21st Century Economic Reporter He Hongyuan reports from Beijing
"Kill the goose that lays the golden egg."
When it comes to the reality of this year's Spring Festival, some executives of the Film Investment Group spoke frankly.
Behind it, the most expensive Spring Festival stall in history has had an impact on the market. According to lighthouse data, on the third day of the lunar new year (February 3), the national box office was 980 million yuan, while in the same period of last year's lunar calendar, the box office reached 1.472 billion yuan, a drop of more than 30%.
The breakdown data shows the substantial difference. On the third day of this year, the total number of votes issued was 18.4652 million, while last year, it reached 29.3299 million, a decline of 10.8647 million in just one day.
Ticket price has become the core issue that is difficult to avoid.
According to the lighthouse data, the average ticket price for the Spring Festival in 2021 will be 48.88 yuan, the highest ever. The average ticket price in 2019 was 44.66 yuan, and the earlier average ticket price in 2018 was 39.72 yuan. This year, the average ticket price reached 55.2 yuan, a record high again.
In the Shijingshan Wanda Cinema, which ranked first at the box office in Beijing, the highest ticket price in the VIP hall and IMAX hall for watching the "Watergate Bridge of Changjin Lake" reached 199.9 yuan and 139.9 yuan respectively. In fact, Shijingshan's consumption level in Beijing is hardly high. At Lumiere Cinema, Changying Tianjie Street, Chaoyang District, located outside the East Fifth Ring Road, the average price of watching an IMAX version of "Watergate Bridge of Changjin Lake" is 159 yuan.
The market indifference under high ticket prices is a dominant problem.
Watergate Bridge has been entrusted with the task of rescuing the city, and its box office has exceeded 1.6 billion yuan. Image source: Pianfang poster "Excess"
Objectively, cinema is the main driver of ticket price rise.
A number of film casting executives told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that ticket prices had risen a lot this year, but there was a compelling reason behind it.
At present, due to the apathy of the film market, the profitability of the cinema is getting worse and worse, and after the heavy blow of the epidemic, it has reached the point of surviving.
Take Hengdian Film and Television, whose cinema business is the main source of income, as an example, its 2021 performance forecast shows that it is expected to turn losses into profits in the current year, with a net profit of 12 million to 14 million yuan, but with a deduction of non net profit of - 43 million to - 41 million yuan.
The super lineup for the Spring Festival in the Year of the Tiger has become the only hope for cinemas.
The price chips of cinemas came from the super popularity of the Spring Festival last year and the successful price increase of Changjin Lake.
The senior executives of some film investment companies are not shy about saying that the core problem comes from the screen surplus.
Driven by policies, a large number of cinemas continued to enter the market, eventually squeezing the market. On the third day of this year, the number of screenings nationwide reached 506100, compared with 462100 in the same period last year.
The driving force is the continuous growth of the number of cinemas. On February 2, there were 11703 cinemas in operation nationwide.
In addition, according to the data of the National Film Administration, by the end of 2021, the number of Chinese film screens has reached 82200, an increase of 8%, ranking first in the world.
"Now we are in a dilemma. The policy subsidies are not in place, and the market is freezing cold, but the money can not be collected back, so we have to work hard." said the boss of Xiaoying Investment, who has entered the market soon.
Shortage
However, another senior executive of the Film Investment said that the more critical issue was the shortage of content.
"We can't live without films at ordinary times, so we have to rely on the Spring Festival and National Day stalls to survive," he said.
Lack of film has multiple factors. On the one hand, due to the epidemic situation and other reasons, Hollywood blockbusters have been released less than in previous years. On the other hand, domestic film production capacity is insufficient.
In fact, in the pre epidemic industry rectification, the film industry was already at the freezing point, and a large amount of capital fled. With the delayed release of projects after the epidemic, the pressure on cash flow increased. And the policy is still uncertain.
As a result, the cash flow of the few resumption projects is hard to escape from the tense state, and the local party can only hope to maximize the benefits and be stable, and the large number of core projects will become normal.
This eventually becomes a vicious circle.
"I can't see the future direction, and the current project is based on stability," a senior executive of the head film company told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter.
In addition, people from the film listed company said that in order to spread the risk, the company rarely controlled the project and mainly participated in the investment. "It's generally gray," he said.
The Spring Festival is coming, but the film industry is still far away from spring.
