Although it has the second largest number of movie screens in the world, and there will be more than 12,000 screens in the future, China is still the main region with the most lack of screens in the world in terms of the number of screens per capita. The average population in the United States is about 7,800 people who own a big screen, compared to one screen for every 112,000 people in China. In China, there are many cities with a population of 500,000 to 1 million that do not even have a modern movie screen. If you want to compete with the United States in terms of per capita ownership, then China will have to open another 160,000 screens.

Because most of the comprehensive cinemas in China were built around 10 years ago, their cinema facilities are very modern and technologically advanced. More than 10,000 of the 12,000 large screens are digitally projected, and about 7,000 are equipped with 3D technology. Domestically, 45 commercial film chains operate about 3,300 cinemas, 2,200 of which carry out daily box office reporting.

Overall, by the first six months of 12 years, there will be 1,286 theaters that have generated box office sales of more than one million yuan, and about 100 movie theaters have sold more than one million dollars in the first half of the year.

Earlier in '13, before the new WTO Memorandum of Understanding was concluded, imported films eligible for revenue sharing would only receive between 13% and about 17.5% of their total box office receipts, depending on the actual cost of the film's production. The "total box office receipts" are determined by the relevant departments.

Needless to say, this data must be relatively small, and one of the big reasons is that there are a lot of concealments in domestic cinemas. Before the WTO memorandum of understanding was reached, if a part of the Hollywood film box office revenue was less than 45 million yuan, it would receive only 13% of the reported revenue. Those films with a total revenue of more than 45 million yuan will receive 17.5%. After the WTO memorandum of understanding is reached, only the film can directly receive 25% of the total box office revenue.

And it's not easy to release movies in China.

The release time of each film is determined by the government office under the General Directorate of Guang Mat. The final version of a film is subject to the approval of the Film Board before it is released on a release date. After approval, the distributor submitted the film to the Film Screening and Distribution Association for a release date. There are multiple negotiations between distributors, exhibitors, associations and sometimes even film bureaus about the screening date.

The film is only officially scheduled after the association issues the corresponding screening permit and notice, and the schedule may not be finalized until a few days before the film's release. The bigger a film is, the more difficult it is to get approved and prioritized quickly, especially when it comes to bringing in films. The big Hollywood studios had to go along with the scheduling process, and they couldn't say anything because they weren't the distributors. In the case of foreign buyouts, local distributors play a limited role, while in the case of local films, local distributors have more influence over the scheduling of their films.

Upon approval by the Film Bureau, the film will be dubbed, subtitled and copied by a specific local studio. Foreign film studios are required to pay for this service for the introduction of shared-share films, and in the case of buyouts, this fee is usually paid by the local distributor. In the country, most of the marketing campaigns for movies begin at this stage. There's no point in spending money on marketing until the movie schedule is set. This process often results in less time to market a film domestically than in most other regions.

Twelve years ago, most films were still distributed in the form of physical feature copies. But since the early 12 years, copying has become less and less common, mainly because almost all theaters now only do digital projection. Each copy costs 10,000 yuan for a soft sister coin, which has been eliminated because it is too expensive. Low-budget buyouts typically have limited availability, but thanks to the lower release costs of digital distribution, it is now possible for these low-budget buyouts to be released more widely.

In the heyday of physical copies, a single large-scale screening often meant hundreds of sample copies. The largest physical copy screening, Transformers 2, made almost 700 copies. In the future, a large-scale screening could cover more than 2,200 theaters. Fewer than 1,000 theaters are still showing physical copies, mostly old single-screen cinemas, which are usually only shown for a few days or weeks after the first digital version, so they don't contribute much to a film's total revenue. Of all the imported films in 12 years, almost none of them used copying, except for 4 non-digital IMAX versions of The Dark Knight Rises.

A digital copy of a film can only be dropped if the theater has the proper digital key. All keys are issued and managed by China Film Group. Keys expire every 15 days. Typically, the key to a blockbuster film can be extended and enjoy the first major release on 30 days, which is usually followed by a 2-week limited release extension. Sometimes, a film with strong support factors can get two or more extensions. For example, "Mission: Impossible 4" has been in the top 10 for as long as 7 weeks. The film ran for 64 days from January 28 to March 31. Together with "Inception", this film became the longest-running film after "Avatar".

