Movie ticket prices during the Spring Festival suddenly increased, and the Consumers Association pointed out that this is like drinking poison to quench thirst

The Spring Festival period has always been a hot spot for major film companies and cinemas to make money, but friends who bought movie tickets during this year's Spring Festival will definitely feel it deeply. This year's movie tickets are much more expensive than in previous years!

according to Data from the Lighthouse Professional Edition of previous Spring Festival periods show that as of 9:00 a.m. on January 30, the average ticket price for the 2022 Spring Festival period was 58.6 yuan, nearly 20% more expensive than in 2021 and about 31% more expensive than in 2019. Among them, the average ticket price for "The Battle of Changjin Lake" reached more than 60 yuan, the highest level since 2017.

Recently, the China Consumers Association released the "Spring Festival Consumer Rights Protection Public Opinion Analysis Report" , which pointed out the phenomenon of excessively high movie ticket prices during the Spring Festival period.

The China Consumers Association pointed out that during the monitoring period, a total of 205,819 pieces of negative information about "movies" were collected. Daily public opinion complaints mainly focused on ticket prices. The overall trend of public opinion was low on both sides and high in the middle. The relevant negative information reached a peak on February 3 (the third day of the first lunar month).

After last year's Spring Festival ticket prices were widely complained about, the average ticket prices for this year's Spring Festival hit a new high. Many consumers who wanted to watch movies were discouraged by the high ticket prices.

Regarding the high ticket prices, some industry insiders bluntly stated that due to the impact of the epidemic, the operating conditions of theaters have been poor in the past two years. Many periods in the middle of the year lack high-quality films to attract audiences. The importance of the Spring Festival period has become increasingly prominent, and some regions are facing epidemic disturbances. The attendance rate is limited to 50%. Theaters have to resort to price increases to maintain daily operations.

The consequences of the skyrocketing ticket prices have already shown up in the box office on the second day of the Chinese New Year. It has plummeted, 500 million yuan less than last year. It is the first time in the past four years that it has been below 1 billion yuan. The number of moviegoers has dropped even more terribly, 10 million less than in 2018.

Behind the heated public opinion on social media about "the most expensive Spring Festival period in history, ticket prices are ridiculously expensive" is the fact that the gradually increasing demand for cultural consumption has been suppressed and blocked to a certain extent.

The structural problems of oversupply of screens and shortage of content in the film market, as well as the multiple real challenges of epidemic fluctuations and policy impacts, have forced theaters to alleviate the dilemma of tight cash flow by raising ticket prices. This may be understandable from the perspective of short-term loss-making in the industry, but the fact that the number of moviegoers has generally decreased and the frequency of moviegoing has continued to decline shows that relying solely on ticket prices is tantamount to draining the pond to catch fish and drinking poison to quench thirst.

Seeking a balance between the dependence of cinema profit paths and the reasonable tolerance range of consumers, and seeking a virtuous interaction between the long-term and healthy development of the industry and the quality upgrade of cultural consumption, requires continuous research and exploration by relevant industries and departments.