"Isn't going to a private theater to watch a movie?"/Tu Chong Creative private theater, why are you still hovering on the "gray edge". The
private cinema is a mysterious place, hiding on the corner of the city, private and dark, exuding the special taste of "don't come if you don't understand me". When a person is found to have been to a private theater, it will attract N thoughts full of deep meaning-"What do you young people do when you go to the private theater?" "What movie do you have to watch in the private theater?" Uncle and aunt, I really, just went to see a movie.
What do people who go to private theaters do? The core of 's misunderstanding cannot get around the fatal pain point-private cinemas are too niche. The niche is not equal to the edge-Hanfu, JK uniforms, and the two-dimensional industry tell us that "influence" is the label most favored by young people. Private theaters have entered the public's view since 2013, and by the end of 2018, they have skyrocketed to more than 16,000; those born in the 1980s and 1990s have become the main consumers of private theaters, accounting for 62% of Chinese movie audiences. Dim lighting, closed rooms, sofa bed layout, special settings for sound insulation, hidden in residential buildings...The cakes of private theaters are getting bigger and bigger, but still because of their own characteristics, they can't stop others from thinking about it.
What are you thinking about, don’t you turn off the lights while watching a movie? /Picture Chong Creative
such a curious and prohibitive place, what kind of people will walk in? Private theater staff: "Winter night, the girl was in the room alone, crying after watching the movie." The netizen "Elder Tang" is a private theater staff. In 2015, on a winter night, it was raining and the wind was bitterly cold, and a heavy mist was on the side of the window. A girl hurriedly came to the store, sobbed and asked about the price, and opened a movie room. Then, she walked in and closed the door—it was unknown what movies the girl watched, or whether she even watched a movie. Two hours later, the girl came out to check out, her eyes were red and swollen. When Elder Tang entered the room to clean up, he found that the pillow on the sofa hadn't been moved at all, the popcorn in the store was not too small, and there were many tissues on the floor. "It seems that she has been crying and didn't watch the movie much." Elder Tang guessed. It’s quite difficult to find a place to cry when something goes wrong. So, this sad girl came to the private theater. Cry at home, I am afraid that my family will worry; cry in the dormitory, I am afraid of making roommates; crying in the street, I am embarrassed; crying in an ordinary movie theater, I will be blasted out of the theater by the number 100. The little movie room with sound-proof mats is an undisturbed nest, hugging her and her tears.
As soon as the door is closed, it is time to remove your guards. /Tu Chong Creative It doesn’t matter if you watch a movie alone, you don’t care what movies you watch, or you don’t even watch movies. For girls, the two hours locked in the movie room was the most presumptuous and relaxing. After crying, come out and return to the real world. Junior student: "In a traditional movie theater, I have to sit in danger." My cousin is a junior and a diehard fan of private cinema. When there is no class, she always pulls in a few classmates and opens a movie room just to eat snacks unscrupulously and to watch movies that are not scheduled at the cinema. Her mother, my aunt, rolls her eyes every time she mentions her hobby: "Can't you watch movies in cinemas or at home? A bunch of people are crowded in small rooms. What are you watching?" The cousin retorted quietly, "You guys. I only care about the content of the movie, but I have never thought about the movie watching experience." "You must sit in the movie theater, even the popcorn has to be melted before chewing, to avoid the crunching noises next door, two hours later, the movie tells I don’t know anything, but the back pain is real.” She said that the most tempting thing in a private theater is the free state of watching movies — chatting and watching movies, chewing snacks loudly, putting your feet on the sofa, and even watching movies. Stand up and dance a dance halfway without being scolded. The layout of
private theater always brings a warm feeling to people. /Picture Chong Creative Secondly, traditional movie theaters have strict film scheduling plans and film entry barriers, and audiences have a very narrow range of options. In contrast, private theaters are much more "caring", returning autonomy to the audience, and everything is divided into regions Movies that have been released, have been offline, and are not in the theaters, and the "Joker" and "Parasite" that are now on fire can be watched regardless of time or location. A novice in the workplace after graduation one year: "What movies to watch, let the party go!" My friend Da Fei is a rookie in the workplace who has just graduated a year. She has become a daily routine with 996. She basically has no private life time. The calendar is fullThe desire to eat, drink and have fun, but has no chance to come true. Last week, when I received her party invitation, I was shocked: "You quit?" "No matter how busy you are at work, you can't have less socializing." She said excitedly, and finally found an efficient way to socialize, "snacks, drinks, sofa And the theme decoration, what kind of movie to watch, party together!" In the eyes of the crowd headed by Da Fei, a private theater is a KTV or board game room that is more like a home and is more cost-effective; watching movies is secondary and high comfort High-efficiency social forms where people gather together are the key points.
