text/Congyi
(The author is Cong Yi, a special commentator of Litchi News and a commentator on youth culture; this article was exclusively commissioned by Litchi.com and its subsidiary Litchi News mobile client. Please indicate the source for reprinting.)
Within half an hour of the opening of the movie , if the audience is not satisfied with the quality of the movie, they can choose to refund the ticket. On January 11, the #movie-can-be-refunded-after-the-movie-opening trend was trending on Weibo, sparking widespread discussion.
It is reported that this service is being piloted in Changsha. For designated theaters and movies, viewers who are not satisfied with the movie or cinema service within 30 minutes after the movie starts (the opening time is marked on the ticket) can apply for a refund. After the application is approved, the service provider will be responsible for a full refund, which will not affect the theater's normal operations and box office revenue.
Different from the "seven-day no-reason return" or even "refund only" on e-commerce platforms, or the "six-minute trial" of paid videos on video websites, for a long time, watching movies offline has been a "one-and-done deal" for viewers. Whether the movie quality is satisfactory or not, as long as you enter the cinema with a ticket, the transaction is over and the audience cannot choose to refund the ticket, which also has a negative impact on the movie-watching experience. Some bad movies can always "fool" some audiences into the theaters by relying on "viral" publicity before their release. Although the film schedule and box office will soon suffer a cliff-like decline after the bad movie's word-of-mouth fermentation, the audience still suffers from the "scam" of some bad movies. "Style marketing" has been around for a long time. At the same time, the internal projection facilities of different theaters vary in quality, which is also an important factor affecting the comfort of watching movies.
Over the years, the number of moviegoers in the Chinese film market has continued to decline, which has become a major factor restricting the development of the film industry. For example, in 2023, the box office for the whole year was 54.922 billion, with a total of 1.298 billion moviegoers, and the per capita number of moviegoers was only 0.92. Compared with 2019, the number of moviegoers in 2023 will decrease by nearly 500 million. Against this background, it can be said that the refund service is quite timely and addresses the audience's pain points to a certain extent. It can stimulate the audience's enthusiasm for watching movies, better protect the rights and interests of the audience, and force Chinese films to improve the quality and efficiency.
However, the difficulty is, can the service of refunding tickets within half an hour of the movie opening be promoted to other cities across the country? Is it replicable?
In fact, as early as 2018, the "Notice on the "Refund and Change" Regulations for Movie Tickets" issued by the China Film Distribution and Exhibition Association pointed out that the "Refund and Change" regulations formulated by all parties must simplify the procedures and optimize " The "cancellation or change of visa" process "fully embodies the principles of fairness, reasonableness, people-friendly and convenience." However, movie tickets are very time-sensitive, and refunding them will harm the interests of the theater. The "5:5" account sharing method between theaters and ticket sales platforms also makes refunds more complicated.
Taking this into consideration, the service provider Jian Piao Group said that currently the refund fees are paid by itself and will not affect the income of the film producers and theaters. But if this service is rolled out nationwide, what kind of revenue will the group need to cover this expense?
The group said that it can cooperate with some movies. "Cooperation is also a kind of marketing. At the same time, film studios that do not cooperate may make the audience think that the film studio is timid to cooperate because the film is too bad." But for the film studio, this kind of "marketing" is extremely risky - because no matter how good the film is, there will always be people who don't like it or who will refund their tickets, which will also create negative public opinion for the film. Presumably the film producers will be cautious about cooperation, and there is currently no news of the film producers cooperating with the group.
On the other hand, tickets can be refunded within half an hour of the movie opening, so there is a possibility of malicious refunds. Although the CEO of Jianticiao Group stated that "the refund rate during the New Year's Day period is only 0.5%, which means that about one person in 200 refunds," when encountering some popular movies, especially "fan-oriented" movies, it may be further amplified. The phenomenon of fans forming groups to "book out empty theaters" to "boost the box office" for idols provides a breeding ground for bad movies, disrupts the normal order of the film market, and is not conducive to the healthy development of the film industry. What
should see is that the service is currently only promoted by a group and is not an official policy. It has not yet received support from more theaters and film producers, and there are too many uncertainties in its profit model.Of course, consumers are naturally happy to see the promotion of this service, because it can, to a certain extent, force film producers to produce good content, improve film quality, and abandon "fraudulent" marketing. It can also urge theaters to further upgrade service facilities and improve movie viewing. comfortability. Hot searches represent the voice of the audience. We hope that this voice can be heard by more film practitioners and help implement a more complete refund policy as soon as possible.
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