From collapsed house idol to entertainment superstar

In the film industry, theater chains are undoubtedly the terminal market of this industry in a sense.

Many people say that controlling the terminal means controlling the market of the entire industry.

In fact, this sentence is not wrong.

For a long time, people have always believed that theaters are the only carrier of movies. After all, only the big screen can present movie art.

However, with the development of the Internet, the promotion of the Internet+ model has changed people's perception.

The most typical example is that in order to promote themselves, many e-commerce platforms spend a lot of money to enter the movie ticketing industry, holding high the banner of "ticket subsidy" and occupying the market of ticketing platforms at an extremely fast speed.

For example, a few years ago, it was common to encounter movie tickets with a minimum price of 9.9 yuan. Some 3DMAX movies were only as low as 19.9 yuan or 29.9 yuan. The original tickets in movie theaters were 5-60 yuan, or even 7-80 yuan.

The original price is basically just decoration.

This does not mean that the theater chain itself is bleeding money and offering big discounts, but that the e-commerce ticketing platform has launched a "ticket subsidy".

The so-called "ticket supplement" means that the pricing of the theater chain has not changed, and the price is still the same, and the extra gap has been filled by the e-commerce ticketing platforms competing for the market. The final result is what we have seen.

The fare is so low that you can afford it for the price of a cup of milk tea.

This has invisibly cultivated the movie-watching habits of many people.

The emergence of this phenomenon has also invisibly changed some of the ecological environment of the entire theater.

For example, the right to schedule movies, and the right to price ticket prices. These used to be the rights of theaters, but after the emergence of "ticket subsidy", the right to schedule and price will undoubtedly be transferred away from the theaters.

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Of course, there is no need to say much about pricing power.

As for the right to schedule films, it is not difficult to understand that for some movies with a large supply of tickets, the theater chain will naturally increase the scheduling rate of this movie.

After e-commerce platforms occupy the market, this kind of money-burning "ticket subsidy" will naturally reduce a lot of intensity.

However, the intensity of "ticket subsidy" has not decreased much, because the film market has long been accustomed to the existence of "ticket subsidy".

So what should we do at this time?

At this time, the main force of "ticket subsidy" has been transferred from the Internet ticketing platform to the film studio.

That is to say, when a movie is about to be released, in terms of the scheduling rate, in addition to the quality of the film and pre-sales performance, how much "subsidy" the film producer will receive is also an important factor in measuring the scheduling rate of a movie.

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What?

You don’t want to go to the “ticket supplement”?

That works!

Your film scheduling rate is much lower than that of the same period!

This is actually an unspoken rule. For some large film companies, the cost of "ticket subsidy" alone may exceed 1 billion in a year.

And "Operation Red Sea" is also considered a big production. The reason why its film schedule is low is not only the reason why military films such as the Spring Festival are not popular, but also to a large extent, it is not very good in terms of "ticket reimbursement".

Nowadays, movie theaters will adjust the film schedule after the release, which is divided into two types.

One of them is that theater chains issue unified guidance, and their theaters make appropriate adjustments within the recommended range of film schedules based on their respective regions and audience preferences.

In addition, in the majority of cases, the theater manager is directly responsible for arranging films.

Xu Tian is the cinema manager of Taikoo Hui Cinema in Kyoto.

This time during the Spring Festival is the busiest time for film professionals like them. Although Xu Tiangui is the manager, he is actually just a senior wage earner.

Usually after the movie is released and the box office is released on the first day, it will be displayed on his office desk.

Xu Tian lowered his head and took a closer look at the report.

The situation did not surprise him.

"The Devil 2", which occupies a national average of 37.4% of the film schedule, earned more than 520 million at the box office on its first day, far ahead among many Spring Festival films.

Following closely behind was the large-scale screening of "Girls' Country" on Valentine's Day, which relied on the advantage of screenings to earn a first-day box office of 340 million.

The IP of Journey to the West has always been the most enduring big IP in China, and with the support of Valentine’s Day and top-notch actresses, it’s not surprising that it ranked second at the box office on the first day.

And ranked behind "The Kingdom of Women" with a slim gap is Kaixin Maodou's "This Murderer Is Not So Good".

As the most suitable comedy film for the Spring Festival, "The Murderer Is Not Good" followed closely with 336 million, which was basically not far behind the second place.

After reaching third place, the box office performance suddenly dropped.

"Operation Red Sea" took in 146 million at the box office on its first day.

The fourth place is actually "Bear Bears", an animated film that must be released every year, with a box office of 123 million.

Actually, don’t feel weird about it.

In fact, after "Bear Bears" became a regular on the Spring Festival show, it has basically established itself as the "wall of masterpieces" and the "identifier of bad movies."

