(Fighting New Crown Pneumonia) The "Zero" Resumption of the Performing Arts Industry Is Waiting

China News Agency, Beijing, March 29th, by the way: "Zero" return to work in the performing arts industry is waiting to start

China News Agency reporter Ying Ni

All the directors of the academy, theater and performance company interviewed by China News Agency said, "This year is too difficult."

News from the China Performance Industry Association shows that according to incomplete statistics, from January to March this year, nearly 20,000 shows have been cancelled or postponed nationwide, with direct box office losses of more than 2 billion yuan (RMB, the same below). In mid-March, the National Grand Theater, Poly Theater, Shanghai Grand Theater and other wind-marking theaters also cancelled their April performances.

When the epidemic prevention and control continues to improve, and all industries and industries in the national economy are gradually returning to production, the performing arts industry is almost "zero" returning to work. The reason behind this is that the performance requires an operating cycle. Whether or not to apply for approval is still unknown; on the other hand, the performing arts itself is not a hard demand, and it is difficult for the audience to immediately enter the theater with peace of mind.

In fact, 2020 was originally a "big year" of performances generally favored by the industry, which can be seen from the "Performance Industry Insight Report 2019" released recently. The report shows that the box office of Chinese performances totaled 20.041 billion yuan in 2019, and the growth rate has exceeded the film market. If this situation continues in 2020, it should have been a fruitful year, but during the epidemic, the pause button was forcibly pressed, and the performing arts industry directly entered the cold winter.

The nine-dimensional culture of excellent French musicals such as "Notre Dame de Paris", "Rock Mozart" and "The Tragic World" has been introduced, and the box office revenue in 2019 will reach 130 million yuan. Chairman Zhang Ligang revealed that more than 60 shows have been cancelled, including the drama "Ordinary World", "White Deer Plain", and the French musical Gala. Except for the 8 "Dance of the King" which was to be performed in the National Grand Theater during the Spring Festival, due to the cancellation, the performance was near, the group has arrived in Beijing, and the stage has been set up. The direct economic loss of canceling the performance is more than 3 million yuan; The project is negotiated according to the contract. "In general, the impact on the company is not particularly great."

Many industry insiders, including Zhang Ligang, predict that, with reference to the rhythm of SARS that year, the epidemic will at least spread throughout the first half of 2020, and the performance industry will need to recover as soon as possible in August and September.

Shanghai has recently released the "Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of New Coronavirus Pneumonia in Shanghai Performance Venues", which includes provisions for preparatory work and post-recovery epidemic prevention measures, such as the implementation of real-name entry, each performance Misplaced tickets, attendance control within 50%, etc.

A person in charge of the performance agency, who declined to be named, told reporters that this basically means that no performance company can resume work. "If the attendance rate is within 50%, it can almost be determined that it must be a loss, and no company is willing to do such a commercial project."

When there is no clear starting point for the physical performance, various forms of "cloud performance" came into being. For example, the National Grand Theater launched the "Online Grand Theater", which pushes various performance videos every day.

Poly Theater "Poly Cloud Theater" is a collection of many classic performances, including "Beijing People", "New Field", "Seagull", "At this time next year" and other dramas produced by Yanghua Culture, French musical version concert " Misery World, the classic dance drama "The Dance of the Great River" and "The Dance of the Great River 2" are provided by Jiuwei Culture. The latter also authorized Wuhan Qintai Grand Theater to broadcast its acting repertoire in Yun Theater.

In the opinion of the relevant person in charge of the Poly Theater, private performance companies such as Yanghua Culture and Jiuwei Culture provided copyright in special periods, which not only met the needs of the public to a certain extent, but also promoted the brand and word of mouth of the show organizers. effect. "The online videos are mostly classic and high-quality works, which will not affect the ticket sales of the currently on-going shows, but will also train and attract new audiences to enter the theater to watch live performances in the future."

The "Performance Industry Insight Report 2019" predicts that digital virtual technologies such as VR and AR will promote immersive viewing and upgrading in 2020. Zhang Ligang explained his understanding to reporters. The "cloud" method can be understood as an emerging industry, which may create new outlets or trends, but it cannot replace live performance. Wang Hua, the chief producer of Yanghua Culture, also bluntly stated that the charm of the performance is still in the final analysis.

Despite the offline difficulties, most players are optimistic about the future. Among the performances adjusted in the first half of the year, a considerable part of the delay is expected, and some of the performances that have been postponed are scheduled in the second half or even 2021, when the performance is likely to usher in a "crash" phenomenon.

How to solve the possible "crash" to the greatest extent and grasp the explosive opportunities of the industry? Insiders pointed out that this requires performance companies to make relevant preparations as soon as possible, to do cost management and control in storage, transportation, labor, installation and other aspects, reduce unnecessary expenditures, and improve resource utilization efficiency.

The field lights went out, the curtain opened, and every good show will be staged ... No spring will not come, after all, flowers are blooming outside the window. (Finish)