Fans have been suffering from "fraudulent publicity" for a long time. On the e-commerce platform, there is a "seven-day no reason refund", the video website has a "trial watch for six minutes and then pay", and the micro-short drama can also "watch a few episodes before recharging", at the beginning of 2024, going to the cinema to watch the movie finally has after-sales service.
It is reported that the service is provided by the Brief Ticket Group, and for designated theaters and films, if you are not satisfied with the movie or cinema service within 30 minutes after the movie opens (the movie ticket indicates the opening time), you can apply for a refund. After the application is approved, the group will be responsible for the full refund, which will not affect the normal operation and box office revenue of the theater.
Jiupai News learned that the service was launched in Changsha on New Year's Day, and it is expected to serve more than 1,000 theaters across the country during the Spring Festival. He also said that art films may not be included in the service in terms of film genres.
"Only good-looking movies are worth your money", a report titled "Announcement on the 30-minute No-reason Refund Pilot Service" shows that compared with 2019, the number of moviegoers in 2023 will decrease by nearly 500 million, and how to pull the audience back to the cinema from the mobile phone and computer is an urgent problem to be solved in the whole industry. Therefore, the after-sales service launched by our company is a sufficient reason for more audiences to eliminate their worries and enter the cinema with confidence, and it is also a necessary commitment of the film company to the audience, and it is also a far-reaching attempt and exploration to establish a digital closed-loop management of Chinese films. ”
In this regard, Dong Yuzhi, deputy dean and professor of the Sino-Korean New Media School of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, analyzed that the launch of the independent refund machine is a good thing for consumers, theaters and filmmakers. Specifically, one is to implement and optimize the policy of promoting movie ticket refund and change, and the other is to force the improvement of theater service quality and film quality, "Cooperation is also a kind of marketing, and at the same time, non-cooperative filmmakers may make the audience think that the filmmakers are afraid to cooperate because the film is too bad." ”
She said that the service will give some opportunities for films with real artistic value to stand out, and will help curb some poor quality films that use gimmicks to grow wildly.
[1] Within the first 30 minutes, tickets can be refunded due to poor movie quality or children playing around
During the New Year's Day, some theaters in Changsha, Hunan Province launched self-service ticket refund machines at the ticket gates, allowing fans to choose self-service refunds within 30 minutes of the opening of the movie. The refund page shows that it is the Jianpiao Group that provides after-sales service for watching movies.
Peng Xiangwei, chief operating officer of Jianpiao Group, told Jiupai News that they had just launched this business on New Year's Day, and it was piloted in some theaters in Changsha. In terms of technical equipment capacity, as of January 2, a total of 73 theaters can be served, but the number is expected to reach 1,000 during the Spring Festival.
According to him, there are three situations they envisage as being dissatisfied with the refund: the first is that he is dissatisfied with the movie theater, such as the equipment is too old, he forgot to turn on the air conditioner in the summer, etc.; the second is the most common, that is, he is dissatisfied with the quality of the film; and the third is others, such as having children who are particularly noisy during the movie, which affects his movie-watching experience.
"There is also the kind of imported film, if fans buy the original version of the original sound into the Chinese dubbed version, they can also apply for a refund within 30 minutes," he said, adding that the refund rate during the New Year's Day period was only 0.5%, which means that about one person in 200 people will be refunded. "There are not as many refunds as the outside world estimates, and the audience still wants to watch a good movie, not how to deliberately take advantage of it. ”
During previous holidays, netizens complained about the news that children disrupted the viewing environment.
Dong Yuzhi, deputy dean and professor of the Sino-Korean New Media School of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, told Jiupai News that for consumers who choose to refund tickets, the service is a good thing, such as there is indeed something to leave the venue temporarily, or it feels that the viewing environment is poor, after all, watching movies requires a state of mind, and at this time, the refund is a stop loss. However, it may not be a good thing for consumers who continue to watch the movie, and the audience who refunds the ticket and leaves the venue will interfere with their viewing experience and effect.
The specific process of ticket refund is as follows: if you feel dissatisfied within 30 minutes after entering the theater, you can enter the mini program to apply for a refund, and then swipe the generated QR code at the ticket gate after exiting the theater to complete the refund.
