Movie ticket and Box Office in China

[Ian_Lee]

Why is the movie ticket so expensive in China? Other than the half price on Tuesday in some cinemas, movie ticket can cost as high as RMB 70 which is equivalent to what is charged in Hong Kong and US.

But compared with what the average wage urban folks in China earn, that seems quite outrageous.

And currently China produces about 300 movies a year with only about 100 make into cinemas (the others go straight to DVD). But the box office seems very polarized. Other than the megaproduction like "Curse" and "Banquet" which scored RMB 100~300 million, most other locally produced movies raked in less than RMB 10 million.

It seems there is a big void (RMB 10~100 million) in box office for quality movies to fill up.

[gato]

Yes, movie tickets are too expensive in China. I can somewhat understand how it can be set 50 yuan in places like Shanghai and Beijing, but even in cities like Xi'an where people make 800 yuan on average, it's still 50 yuan a ticket. That boggles the mind.

I think the main problem is DVD/VCD piracy. When people can buy a DVD of any new release movie for 3-5 yuan, it's hard to get them out to the theaters to see it unless it's a real blockbuster with lots of PR/marketing like Curses, Heroes, or some of those Hollywood imports. Even then, it's the teenagers from well-do families and young professional types who go to the movies. For older people with family responsibilities, it's much easier to watch the 5-yuan DVD at home.

Here are some articles on the topic.

http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2005-03-01/1835666098.html

顾长卫宣传获奖《孔雀》 笑称国内电影票太贵

http://ent.163.com/edit/010511/010511_77234.html

电影票价格为何止降回涨?

http://finance.yinsha.com/file/200601/2006010714191704.htm

政府协调电影市场电影票价格有望下降

[roddy]

I've always assumed that supply and demand plays a factor. I haven't actually done the maths, but I reckon you'd find less cinema seats per capita in Chinese cities than you would elsewhere.

[gato]

The lack of theaters (supply) is part of the problem, but I don't think that's the main problem. The lack of demand seems to be a bigger problem (demand being defined in standard economics as the number of people who are interested and have the ability to buy an item at any particular price).

See an excerpt below from one of the articles I linked to above. It tells of an experiment in Shijiazhuang (capital of Hebei province) in December 2000 to cut ticket prices to 5 yuan for a month. The number of tickets sold rose 20%, but total revenue declined by 40%. They had to cut the experiment and increase the ticket prices back to 15 yuan.

That was in 2001. Ticket prices for recent movies like Curses and Banquet in Shijiazhuang were at 25-45 yuan, depending on the theater.

As I said, theater owners have learned that they can make the most money by attracting well-to-do teenagers and young professionals. A manager of theater interviewed for the article stated that there are 100,000 people who regularly go to the movies in Shijiazhuang, which has a population of 2 million in the central city and 9 million overall. Even if he's only talking about the central city, that still means only 5% of the public are regular moviegoers. I am sure that is a much lower figure than in many other countries.

http://ent.163.com/edit/010511/010511_77234.html

电影票价格为何止降回涨?

2001年05月11日09:09:59　东方网　

　　自去年１１月成都市１１家电影院率先实行５元票价以来，电影票降价风潮波及全国，郑州市的一些影院甚至推出了２元票价。短时间内，各地纷纷传出影院人气旺增的喜讯，影票降价也被许多人认为是激活国内电影市场的“救命稻草”。然而，记者近日采访中了解到，一些地方的电影发行公司跟风之后却度日艰难，追悔莫及，不得已又悄悄将电影票价涨了上去。受全国电影票降价风潮的影响，从去年１２月２０日开始，石家庄市９家影院也进行了一个月的降价尝试，对《飞天舞》、《幸福时光》等４部电影一律实行５元票价，并预期会得到人气陡增和收入增加的善报。出人意料的是，影院并没有出现人头攒动的火爆场面，这一个月电影观众人数仅比去年同期增加了２０％，而票房收入同比减少了４０％。

　　一些业内人士提出，如果长此下去电影发行放映部门无疑会喝“西北风”。于是，石家庄市春节公演《特务迷城》时，又将票价涨到了１５元，票房收入却骤然膨胀，位居全国各城市第８位。自此，影票降价的尝试在石家庄市以失败告终。

　　石家庄市影乐宫经理魏鹏认为，电影票价并不是没有升降的空间，但不应该“一刀切”，要求所有电影票价都定为５元或２元是不科学的。影片质量不同、影院档次不同、放映时间不同、观众群体不同，要求有不同的价位来对应，这样才符合市场规律。况且，现在上电影院看电影的已形成一个固定的群体，比如石家庄常看电影的有１０万人，降价后不可能增加一倍。有些观众认为，只有一部好的影片和一张价格不太离谱的影票，才会吸引更多的百姓重返影院。

[gato]

Of course, supply is also a problem -- I think largely due to censorship. It's difficult to get an interesting movie about life today in China approved to be shown in theaters. Think about the movies that have been banned. Take Beijing Bicycle (2001) about the gap between the haves and have-nots, Mr. Zhao (1998 ) about extramarital hanky panky, for example. These were both banned, the first for supposedly showing China in an unfavorable light and stoking discontent, the latter supposedly for its loose morality. Both movies were very well made, had great acting, great production value, a good balance between art and accessibility. Both, I think, would have been very popular in China if only people had heard about them and could see them. But the bans meant no media, no access to the theaters, and no money (at least not Chinese money).