"Bear Bears" is the gatekeeper of the first tier of the Spring Festival schedule, knocking out one or two live-action movies almost every year.

The Spring Festival box office did not exceed that of "Bear Bears", so it doesn't qualify as a "big hit".

For example, "Many Generations", which ranked fifth at the box office on its first day, had a huge box office hit, with only 20 million. Judging from both the box office and word-of-mouth, it was undoubtedly a bad movie.

Seeing this, Xu Tian nodded. Basically, the general situation of Taikoo Hui Cinema, which he was responsible for, was not much different from the national box office market.

As for "Operation Red Sea", Xu Tian also took a second look, because among movies that account for an average of about 10% of the film schedule, it is a bit reluctant to put it in the first tier.

However, in the box office on the first day, it surpassed the "wall of masterpieces" of "Bear Bears" and handed in a fairly qualified answer.

And Xu Tian noticed something, that is, after two o'clock in the afternoon, among the many movies in their theater, the attendance rate of "Operation Red Sea" increased very quickly. This is generally a phenomenon that only occurs for movies with good reputation.

Considering it's only one day, the reference value is not great, and the starring role, Ding Zhi, doesn't seem too difficult to understand.

After hesitating for a while, he decided to ask the staff to increase the film schedule of "Operation Red Sea" in their theater by a few tenths of a percentage point to see how it would perform tomorrow and whether it might become a dark horse.

Similarly, after the box office of the first day of the Spring Festival was released, this result was also placed in the hands of many relevant people.

This ranking result, and even the box office win-to-gross ratio, are actually not much different from mainstream predictions.

As for "Operation Red Sea", with the blessing of Ding Zhihe's previous song "Lonely Warrior", it is not a surprise to get this somewhat unexpected result and still remain in the first echelon.

the next day.

After lunch, when Xu Tian arrived at the office half an hour early and made a pot of tea, he began to patrol the screening room downstairs.

This is a habit he has formed over the years, and his staff often compare him in private to the class teacher who always liked to appear quietly outside the window when he was in school.

As everyone knows, Xu Tian's original intention was not to supervise them. His eyes were actually on some of the audience.

Especially after the screening, he would observe the audience to see if they were talking a lot or if their interest was waning.

In Xu Tian's view, in their line of work, the only thing they eat is the audience. Data must be taken seriously, and personally experiencing the audience's emotions is equally important.

Perhaps it was his seriousness and persistence that allowed him to achieve the position of a theater manager at a young age.

"What? The tickets are full? No! I told you to buy them in advance! Buy them in advance! Why are they gone now?"

"Don't be angry! This "Land of Women" is not bad! It's still a movie by Zhao Qiangu. Why go to see a movie about fighting and killing?"

"I have long heard from my friends who have watched "Girls' Country" that it is a bad movie! To put it bluntly, you don't care! I told you to buy it in advance! You said there is no need to rush, but now! Hmph!"

Xu Tian's gaze was fixed, but he accurately captured a young couple quarreling.

"Handsome! Are you discussing "Operation Red Sea"?"

Xu Tian stepped forward with great interest.

"Yeah, what?"

The boy who was accosted was a little confused, but then he rolled his eyes and seemed to come to his senses.

"What, are you a scalper? Do you have tickets for "Operation Red Sea"?"

"No, no, no, I just want to see "Operation Red Sea", but I didn't expect that this theater has no tickets."

The girl on the side heard this, nodded, and rolled her eyes at the boy next to her, "I told him to buy it early! He insisted on buying it in the afternoon, and now it's okay. Not only is this place gone, but other places further away are probably gone too.

"

"Is "Operation Red Sea" that good to watch?"

Xu Tian, ​​like a middle-aged uncle with excessive curiosity, asked again with a curious look on his face.

After the boy in the couple heard that Xu Tian was not a scalper, his interest in chatting suddenly dropped a lot. Instead of answering him, he picked up his phone and started looking for it. Apparently he wanted to see which theater and "Red Sea" were around.

Action".

"We don't know either, but my roommate who has seen it said that not only is Ding Zhi in it, but it is also very beautiful! They were all discussing it happily. Now my roommate is desperately talking to many

It’s a good thing! I also think that with Ding Zhi’s videos, it won’t be any worse.”

On the contrary, the girl on the side seemed to have a good impression of Xu Tian, ​​and she explained eloquently.

"Hey! Little boy! I found it! There are two more seats at Dadi Cinema! It seems that someone refunded the ticket! I made a reservation!"

"Really? What time is it?"

"There are still 40 minutes left until the start of the show. The journey is a bit far. Let's set off as soon as possible!"

