Picture source: Tuchong Creative
Blue Whale Financial Reporter Xu Xiaochun
The Spring Festival is approaching, and 8 films have been scheduled to be released on the first day of the Lunar New Year. As of press time, the pre-sale box office has exceeded 350 million yuan.
After experiencing high ticket prices during the Spring Festival of movies in the past two years, this year the film studio, the National Film Administration and some cities launched corresponding "ticket replenishment" activities to attract more consumers to the cinema. Behind this year's Spring Festival movies, China Film and Hengdian Film and Television have cast a wide net in investment models, and the number of films they participated in the production and distribution of is 5 and 4 respectively. After taking over Wanda Film during the year, Ruyi Film and Television will basically join hands with Wanda Film for joint investment during this year’s Spring Festival. Under various stimulations, consumers’ willingness to watch movies during the Spring Festival has gradually increased.
"ticket subsidy" is back, and many places have released movie viewing activities.
After experiencing high-priced tickets during the Spring Festival in the past two years, "ticket subsidy" has returned recently, including film producers and the National Film Administration successively carrying out movie viewing subsidy activities, Beijing Cities such as Shanghai and Shanghai are also simultaneously promoting movie viewing activities to benefit the people. In the early days of
, when only offline ticket sales were available, some producers used part of their budgets for discounts, which spurred rapid box office growth when the film was first released. Later, in the Internet era, online ticketing channel providers seized the market through price wars.
When "Transformers 4" was released in 2014, many Internet ticketing platforms such as Maoyan and Guevara provided low-priced movie tickets through online "ticket subsidy" in order to increase their market share. Since then, watching movies at 9.9 yuan or 19.9 yuan has become the norm, and low prices have indeed expanded the audience group and increased attendance. According to data from Maoyan Pro, the average number of people per game for films with top box office numbers around 2015 was around 35. Movies such as "Monster Hunt" and "Fast and Furious 7" released in 2015 averaged about 35 people per game. All have more than 40 people.
Until around the Spring Festival in 2018, many parties joined forces to restrict ticket reimbursement, and movie ticket prices gradually increased. During the 2017 Spring Festival, 7 films were released, with the average ticket price ranging from 32.8 yuan to 39.1 yuan. By the 2019 Spring Festival, the average ticket price of 7 out of 8 films has reached more than 40 yuan, and the average number of people per game has basically dropped to less than 30 people.
In recent years, ticket prices of more than 100 yuan have often appeared in theaters such as IMAX. The average ticket price of Spring Festival movies in the three years after 2021 will reach a maximum of 47.6 yuan, 49.3 yuan, and 52.5 yuan respectively, and the average attendance continues to fall below 20 people. .
Recently, the producers of 2024 Spring Festival films such as " Hot ", " Speeding Life 2", "Mr. Red Carpet", "Let's Shake the Sun Together", " Article 20 ", etc. have successively announced "ticket replenishment" strategies. Some ticket prices of 19.9 yuan attract more consumers to enter the cinema.
On February 6, the “Watching Movies to Celebrate the New Year—2024 Spring Festival Digital RMB Movie Consumption Promotion” organized under the guidance of the National Film Administration and the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China was launched. 11 financial institutions announced on-site preferential movie viewing measures during the Spring Festival. Through full discounts, coupons, digital red envelopes, etc., more than 30 million yuan will be invested in digital RMB movie viewing consumption subsidies during the Spring Festival.
At the same time, governments in many places have simultaneously withdrawn from activities such as movie watching for the benefit of the people. Beijing and Shanghai directly issue movie-watching subsidies. Beijing, together with three ticketing platforms including Maoyan and Taopiaopiao, and six movie theaters including Poly Pictures, has issued a movie-watching subsidy of 20 million yuan, while Shanghai will provide a movie-watching subsidy of 20 million yuan per movie ticket. The audience will be accurately subsidized with an immediate discount of 30 yuan, with the total subsidy reaching 30 million yuan.
In mid-January, Hunan first promoted movie consumption promotion activities, and provided preferential subsidies to audiences in the province for purchasing movie tickets by issuing coupons and other methods. The scope of the activity covers all counties and districts in 14 cities and prefectures in Hunan Province, and there are more than 500 cinemas in the province. . On February 2, Sichuan also launched a movie-watching season to benefit the people. Until March 31, the Propaganda Department of the Sichuan Provincial Committee took the lead and the provincial government invested 6 million yuan to release movies on Fridays, Saturdays, and during specific time periods such as the Spring Festival. Consumption coupons provide preferential subsidies to audiences when purchasing movie tickets. At the same time, more than 200 cinemas have been jointly implemented promotion activities in the form of group purchases and profit sharing.