[villageidiot]

i definitely think it's something to do with the supply problem in terms of quality of chinese movies. most chinese movies simply sux. most chinese themselves prefer to watch korean and hollywood movies over chinese ones, unless it's hyped up mega-budget martial arts "wuxia" flicks that get over-hyped media exposure.

so i think what ends up happening is that movie theaters are showing the hollywood movies and mega-budget chinese movies that makes the most money per screen. what this means is that since hollywood and chinese movie companies are all greedy, they're trying to maximize their per screen earnings as much as possible and thus charge those ridiculous amounts for tickets -- so that hollywood and chinse investors can at least break even on showing their movies in china.

even if they could lower the ticket prices, most chinese audiences aren't going to go see the lower budget ones because chinese movies aren't known for quality that would entice an audience to go into the theaters. the best example of 2006 is crazy stone that didn't get any attention because people thought it wasn't a good movie because it's chinese made. it did recoup its production costs and did well on dvd in terms of "getting it out there" but it being chinese made hindered its own market potential.

i also don't think that censorship factors much in the quality of these movies. while censorship creates problems for filmmakers to not show interesting subjects or story elements, that still doesn't detract filmmakers from making quality movies within the "safety guidelines" the censorship that the china film group and SARFT puts in place.

for example, with all those anti-japanese movies and tv dramas that china produces every year in the dozens you won't find anything that holds your attention for long. the same with all the inane period piece costume soap operas.

meanwhile, you look at the korean hallyu and some of the movies that south korea makes that are often very safe topics for chinese censorship standards, it captivates your attention. right now, i can think of movies like "xmas in august" and "the road home" and "sassy girl" and "oasis" and "spring, summer, fall, winter... and spring" etc etc etc that are ostensibly very non-controversial and safe topics even by chinese censorship standards and they're all great movies in their own right. these are pretty low-budget movies and even the korean soap operas serials that gets played on chinese late night TV are low cost but well made that gets people's attention and chinese people wanting to see them.

what i think the problem lies is with the production side of chinese movies. i'll detail this in the next post on here...

[gato]

"spring, summer, fall, winter... and spring"

I don't know about the other Korean movies you mentioned, but this one wouldn't pass the censors because of its sex scenes. It's also an overt art film that I doubt would appeal to a mainstream audience. I doubt it was a big ticketseller in Korea, for instance. Anyway, quality PRC films aren't completely lacking. I used to see a few every year when I used to live in the U.S., but almost none of them ever showed in theaters back in China.

[liuzhou]

The one and only time I went to the cinema here, I went with my then girlfriend, now wife. We really wanted to see some movie - I forget which. When we got into the theatre, we were shown a very dark (almost to the point of invisiblility), out-of-focus pirate copy subtitled in Vietnamese and dubbed into Thai.

We went to complain and demand our money back. The woman on the ticket booth was amazed that we actually wanted to watch the movie.

It seems the cinema was just a place for young couples to do things in the dark.

So the entrance fee is kind of rent! Cheaper than a hotel.

[gougou]

the best example of 2006 is crazy stone that didn't get any attention because people thought it wasn't a good movie because it's chinese made. it did recoup its production costs and did well on dvd in terms of "getting it out there" but it being chinese made hindered its own market potential.

So far, I always have seen "Crazy Stone" used as an example for a successful low-budget movie. Even though not many people knew about it when it was published, it generated a lot of buzz and ended up doing very well in terms of recognition and box office.

[gato]

A follow-up to our other thread on the film industry

.

There is an English translation of an interesting interview with Tian Zhuangzhuang (director of the Blue Kite (蓝风筝)) on danwei.tv.

Tian talked about a project to open movie theaters around college campus around China, but it got bogged by film import issues (there is an annual film import quota). That's a same. It's surprising that the start-up cost for a theater would be just 300K yuan. An apartment would cost 3 million yuan in Beijing today.

http://danwei.tv/?p=362

Tian Zhuangzhuang: The film world as mafia and commerical models of film

Tian Zhuangzhuang’s earlier films, including The Horse Thief (盗马贼), On Hunting Ground (猎场札撒) were well received and put him in the category of “ethnic minority” film directors. However, after making The Blue Kite (蓝风筝), which dealt with the Cultural Revolution era, he was forced to stop making films for ten years. He headed back to the Beijing Film Academy, his Alma mater, where he remains a professor.

TW: What kind of suggestions have you made to them?

Tian: When Zhao Shigang (赵实刚) first became the head of the Film Bureau, I said to him, whilst you are in office you build student theaters in universities then that’s an achievement. The reason is if you can cultivate a huge group of audience from in the university’s fourth years, when they graduate all of these university students will become white-collar workers, and they will go and watch films in the cinema. The number will also be doubled because you need to include a boyfriend or a girlfriend. I said that every year SARFT earns six hundred million yuan, which is then given to different crappy organizations; you might as well make a dependable theater. I got the permission for this but couldn’t carry it through. One reason was we got stuck at the source of the films: what films could we use? Use what you call “Outstanding Domestic Films?” I can’t do this even if you killed me. If we wanted to apply for more foreign film quotas, then we also have to consider whether we want to broadcast it commercially. Also another problem is, this might become a really commercial theater. When we began we needed to have 150 theaters simultaneously, without so many we can’t really begin. But with the facilities and the environment, we calculated that the least we would need was 300,000 yuan per cinema. Who has nothing better to do that put 45 million yuan into an initial investment?