November 5, the movie price drops to five yuan in Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan Province. According to the "discount period" policy initiated by the Emei Film Company, since then Chengdu's people can enjoy any film, no matter Chinese or foreign films, for only five yuan in 10 days.
The Emei Film Company's practice arouses dramatic response. The public shows different opinions; the media reports it one by one; the local people cannot help being delighted and excited. Just like somebody throwing a stone into dead water, the price-cut inactivates the long slack domestic film market and causes deep pondering.
In an interview last week, an official from the Film Issuing Company of China expressed his opinion: film is a public art. The common objective of the film industry is to invite as many watchers as possible to go to the cinema.
"We love you, five-yuan-ticket!"This is what the Chengdu residents wrote on a banner in front of a local cinema, which speaks out the true feeling of the audience.
There is a vivid parable popular among the local people: "To the working-class citizens like us, a movie cost 25 yuan sounds like horror movie; 15 yuan like war movie; and 5 yuan like comedy."
According to the statistics of the Emei Film Company, in 10 days before the price-cut, 11 cinemas gained 180,000 yuan in total, 18,000 yuan per day. But after the discount announcement, the box office income of the 11 cinemas rose to 642,575 yuan, more than 70,000 yuan each day. The cinemas welcomed 128,515 audiences during that period.
Zhao Guoqing, the president of the Emei Film Company which lead the price-cut, believes five-yuan-ticket wins both box office and popularity.
Setting a reasonable film price and attracting more audience can promote China to develop into the second largest film market in the world. This should be a good news to the Chinese people and cinemas.
(21DNN 12/05/2000)
