Chinese movie theaters resume work for 4 weeks: Box office grows steadily, the industry looks forward to the new film "rescue the market"
China News Agency, Chengdu, August 17 (Shan Peng and Wang Peng) The Chinese cinema, which has resumed work for four weeks, is ushering in the dawn. According to Maoyan data, the cumulative box office from August 14th to 16th exceeded 185 million yuan, a new weekend box office record since the resumption of work. However, many people in the industry said that for the market to continue to recover, new films are needed to "rescue the market."
The Chinese cinema line, which had been closed for nearly 190 days, resumed work on July 20, and the weekly box office has grown steadily. However, industry insiders said that although the box office is growing steadily, it is difficult to compare with the same period last year. In the early stage of the resumption of work, the long-awaited "retaliatory consumption" has not yet arrived.
"There are not many new films recently, and most of them are re-releases of old films, such as "Interstellar" and "Nezha's Devil Child Comes into the World"." said Yu Chengli, duty manager of Chengdu Peace Cinema, who sold the country's first movie ticket after resumption of work. The price is relatively cheap, and the attendance rate of a few shows can reach 30% on weekends, but there are only dozens of spectators every day on weekdays.
From August 14th, the film market has further "untied", the attendance rate has been raised from 30% to 50%, and films longer than 2 hours do not need to be suspended. This is generally regarded by the industry as a positive sign of an orderly recovery of the market.
"Whether it is for theater operators or audiences with movie-watching needs, the new policy will undoubtedly help a lot. At present, many shows can reach 50% attendance." Chen Yupu, marketing director of Chengdu Pacific Studios Wangfujing Store Said on the 15th.
In fact, the core of promoting box office "recovery" is still high-quality content. During the interview, a number of theater operators said that they are all looking forward to the new film "rescue the market."
"In fact, whether the audience will come to see it or not depends mainly on the quality of the film. Now the market is in urgent need of a hit film to rescue the market." Yu Chengli said.
The market response fully illustrates the industry's desire for quality films. The war film "Eight Hundred" was opened for screenings, and the box office exceeded 14 million yuan on that day.
The theaters are regaining the popularity of the past, and the movie producers are also choosing a day to "return". On the 16th, the animated film "Jiang Ziya" announced on its official Weibo that it will land in theaters on October 1. This is the first of the seven films that were withdrawn from the Spring Festival this year due to the epidemic.
In fact, many movie producers are still waiting and watching rationally. Independent director and producer Liao Xi said that currently theaters have at most 50% attendance. In addition, if the epidemic repeats, theaters and producers will suffer losses.
What worries Liao Xi even more is the possibility of "near shortage" in the future. "Because of the epidemic, many large-scale production films have started less work. Most of them are low-cost literary and online films, and the latter may not be able to support the cinema market. This is a huge test for the future film market."
Director Zhang Guodong is planning to bring his new film "Young Sangji" to the upcoming Beijing International Film Festival, and plans to launch it on the market around October. In his view, in order to stimulate the current Chinese film market and bring audiences back to the theater, various types of films are needed to "bloom" on the big screen. "The epidemic has allowed filmmakers to settle down and think about how to make films better. At the same time, we, like everyone else, expect the film industry and all aspects of life to return to normal as soon as possible." (End)