Why is the performance market so popular?, In the first half of the year, the national box office revenue was nearly 17 billion yuan. Culture | Performance | Market
Since the beginning of this year, the performance market has become lively again, with concerts, music festivals, plays, children's dramas, musicals... The number of various performances is booming, and the rich supply of performances meets the cultural needs of different consumer groups. What is the growth potential of the performance industry in the new situation? What challenges do practitioners face in fierce competition? How can the performance economy achieve maximum benefits?
With the implementation of various favorable policies, the performance market has rapidly heated up this year. According to data from the China Performance Industry Association, in the first half of the year, there were 193300 commercial performances nationwide, with box office revenue of 16.793 billion yuan and an audience of 62.2366 million. The strong upward trend in the performance market has also stimulated more derivative consumer scenarios, highlighting its driving effect.
The offline performance market, such as concerts and music festivals, has seen a surge in popularity, with outstanding consumer effects. What impact has it brought to the industry? Behind the excitement brought by the hot market, has the future direction of the performance market become clear?
Behind the difficulty of obtaining a ticket
On May 26th, Mayday returned to the Beijing Bird's Nest, and fans exclaimed that it was satisfying.
"I snatched three days, but as soon as the tickets were issued, there was no time left." Mr. Lin also wanted to go see Mayday's performance because he couldn't get the tickets and couldn't fulfill his wish. This phenomenon of one vote being difficult to obtain is not an exception.
The demand for watching the show, which has been accumulated for three years, is being strongly released. According to statistics, during the peak performance season in April and May, there are nearly 150 concerts nationwide each month. It is estimated that the number of large-scale concerts this year will exceed 1000, driving 6 to 8 million viewers.
"After the smooth transition of epidemic prevention and control, people are more willing to participate in offline music scenes and feel the joy brought by the scene, but they will also be more willing to live within their means. Rather than being called 'retaliatory consumption', it is better to call it a 'compensatory experience'," said Shen Yue, Vice President of Modern Sky.
"As of mid June, the Strawberry Music Festival under Modern Sky has been successfully held in 14 cities and regions including Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Xi'an, Chengdu, Changsha, etc. Among them, the Strawberry Music Festival made its debut in Urumqi, Foshan, Sanya, and other places. The first Xinjiang Strawberry Music Festival sold out all tickets quickly, and several other regions also achieved good reputation." Shen Yue reviewed the performance schedule for reporters during this period.
"On the one hand, after the epidemic, people have regained their interest in traveling and gathering, and are eager to feel the power of music. On the other hand, with the improvement of consumption level, consumers are more and more willing to pay for higher quality and personalized cultural products, and 'playing emotional cards' has become an important driving force for the soaring concert market." The relevant person in charge of Beijing Tianqiao Art Center told reporters.
Not just concerts, the entire performance industry has become busy.
From June 20 to 22, the dance poetic drama "The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting Here" -- the dance painting "A Thousand Miles Map of Rivers and Mountains" again appeared in Tianjin Grand Theater and was welcomed by the audience. "I have received quite a few performance invitations this year, and the entire group has performed an average of 50 shows per month," said Zhang Lei, Deputy General Manager and Director of China Oriental Performing Arts Group.
On June 21st, the Suzhou Ballet's first technology themed original ballet "The Magnificent Cloud" was performed at the Beijing Tianqiao Art Center, with crowds both inside and outside the venue. "During this period, almost every theater's performance has been uninterrupted. Taking Suzhou Cultural and Art Center as an example, including newly created works in recent years, all dance dramas take turns and have a very full schedule. It is difficult for us to add one or two performances at the last minute," said Wang Quanxing, the leader of Suzhou Ballet, to reporters.
On June 16th, at the Fanxing Drama Village in China's first private drama and cultural industry park, the first domestic drama style stage play "K24" is premiering. The immersive performance and absurd plot setting have caused laughter from the audience. "In terms of performance volume, we have returned to the same level as the same period in 2019," said Hao Weili, producer of Fanxing Drama Village and manager of the Screen Theater.
Since the beginning of this year, social production and life have accelerated their recovery, and the overall economy has rebounded. The performance industry has been the first to recover from theatrical performances, and the number of theatrical performances has gradually recovered since the end of last year.
Why is the performance industry so popular? Industry insiders generally believe that the popularity of the performance market is not solely due to a single factor, but rather a composite effect of multiple factors.
Zheng Qingrong, Deputy General Manager of Impression Dahongpao Co., Ltd., believes that the explosive growth in the performance industry is mainly due to the increased consumer willingness of the audience. Nowadays, people's demand for cultural products is more prominent in terms of interaction, scene, and immersion. Audiences are more willing to be present and experience the charm of live music, stage art, and lighting. Watching performances together has become a social activity for contemporary young people. At the same time, with the emergence of new customer groups, new situations, and new market demands, performance companies are constantly innovating performance programs, exploring cultural connotations, and improving service quality to meet the audience's experience and sense of gain. Local governments have introduced various favorable policies to continuously encourage, support, and guide the high-quality development of the performance market, which has also played an important supporting role in the industry.