One of the steps to get a refund. Photo / Courtesy of Brief Ticket Group
[2] It will not affect the normal operation and box office revenue of the theater
Measures related to "refund and change" of films have been proposed for a long time.
In 2018 (September 18), the China Film Distribution and Projection Association issued the Notice on the Regulations on the "Refund and Change" of Movie Tickets", which clearly pointed out that the "refund and change" regulations formulated by all parties should simplify the procedures and optimize the "refund and change" process, "fully embodying the principles of fairness and reasonableness, and being close to the people and facilitating the people".
However, the implementation of refunds and changes is not optimistic, and they can only be refunded and changed within a certain period of time before the start of the movie.
Free refunds and changes are provided more than 1 hour before the opening time of the ticket. Picture/Screenshot of the online shopping platform
According to previous media reports, the "landing dilemma" of movie ticket refund and change is limited by the film industry's own attributes. Movie tickets are time-sensitive products, and the time from purchase to consumption is generally relatively short, and once the audience completes the purchase of tickets, the corresponding seats will be locked and cannot be sold again. Therefore, the closer to the opening time, the more likely it is to cause damage to the interests of the cinema. For the sake of protecting their own interests, the cinema will not refund or change the ticket.
In addition, with the popularity of online movie tickets, the refund behavior involves audiences, cinemas and third-party ticketing platforms, according to industry insiders, the fees charged for refunds and changes, the theater and the ticketing platform basically follow the 5:5 split account system, which also exacerbates the complexity of the refund process. All these factors have led cinemas and ticket-buying platforms to pass on the risk of vicious commercial competition to consumers through only changes and no refunds, or even no changes and no refunds.
In response to the above problems, Peng Xiangwei said that the review and payment of the refund service are the responsibility of his company, and the audience can complete it by scanning the code through the small program and the ticket check-in and refund all-in-one machine, which will not affect the normal operation and box office income of the theater.
Dong Yuzhi analyzed that this measure is a "double-edged sword" for theaters, the advantage is to promote the improvement of service quality and optimize the viewing environment, but at the same time, there will be unpredictable and avoidable risks, such as the screening of the film is indeed not satisfactory, and the number of refunds is a little large, which will have a chain reaction. In the era of self-media, the film's reputation may be damaged, which will affect the subsequent box office.
[3] Video websites can try to watch for six minutes and then pay, why can't movie theaters?
Regarding the original intention of launching this service, Jianpiao Group's "Announcement on the 30-minute No-reason Refund Pilot Service" said that compared with 2019, the number of moviegoers in 2023 will decrease by nearly 500 million, and the after-sales service it launched is to let more audiences eliminate their worries and enter the cinema with confidence, and it is also a necessary commitment of the filmmaker to the audience, and it is also a far-reaching attempt and exploration to establish a digital closed-loop management of Chinese films.
It will not affect the normal operation and box office revenue of the theater. Photo / provided by the interviewee
Not only has the number of moviegoers decreased, but the box office in 2023 has not returned to its peak level. According to public data, China's annual film box office in 2023 will be 54.915 billion yuan, a sharp increase of 70% compared with the past three years, returning to the level of 2017, but lower than the historical high of more than 60 billion yuan in 2019 and 2018.
Along with the decrease in the box office of movies, audiences have poured into short videos, live broadcast rooms, micro-short dramas and other fields. Among them, the micro-short drama is known as the "new outlet" in 2023.
According to data from third-party research reports cited by Chinese Online, the annual market size of micro-short dramas in 2022 will be more than 10 billion yuan, and the scale of micro-short dramas is expected to exceed 30 billion yuan in 2023.
The micro-short drama has also repeatedly produced explosive products, "Escape from the British Museum" has a bumper harvest of word-of-mouth traffic, with a total of more than 30 million playbacks in three episodes, and the animated film of the same name has also been approved; "Oops! The Queen Mother Comes to Work" broke 12 million users in 24 hours, "After the flash marriage, Mr. Fu's vest can't hide" exceeded 20 million in 24 hours, and the audience recharge amount of "Wushuang" exceeded 100 million yuan in eight days after it was launched.
