Shynrancaijing original
Trainee author丨Wang Lu
Edit | Li Qiuhan
On the first day of the May Day holiday, people were crowded everywhere, but the cinema was not so lively.
Audience Xiaoli doesn't want to travel to see people during the May Day holiday, so she wants to take the opportunity to rest and go shopping with friends to watch movies. Even when she bought tickets temporarily after shopping, she found that "most of the performances had a lot of places, and even the best viewing areas were not full." ”
On April 29, Shenran visited several theaters located in Beijing's core business districts, and there were only a few audiences waiting to enter the halls, and some theaters even had empty waiting seats. Only one theater has a relatively large crowd at the entrance, and fans are doing private activities, and most of the audience is young girls who take photos in front of the support panel. An audience member told Shen Ran that she deliberately supported her idol today, she would not watch other films, and tomorrow morning, she would have to catch a car to travel.
May Day is a holiday with a long rest time throughout the year except for the Spring Festival and National Day long holidays, which is a place where the film side must compete and is also an important schedule for the cinema to return blood. In recent years, there has been a trend of new films, and this year's 5-day holiday has squeezed out a new height, and the number of new films has increased to 19.
However, the box office performance, many practitioners said that it was less than expected. According to Maoyan Professional Edition data, on April 29, the first day of the May Day long holiday, the total box office exceeded 300 million. Among them, "King of the Long Sky" was the most anticipated, with a box office of 174 million in 2 days of release, but its attendance rate on that day was only 10.3%.
Among the remaining films, in addition to "Life Road Unfamiliar" and "So Many Years" performed well, the performance of films such as "Procuratorial Storm", "Shocking Rescue", "Countdown to Say Love You" and "Changsha Nightlife" was not ideal, and in 2 days of release, they only won about 20 million at the box office, and "Changsha Nightlife" only exceeded 5.7 million.
The total box office on the first day exceeded 300 million, which is not bad, higher than the same period in 2022 affected by the epidemic, and also higher than the first-day box office of the May Day holiday from 2015 to 2017, but not as good as in 2021, 2019, and 2018, which exceeded 380 million on the first day of the May Day holiday in these three years.
This is because, on the one hand, although there are many films this year, there are not many that can be played, on the other hand, under the five-day long holiday and the tourism boom, "everyone is out to play", more than one theater manager said.
The boom in this year's Spring Festival stall has allowed theaters to earn money after three years of dying struggle, which is seen as a good sign of the recovery of theaters, and practitioners are busy buying films, recruiting employees, and increasing meal orders. From early March to mid-April, even though new films were overwhelmed, the theater heat cooled down again, and some theater managers said that popcorn didn't sell much.
In this increasingly important year of 2023, May Day is the moment when theaters rush to performance again. Now it seems that the industry is indeed recovering, but the recovery time is longer than expected.
19 new films are stacked, and there are still not many theater people
At 10:30 a.m. on April 29, Shen Ran walked into a cinema located in a shopping center in Beijing, and in the boxy hall, there were still no people queuing up to buy tickets.
One theater fared slightly better because there were fans doing charter events and there were queues at the door. The manager of this theater told Shen Ran that there are fans who charter a room today and can fill one hall, but they only charter one, and the halls of other performances are not full.
Shen Ran inquired about the ticket purchase platform and found that in the afternoon of the same day, the theaters in several core business districts in Beijing, almost every performance of each film, the location was not full, the attendance rate of more people could reach about 50%, less only three or five people, and even many performances at night were not purchased tickets. A theater manager said that according to statistics, the box office of their stores in various areas of Beijing on April 29 was not very good, and the overall did not exceed expectations.
This year's May 1st file, a total of 19 new films, which is the most genre in recent years, but in the films that have been launched, whether it is the head blockbuster or the expected dark horse player, the performance is not as expected.
According to Maoyan Professional Edition, among the new films released on May 1st, "King of the Long Sky" currently has a box office of 174 million, ranking first. But this main theme movie from the perspective of the Air Force has been criticized by many netizens in special effects. On Maoyan Professional Edition, the film's predicted total box office is 684 million, after it was once estimated to be one billion.
"Life Road Unfamiliar" ranked second, the box office has exceeded 100 million, mainly thanks to the advantages of the genre, road comedy plus Yi Xiaoxing-style humor, and a group of comedians such as Ma Li and Qiao Shan joined, aiming at everyone's appetite to watch family fun, Fan Chengcheng's performance in the film, most of the audience is still satisfied. But what the stamina will be, it remains to be seen. Now on Douban, its reputation has a polarization trend, both five-star, and many one-star, two-star.
