Chinanews client, Beijing, July 28th (Ren Siyu) Since July 20th, it has been a week since the cinema resumed its operation.

  After half a year, the audience walked into the theater again, the "zero-point field" returned, the film festival tickets were all sold out, and a number of domestic and foreign films have been fixed. The film market has gradually become lively, but there are also some theaters that have just opened and are facing suspension …In a week, how was the progress of national theaters resuming work? Can you go back to the hot past?

Data map: On July 24, a movie theater in Chaoyang District, Beijing began showing films. Photo by China News Agency reporter Hou Yu

More than 5,000 theaters resume work, Dalian theaters opened and closed

  On July 16, the National Film Administration issued a notice stating that low-risk areas can resume opening operations in an orderly manner on July 20, provided that the various prevention and control measures of cinemas are in place.

  Saying goodbye to the half-year "frozen" state, the cinema finally waited for the audience to arrive. On July 20, the first batch of cinemas that met the conditions for resumption of work took the lead to open their doors, and on the 24th, cinemas in Beijing also resumed operations.

  After the first week, the national theater resumption rate has reached nearly half. According to data from Maoyan Professional Edition, as of July 26, there were 5103 theaters nationwide that had resumed work, and the nationwide rate of resumption reached 44.97%. Among them, the resumption rate of Shandong and Jiangxi provinces exceeded 60%, and the resumption rate of Zhejiang, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, and Shanxi also exceeded 50%.

As of July 26, the national theater resumption rate reached 44.97%. Source: Maoyan Professional Edition.

  The return rate of theaters, the number of screenings, the number of movie viewers, and the box office data have also increased for 7 consecutive days. Data shows that after the orderly opening of the theater, the box office of the movie in the first week of resumption reached 109 million yuan.

  In terms of films, the first week of theater screenings are mainly "new films + re-screening of old films". Although the number of new films is small, they are very attractive to the audience. As of July 27, the two new films "Dolly's Fantasy Adventure" and "Bloodwarrior" that were scheduled on the 24th accounted for a total of 48.2% of the series. Has become the main force of movie theaters.

  As for the old films, "Manslaughter", "Dream Travels", "When Happiness Knock on the Door", "The Sound of the Wind", "Nezha's Devil Child Comes into the World" and other high-quality films have all achieved good screening data.

Data map: On July 24, in a movie theater in Chaoyang District, Beijing, audiences were seated at intervals and wearing masks to watch the film. Photo by China News Agency reporter Hou Yu

  However, due to the impact of the epidemic, theaters in some areas have just opened and are facing "closure" again.

  On July 22, Dalian City, Liaoning Province, added a confirmed case of local new coronary pneumonia. In order to cope with the epidemic prevention, on the afternoon of July 23, the ticket sales system of various theaters in Dalian suspended service. For the movie tickets that have been sold, the theaters began to refund the tickets. The resumption time will be notified according to the unified local deployment.

With low ticket prices and fewer audiences, will movie theaters become more open and lose money?

  Cleaning up, preparing anti-epidemic supplies... In the first week of resuming work, the cinema staff were very busy. According to the requirements, all theaters adopt online real-name reservations and non-contact ticket sales, and the attendance rate of each show shall not exceed 30%. The audience must show their health code, have a normal temperature test, and meet the epidemic prevention requirements before entering the venue.

Data map: On July 24th, the audience scanned the QR code to collect tickets in the CBD store of Beijing Wanda Cinemas. Photo by China News Agency reporter Jia Tianyong

  In order to attract customers to watch movies, various localities have successively introduced a series of preferential policies to speed up the resumption of the film industry. For example, Zhejiang Province will issue 10 million yuan in movie coupons from July 25 to supplement the majority of movie fans.

  Many theaters have also introduced preferential prices for new and old movies. Maoyan data shows that as of July 26, the average ticket price of the 5103 theaters that have resumed operations across the country was 26.2 yuan. The average ticket price of 96% of the theaters was lower than last year's national level. In the first week, 97% of the national movie market showed discounts. % Of viewers bought discount tickets to watch the movie.

