In 2022, the number of viewers in the Spring Festival stalls will be 114 million, a decrease of 46 million compared with 2021. The reason for the


　　reduction of ticket prices in the Spring Festival stalls?

　　According to data from the State Film Administration, the national box office of the Spring Festival film was 6.035 billion yuan, ranking second in the box office of the Spring Festival film in film history.

The first Spring Festival file in film history will be produced in 2021, with a total box office of 7.843 billion yuan.

Compared with last year, the national total box office of the Spring Festival this year has dropped by 23%.

　　In addition to the decline in the total box office, the public is more concerned about the decline in the number of moviegoers.

The main reason for the "double drop" is the high ticket price of this year's Spring Festival.

Why are movie tickets so expensive this Spring Festival?

Is the decrease in the number of moviegoers caused by the high ticket price?

　　Movie attendance hits four-year low

　　According to the data of the Lighthouse Professional Edition, the total number of moviegoers in the Spring Festival in 2019 and 2021 (the Spring Festival in 2020 was cancelled due to the epidemic) was 132 million and 160 million, respectively.

In 2022, it will be 114 million, a decrease of 46 million from 2021 and a new low in nearly four years.

　　The main reason for the decrease in the number of moviegoers is the high ticket price of this year's Spring Festival.

In the Spring Festival consumer rights protection public opinion analysis report released by the China Consumers Association on February 15, the high ticket price of Spring Festival movies was criticized.

During the monitoring period, the daily public opinion complaints mainly pointed to the ticket price, and many consumers who were willing to watch movies were discouraged by the high ticket price.

According to netizens, the ticket price of "The Four Seas", which is not a 3D movie, exceeded 100 yuan in some counties; "Shuimen Bridge of Changjin Lake" reached 105 to 135 yuan in some areas; one of "This Killer Is Not Calm" The ticket price for a movie is close to 150 yuan.

　　Consumer complaints are not unreasonable.

According to the data of Lighthouse Professional Edition, the average price of movie tickets in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 are: 34.4 yuan / piece, 35.3 yuan / piece, 37.1 yuan / piece, 37 yuan / piece, 40.3 yuan/piece; the average prices of Spring Festival tickets in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021 are: 37.8 yuan/piece, 39.7 yuan/piece, 44.7 yuan/piece, and 48.9 yuan/piece.

The average price of a movie ticket for the Spring Festival this year is 52.8 yuan per piece, and the average ticket price in first-tier cities is as high as 66.4 yuan per piece, so it is called "the most expensive Spring Festival file" in the industry.

　　No-ticket supplementary fares are rising year by year

　　Since 2014, many Internet platforms such as Maoyan, Tao Piao Piao, and Nuomi have entered the film market, thus ushering in the "ticket supplement era".

Ticket supplement is when the offline channel is the only ticket sales channel, the producer spends a part of the budget for promotion, the purpose is to stimulate the box office growth in the first few days of the theater's launch.

　　In 2014, the "9.9 yuan ticket price" made people rush into the theater; in 2015, the national box office was 44 billion yuan.

However, with the increase of online ticketing platforms, the market competition has intensified, and the competition for ticket supplements has also entered a white-hot stage.

At that time, Lin Ning, the then CEO of Micro Shadow Times, said that all parties had invested a total of 4 billion yuan in ticket supplements throughout the year.

By 2016, the competition for supplementary tickets was further intensified, and the total amount of supplementary tickets for the Spring Festival stalls alone reached 1 billion yuan.

In 2018, the regulatory authorities issued a policy to stop all online ticket supplements, including third-party and cinema-owned channels, and the 9.9 yuan movie ticket disappeared from then on.

　　Without the "ticket supplement", movie ticket prices began to return to normal, and the Spring Festival ticket prices increased year by year.

　　Movie theater price hikes are not a good strategy, but they can help

　　Industry insiders said in an interview that usually theaters have the final say in movie ticket prices.

However, at the beginning of the price setting, the studio and the theater will set a minimum release price, and the ticket price of the movie sold by the theater must not be lower than this minimum release price.