It is worth noting that micro-short dramas are also a mechanism of "watch first and pay later", generally the first few episodes are free, and the audience will choose whether to pay for their recharge after trying to watch them.
[4] May not be available for art-house films
Regarding the scope of application of the service, Peng Xiangwei said that at present, it can only be a specific theater and a specific film, and art films may not be applicable, and there can be no unlimited refund within 30 minutes.
Previously, many art films were saddled with the infamy of "fraudulent publicity" and "crazy publicity".
The art film "The Last Night on Earth", which was released on New Year's Eve in 2018, focused its publicity on Douyin and played the slogan of "One Kiss New Year's Eve", which attracted a large number of men and women who wanted to spend a romantic Chinese New Year's Eve, making them mistakenly think that this was a romantic and sweet romance similar to "Beijing Meets Seattle".
Later, there will be "Burning Winter" to be released on Qixi Festival in 2023, under the banner of "love triangle", and special periods such as "13:14" and "17:20" will be arranged, and there will be earthy promotions such as "When the movie goes on for 32 minutes and 16 seconds, please say 'Wave hey'" in TA's ear.
But in the end, both films ushered in both box office and word-of-mouth blows.
"The Last Night on Earth" received a box office of 260 million on the first day, but it fell to 11.15 million on the second day, and 2.02 million on the third day, and the Douban score also fell from 7.2 points to 6.9 points at the beginning of the painting.
The total box office of "Burning Winter", which is cooperated by Zhou Dongyu, the queen of the three golden films, and Liu Haoran, who starred in the box office of more than 10 billion, is only 26.07 million, and the Douban score is as low as 5.6.
Dong Yuzhi, deputy dean and professor of the China-Korea New Media School of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, told Jiupai News that she does not think that this move will lead to the demise of art films, but may promote the development of literary films, which is also what the audience wants to see.
Dong Yuzhi said that movies are not only to entertain the audience, but also to enhance the audience's artistic aesthetics, and even the moral level of the whole society.
[5] The highest refund rate is "Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle"
Peng Xiangwei told Jiupai News that during the New Year's Day, a total of 5 films, including "Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle", "Sneaking", "Goldfinger", "If You Are Honest 3" and "Annual Meeting Can't Stop", can be refunded by self-service in some theaters in Changsha.
According to people familiar with the matter, the audience's highest willingness to refund tickets is "Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle Star".
According to the Lighthouse Professional Edition, in the New Year's Day file, the total box office of "Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle Star" was 609.4447 million yuan, accounting for 39.7% of the box office, the average ticket price was 42.8 yuan, and the average number of people per game was 35, ranking first.
But the box office trend of the film is not optimistic. From December 30th to January 1st, the box office was 225 million, 327 million, and 56.96 million yuan in the first three days of release, respectively, and the box office ushered in a "big dive" after the New Year's Day schedule, and there were 10.87 million on January 2, and the box office was less than 10 million for three consecutive days from January 3.
The daily box office trend of "Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle Star". Figure / Lighthouse Pro
Dong Yuzhi, deputy dean and professor of the Sino-Korean New Media School of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, said that the launch of the independent ticket refund machine is a good thing for consumers, theaters and filmmakers, one is to promote the implementation and optimization of the policy of movie ticket refund and change, and the other is that in the long run, it will force the theater service quality and film quality to improve, "First, cooperation is also a kind of marketing, and second, non-cooperative filmmakers may make the audience think that the filmmakers are too bad and afraid to cooperate." ”
She said that for filmmakers, the service will give more opportunities for films with real artistic value to stand out, and will help curb some poor quality films that use gimmicks to grow savagely. If the audience watches a movie of poor quality, it is like eating a bowl of noodles and eating flies, and this refund mechanism will also prevent the malicious hype of some low-quality films. Because movies are cultural products, the audience's literacy and cultivation will also affect the objective and fair evaluation of the filmmaker, especially in some social media virtual communities, where the opinions of opinion leaders will influence other members.
Dong Yuzhi suggested that the short ticket platform should judge the quality of the film through sufficient research, design evaluation dimensions and build an index system, try to avoid accidental factors, and improve the expectation effect.
Jiupai News reporter Li Yang
Edited by Wan Xuan Wu Di
[Source: Jiupai News]
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