"Mission Impossible 4" had a good reputation, which made it a six-fold box office after its record opening weekend. But "Avatar" is the king of the box office double. Since its release on January 4, 10, the film is still being screened in several theaters until May. Individual theaters are even showing the film in November 10.

Broadly speaking, Hollywood studios pay for the marketing and advertising costs of films shown in domestic theaters, while China Film or Huaxia pays for the copies. However, in order to protect local films, studios are only allowed to run limited advertising campaigns on the Internet and in outdoor venues. Direct TV advertising of Hollywood movies is not allowed, and this is precisely the most effective way to promote the film in the country. And because TV commercials are relatively too expensive for local movies, it is rare to see local movies on TV. The most common way to market a film in China is through Internet advertising and advertising in cinemas.

As of Zhou Fangyuan's rebirth, the largest marketing campaigns belong to "Avatar", "Transformers 3" and "Titanic 3D Edition".

Outdoor banners or billboards from major Hollywood movies can often be seen in urban areas with high foot and traffic traffic. While it is not possible to play commercials on cable TV, studios such as Sony often show movie clips on advertising screens inside the subway. According to the report, when promoting "Men in Black 3", it costs about 800,000 yuan to do such an advertisement in 2 weeks.

As for box office reports, there are currently only 3 regular box office reporting channels in China, but their data is very limited, not very accurate, and not very authoritative. In the previous life, the major domestic film websites have been reporting the top 10 rankings of the week since 08, claiming that their data was obtained from organizations under the General Administration of Guangdian or the Film Bureau. Box office data can also be found every Tuesday on Weibo, the country's most popular social media.

The numbers for the various reporting channels are often slightly different from each other. So, which number should prevail? Each of them can be used as a guideline, because at the end of the day all the numbers reported are just estimates. The raw data they reported came from the Office of the National Film Industry Development Special Fund Management Committee, because only the Special Fund Office has daily and weekly raw box office data.

The Special Fund Office has a nationwide cinema computer ticketing and counting system, covering most commercial cinemas in the country. However, for a long time, only 674 theaters with the best sales were subject to the system's real-time recording. This part can generally cover 70% of a movie's total box office revenue. More than a thousand other theaters can report on end-of-day or next-day box office sales. At noon on the second day, there are usually about 1,900 to 2,200 theaters that have reported the previous day's box office, and by this time, a film has reported 95%-97% of the box office. The rest comes from hundreds of other theaters that report on a weekly or even monthly basis.

Unfortunately, the Office of Dedicated Funding does not do any weekly/daily reporting itself, although they offer paid subscriptions to some media outlets.

The weekly box office report is based entirely on data from the Office of Special Funds. And given that the reports of the film website seem to be the most accurate, the number of them used here, if necessary, is sometimes supplemented by other sources.

While there are still some theaters that are not included in the dedicated funds office, the share data provided to studios and distributors is derived from the dedicated fund calculations. For example, the actual box office revenue of a film when it goes offline may be 105 million yuan, but only 97 million yuan is reported in the 105 million after this round of screenings. The 97 million will be shared by special funds, distributors, and projectors with foreign studios.

In 3 months, another 5 million may be reported, and the 5 million will be shared in the same way. If any additional income is found, it will be re-divided. In the end, if the figure reported by the special fund is only 103 million, then 103 million will be the final box office figure of the film, that is, the accounting data. In this long-term phase, 2 million yuan evaporated. Again, take Avatar as an example, no one really knows how much money evaporated in this way. Generally conservative estimates, the amount of loss is as high as 200 million yuan.

In general, only some people in China have full access to the special fund data system. Many local film distributors also have access to the system, but only for their own films.

The branch office of Hollywood film studios in Huaxia does not have access to special fund reports. The only way for them to confirm the data reported to them by China Film or Huaxia is to check every cinema and chain in their area. In addition to the special funds, there is another national box office statistics agency: the Huaxia Film Distribution and Projection Association.