Blue Whale Finance reporter inquired through the Taopiaopiao platform and found that in the above-mentioned areas, tickets for popular Spring Festival movies such as "Hot and Spicy" can be purchased at a relatively low price of about 20 yuan. In some areas, the price is as low as less than 15 yuan after subsidies.
pre-sale box office exceeded 350 million yuan, Wanda and Ruyi teamed up to break through
currently has a total of 8 movies scheduled for the 2024 Spring Festival, including "Hot and Furious", "Flying Life 2", "Article 20" and " Bears Are Infested" ·Reverse Time and Space ", "Let's Shake the Sun Together", "Mr. Red Carpet", and "Huang Pi: The God of Wealth Cat from the Sky" and "Bajie: The Next Canopy". This year’s Spring Festival movies are basically dominated by comedy movies, and 6 of them are labeled “comedy”.
As of press time, the pre-sale box office of Spring Festival movies has exceeded 350 million yuan. At present, the highest pre-sale box office is "Hot" and "Flying Life 2", which reached 87.8 million yuan and 85.34 million yuan respectively. They are firmly in the first echelon.
Among them, "Hot and Spicy" was directed and starred by Jia Ling. Dawan Entertainment, to which Jia Ling belongs, is naturally one of the film's production companies. In addition, the production units of "Hot and Spicy" include Xinli Media, China Film, Alibaba Pictures and China Literature.
Last year, China Film produced and screened 37 films, with a cumulative box office of 26.889 billion yuan, accounting for 58.45% of the total domestic film box office. It led or participated in the distribution of 570 films, and the box office settlement exceeded 41.397 billion yuan, accounting for 82.93% of the country’s total box office. . Chinese films also turned a profit last year, with full-year net profits expected to be between 200 million yuan and 300 million yuan.
The top three box-office movies during the Spring Festival in 2023, "Man Jiang Hong", "The Wandering Earth 2" and "Bear Bears: Bear with Me" all have Chinese films as producers. There are 8 films in the Spring Festival this year, and China Film has participated in the production and distribution of 5 of them, all of which are currently in the top six at the pre-sale box office.
"Flying Life 2" is also a sequel to the film series. It is written and directed by Han Han and stars , Shen Teng, and others. Among the producers of "Flying Life 2" are Bona Pictures, Hengdian Pictures, Ruyi Film and Television, Maoyan and Shen Teng's Happy Twist.
The following "Article 20" currently has a pre-sale box office of 72.25 million yuan. "Article 20" is controlled and distributed by Enlight Media. Its producers also include Wanda Pictures, Hengdian Film and Television, and Ruyi Film and Television. , Happy Twist and other capital. Due to the participation of its artist Liu Yaowen, "Article 20" is also the first film for Beijing Times Fengjun Culture and Art Development Co., Ltd. as one of the producers.
is not much different from Chinese movies. Hengdian Film and Television has also participated in investing in four Spring Festival films, "Bear Bears Reversing Time and Space", "Flying Life 2", "Let's Shake the Sun Together" and "Article 20". In 2023, Hengdian Film and Television also achieved a turnaround, with a net profit of approximately 135 million yuan to 180 million yuan. Last year during the Spring Festival, Hengdian Film and Television even participated in investing in the Haunted Bear series of movies.
Netizens often joke that the busy Spring Festival season is the iron-clad "Bear Infestation". This year's "Bear Infestation: Reverse Time and Space" has so far pre-sale box office reaching 58.57 million yuan. This is the 10th theatrical film in the "Bear Infestation" series. It is also the 10th anniversary of the movie "The Bear". Like "Article 20", after joining Wanda Films in the middle of the year, Wanda Films and Confucian Pictures were basically inseparable during this year's Spring Festival, and both appeared on the list of producers of "Bear Infested: Reverse Time and Space" at the same time.
The film industry will continue to improve in 2023, regain market vitality, and demand from downstream cinemas will increase. At the same time, last year Wanda Film invested and controlled the film "The Three Brigades" with a cumulative box office of approximately 700 million yuan. During the 2023 Spring Festival, Wanda Film co-produced "The Wandering Earth 2" and "Bear Infested: Come with Me "Bear Core"". As a result, the company has achieved a turnaround as a whole, with full-year profits expected to be between 900 million yuan and 1.2 billion yuan.
"ticket subsidy" is back and comedies are gathering together. While the audience's willingness to go to the cinema continues to increase, the listed companies behind the production and distribution will also make more profits. Galaxy Securities also believes that the 2024 Spring Festival movie is expected to continue the recovery trend of the film market, and comedy films have a wide audience range, high attendance rates and good viewing effects, which can better meet the movie-watching demands of the Spring Festival movie audience. Audience feedback on the Spring Festival movie They are relatively positive, their willingness to watch movies is gradually increasing, and they are optimistic about the performance of the Spring Festival season.