"Life is not familiar" poster
The romance film "So Many Years" ranked third, the film played the slogan of "couples must see, must get off the list", and major theaters also set up "I love you (17:20)", "Love you love you (20:20)" and "One lifetime (13:14)" according to the opening time to attract couples to spend money. But after its release, its reputation and box office were not as good as the potential shown in the previous marketing, and some audiences liked its youthful pure love, but some viewers believed that domestic youth films still failed to escape the fate of bad films.
The suspense romance "Procurator Fengyun" starring Huang Jingyu and Bai Baihe has a decent performance and has not yet made a sound. "Shocking Rescue" starring Du Jiang and Wang Qianyuan is a breath short of the attraction and appeal of the theme. Focusing on fantasy and love elements, "Countdown to Say Love You" starring Chen Feiyu and Zhou Ye has been marketed hard, and has not played "So Many Years", and their May Day box office on the first day is only about 20 million. And "Changsha Nightlife", which was once regarded as a dark horse and appeared in the concept of urban movies, was even more splashless, with a box office of only more than 5.7 million in 2 days.
In terms of word of mouth, several films have not yet been scored, and there are not many short reviews on Douban. The box office ranking of the film is basically in line with the previous expectations, and there are no dark horses. Even the most appealing "King of the Long Sky" is not too hot search and discussion at present.
On April 28, some cinema staff ridiculed in the industry group, "This May Day, the traffic 'collapsed', Zibo Sheng can no longer have people, the hotel has also become rich, even the tickets to the Old Summer Palace are out, all industries are improving, except for cinemas." ”
The theater fought for May 1st, but the role was limited
From the Spring Festival to the May 1st stall, in just over four months, the emotions of many cinema practitioners are like sliding on a slide.
In the three years shrouded by the epidemic, many theaters have permanently closed because they cannot make ends meet. According to Lighthouse Pro data, the number of theaters closed nationwide was nearly 7,000 in the year from November 2021 to November 2022. After the adjustment of the epidemic policy, there has been a strong recovery of theaters, and the box office of the Spring Festival is a big proof, creating a score of more than 6.7 billion, the second in film history, and some people even predict that the box office this year can return to the high level of 60 billion. But the depression that began in March caught many theaters off guard.
Some theater leaders told Deep Burn that their monthly box office still can't pay for the daily operation of the theater. After letting go, he was still losing money, and Nanyang, the head of a movie park in Baoshan, Yunnan, said that he was a little "overwhelmed".
Hao Yun's cinema, located in Beijing's fourth ring road, also almost lost money, "finally the Spring Festival file returned to a blood, in March it was not possible, fortunately the mall reduced the rent, otherwise it still lost money," he said.
Although theater practitioners know that it will take a while for the audience to recover their enthusiasm, and it is not easy for the industry to recover immediately, as long as the theater is open and spending money every day, they are also worried about whether the theater in their hands can wait until the moment when it really warms up. The quality of this year's May 1st box office results affects the mentality of practitioners, and even directly determines the survival of some theaters.
"So Many Years" promotional image
In order to ensure that the five-day long holiday does not lose a potential audience, the theaters put a lot of effort into it.
In mid-April, Manager Liu's cinema in the central area of Qingdao carried out equipment maintenance, personnel training, and regulated business hours.
During May Day, they moved the time of the first session from 9:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., and the last one from 11 p.m. to 12 p.m., and the personnel adjusted accordingly. Because "Countdown to Say Love You" was filmed in Qingdao, their theater also made a key promotion for the film, coupons, gift packages, and online subsidy activities were launched early.
Also busy is Coco in Shenzhen. On the morning of April 28, her theater was busy opening a third store, and Coco revealed that they deliberately chose the time on May 1st. In order to catch up with the May Day soft opening, the preparation time of this store took only 2 months.
Their store will cooperate with the film to make a themed check-in area, Coco said, "The audience feedback is very good, basically people take pictures every day." She mentioned that film roadshows and fan group activities come to Shenzhen, and her theater is almost their first choice.
Hao Yun's cinema, which is located in an urban residential area on the edge of the fourth ring road, said that the customers of this place are mainly elderly people and children, plus there are two theaters nearby, and their theater business has not been easy to do, and there is not much money for publicity. But on May Day this year, he started a private warm-up with the support of the mall. Take "King of the Long Sky", they did 8 scenes, "first pull the surrounding residents into the cinema, do word-of-mouth fermentation, and then attract more audiences." ”
Whether they have money or not, the theaters are fully prepared for May Day.
But there are not many films that can be played, and in the context of the travel fever, the role that can be played is still limited.
More than one theater manager said that the box office performance in the past two days was either within their original expectations or below expectations.