In the first week of the resumption of work, a number of theaters gave audiences a preferential screening. Source: Maoyan Professional Edition.

  Although the rate of resumption of work continues to rise, the resumption of theaters still needs to go through some difficult moments when the daily schedule is reduced by half, the attendance rate is less than 30%, and the ticket prices are low.

  On the 17th, Chengdu Heping Cinema took the lead in opening online pre-sales. All 165 tickets were sold out that day, with a total income of 16.5 yuan. In an interview with the media, the on-duty manager of the theater said that the price of the re-screening film is 3.1 yuan per film, 3 yuan is the service fee charged by the ticketing platform, and the actual income of the studio is only 0.1 yuan per film.

  In addition to operating pressures such as rent, capital, and equipment, theaters also have to face the problem of loss of personnel during the epidemic. A staff member of a theater in Beijing told Chinanews.com that the current employees can only say "temporarily enough" because contactless ticket sales and the sale of snacks are prohibited, and fewer people can be arranged at the front desk, but as more and more audiences enter the theater in the future , You need to consider re-recruiting new people.

Data map: At the entrance of the cinema, there is a reminder for "contactless ticket checking". Photo by China News Agency reporter Hou Yu

  On the 26th, a “cinema with no audience” was searched on Weibo. On July 24, on the day when a theater in Heilongjiang resumed work on the first day, there was no audience in the first screening, and the theater manager showed the staff a special movie. Let everyone feel the atmosphere of watching movies after a long absence.

  Mo Zheng, vice chairman of Tianjia Pictures, film screenwriter and producer, once said, “Nowadays, many theaters lose 15,000 yuan a day when they open their doors, but they still have to open. Only when they open can there be hope and they can gradually return to normal tracks. ".

Many new films are finalized, how will the film industry recover in the future?

  In the first week of the resumption of work, many viewers said in interviews that although the quality of the old films currently being re-screened is not bad, they will look forward to seeing blockbuster and new films in the cinema in the future.

  As the market gradually warmed up, movies were announced almost every day during the first week of resumption. It can be seen that the subsequent films in the summer of 2020 are still presented in a combination of "new film premiere + classic re-screening", and the number of new films is increasing significantly. On July 31 alone, the new films "Mystery of Arrival", "Mr. Miao", "Dolly Brothers", "Jojo's Whimsical World", "Sonic the Hedgehog" and the old film "Big Hero 6" were released at the same time.

"The Mystery of Arrival" and "Mr. Miao" are scheduled to be released on July 31.

  There will also be a series of large-scale domestic and foreign films that will meet the audience in August. For example, the Oscar-winning film "1917", which is scheduled to be released on August 7th, and the 4K restoration 3D versions of "Interstellar" and "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" that many people are looking forward to.

  After the theater resumed work, the Shanghai International Film Festival and FIRST Youth Film Festival, which were postponed due to the epidemic, were also opened one after another. Although the relaunch of the cinema has not yet returned to the buzz of the past, it still brings hope to the entire industry.

Data map: On July 19, a huge theme poster was posted at the 23rd Shanghai International Film Festival. Photo by Zhang Hengwei

  On July 25, at the 23rd Shanghai International Film Festival, many filmmakers voiced their opinions on the recovery of the film industry and actively offered advice and suggestions. Li Jie, vice president of Alibaba Group and president of Alibaba Pictures, said at the opening forum that the audience's confidence in watching movies is slowly recovering, and the box office is expected to return to 2/3 of the same period in the next two weeks.

  Regarding the resumption of work and production in the film industry, Yu Dong, president of Bona Pictures, believes that the most important thing is to speed up the resumption of film creation. "The film industry is not only a production line issue, but more importantly, artistic creation. Therefore, I think it is necessary to restore the confidence of the creators and give these creators more encouragement and support. The audience is also waiting for new films to come out." Finish)