Our reporter Xie Ruolin

　　This is the most deserted Qingming stall at the theater box office in the past ten years.

Lighthouse data shows that as of 17:00 on April 5, the box office revenue of this year's Qingming Festival (April 3 to April 5) was 112 million yuan, and the cumulative box office revenue was only 100 million yuan if the service fee was not included.

Ten years ago (2012), the box office revenue of the Qingming stalls reached 145 million yuan (excluding service fees).

　　Zhu Yuqing, CEO of Juyinghui, told the "Securities Daily" reporter that this year's bleak box office during the Qingming Festival was caused by multiple factors. The direct cause was the "film shortage + the large-scale closure of theaters" caused by the epidemic, and the indirect cause was the damage caused by the high ticket prices of the Spring Festival. The fundamental reason is that the films supplied are not attractive enough and the genres are not rich enough, which makes the audience of Generation Z (post-95s) lose their enthusiasm and motivation to watch movies in theaters.

　　"I'm losing money every day," a cinema manager in Beijing told reporters. He had expected the Qingming stalls to be deserted, but he felt sad when he experienced it. The average attendance rate was 4%, and more than 500 people received more than 500 people a day in more than a dozen cinemas. , and sometimes only two or three spectators in a game.

　　Three imported films are struggling to stay on schedule

　　The Qingming file is an important time to connect the Spring Festival file and the May 1st file. Last year, 11 films were released in the Qingming file, and the total box office revenue reached 822 million yuan. Among them, "My Sister" and "Godzilla Vs King Kong" became small hits. Let the industry look forward to this schedule.

　　However, in the context of repeated epidemics, this year's Qingming file is expected to turn cold.

On March 25, the four domestic films originally scheduled to be released on Qingming Festival, "Life Events", "The Detective War", "You Are My Spring" and "A Week of Friends", were announced to be withdrawn at the same time, which directly led to a shortage of schedule films.

　　In fact, since April, only 4 movies have been released, namely "I Am That Hero", "Escape Room 2", "Hotel Elf 4" and "Battle on the Prairie".

Among them, the cumulative box office of "I Am That Hero" and "Battle on the Prairie" were 48,000 yuan and 1.514 million yuan respectively.

　　Obviously, the support for imported films is far from enough.

Lighthouse data shows that as of 17:00 on April 5, the box office revenue during the Qingming period was 112 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 86%.

The top three films at the box office were "Hotel Elf 4" and "Moonfall" and "Escape Room 2", which were released on March 25.

　　In an interview with a reporter from Securities Daily, Zhang Rongdi, an industry analyst at the Lighthouse Research Institute, said that this year's Qingming Festival has been greatly affected by the epidemic. The number of films released and the volume of the box office cannot be compared with those of the past few years. The main market is mainly imported films. Among them, "Escape Room 2", the predecessor of "Escape Room 2", was released in 2019, with a box office of 233 million yuan, which has a certain audience base.

　　"At present, the supply of May 1st films is sufficient, and 10 films have been finalized, including top films such as "Keep You Safe" and "Hello, Brother", which are popular with 38,000 and 34,000 people respectively. , worth looking forward to." Zhang Rongdi said.

　　Recently, in response to questions from investors, China Film stated that although the repeated epidemic has a certain impact on the film industry in the short term, the long-term positive trend of the Chinese film market has not changed.

　　Cinema mergers and acquisitions accelerated

　　Affected by the epidemic, more than 50% of the theaters were closed.

According to data from the Lighthouse Professional Edition, as of April 5, the total number of operating theaters nationwide was 5,568, and the theater operating rate was only 46.3%.

　　A media industry brokerage analyst told the "Securities Daily" reporter that the large-scale shutdown of theaters may continue for a period of time, and small and medium-sized theaters with "thin assets" once again encounter a crisis of survival. Industry reshuffle is an inevitable trend. The company's market share will further increase.

　　From a financial point of view, in 2021, listed companies in the cinema chain will turn losses one after another.

Wind data shows that according to the industry classification of CITIC Securities, as of April 5, 17 A-share film and television companies have disclosed performance forecasts, of which 6 continued to lose losses and 9 turned losses, including many theater companies.

For example, Wanda Films expects to achieve a net profit of 90 million to 130 million yuan attributable to shareholders of listed companies in 2021, compared with a loss of 6.669 billion yuan in the same period last year.

　　Under the influence of the epidemic, Wanda Films has not stopped expanding.

By the end of 2020, Wanda Films had opened 700 theaters in China, and by the end of 2021, the number of theaters opened increased to 790.

　　When answering questions from investors, Wanda Films said that the company plans to build 60 to 70 theaters by itself and develop 50 to 100 asset-light theaters every year, and increase market share through a development strategy of equal importance.

　　In addition, Hengdian Film and Television has also turned losses. The company will achieve a net profit of 13.6675 million yuan in 2021, and a loss of 481 million yuan in the same period last year.

　　When answering questions from investors, Hengdian Film and Television said that the epidemic has accelerated the exit of some film investment companies, and there are currently not many M&A projects in the entire industry.

The company began to search for some M&A targets a few years ago. At that time, it thought that the risk was relatively high and did not actually land.

Now the overall mentality of industry participants is more stable, including the judgment of the industry and the evaluation of the value of theaters, and the acquisition transaction is viewed with a more reasonable and stable mentality. The next step may be more likely for buyers and sellers to reach an agreement.

(Securities Daily)