No one cares about the content of the movie, the party is the urgent need. /Tu Chong Creative So, a private theater that combines privacy, freedom and social attributes has become the first choice. As a supplement to traditional cinema chains, private cinemas cater to increasingly critical and diversified viewing needs; at the same time, it allows niche movies with weak competitiveness to gain access to broadcasting channels and extend the profit period of movies. However, there can be no waves without wind, and those voices of questioning and malicious intentions are always accompanied by the private theater. In the past six years, many problems in private cinemas have been exposed nakedly.
Private theater chaos At present, the prospect of private theater is not optimistic. The chaos lingering on the edge of illegality and being discussed are showing their tails. In October of this year, a private theater in Beijing was sued by Youku Video for infringement and paid 35,000 yuan. Youku Video stated that it enjoyed the exclusive network broadcasting rights of the movie "Golden Age", and the defendant (private theater) played the film to a wide range of audiences without permission. The solo broadcast rights that
bought with money are so easily "pirated" that Youku can't swallow it. / "Golden Age" stills Simply put, this private theater only bought a Youku member, but downloaded the "member limited" movie locally for all audiences to watch. In the end, the court ruled that the defendant had infringed on the right to spread information on the Internet. Earlier, in March this year, Guangdong Province seized a gang selling pirated movies, involving more than 100 private theaters, involving more than 50 million yuan, and was called "the most serious piracy incident in Chinese film history." According to media reports, during the Spring Festival, the gang successfully stole resources and sold them to private theaters on the day or the next day after 8 films including "Wandering Earth", "New King of Comedy" and "Crazy Alien" were released.
If all the movies are stolen on the day of their release, how can the film industry make money? / Southern Metropolis Daily screenshots The owner of the private theater who bought movies here admitted that he does not have the rights to play the movies. “As long as you pay 2000-5000 yuan for the collection of film sources, you can get all the latest movies throughout the year.” New Financial Observer The newspaper once disclosed in another case that most of these pirated movies were downloaded from illegal websites, and some were pirated in movie theaters. The rampant piracy is the most criticized problem in private cinemas, and it is also a sharp sword hanging over the industry. With the mentality of "making more money is a little bit", the operators do not hesitate to pretend to be crazy and infringe on intellectual property rights before copyright issues. In addition to wanton piracy, some private theaters can also be described as "no taboos" in the choice of movie types. The grading principle that traditional theaters stick to hard, has become the "best selling point" in private theaters—"Here, you will not be restricted from viewing movies." As early as 2015, a private theater in Hunan Province was hiding on a university campus. The theater was exposed by the media as a gimmick of "Hong Kong banned films", attracting curious college students.
Use the curiosity of minors to make money, this boss, where is your face? / Screenshot from Zhuzhou Evening News The theater owner claims to be a senior, and he understands the students' "likes" very well. He downloads hundreds of "banned movies" through special channels and keeps them in the theater's "film source database" for a long time. "To watch the movie, there are underage students and people in society." The boss introduced. We don’t know how old the youngest people who have visited this private theater are. They may be 8 years old, 10 years old, or 15 years old. We cannot verify what they have seen. In addition to laws and ethics, the safety of private theaters is also worrying. Search for "private cinema" on the navigation, and you will find that a considerable part of them are hidden in the inconspicuous residential and office buildings around us. Different from the wide corridors such as large shopping malls, the escape routes of non-business places are relatively narrow, lack of supporting automatic fire alarm systems, automatic sprinkler systems, and the original intention is to provide a certain number of people to pass smoothly. The designer never expected that the units on a certain floor would be divided into multiple, dense single rooms, gathering a large number of movie viewers.
