According to the Voice of China "News Vertical" of ** Radio and Television Station, starting from the end of November, major theaters across the country have entered the New Year schedule. The latest data shows that there are more than 70 new films in this year's Lunar New Year file, the number of releases has hit a five-year high, and the proportion of new domestic films has reached 80%.
The market has recovered rapidly, and the "movie roadshow" has recently become a hot spot. Many reports say that because of the presence of celebrities, directors and other main creative personnel, the roadshow tickets that were originally free or about 100 yuan were fried to hundreds or even thousands of yuan by scalpers, which does not rule out the internal free tickets being taken out**, or scalpers buying a large number of tickets in advance and then increasing the price**. How to prevent "scalpers" from targeting movie roadshows?
According to the data, as of 12 noon on December 17, including the pre-sale box office, the box office of this year's Lunar New Year stalls reached 233.7 billion yuan (including pre-sale box office), the number of moviegoers exceeded 57 million, and the roadshow of many films is being launched.
There are many links to second-hand trading platforms for roadshow tickets.
A roadshow refers to an advance screening of a movie in some theaters before it is officially released. In these special sessions, the main creative staff, including directors and leading actors, will be present to communicate with **, fans, film critics, etc., and promote the highlights of the movie.
Li He (pseudonym), a theater manager, said in an interview with the Voice of China: "Recently, because it is the end of the year, the movie release is relatively intensive, and the competition is fierce, so many filmmakers have begun to pull more well-known leading actors and start to run roadshows in one cinema after another. The movie roadshow is actually a very traditional means of film promotion, especially in the era when the publicity and distribution of ** was not very developed, like more than ten years ago, there may be every week at that time.
Three or four movie roadshows are held in theaters, in fact, it shortens the distance between ordinary fans and movie creators, and the effect is generally better. ”
However, a number of ** reported that on the circle of friends or second-hand trading platforms, there were many roadshow tickets for movies, which was staggering. A few months ago, because of several actors who liked a new movie, Suzhou movie fan Wang Xi (pseudonym) wanted to participate in the roadshow, so he posted on social platforms to buy movie tickets.
Wang Xi told reporters: "There was a roadshow when it was just released, and the leading actors were more attractive, and I wanted to receive a ticket for the Suzhou roadshow, so I posted it on social platforms." At that time, it seemed that tickets were sold for more than 100 yuan in the cinema, and some people sold them for 1,000 yuan, but I didn't receive them later. Now you go to the second-hand trading platform to see that a new movie that was recently released is not on the roadshow, and there are tickets sold on it. ”
The reporter searched for keywords on the second-hand trading platform and did find a number of accounts selling tickets for film roadshows. Some of them sell tickets directly for a fixed number of sessionsThere are also some "proxy shooting", that is, they can help fans grab a higher seat.
In the circle of friends, tickets for some roadshows are also being **.
According to a proxy auction merchant, the proxy auction in the first row is 369 yuan, and the cheapest random seat** is 149 yuanComparatively, the ticket price for a fixed session will be more expensive. The ticket for a movie roadshow starring a star is 1,900 yuan for the first three rows**, and the random seats are also 1,000 yuan. A screenshot of the circle of friends shown to reporters by a fan shows that a movie will hold a premiere on December 25, and the two viewing places will cost more than 900 yuan.
A staff member of a publicity and distribution company in Beijing said that he paid attention to this phenomenon in the summer file, for example, a premiere ticket he participated in was even sold for 3,000 yuan a ticket. "In fact, since the summer of this year, this phenomenon is particularly serious, and various roadshows will encounter this problem, everyone wants to see celebrities and communicate, one is that tickets can't be bought, and the second is that tickets are very expensive. ”
So, how did these "scalpers" get roadshow tickets?Chen Jia (pseudonym), a staff member of a ticketing platform, told the Voice of China reporter that the audience who generally participates in the roadshow is invited guests or a viewing group that obtains free admission by lottery;In addition, as more and more films pour into the market, more and more roadshows are arranged, and some roadshows will also sell some movie tickets, and the ticketing platform will mark such special screenings, such as the words "there will be a star meeting after the screening" on the ticket purchase page. Therefore, it is not excluded that the free tickets will be grabbed by *** or the auction at a higher price.
Chen Jia said: "It is the same as all the usual shows, it is sold normally, but there is a reason (for celebrities to meet) in it, the theater may raise the ** level, and the theater may empty some tickets, that is, lock some seats in the system, for example, you need to separate the distance from the star, the first row is not allowed to sell tickets, so the first row is locked and not sold;There are also some theaters that have their own big customers, or designated customers and relatives of the star main creative group, which are to reserve seats. The theater may also have some ** seats empty, or some front row seats, and sell these tickets with cash tickets, ** tickets, or packaging specific**. Scalpers buy tickets, in fact, these are these two channels. ”
The ** of some designated roadshow tickets is even as high as 1,000 yuan.
In the eyes of many industry insiders, the roadshow was targeted by "scalpers", which to some extent reflects the recovery of the film market. On the one hand, the creators hope to enhance the reputation of the film through active communication, get the support of the theater's film scheduling, and then get box office returns;On the other hand, the audience also has the enthusiasm to communicate face-to-face with their favorite teams and stars. However, scalpers have undoubtedly increased prices, which has undoubtedly interfered with the normal market order.
Chen Jia (pseudonym), a staff member of a ticketing platform, said: "Under normal circumstances, most of the people who come to participate have a strong desire to watch the movie, so they must be able to achieve the publicity effect when they arrive at the scene, so no matter whether his purchase channel is normal, or through the second-hand trading platform or through scalpers, the effect of publicity and distribution has been achieved." For the studio, there are not many tickets, only about 100, and they have no pressure to sell. But after the scalper took the ticket, he made money in the middle. ”
How to put an end to "scalpers" targeting movie roadshows?Li He (pseudonym), a theater manager, believes that from the ticket sales side, for special performances, the platform strengthens the supervision of ticket-buying accounts, which can alleviate the phenomenon of scalpers hoarding tickets to a certain extent.
Li He said: "For theaters, in order to increase the popularity of the cinema, some free movie seats will be placed in the fan group, but the number is not too much. There is also a situation where it is directly put on the online sales platform to sell, and at present, when buying movie tickets, one account can basically buy up to 6 tickets at a time. If some scalpers feel that hoarding is more profitable, they may buy a lot of tickets at the same time, and the online sales platform may need to strengthen management. ”
Zhi Feina, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Arts, believes that from a longer-term perspective, encouraging more and more filmmakers to enter the theater to interact and communicate with the audience, so that more people have the opportunity to premiere, can also lead the market to a certain extent.
Zhifina said: "Film is a star-making industry, it is an eyeball economy, which needs attention, and face-to-face communication between the audience and the main creator. In the past, most of the roadshows were concentrated in Beijing or Shanghai, but this year, a big change is that some films go to medium-sized cities to roadshows, which shortens the distance between the film and the audience, makes the film more sinking, and hopes that more audiences will enter the cinema. The whole industry is working hard to run roadshows, as our film creation level becomes higher and higher, the quality of films is getting better and better, and filmmakers make further efforts, there will definitely be more premieres to audiences across the country, and scalpers will gradually disappear. ”