　　The new high ticket prices for the Spring Festival in 2022 are mainly related to the high minimum release price of some films, the limited number of audiences, and the length of the film.

The minimum release price of Chinese New Year films this year is generally very high. The lowest release price of "Changjin Lake's Water Gate Bridge", "The Four Seas", "Sniper", etc. is 35 yuan; secondly, it is maintained at 95 minutes to 110 minutes compared to previous New Year films. The durations of the two films are different. This year’s Spring Festival has two films that are more than 120 minutes long – “The Water Gate Bridge of Changjin Lake” 149 minutes, “The Four Seas” 128 minutes, “Miracle Stupid Child” 106 minutes, “This Killer Is Not Too Calm” 109 minute.

For example, the 149-minute duration of "Shuimen Bridge of Changjin Lake" is 1.5 times that of an ordinary New Year's film.

Under the desperation of the lengthening of the film and the reduction of the number of screenings, the studio undoubtedly needs to rely on increasing the ticket price of a single film to make up for it.

　　The revenue of a theater mainly depends on the movie box office share, sales revenue, advertising revenue, field rental revenue, business cooperation, membership card and other aspects.

In most cases, domestic box office revenue can account for 65% to 80% of total revenue, and it is the main source of income for theaters.

The box office revenue of the theater is inseparable from the attendance rate, because the epidemic factor affects the attendance rate, and the theater can only adjust the ticket price.

　　It can be seen that under various factors, if the theater wants to make money, it can only increase the ticket price. This does not seem to be a good strategy, but it can "emergency".

　　interpret

　　Fits the audience's viewing psychology

　　quality and content

　　Is the high ticket price of Spring Festival movies reasonable?

Industry insiders said that this is a market behavior determined by supply and demand.

At the same time, some people in the industry believe that the reduction in the number of moviegoers does not only appear in the Spring Festival stalls.

Data from Top's "2021 Movie Ticket Price Research Report" shows that even if the impact of the epidemic is excluded, since 2017, with the gradual increase in ticket prices, the attendance rate of the theater chain has been decreasing year by year.

From 2017 to 2019, the average movie ticket price rose from 34.42 yuan to 37.11 yuan, and the attendance rate dropped from 13.22% to 10.78%.

In 2021, after experiencing the popularity of the Spring Festival program, Chinese films quickly entered a trough, and even the summer program failed to achieve good results; the National Day program "Changjin Lake" set off another climax when it was released, and after that, the curve declined again.

　　Yin Hong, a professor at Tsinghua University, expressed concern in an interview with a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily: "Movies have a strong box-office effect on holidays, and the filmmakers will compete for these holiday slots. On regular weekdays and even weekends, there is currently no return to the past. Movie viewing habits. This puts a lot of pressure on the 80,000 screens across the country. Restoring and cultivating audiences’ daily movie consumption habits is of urgent significance for the development of Chinese movies.”

　　When it comes to this year's Spring Festival stalls, industry experts believe that the loss of some audiences in this year's Spring Festival stalls is due to the high ticket price and the lack of phenomenal headline films; Diversification is the general trend, and relaxed and happy content is still just needed during the schedule.

In contrast, among the 8 films in the Spring Festival this year, there are two war films and only one comedy film.

In an interview with the media, film critic Tan Fei said that several films were slightly homogenized, "The arrangement and schedule of the Spring Festival films are particularly important, and the quality and content can be paralleled to complete the fit with the audience's viewing psychology. "

　　As of February 11, "Sniper", "Changjin Lake Watergate Bridge" and "Miracle Stupid Kid" have announced price cuts.

After all, movie consumption is a market behavior, and it seems unlikely to expect the Spring Festival fares to be the same as usual.

However, the survival of the theater is difficult, and it cannot be saved by a Spring Festival stall.

Only by increasing supply, diversifying creations, and improving quality can Chinese films be more competitive and attractive.

　　Text/Coordinator Xiao Yang, reporter of this newspaper/Liu Jianghua