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BIZCHINA / Review & Analysis

Ticket price is the issue

(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-08-25 11:25

Restructuring China's theater chains is needed to meet people's demand
for movie consumption, said a signed article in Shenzhen Business Daily.
An excerpt follows:

Many people were injured in the mayhem caused by the sale of eight yuan
movie tickets in Hangzhou earlier this month. This reflects common
people's enthusiastic demand for low-price movie tickets.

Many commentators have criticized theater operators for setting high
ticket prices. Some said that rising ticket prices is the major reasons
for the shrinking box-office revenues. Decreased revenues have led to
insufficient input in the movie industry.

Such an analysis seems reasonable but actually the crux lies more in the
irrational structure of theater chains than high prices.

Movie theaters were all the rage two or three decades ago, when
televisions were not popular, but they lost their glamor when Chinese
people's recreational activities diversified.

After years of struggle, deluxe movie theaters began popping up. The
operators have turned theaters into places for high-end leisure and
tapped the new concept of up-market movie consumption. And such
upper-bracket theaters are making good money by targeting high-end
consumers.

A healthy movie industry should have a rational structure that is
composed by high-, medium- and low-end parts aiming at different
consumption levels.

Now the high-end market has taken the lead in development while the
medium- and low-end reaches of movie showing are still underdeveloped.
There will also be good economic results if the empty fields get filled.
For example, a Shenzhen-based Yatu digital theatre chain has lowered
ticket prices to five yuan each and is still making a profit.

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)

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