Let the audience choose? ok！A poster of "Mr. Red Carpet" unveiled the story behind the warm-up period of the Spring Festival - the dispute over the film schedule.
As of now, 9 films have been finalized for this year's Spring Festival, 8 of which will be released on the first day of the Lunar New Year, including Jia Ling's second comedy "Hot and Hot", Han Han's "Flying Life 2", Zhang Yimou's realistic film "Article 20", etc.
Many blockbusters compete for the Spring Festival, but for movie theaters, the number of screening halls is limited, and the business hours are limited, so it is often impossible to "I want them all", so the theater manager will dynamically adjust the film schedule according to the film's box sales, in order to achieve better economic benefits. Correspondingly, if the film company can occupy more screenings, it will be easier to achieve the best degree and box office, which also makes the film schedule a "battleground for soldiers".
Who sets the film schedule?
A few days ago, a number of theaters received notices from the filmmakers, requiring the theaters to schedule the films according to the given ratio of the filmmakers, with rough requirements (10% for "Bears", 12% for "Let's Shake the Sun Together", 22% for "Article 20", 22% for "Flying Life 2", and 22% for "Hot and Hot").
Generally speaking, the distribution requirements of a cinema chain adopt the model of "unified distribution of the whole cinema", that is, the cinemas of the same cinema chain must carry out a unified film schedule, and all the cinemas receive the same source of films in the same period. And from 2023 onwards, some films will begin to take ".Split line issuanceThe filmmaker can arrange films differently according to different types, regions, and schedules.
The reason why there are precise film scheduling requirements is also because these five films have been distributed separately, but "Mr. Red Carpet" directed by Ning Hao did not participate, so there is an intentional poster that gives the choice of what movie to watch to the audience.
Not only the filmmaker's competitors, but also the theater industry has concerns.
Mr. Zhao, who has invested in several theaters, told Silver Persimmon Finance that the original intention of the sub-line distribution was to protect small and medium-cost films and provide them with screening space, but this time the proportion of films required is a large number of commercial films, which is actually using a dominant position to interfere with the theater's scheduling rights.
For example, Mr. Zhao said: ""If You Are the Truth, Do Not Disturb 3 during the New Year's Day holiday began to be released separately earlier, and at first required 15% of the film schedule, but then due to poor box office performance, many theaters would rather abandon the second phase of the key and make adjustments. ”
According to the data of Lighthouse Professional Edition, Feng Xiaogang's "If You Are the Truth, Do Not Disturb 3" accounted for 13 films on the first day of release3%, and the next day it plummeted to 67%, and since its release for a month, the cumulative box office has been 993850,000 yuan, not exceeding 100 million yuan.
The research report of GF** pointed out that the box office and attendance rate of films that have been released separately in China are not satisfactory. First, because Chinese theaters are very scattered, it is very difficult for filmmakers and theaters to fully negotiate. The second reason is that domestic theaters lack experience in film selection and scheduling, film marketing and other sub-line distribution.
How do you choose?
Split distribution is a two-way choice between the film company and the theater chain, but the film market still depends on the audience in the final analysis. Mr. Zhao added.
Liu Fan, an associate researcher at the Chinese Academy of Arts, believes that according to the laws of the film industry, the number of screens and the absolute number of viewers in China (about 2800 million) calculates that it is reasonable that the products in China's film market should be richer and more diverse. Distribution is undoubtedly the right direction for reform, and there are success stories and experiences, but there is one key constraint: the scarcity of quality content. There are not enough good movies, and it is not easy to land on the distribution line.
Before the pre-sale of the Spring Festival stalls opened, the turmoil of this sub-line release also seemed to come to an end.
On the afternoon of January 30, representatives of the China Film Producers Association, the China Film Distribution and Projection Association and the eight investors and producers of Spring Festival films held a symposium on the distribution and screening of Spring Festival films, and unanimously agreed that no unit or organization can use its dominant market position to interfere in market business activities, including film scheduling, and make restrictive arrangements for the legitimate business activities of various market entities. It is necessary to respect the market and the audience, and all production, distribution, and screening units must take into account the overall situation, unite and cooperate, and do a good job in the scientific and reasonable scheduling of films during the Spring Festival.
On January 31, the pre-sale of Spring Festival films officially opened, and the proportion of screenings was different from the requirements mentioned above.
The data shows that on the first day of the Lunar New Year, "Flying Life 2" has won 271% of the number of shows is in the first place, and "Hot and Hot" is 262% of the games accounted for the second place, both higher than 22%, and at the same time, "Let's Shake the Sun Together" was 62%, well below 12%. Judging from the pre-sale box office, "Hot and Hot", "Article 20" and "Flying Life 2" ranked the top three, and as of press time, the total pre-sale box office of the Spring Festival stalls was 344430,000 yuan.
Chen Jin, a data analyst at Lighthouse Professional Edition, said that "Hot and Hot" won the daily crown of Taopiao tickets for 19 consecutive days after it was finalized, and the total number of new people who wanted to watch it in the past 1 month (January 1 to 30) exceeded 370,000, leading the Spring Festival file strongly. "Flying Life 2" ranked second, and male audiences have a significantly higher preference for this racing-themed comedy; "Mr. Red Carpet" and "Let's Shake the Sun Together", which are currently lagging behind, also have the opportunity to achieve a box office counterattack by word of mouth, and the Spring Festival has always been a schedule full of miracles.