"The combination of supply and demand has contributed to the rapid growth of the performance market," said Hu Na, associate professor of the Department of Art Management and Cultural Exchange at the China Academy of Chinese Opera. From the demand side, the consumption demand that was suppressed in the past few years has been rapidly released at this stage, "which is a very important reason.". From the supply side, after careful polishing, the quality of domestic original performances and plays has significantly improved, and a number of excellent programs of different types have emerged in the performance market, such as "The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting", "Never Die Radio", "A Dream of Red Mansions" and so on.
Travel with the performance
As night fell, two girls from Nanjing had just finished their performance and were dining at a small restaurant next to the Beijing Tianqiao Art Center. They told reporters that they took annual leave this time to come from Nanjing to Beijing specifically to watch performances, and they are also planning to go to Poly Theatre and Beijing Comedy Theatre to watch performances in the next few days.
The huge passenger flow brought about by the performance is releasing spillover effects. "As a form of cultural consumption, the performing arts economy can not only bring considerable ticket revenue, but also gather passenger flow in a short period of time, drive a series of consumption such as tourism, transportation, accommodation, catering, etc., and promote the integrated development of culture and tourism." Zheng Qingrong said. According to calculations, during this year's May Day holiday, the comprehensive consumption scale of transportation, accommodation, and other expenses beyond the box office driven by music festivals and concert projects alone exceeded 1.2 billion yuan.
Zhang Lei also felt deeply about this. Previously, they received many theater performances, but this year they have added many invitations to cultural and tourism scenic spots. In addition to visiting scenic spots and experiencing the cultural connotations of the tourist destination, tourists can also see vivid cultural programs, effectively promoting the development of the tourism industry. Performances also extend the time consumers spend at tourist attractions. "According to statistics, many audiences will watch The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting across the city, and performances in some cities will improve the occupancy rate of local hotels to a certain extent," said Zhang Lei.
Appreciating scenery during the day and watching performances at night has become a new trend in cultural and tourism consumption. During this year's May Day holiday, tourism performance box office accounted for 37.92% of the total box office in the performance market, and the number of viewers increased by 360% year-on-year. Tourism performance has become an important component of the performance market. The Impression Dahongpao, staged by Chongyang Creek in Mount Wuyi National Tourist Resort, Fujian Province, reproduces the profound tea culture in an artistic form, making it a cultural tourism project that can be touched and felt.
"As of June 14th," Impression of the Red Robe "has performed a total of 215 performances and received 341854 audience members. Compared with the same period in 2019, the number of performances increased by 48, and the number of receptions increased by 98016, an increase of 40.19%." Zheng Qingrong told reporters, "According to current market feedback information, the booking situation in the second half of the year is also relatively good. This year is expected to be a 'harvest year'."
"In recent years, tourism performance has been deeply integrated into urban planning and tourism development. Nianhuawan Zen Town in Wuxi, Henan Drama Fantasy City in Zhengzhou, and Chang'an Twelve Hours in Xi'an combine immersive experiences with urban space, expanding the connotation of tourism and endowing tourists with unique cultural experiences." said Mei Hong, President of Chengde Dingsheng Cultural Industry Investment Co., Ltd.
"The original audience for theater art was small, and the audience was limited. Now that culture and tourism have merged, performances not only provide content support for tourist destinations, but also drive other consumption, such as markets, exhibitions, specialty restaurants, etc. The consumption of cultural and creative products related to performances has also been stimulated," said Zhang Lei.
The person in charge of a certain ticketing platform told reporters, "Based on user feedback, ticket and hotel prices in some cities hosting concerts have risen significantly. These obvious driving effects have led many cities to consider investing in introducing large-scale performance activities as one of the measures to stimulate the local economy.".
In May, the Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism and the Finance Bureau jointly issued the "Implementation Measures for the Prosperous Performance Market in Xiamen", which proposed to encourage performance management units to hold commercial performance activities; Encourage performance organizers to attract audiences and expand the scale of the performance by reducing ticket prices and other means. For those who hold commercial performances, appropriate financial rewards shall be given in accordance with the scale and performance benefits of the performances in accordance with the law and regulations. Industry insiders believe that due to the external effect of stimulating local cultural consumption in the performance market, many regions in China have introduced encouragement and preferential policies for performing arts projects, hoping to enhance the attractiveness of the local cultural and tourism industry by introducing performing arts projects to drive consumption. Especially in many second and third tier cities, relevant policies have been introduced to support or directly subsidize the performance industry with funds, which is also a two-way cooperation between performance institutions and local governments.