Hao Yun's goal for the May 1st file is not high, "You can earn back a month's worth of money, there are no films in June, and it will be good to last until July to enter the summer file." "The box office of 5 days directly affects whether the theater can operate normally in the next few months, and at present, the situation is not so optimistic.
Hao Yun revealed that it is good that his own cinema can have 250,000 at the box office of May 1st this year, and it is estimated that the box office revenue of May 1st in 2019 will drop by 8%-12%.
Cinema, is it polarizing?
However, not all theaters are struggling to recover. According to the multi-party exchanges of deep burning, the operating conditions of the theater are polarizing, some have recovered significantly after the Spring Festival, and even expand and open new stores, and some are still worrying about paying rent, and it is difficult to even break even.
Coco's cinema, located in first- and second-tier cities, is located in the core business district, and the situation is relatively optimistic.
"There are more films released, and there are more big customers", Coco said, adding that when "Avatar" was released in December last year, theaters picked up significantly, and the flow of people increased exponentially. She cited an earlier store in Shenzhen as an example, the number of people in November was 6,200, in December directly increased to 18,858, and in January it reached 27,506, cocoa felt basically the same as in 2021.
Big customers are also starting to return. "Previously, many large customers were basically stagnant in the organization of charters, but after opening, many large customers have come back one after another, and there are many new customers. In good times, there are four or five private events a day", Coco said.
Although Manager Liu did not disclose the revenue of his studio, he said that he was very satisfied with the situation.
The theater in charge of Hao Yun has not made much profit after the Spring Festival, and now expects to use the May 1st box office to support the daily operation of the second quarter.
"The box office of the Spring Festival file is more than 1.4 million, plus snacks and other income, a total of about 1.7 million, supporting our first quarter. But also because Party A gave a discount, a part of the rent was reduced, if not reduced, this box office will definitely not be enough. Hao Yun said that they couldn't even bring "Slam Dunk" to the box office.
Almost having no money to pay rent is not Hao Yun's fate alone. The box office of Nanyang's theater (the first to the seventh day of the new year) increased by 12% year-on-year, and there was no growth on non-holidays (Monday to Friday), and even the rent could not be paid in March. Fortunately, popcorn raw materials, syrup, coffee beans and other goods, the shelf life is about one year, Nanyang did not suffer much loss in this part.
The audience does not come, not because of the ticket price, the ticket price of these two studios is not high. The average ticket price of Nanyang's theater is about 28 yuan, the same price as before the epidemic, "no higher consumption level than Baoshan, Yunnan, which is the price of two bowls of rice noodles," Nanyang said. The ticket price of the theater in charge of Hao Yun is about 45 yuan, which is lower than the average price in Beijing, but there are still not many audiences. In 2019, their ticket price once rose to seventy or eighty yuan, and now the price has been considered a cut.
No matter where the theater is located, practitioners say that the data from March to mid-April is indeed poor, the frequency of audiences entering the cinema has decreased, and the schedule is becoming more and more important to the revenue of the cinema. They also increasingly feel that audiences are now more in pursuit of cost performance, which refers not only to price, but to the overall feeling from price to service experience.
This is reflected in the fact that well-functioning theaters not only have a stable audience and a considerable proportion of senior fans, but also carry out various discounts and theme check-in activities for the film, and the service is relatively more diversified and perfect.
Coco said that they already have three stores in Shenzhen, targeting high-end users, opening in business districts near office buildings, high-end apartments and hotels, and planning to continue to open new stores in the near future. She revealed that many office workers will meet at night to watch movies, and some literary films launched in recent months have also created a lot of revenue for theaters, and when other theaters give 3%-5% of literary films, they will give 10%-20%.
On the other hand, the difference between studios that take different routes in the same area is becoming more and more obvious. Even if the main price is low, but the overall facilities and service level cannot keep up, the audience is not willing to go.
Hao Yun's area, there are a total of three cinemas nearby, the main low-priced studio, the worst revenue in recent months, box office ranking in the region fell very fast, he analyzed, "Although there is a gap in ticket prices, audiences are more willing to choose the one that is a few dollars more expensive, but better in vision and service." ”
After surviving the darkest three years, the theater that is still warming up is also facing a new round of survival of the fittest.
In the past two days, Nanyang's circle of friends has become more and more busy, he joined the May Day tourism army, posted four air tickets, and planned to take the whole family to travel, while handing out various film materials. Due to the continuous loss of the cinema in recent years, the group once considered shutting down the cinema where Hao Yun is located, just because the shopping mall where the cinema is located is still supporting, it is still hesitating and waiting.
The good days that belong to the theater have not really arrived.
*The title image is from the "King of the Long Sky" poster. At the request of the interviewees, Nanyang, Hao Yun, Xiaoli, and Coke were pseudonyms.