, "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "The Shawshank Redemption" appeared at the Shanghai Film Festival.
Then, in the 4K restoration screening of the 2019 Beijing Film Festival, "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Schindler's List" appeared in the classic list.
In the same year, at the film festival, "Cinema Paradiso" and "Schindler's List" were released.
In 2020, at the North Film Festival, "Paradise Cinema" entered the "Long Live the Movie" series, and "Forrest Gump" was also in the film list.
In 2021, at the Shanghai Film Festival, "Forrest Gump" appeared in the "Master" tribute unit.
In 2023, "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "The Shawshank Redemption" once again appeared in the film lists of the Beijing Film Festival and the Shanghai Film Festival.
Even if some movies are released, they can't keep a "special edition".
So why go to the site to see it? Why not look at the full version in the hard drive.
△ When it was released in the mainland, this footage had been cut
The festival was supposed to be an exchange, an exploration, an experiment.
Now it's more like an internal circulation.
Is there a little more film energy saving office? Can the selection of films be more in line with the expectations of fans?
Over the years, Sir has had to lower his expectations again and again.
I remember in October 2017, the first Pingyao Film Festival.
The film list is eye-catching, including the movie "Square" that won the Palme d'Or just 5 months ago, Takeshi Kitano's latest masterpiece "Extremely Evil Feidao Final Chapter", American master Richard Linklater's "The Last Banner" and so on.
In addition, "Knight", which showed Zhao Ting's talent, was also selected as the opening film of the first Pingyao International Film Festival and was selected for the "Crouching Tiger" unit of that session.
However, how long has it been since this quality and immediacy of screenings?
Don't say that it is difficult for Chinese fans to watch good foreign films.
Even good domestic films are usually "blossoming inside the wall and fragrant outside the wall", that is, it is not our turn.
Looking at others, drooling with envy:
The full version of "Stormy Clouds" was released in Japan, and what is the true appearance of this confusing movie, we can only be anxious at present.
Leslie Cheung's 20th anniversary, "Farewell My Concubine" was re-screened for the fifth time in South Korea.
Last year, France re-screened the 4K restoration of the Infernal Affairs trilogy.
Are these movies that we want to see on the big screen today — and that's the best way to present movies — have a chance?
On the surface, 8,000 pieces of "City of Sorrow" are scalpers, and fans suffer.
But actually.
Weird supply and demand, leading to deformed prices.
The deformed price ultimately distorts the pure, sincere relationship between every fan and the movie.
This is also why, even if the ticket of 8,000 yuan is rotten in the hands of scalpers, it is destined to let more people pay together.
Alas, poor Chinese fans.
The picture of this article comes from the Internet
Editorial assistants: Almodovanya, Oda does not let cut