The box office of the Spring Festival stalls is eye-catching "the audience is still there"
Is the spring of movies back?
During the Spring Festival this year, more than 100 million moviegoers visited the cinema.
For the Chinese film industry, the 2023 Spring Festival file can be said to be a brand new "starting point".
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The seats in the waiting area were all full, and there were still spectators standing and waiting to enter.
During the Spring Festival holiday, Wanda Cinemas Hohhot Regional Marketing Director Yang Yaqiong was surrounded by a long-lost sense of familiarity: "During the Spring Festival, almost all management, administrative, personnel and even financial personnel were assigned to the front line. There have not been so many people in a cinema for a long time!"
According to data from the Beacon Professional Edition, as of 16:20 on January 31, the domestic movie box office (including pre-sales) in 2023 exceeded 10 billion yuan, breaking the record for the fastest annual box office in the Chinese film market to break 10 billion yuan.
During the Spring Festival this year, more than 100 million moviegoers visited the cinema.
For the Chinese film industry, the 2023 Spring Festival file can be said to be a brand new "starting point".
"Fortunately, the audience is still there"
On the fourth day of the first lunar month, a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily walked into a Wanda theater in Hohhot.
During the Spring Festival, most of the staff of this cinema are part-time staff recruited before the festival.
Although it had been expected, the busyness of the Spring Festival stalls still exceeded the theater's expectations, and the theater manager had to be busy making popcorn for the guests at the front desk.
Yang Yaqiong has been working in Wanda Cinemas for 6 years. She feels that 2022 can be regarded as the "darkest moment" of the theater. The theater has been closed for 3 months. The file had a great impact on the theater, and many colleagues chose to leave at that time.
In the "film famine period", theaters had to try their best to "save themselves". For example, some movie theaters turned into filming venues, venues for candlelight concerts, and stage for talk shows... Some people in the industry said that these "self-help measures" are not only In order to "survive", it is even more to let people not forget the movie and not leave the theater.
At the end of 2022, the highly anticipated "Avatar 2" was released, but the box office fell short of expectations.
Xiaochen (pseudonym), manager of a theater in Beijing, told reporters: "As a terminal of the film and television industry, we can feel that the viewing habits of some audiences have been changed over the years." Frankly speaking: "It may be good, but there is not enough confidence." Some theater practitioners began to doubt whether the audience would actively walk into the cinema to watch movies.
With 129 million movie viewers and a total box office of 6.765 billion yuan, the performance of the Spring Festival in 2023 is the answer given by the audience.
According to Chen Jin, a data analyst of Beacon Professional Edition, there were 11,536 theaters with box office revenue on the first day of the Lunar New Year, and the number has recovered to 98% of the same period last year.
"Although the pre-sale situation is not very good, the attendance rate continues to rise from the first day of the Lunar New Year to the third day of the Lunar New Year." Yang Yaqiong said that during the Spring Festival this year, there are more random audiences watching movies, "Maybe two or three hours in advance It is only when you decide on your movie-watching itinerary that the three films of "The Wandering Earth 2", "Man Jianghong" and "Bear Infested: Stay with Me "Bear Core" are basically full-house, and tickets are hard to come by." Lighthouse Professional Edition data show that this year The single-day box office on the third day of the first month reported 1.123 billion yuan, surpassing the single-day box office of 1.111 billion yuan on the second day of the first month, which ignited the "passion" of the market.
At the same time, data from the Maoyan Research Institute shows that compared with the National Day and Spring Festival files in 2022, the proportion of viewers watching only one movie during the schedule has decreased.
Liu Zhenfei, an analyst at the Maoyan Research Institute, believes: “Different from the previous Spring Festival comedies that were released together, the types of movies in this year’s schedule are more diversified, and audiences have more room to choose, which means that users with different viewing preferences You can walk into the cinema and find the movie you want to watch.”
It is reported that "Bear Infested: Stay with Me "Bear Core"" broke the first-day box office record of the Spring Festival animation held by its predecessor, and it is also the first time that the "Bear Infestation" series entered the top three box office lists during the Spring Festival, far exceeding market expectations. .
In this regard, Liu Zhenfei said: "Actually, it's not that this year's "Bear Infested: Stay with Me "Bear Core"" 'performed better', but that the "Bear Infested" series in 2021 and 2022 has been suppressed." In the past two years, In the face of the constantly mutating new coronavirus, most parents are cautious about taking their children to the cinema.
This year, the wave of returning home and the adjustment of epidemic prevention policies have led to an increase in the number of parents and children watching movies, accelerating the recovery of the movie market.
"In the past few years, we have found that the closure and recovery cycle of the entire movie theater is about one month, but from this year's point of view, even if it is a sinking market, the recovery speed of movie theaters is less than one month." Liu Zhenfei analyzed, which shows that the audience is actually still I like to watch movies. As long as life returns to normal, the consumption of the entire entertainment market will tend to normal.
It wasn't until the number of audiences waiting in the cinema increased that the theater manager Xiaochen felt relieved: "We feel that the enthusiasm for the Spring Festival stalls is still there! Fortunately, the audience is still there!"