is scattered across the narrow corridors, it’s notIt is designed to accommodate a large number of people. /Tuchong Creative Shaanxi Radio and TV Station reporters deliberately lit a cigarette during a visit to a private theater in Xi’an and asked the boss: "Can you smoke here?" The boss said without looking back: "Yes!" However, the reporter asked. No fire extinguishers and other fire-fighting facilities were seen throughout the entire private theater. Once a fire occurs, the consequences are unimaginable. Public safety is still like this, and personal and property safety cannot be guaranteed. Movie rooms can be locked inside, and most of them are windowless and soundproof. In the event of an accident, it is difficult to rescue in time; the personnel in private theaters are complicated, and there are not many monitoring equipment. Beware of being "shunned" with property, who should I talk to? And, what if your friend A, B, C, D, who went to the private theater with you, suddenly feels unruly and you are in a private space, what should you do? The private theater with its own petty bourgeoisie and literary labels at the time of debut is being introduced into the gray area step by step by the chaotic business model. If there is no supporting management, a good hand will be broken.
abandon the "gray profits" in order to save themselves In 2018, the "On-demand Cinemas and On-demand Cinemas Management Regulations" were issued, which clearly stipulates that all private theaters are renamed "on-demand theaters" and must obtain a film projection operating license and operating license. This means that "on-demand theater" is finally expected to be included in supervision, bid farewell to barbaric growth. Can old players in the "grey area" become a "regular army"?
A redesigned on-demand theater with more complete hardware facilities. According to estimates by industry insiders, this year, 70% of private theaters on the market are expected to be shut down due to non-compliant site selection, non-compliant hardware, and copyright issues. Some people go out and others come in. As the first batch of on-demand theaters in China, iQiyi, Taopipiao, BesTV, Baofeng, etc. have played the "on-demand" business, and have escaped the "chase" of traditional theaters while losing their niche advantages. Take a certain on-demand theater under BesTV as an example, after deducting daily expenses such as rent and labor, the net profit margin is about 50%, and the net profit of traditional theaters is about 30%. In the battle between formalization and profitability, these on-demand theaters have found their own experience. First, 90% of high-quality private cinemas are located in commercial centers. Compared with the seven bends and eight turns, it is difficult to find residential buildings in the community, and the large shopping malls are more crowded and can reach more consumers. Second, diversify operations. As a second-round "on-demand theater", it is obvious that movies cannot be the only selling point. So, outside of the screening, walk on multiple legs. Taking movies as the carrier, selling snacks and beverages, autonomy, privacy attributes, and social medical examinations are the real profitable "commodities" for on-demand theaters. In the beginning, the black Internet cafes described as "smoke and miasma" also survived by selling experiential services other than the Internet through a diversified business model.
While eating, drinking, having fun and watching movies is the real purpose of our on-demand theater. It is really difficult to formalize the creativity of the mapworm, but without this path, it will be difficult for the on-demand cinema industry to survive. With my fingers, from 2013 to 2019, it has been 6 years from private cinema to on-demand cinema. Freshness, the firewood is not enough to burn, and the clues of questioning have appeared. If you continue to follow the old path, it will definitely attract scolding. On-demand theater is a place that truly gives people freedom. Please don't continue to fall and become a hotbed of violent pornography. What a beautiful and free existence it was!
[1] The chaotic phenomenon of "Haidilao" in the private cinema industry|The theater manager
[2] The wandering earth you see may be pirated! Zhongshan Police Unannounced Visit to Private Theater to Solve Major Case|Southern Metropolis Daily
[3] Private theater was involved in infringement disputes and compensated Youku 35,000 yuan |Zhuzhou Evening News
[5] Private cinema hides in residential building cinemas smokes unattended and hard to see fire-fighting facilities|Shaanxi News Network
[6] Indescribable private "on-demand cinema"|New Financial Observation
[7] Aurora on-demand cinema Miu Kan : This niche industry has turned into a big outlet | financial industry
✎ author | 颖宝