So Xu Tian watched the young couple go away.

After thinking for a moment, Xu Tian put away his smile and walked quickly to the front desk.

"Xiao Zhang!"

"Hey! Manager!"

At that time, the movie in the cinema was opening, and Xiao Zhang, who was called by Xu Tian, ​​was secretly looking at his mobile phone. As soon as he was approached by Xu Tian, ​​who was wearing casual clothes, he suddenly nervously stuffed his mobile phone into his pocket.

Xu Tian glanced at the corner of the phone case exposed from the other party's bulging pocket, but he didn't bother to mention it and asked the question directly.

"How is the attendance of "Operation Red Sea" from this morning so far?"

Because today is only halfway through, the data for the entire day has not been presented yet, but directly asking the front desk at the ticket gate can actually reflect a certain situation.

When Xiao Zhang at the front desk saw that the manager did not ask him about secretly playing with his mobile phone, he immediately put his mind at ease.

Think carefully about the situation from this morning to now.

"There seems to be quite a lot of them. The morning show was pretty good and the attendance rate was pretty good. When I went to see it, the seats were half full. For several shows in the afternoon, they were basically full."

Taikoo Hui Cinema is a theater under the Magic City United Cinemas chain, and Magic City United Cinemas is one of the largest cinema chains in the country. The viewing equipment is very good and costs a lot of money, so the corresponding ticket replacement requirements will also be

Improve it some.

As for "Operation Red Sea", which is a "ticket subsidy for poor households", in the theater that Xu Tian is responsible for, the film scheduling rate is only 9.56%, which can be regarded as the group that lowered the film scheduling rate of "Operation Red Sea".

So it’s no wonder that the young couple just didn’t buy tickets, because there really weren’t many screenings of “Operation Red Sea” in this theater.

Moreover, several of today's shows are held from 8 a.m. to 12 noon, which are considered to be only as bad as those in the early morning.

However, during this period, the average game can reach half full, which means the attendance rate is close to 40%-50%.

The afternoon session was basically sold out.

Although their theaters did not give many screenings of "Operation Red Sea", it was still an exaggeration.

This attendance rate is not consistent with the 23% shown in yesterday's report. Is it possible that after a day of fermentation, "Operation Red Sea" actually has a reverse increase in attendance?

Xu Tian raised his eyebrows.

After taking two steps, he turned back and said, "Xiao Zhang, it's not a good thing to play with your mobile phone during work hours."

With one sentence, Xiao Zhang, who just a moment ago was still thinking of taking a chance, was stunned and stupid.

After Xu Tian knocked down his subordinates who were not serious about their work, he went to ask several other screening halls, and the results they gave were similar.

After thinking for a while, he walked into a screening room again, quietly opened the door and walked in.

His steps were light and he did not attract much attention from the audience.

At this time, the big screen happened to be showing the scene where the Jiaolong Special Forces team was ambushed by extremists in the Gobi. Everyone's attention was basically on the screen, and they didn't even pay attention to the person who slipped in through the door of the screening room behind them.

Xu Tian looked around. It was now 1:40 in the afternoon, and the theater where "Operation Red Sea" was playing was almost full.

He quietly exited and walked around a few more screening rooms. Without exception, the occupancy rate was almost 80-90%.

Xu Tian quickly returned to the office and made a decision within a short time.

He made a phone call.

"Hey, supervisor, I have something to report to you!"

Xu Tian's tone was full of excitement.

"What's going on, Xu Tian."

"I apply to increase the number of screenings of "Operation Red Sea" in Taikoo Hui Cinema!"

The other party was obviously a little surprised, "Generally speaking, if the transfer is within 10%, you can make the decision yourself. Is that possible?"

"Yes, that's right! I think "Operation Red Sea" will be a big hit! I want to apply to increase the filming rate of "Operation Red Sea" to more than 20-30%!

Xu Tianyu is amazing, as soon as he opens his mouth, it is 20%-30%!

You know, even a popular IP like "The Devil 2" only has an average film scheduling rate of 34.7%. While the film scheduling of "Operation Red Sea" increases, the film scheduling rates of other films will relatively decrease.

Then, Xu Tian emphatically explained his findings and reasons to his boss.

He finally said something.

"I believe that the explosive attendance of "Operation Red Sea" will be quickly brought to the desks of other theater directors after today's box office results are revealed. We are now trying to be the first to respond before others have no reaction."

Before coming over, take a step first!

What Xu Tian said was right. If "Operation Red Sea" exploded, it would not actually become a secret. Xu Tian did not even dare to conclude that he was the fastest to discover this.

What he can do is to report this matter as soon as possible so that his theater chain and even the theater he is responsible for can achieve the highest profitability.