“Avatar: The Way of Water” (hereinfollowing referred to as “Avatar 2”), which is regarded as a lifeline at the box office, performed poorly in the Chinese market. The reasons includeRMB(The same below) The sky-high price of 300 yuan movie tickets has been questioned by consumers that “Avatar 2” has become a tool for some movie theaters to “cut leeks”. The spread of the epidemic has also made people afraid to go out.
“Chinese Entrepreneur” reported that since “Avatar 2” was finalized on November 23, the movie theater owner Wang Qi has been extremely excited every day, debugging equipment, preparing materials, recruiting part-time jobs, and pre-selling group purchases. He has never been idle for almost a day.
This year, Wang Qi’s theaters have not shown almost a single “blockbuster movie”, and with the spread of the epidemic, they are basically operating at a loss. Wang Qi regards “Avatar 2” as a life-saving straw, hoping that “Avatar 2” can create another myth at the box office and save the theater’s loss for a whole year.
However, “Avatar 2” was only released for three days, and Wang Qi’s hopes were almost shattered. On the day of the premiere of “Avatar 2” on December 16, he specially opened a 0 o’clock show, only to sell three tickets, and 16 On the 17th, 18th, the total sales were only more than 3,000 yuan. “These three days are not even as good as “Lonely Moon” sold in one day.”
As of December 18, “Avatar 2” had a Douban score of 8.4, and the cumulative box office exceeded 400 million, including 200 million from pre-sales and screenings. For ordinary movies, this seems to be a pretty good result, but for “Avatar”, which once created the myth of film history, it is far below expectations.
“Avatar”, released in 2009, is a myth in the minds of all movie fans. The film directed by James Cameron has been the global box office champion for ten years with a box office of 3 billion US dollars, and it has also become the first strong film in China to break through the 1 billion box office.
High ticket prices and the epidemic have become dual factors to dissuade audiences. In movie theaters in the central areas of first-tier cities, the ticket price for the IMAX special effects hall of “Avatar 2” is mostly around 200 yuan, and some are even as high as 300 yuan or more. In some counties, the ticket price for ordinary halls is also 50 or 60 yuan, while the price for IMAX special effects halls is hundreds of yuan.
Some viewers complained: “Watching a movie for two, with popcorn and Coca-Cola, the small thousand yuan is gone, and I don’t look down on it at all.”
The sky-high price of movie tickets, which cost two or three hundred yuan, has also been questioned by the audience whether “Avatar 2” has become a tool for some movie theaters to “cut leeks”.
An industry insider said that behind the “sky-high ticket price” is a “collusion” of movie theaters.
According to the source, on the eve of the release of “Avatar 2”, the movie theater specially adjusted the names of some “old and small” ordinary halls, such as changing it to “4K Laser Hall”, and the ticket price immediately doubled, but the equipment and screens did not change at all.
The “Avatar” series is famous for its technological innovation. Many viewers would rather pay more to watch special effects halls than ordinary halls. This has given many movie theaters room to operate.
“In an ordinary old hall, adding Dolby sound effects, laser, giant screen, panorama, 4K, original version and other keywords that sound “high-end” can increase the price a lot.” The person said, these are all A routine that the industry knows well.
As the epidemic spreads in China, many people have become the first wave of people infected with the new crown, and they are resting at home. Some temporarily “safe” people are more cautious than before, and dare not go to crowded closed places such as movie theaters.
Wang Qi said that if there are more than a certain number of people for each session, other people will not dare to buy tickets. A viewer said that in the usual way, she would definitely choose the middle position in the fifth and sixth rows, which is recognized as the best viewing position, but now she only dares to choose the corner seat, the farther away from the crowd the better.
At the same time, the refund rate is higher than in the past. Many viewers who bought pre-sale tickets said that they had symptoms of cold and fever on the same day and asked for a refund. Wang Qi said: “Originally movie tickets were non-refundable or non-exchangeable, but in view of the special period, we will handle all applications for refunds.”