Chinese New Year Box Office Ruined by High Price and Piracy?
This year’s Chinese new year box office charts look quite different every day. On day three, science-fiction film The Wandering Earth finally overtook Crazy Alien to become the daily box office winner. The screen share of The Wandering Earth has also been increased from 11.5% to 30.3%. Cumulatively, 8 Chinese new year films earned 3.34 billion yuan in ticket sales during the first three days, a slight increase compared to last year’s 3.25 billion . However, a closer look at the box office charts shows that the overall increase was caused by day one’s strong openings and the rise of ticket price. Box office numbers of day two and day three are actually lower compared to last year. The number of moviegoers also went down year-over-year. What’s more concerning is that pirated copies have started to appear on the internet. As ticket price went up significantly, audiences now have one more reason to stay at home and watch pirated copies online. Read more on dushe
Maoyan Strengthens Market Positing During Chinese New Year
Chinese movie ticketing company Maoyan is undoubtedly a star during this Chinese new year. On February 4, the day before 2019 lunar new year, the company launched its $250 million Hong Kong IPO. In addition, Maoyan is involving in seven of the this year’s Spring Festival films. It is a producer and distributor of Han Han’s Pegasus, a co-producer and co-distributor of The Wandering Earth, Integrity and Bonnie Bears: Blast into the Past, and a co-producer of The New King of Comedy. It also provides promotional support to Crazy Alien and The Knight of Shadows between Yin and Yang. In addition to implementing various marketing tactics on its ticketing app, Maoyan also promotes Chinese new year films through various campaigns on its WeChat mini-program, which was launched last year and gained over 150 million followers within a year. Read more on yuledujiaoshou
Another Chinese Homegrown Sci-Fi film Unveiled
With the positive buzz generated by The Wandering Earth, more of homegrown Sci-Fi productions have attracted increasing attention. One of the examples is Shanghai Fortress, an upcoming Sci-Fi war film based on the novel of the same name by author Jiang Nan.The film recently has released a 30-second teaser, which set to be screened in front of The Wandering Earth in theatre. Directed by Teng Huatao, and starring Lu Han and Shu Qi, Shanghai Fortress tells a story of the metropolitan defending itself against an invasion from aliens. It is scheduled for release this summer, but no date has been announced. Read more on yiqipaidianying
