Recently, many films have been officially announced to be released during the Spring Festival. At the same time, the topic #有什么意思是什么意思# has become a hot search topic on Weibo. Starting from New Year's Day this year, some theaters in Changsha, Hunan Province have successively launched self-service refund machines, allowing citizens to choose to refund their tickets within 30 minutes of the opening. At the same time, the refund machine supports citizens to apply for refunds due to poor theater environment or movie quality that does not meet expectations. (Dalian Evening News, January 14)
Audiences can refund their tickets within 30 minutes of the movie opening. As soon as this news came out, many netizens sighed: It’s finally here. This shows that everyone has been paying attention to and looking forward to the issue of whether tickets can be refunded after the movie starts. Especially as the domestic film market continues to boom in recent years, the number of annual moviegoers continues to rise. Under such circumstances, there are naturally more and more viewers who want to refund their tickets. More importantly, many viewers and netizens hope that the policy of refundable tickets at the beginning of the movie can help viewers avoid all kinds of "bad movies" and avoid wasting time and energy, which can be regarded as a kind of compensation and compensation for consumers. Protection; on the other hand, it is hoped that in this way, film producers and producers will be forced to shoot and produce films carefully, reduce the occurrence of "bad films" and improve the quality of films.
It can be seen from this that refunds are available 30 minutes after the movie starts, which is very beneficial to the audience and the long-term and healthy development of Chinese movies. The problem now is that in the short term, allowing audiences to refund their tickets within 30 minutes of the movie opening may not be good news for movie ticket sales platforms, theaters and some film producers, and will bring varying degrees of economic impact. losses, so they are bound to face various resistances. This is why some theaters in Changsha have launched self-service ticket refund machines one after another, and the person leading this refund mechanism is not the theater or the producer of a certain movie, but an electronic ticket check service provider. The company
specifically emphasized that the company is responsible for the review and payment of refund services. Audiences need to scan the code through the mini program and the "ticket check and refund all-in-one machine" to complete the process themselves, which will not affect the normal operation of the theater and box office revenue. In other words, the current refunds within the first 30 minutes are not refunds in the true sense. Instead, the company pays its own money to return the movie ticket money to consumers who want refunds.
In fact, this is understandable. After all, from the perspective of the entire process of consumers buying tickets and walking into the cinema to watch a movie, if the audience is allowed to refund the ticket within 30 minutes of the movie opening, and the refund money is borne by the movie producer and the cinema, This will inevitably affect the interests of movie producers and cinemas. At the same time, the platform will also reduce service fee income due to consumer refunds. In other words, at least at this stage, all parties involved lack motivation and are even resistant to refunding tickets in the first 30 minutes of the movie.
But we have to say that in view of some objective reasons for the audience and the fact that some films are indeed shoddy and deceive consumers, and at the same time undermine the long-term development of the entire film market, the model of refundable tickets at the beginning of the film has a positive reality Meaningful, in the long run, it is also a trend. After all, while the domestic film market is booming, some super "bad movies" have indeed turned off the audience's appetite, which not only harms the interests of the audience, but also undermines the development of the film market.
So we say that such an attempt is of positive significance and deserves high recognition. But if it is to be truly implemented, it will require active exploration and joint efforts from film authorities, industry associations, film companies, cinemas and other parties. Especially around when refunds need to be made, the proportion of refunds, and what types of movies can be refunded, etc., we need to try, explore and practice.
text/Yuan Kuanghua
picture source/Visual China
editor/Ji Yuan
