China’s economy continues to be in a downturn, and the film market is becoming increasingly bleak. In the first four months of this year, the cumulative box office in the Chinese film market was only 1.1 billion RMB, regressing to the market size of 2012.
According to an article published by “Rhino Entertainment” on April 28, the Chinese film market has been plummeting in a straight line this year, with the box office during the Qingming Festival dropping by 55% and no signs of recovery in the May Day box office. The entire month of April has seen the film market at a historical low point.
As of now, the total box office for April has just surpassed 1.1 billion RMB and is expected to close in at nearly 1.2 billion RMB. The article stated that this data is extremely abnormal and cannot be described as a drastic decrease or plunge, but rather a state of extreme decline.
This means that the monthly volume of the Chinese film market has regressed by as much as 13 years, returning to the level of 2012. Moreover, the market performance in April this year is even lower than that of April 2012, plummeting by 74% compared to the peak year of 2017.
The article points out that a monthly box office of only 1.1 billion RMB, with a daily average of about 30 million RMB, is a very alarming figure. In 2012, there were only about 3,200 cinemas nationwide, but now there are over 11,000 cinemas.
However, despite the nearly fourfold increase in the number of cinemas and significant ticket price hikes, the final box office is not as good as it was 13 years ago, indicating that there are major issues in the Chinese film market.
The article states that such a significant decline in the Chinese film market, with cinemas being completely abandoned, is a phenomenon that is relatively rare in the past decade or so.
Moreover, various “historic moments” were witnessed in the film market in April this year. On April 2, the daily box office was only just over 12 million RMB, which is also a performance comparable to 13 years ago and the lowest daily box office of the year so far.
Even more frighteningly, despite a total of 342,000 screenings in a single day, only 347,000 tickets were sold in total, meaning that in all cinemas in China, there was an average of only one person per theater.
The article points out that with such a terrifying level of one person per theater, indicating an extremely inefficient use of resources, for the vast majority of cinemas, it is better to close down than to continue operating, putting them in a severe loss-making mode. The current Chinese film market is experiencing an unprecedented cold spell.
In recent days, Chinese director Feng Xiaogang’s new film “Facing the Sun·Flower” has crossed the 200 million box office mark. Feng Xiaogang posted on his social media: “Although this number is not high, it is the first domestically produced film after the New Year period that did not lose money. Cut costs, increase efficiency, and continue to work hard.” Behind these words is a sense of helplessness and lamentation.
According to industry analysts, the rapid decline of the Chinese economy has led to a significant reduction in production costs and a substantial compression of the pay scale for top-tier movie stars, thus Feng Xiaogang’s description of “cutting costs and increasing efficiency” regarding “Facing the Sun·Flower.”
Industry insiders revealed that due to the downturn in the Chinese film industry, hundreds of thousands of actors in Beijing are unemployed or underemployed. The rate of film and television production is less than 10%, and the entertainment industry is facing an unprecedented cold winter.
On April 18, Huang Luling, an actress who had appeared in several niche domestic TV dramas, released a video saying, “I just chatted with my agent, and there is basically no work for actors in Beijing. There are very few opportunities to audition for roles, and I haven’t auditioned for a year, a whole year.”
Actor You Zhengxuan, with 15 years in the industry, revealed to the media that starting in 2024, directors and producers around him seemed to have “disappeared all of a sudden” and “stopped calling you for roles.”
He found that these familiar faces had gradually switched careers, with assistant directors becoming ski instructors, the advertising agents of the crew turning into scalpers selling tickets for concerts, and some even selling agricultural products…
Source: New Tang Dynasty