The association's box office statistics are based on voluntary reports from exhibitors, even those theaters that do not have computerized sales systems, but their reports can take months. As a result, the association's figures are usually slightly higher than those for special funds. However, the association does not publish weekly data, only monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and annual data. Official year-end reports often use association data, rather than data reported to studios, distributors, or exhibitors in the dedicated fund calculation reports. For example, if the special fund says that The Dark Knight Rises is 329 million yuan and the association's final figure is 345 million yuan, then it is 329 million that matters to Warner Bros., because they will ultimately get a share based on this number.

Deficiencies in the cinema distribution and accounting system are widely acknowledged by domestic cinema operators, distributors and filmmakers, and the General Administration seems to take these issues very seriously. However, until Zhou Fangyuan's rebirth, Huaxia has only been in the modern cinema industry for a few years, and it is still making steady improvements. It remains to be seen whether these improvements will ultimately benefit foreign film suppliers.

Zhou Fangyuan is very confident in the domestic film market, and he is also full of confidence in the development of the cinema chain, after all, he is a reborn person, and he knows the future development situation very well.

To say a simple number, in 2018, the national film box office revenue was 60.976 billion yuan, far surpassing Fusang, second only to Mi, and firmly occupying the second largest film market in the world.

What makes Chinese people suddenly love watching movies?

People must be able to think for the first time that the Chinese people must have money in their pockets and meet their basic material needs, which will naturally escalate to spiritual needs.

This judgment is certainly not wrong, but it is not comprehensive. In fact, in the 80s and 90s of the last century, when the country first opened, the cultural products faced by the Chinese people were far less dazzling and strange than the current ones, but they were also rich and diverse, and movies were only one of the many cultural products. Martial arts, Western classics, pop music, karaoke...... can be described as leading the way, and the movie is not a particularly prominent category.

Why in recent years, movies and TV series have repeatedly become big IPs, and the release of a movie can become the central topic of street and online social networking?

We may need more evidence to look at the country that can provide a longer time horizon for our observations – the United States.

Do you know when the rice film market is the most popular?

During the economic crisis.

In the 30s of the last century, during the Great Depression, there were only 15,000 theaters in the United States, but they contributed $700 million to the box office. At that time, the price of a movie ticket was $0.1 to $0.15, which meant that the average family in the United States spent $25 on watching a movie at that time. During the Great Depression, every family in the United States watched 150 to 250 movies a year! When the economic situation was bad, people were willing to spend more money on "cheap non-essential goods," a phenomenon called the "lipstick effect" in the economics circles.

This economic theory believes that every time the economy is in a downturn, a series of changes will occur in consumers' shopping psychology and consumption behavior, resulting in the hot sale of cheap cosmetics and cultural products such as lipstick.

This phenomenon was not only seen during the Great Depression, but also by Estee Lauder's marketing data after the 9/11 attacks. And 5 of the 7 economic crises that the United States has experienced in recent times happen to be the boom period of the film market. The sudden rise of the entertainment industry in Nanxian is also in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, and these cases are not all coincidences. The reason for this is that during the economic downturn, people do not have more financial resources to spend on investment and bulk consumption, and in order to seek comfort and kill more free time, they will spend more on cheap consumer goods and entertainment and cultural consumption.

The financial crisis that broke out in 08 was the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in the last century. This unprecedented crisis wiped out $13 trillion, or 20 percent of the country's household assets.

However, a survey data from Nielsen shows that in the third quarter of '08, people in the United States watched TV 5 hours more than the same period in '07, with an average of 142 hours per month. A U.S. family spends 8 hours and 18 minutes a day in front of the TV, breaking Nielsen's record for viewing time since the '50s.

At that time, it was commented that the people of the United States had never loved watching TV as much as they do now.

Of course, the domestic situation is different, and it has little to do with the economic crisis, not to mention other reasons here, just to say the development of this market, which makes Zhou Fangyuan full of confidence.