Some viewing habits have changed
College student audience Zhang Haobai finished watching "Man Jianghong" and "Wandering Earth 2" with friends on the first day of the Lunar New Year, and went to see "No Name" the next day: "I don't have to watch movies during the Spring Festival, but it happens to be The movies I want to watch are all in the Spring Festival file.”
Popular schedules such as the Spring Festival, National Day, and New Year's Day have a very high contribution to the annual movie box office.
Liu Zhenfei said: "These popular schedules total about 31 days a year, but contribute 1/3 of the box office in 1/12 of the time." It is understood that the popular box office schedules from 2017 to 2020 accounted for about 20% of the annual box office. The proportion will be as high as 36% in 2021 and 32% in 2022.
At present, more and more first-time movies are choosing to be released during the holiday season, and this has a lot to do with the changes in audience viewing habits in recent years.
According to data from the Maoyan Research Institute, compared with weekdays, the pre-sale of tickets for holidays is more active.
Liu Zhenfei observed a very interesting statistic: "In recent years, the sum of the box office of all theaters across the country on Friday (single day) has been getting lower and lower. It is more and more inclined to watch movies on weekends." This also means that the audience's movie-watching habits have changed from "being driven by movies to actively go to the cinema" to "whether to choose 'movies' as a pastime activity on rest days", On the other hand, it reflects that the audience's enthusiasm for movie consumption has decreased.
"The impact of the epidemic has led to a decline in the number of film productions. Distributors tend to arrange the only projects they have on hand to be screened on popular schedules with high returns." Since the emergence of the new crown epidemic, popular movies have gathered more and more popular schedules. The movies released are not enough to support the audience to walk into the movie theater after get off work.
It can be seen that film scheduling affects movie-watching habits, and movie-watching habits once again lead to "clustering" of follow-up movie scheduling.
But the root cause, Liu Zhenfei believes, is closely related to the lack of high-quality films in the film market in recent years.
The diverse genres and high-quality word-of-mouth of this year's Spring Festival movies are good news for the movie market.
Although viewing habits have changed, it can be said that the audience's viewing preferences have hardly been affected by the epidemic.
Maoyan Research Institute once conducted a survey, and 70% of viewers believe that the epidemic has not changed their movie viewing preferences, and only 16% think that there has been a change. Comedy, science fiction, action, etc. are still the themes that audiences like to watch.
"This also proves that it's not that the audience doesn't like watching movies, it just means that the number of such popular movies is decreasing." In 2023, many movies will be scheduled one after another, Liu Zhenfei said, "It may slowly re-cultivate the audience's love for movies." consumption incentives."
When Liu Zhenfei went to watch "The Wandering Earth 2" on the first day of the new year, he met a father and son. The father asked in surprise: "Why are there so many people?" If you don’t book in advance, you won’t be able to buy tickets.” At that moment, Liu Zhenfei felt the real energy hidden behind the numbers, “The theater is recovering with strong vitality.”
"There is still hope for a screenwriting career"
"Big movies are clustered together during the Spring Festival, probably because everyone is waiting for a good time." Director Xiaoyu has already predicted that the box office of this year's Spring Festival will show an upward trend after the relaxation of the epidemic policy.
"This is the first 'holiday file' after the adjustment of the epidemic prevention and control policy. For the film studio, it is the best opportunity to withdraw funds."
"When the past few years were good, funds from all walks of life were flowing to the film and television industry, and the film industry was booming at that time." Looking back on the past three years, as a creator in the upstream of the film industry, Xiaoyu's biggest feeling is the lack of confidence. "Especially the confidence of investors is gone." This also makes film and television creators "difficult" in the production stage. When there is a shortage of funds, some young creators choose to "make films out of their own pockets."
A few years ago, the film festival took advantage of the momentum of the film industry to develop vigorously. Many new directors gained the attention of investors through the venture capital of the film festival. Some literary films that appeared at the film festival also began to be screened in theaters. Rookie director.
For a long time, "the film festival is one of the only outlets for many new directors."
However, in the past three years, affected by the epidemic, many new directors have gradually lost this "outlet".
Screenwriter Zhang Ting has not received a "quality" new job for more than half a year, and now she mainly lives on some piecemeal "short video script creation".
Back home during the Spring Festival this year, her mother wanted her to take the civil service exam, but Zhang Ting wanted to wait a little longer: "I think winter is about to pass." After the promulgation of the "New Ten Measures" for epidemic prevention and control, Zhang Ting felt hopeful. I bet my mother that the movie theaters would be full during the Spring Festival, and she couldn't wait to prove that her career and ideals still had hope.
On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, firecrackers raged all over the sky, and Zhang Ting’s circle of friends was swiped by “The total box office of the Spring Festival stalls exceeded 1 billion yuan”. A few days later, this number became 5 billion yuan, and then 6.765 billion yuan.
Zhang Ting said that when she saw the happy news with red backgrounds appearing one by one, she was excited: "The audience did not give up on movies, and as practitioners in the film and television industry, they will continue to persevere."
"My partners and I have been participating in domestic film festivals and venture capital conferences." Talking about future plans, Zhang Ting said: "First of all, we must support ourselves; second, we will continue to promote our own original film projects. At the same time, I will pay attention to foreign film festivals and strive to find suitable support resources."
China Youth Daily·China Youth Net trainee reporter Wang Xueer Source: China Youth Daily
Version 05, February 7, 2023