Disadvantages and weaknesses cannot be ignored
With the booming performance market, ticketing topics such as "difficult ticket refunds", "scalper tickets", and "strong real name registration system" have also surfaced. On August 2nd, the China Consumers Association released an analysis of the complaints received by the National Consumers Association in the first half of 2023, stating that online shopping performance ticketing urgently needs to be standardized. Complaints from the online shopping performance ticketing industry mainly include difficulties in ticket refunds, blind selection of "pillar tickets" and "wall root tickets", and frequent suspected "skip ticket" situations. The China Consumers Association reminds that relevant performance ticketing platforms and organizers should consider how to better protect consumer rights and improve consumer experience from the perspective of promoting the release of consumer potential.
The frequent occurrence of scalpers not only occupies public resources, but also attracts the attention of relevant regulatory authorities. Some cities have implemented measures such as a "strong real name system" to prevent scalpers from trading. The advantages of the new measures are obvious, but there are also concerns about "side effects". On the one hand, they are afraid of "accidentally damaging" the popularity of the performance, and on the other hand, they are concerned about the consequences of overcorrection.
Ticketing industry practitioners believe that performance events themselves have characteristics such as strong timeliness, imbalanced supply and demand, and dynamic changes. How to regulate the supply-demand contradiction in the performance ticketing market and enable users who truly want to watch to buy tickets has always been a challenge. With the development of various secondary ticketing platforms in recent years, the problem of asymmetric ticketing information has been resolved to a certain extent, and situations such as fraud, fake tickets, skipping tickets, and cumbersome offline transactions have been effectively controlled. Various small and medium-sized performances in the "long tail" have also received more exposure and higher attendance rates. But there are still many problems that need to be solved.
Hao Weili, who has been involved in the drama industry for 9 years, once worked in the film industry. In her opinion, the film industry has achieved comprehensive integration of the ticketing system and achieved box office supervision early on. I hope the performance industry can also quickly integrate the ticketing system.
In 2018, Haoweili's Fanxing Drama Village began to venture into the parent-child market and launched "Children's Play Society", which was immediately recognized by the audience. In 2019 and 2022, programs such as "Super Little Heroes" and "Zhu Bajie's Transformation" were successively launched. "The purpose of doing children's dramas is to cultivate the viewing habits of young audiences, and as they grow up, they will naturally enter the theater," said Hao Weili.
But what worries Hao Weili is that the quality of works in the children's drama market is uneven and there is still a price war. During this year's May Day holiday, a certain platform had children's dramas priced as low as 19 to 63 yuan, far below the cost price. "For parents, price is the preferred factor. Drama is a comprehensive art that includes music and dance, involving visual and auditory sensations. If one does not frequently enter the theater, it is impossible to judge whether the work is good or not. If one watches a bad work, it harms the audience's desire to enter the theater again." Hao Weili said.
Experts say that the funds used by audiences for cultural consumption are limited, but there are many factors that affect audience consumption decisions, and there are also many cultural products to choose from. If low-quality content is created in order to run errands, or even engage in price wars, it is not conducive to the development of the entire cultural industry and the cultivation of social and cultural literacy.
During the interview, the reporter found that many performance agencies coincidentally mentioned the topic of attracting young audiences to enter. Behind the hot market, how to attract more young audiences to watch performances and cultivate new consumption growth points for the cultural market, rather than excessively consuming brand value, is worthy of serious consideration by every performance agency.
Compared to the popularity of concerts and plays, the participation of young people in artistic performances such as ballet, opera, and symphony still needs to be improved. Wang Quanxing said that the popularization and promotion of these art forms still need to be strengthened. "There is still more potential to tap into the traditional art market. No matter how beautiful Beijing Opera is, how beautiful Huangmei Opera is, and how unique Yue Opera is. If we do not promote and expand the market, and allow more young new audiences to enter, these dramas will soon lose their competitiveness."
In recent years, Suzhou Ballet has made many attempts in this area, providing art education and bringing art into high schools and university campuses. "Once you learn, you will enjoy watching. In the past, it used to be 'big brings small', where parents took their children to watch. Now it's' small brings big ', where children take their parents to watch. This is a good change," said Wang Quanxing.
Behind the revival of the performance market, there are also pressures and challenges. Based on feedback from the performance team and performers, there is still a lack of consumption momentum in the market. Hu Na believes that when the accumulated consumption enthusiasm in the past few years is released, the performance market will enter a normalized stage. In addition, it is expected that more international teams will enter the performance market in China in the second half of the year, and the liquidity between performance teams in different regions will also be strengthened. In this context, the competitive pressure faced by domestic teams will significantly increase.
The performance industry should not only attach importance to the creation of plays and the quality of performances, but also strengthen its operational capabilities in areas such as plays and spatial theaters. Hu Na said, "Nowadays, many cities are constructing new spaces for performing arts. From the perspective of the performance market in first tier cities, most of the data is contributed by new spaces for performing arts rather than traditional theaters. New spaces for performing arts are not only a concept of creating drama production or experience projects, but also a true integration of culture, business, and tourism projects, emphasizing the need for commercial operation thinking.".
