[Splendid Chinese New Year] Watching movies becomes a New Year custom

During the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon, the film market is off to a good start. According to Beacon Professional Edition data, as of 12:27 on February 13, the total box office for the 2024 Spring Festival period exceeded 4 billion yuan, with more than 77.9 million moviegoers. "It's Hot", "Flying Life 2", "Bear Infested: Reverse Time and Space" and "Article 20" are temporarily among the top four box office releases. Driven by the strong support of the Spring Festival, the Chinese film market in 2024 has now surpassed North America and become the global box office champion in a single market.

The 8-day "longest Spring Festival stall" has raised the audience's expectations. Data shows that in the 2024 Spring Festival, there are 8 movies including "Hot", "Flying Life 2", "Bear Infested: Reverse Time and Space", "Article 20" and "Mr. Red Carpet", which are scheduled to be released on the first day of the first lunar month. The film market is churning out excellent films one after another, further unleashing the audience's demand for watching movies.

From the content point of view, this year’s Spring Festival movie market shows three major characteristics: First, there is a lot of laughter. Most of the films are comedies, the content and style are suitable for both refined and popular tastes, and they are highly accepted by the public. Second, there are many themes. The films each focus on different segments and can basically meet the viewing needs of consumers of different ages and preferences. For example, the movie "Hot" directed by Jia Ling tells the story of a girl's process of rediscovering herself through exercise. In addition to the movie, Jia Ling's inspirational story became the biggest selling point in the early stages of the film. Third, it has a good reputation. The three films "Hot and Spicy", "Flying Life 2" and "Let's Shake the Sun Together" scored as high as 9.6 points on Taobao. Both general audiences and movie fan groups have shown high recognition of this year's Spring Festival films. Chen Jin, a data analyst at Beacon Professional Edition, said that as the film's reputation continues to ferment, more viewers will be attracted to the cinema and even watch the film multiple times, pushing the box office to further increase.

Overall, the Spring Festival movie market shows a trend of differentiated competition and is expected to achieve a win-win situation. Currently, the top four films at the box office together contribute 95.9% of the box office. There are certain differences in the core audiences of these four films. For example, the female audience of "Hot" and "Article 20" account for nearly 70%, the proportion of male audiences of "Flying Life 2" is significantly higher than that of other Spring Festival films, and "The Bear" "Infestation: Reverse Time and Space" has the highest proportion of viewers over 40 years old.

On the first day of the first lunar month, the Beijing New Film Alliance East Ring Cinema is filled with a strong New Year atmosphere. The cinema hall is arranged like a small market, with "small snowflakes" hanging from the ceiling, "big firecrackers" placed at the entrance, and market stalls displayed on both sides of the hall, including those with blessing characters and those selling cultural and creative peripherals. As for the products, there are also themed poster boards for the audience to take photos and check in.

In Guangzhou Qinggong Cinema City, movie posters are prominently displayed, and the cinema has made full preparations in terms of Spring Festival movie schedules and preferential package activities. Li Chunyi, a staff member of the cinema, told reporters that in order to meet the movie-watching needs of citizens to the greatest extent, the cinema is operating at full capacity, the film schedule has been increased to more than 50, and the business hours have also been extended.

Watching movies during the Spring Festival has become a ritualistic New Year custom for many families. Zhang Wenwu, a citizen of Jilin City, Jilin Province, is going to watch "Hot and Spicy" with his family. He said: "Every Spring Festival, there are some family-themed movies released, which are very suitable for the whole family to watch together."

In terms of ticket buyers, the box office share of third- and fourth-tier cities during the Spring Festival this year rose again to 53.7% from 50.2% last year. Experts pointed out that as infrastructure and commercial supporting facilities become increasingly improved, the potential of movie viewing consumption in small and medium-sized cities is expected to be further unleashed.

Data shows that the average ticket price during this year’s Spring Festival is 51.3 yuan, which is significantly lower than the same period last year. In order to effectively stimulate the audience's enthusiasm for watching movies, various movie-watching coupons have been launched in many places. For example, the Shanghai Film Bureau teamed up with leading companies in the industry to organize the 2024 Shanghai Spring Festival preferential movie viewing event, accurately subsidizing audiences with an immediate discount of 30 yuan per movie ticket.

In the early stages of pre-sales for this year’s Spring Festival, ticket purchasing platforms also provide relatively large subsidies, making the actual ticket prices for viewers more affordable. Many theaters in Beijing can buy movie tickets on the first day of the Lunar New Year for 19.9 yuan. The average ticket price on the first day of the new year is 51 yuan, which is significantly lower than the average ticket price of 55 yuan in the same period last year.

Chen Jin believes that among various entertainment activities, watching movies is still a relatively affordable option. To "bring down" the price through ticket replenishment and "invite" more people back to the cinema is a way to benefit the people in response to demand and is very helpful in increasing attendance rates.

Experts believe that festivals are a time when entertainment consumption demand is concentrated. The 8-day Spring Festival period in 2024 is the longest in history, and with the excellent film quality, it is expected to achieve another success.