New cinemas attracting record crowds
January 30, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
If you wanted to watch the cartoon "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" in Minhang during last year's Spring Festival, you would only have three screens in one cinema from which to choose.
But in January of 2010, if you want to watch "Avatar" in Minhang, you now have 23 screens in four cinemas -- 2D, 3D, Chinese dubbing or original sound with subtitles ? you can choose what you like, including the prices which range from 35 yuan to 120 yuan.
Just within a year, the number of cinemas in Minhang District has risen at an incredible pace.
Last February 8, the Century Friendship Cinema in Meilong Town tripled its business area, and the number of screens has been doubled, from three to six, and facilities improved to a five-star standard.
Last April 30, a bigger five-star cinema -- Shanghai CGV Xingzhuang Cineplex -- opened to the public, able to hold 1,447 patrons in seven screens at the same time.
Last July 15, the four-screen Dadi Digital Cinema opened in Meilong Town, attracting audiences with its very low prices.
On December 24, La Rive Gauche Cinema, with six screens and 1,085 seats, was formally opened to the public, with facilities far beyond the national five-star standard.
Nowadays, these four cinemas attract about 5,000 patrons on average every day.
The expansion coincides with a time when the entire Chinese mainland movie market is in a rapid growth -- in 2009, the domestic box office reached over 6.2 billion yuan (US$908.3 million), 42.96 percent more than 2008.
The huge growth is expected to continue this year, possibly partly in response to current blockbuster "Avatar."
On January 4, Shanghai CGV and La Rive Gauche held a midnight premiere of "Avatar."
Although the second day was a working day, the attendance at CGV reached 100 percent, and over 70 percent for La Rive Gauche which had only been open for two weeks.
Even after the premiere was finished about 3am, some movie lovers wanted to buy tickets for the next performance to watch it again.
Looking through past years, three huge movies with much impressive box office were the happiest times for cinemas -- in 2009, movies such as "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf," "Transformer 2," "The Founding of People's Republic of China" and "2012" all broke through for a domestic box office of 100 million yuan.
When these movies were being screened, attendances would often reach 100 percent.
The Minhang box office champion of 2009 goes to Shanghai CGV. Located on the fourth floor of Zhongsheng Department Store, it only took eight months to hit a 16 million yuan box office and over 650,000 patrons.
Among all the 118 cinemas of Shanghai United Cinema Line, the city's leading chain, it ranks No. 4, which is an astonishing result for a newly opened cinema.
"It's pretty uncommon that a cinema could make profits in its first year," said one official of Shanghai CGV.
In the daily business of Shanghai CGV, membership plays a very important role. As a VIP member, you can enjoy the special discount and activities, and get feedback when you have collected enough consumer points. It's a complete set of membership rewards.
Before the formal opening, the cinema had already attracted about 30,000 VIP members through free screenings and effective community promotion.
The free concept is actually a brilliant move -- the cinema offered over 250 free shows two months before the opening, and all movies were new release, attracting over 50,000 patrons to view the new cinema.
During the free screenings, the cinema was also doing research and surveys and acquired a lot of information on daily work and rest time of local residents. All the information they've collected has been applied to arrange the schedules.
For example, the cinema learned from the free shows that there're many Japanese residents living in the area.
So when they put on the Japanese cartoon "Detective Conan: Raven Chaser," they manage to get the copy of original Japanese sound and Chinese subtitles, which are very few around cities in China.
With such efforts, at least 20 percent of the original "free audiences" have been their repeat customers after it formally opened.
For a district such as Minhang with highly developed communities but weak commercial circles, what those grand cinemas can bring is of course far more beyond the income of box office.
These four cinemas are all located in commercial circles -- the Century Friendship is opened in Friendship Store; Shanghai CGV is in Zhongsheng Store; La Rive Gauche is in Hongqiao Shopping Center; and Dadi Digital Cinema is in Metroplaza of Meilong Town.
The increasing popularity coming with the new cinemas is obviously more valuable for these regions.
For instance, on the night of the "Avatar" premiere, many restaurants around the cinemas doubled or even tripled their daily sales within a short time.
What can be expected is, such situations will happen repeatedly around the four cinemas in the following days, months and years.
But in January of 2010, if you want to watch "Avatar" in Minhang, you now have 23 screens in four cinemas -- 2D, 3D, Chinese dubbing or original sound with subtitles ? you can choose what you like, including the prices which range from 35 yuan to 120 yuan.
Just within a year, the number of cinemas in Minhang District has risen at an incredible pace.
Last February 8, the Century Friendship Cinema in Meilong Town tripled its business area, and the number of screens has been doubled, from three to six, and facilities improved to a five-star standard.
Last April 30, a bigger five-star cinema -- Shanghai CGV Xingzhuang Cineplex -- opened to the public, able to hold 1,447 patrons in seven screens at the same time.
Last July 15, the four-screen Dadi Digital Cinema opened in Meilong Town, attracting audiences with its very low prices.
On December 24, La Rive Gauche Cinema, with six screens and 1,085 seats, was formally opened to the public, with facilities far beyond the national five-star standard.
Nowadays, these four cinemas attract about 5,000 patrons on average every day.
The expansion coincides with a time when the entire Chinese mainland movie market is in a rapid growth -- in 2009, the domestic box office reached over 6.2 billion yuan (US$908.3 million), 42.96 percent more than 2008.
The huge growth is expected to continue this year, possibly partly in response to current blockbuster "Avatar."
On January 4, Shanghai CGV and La Rive Gauche held a midnight premiere of "Avatar."
Although the second day was a working day, the attendance at CGV reached 100 percent, and over 70 percent for La Rive Gauche which had only been open for two weeks.
Even after the premiere was finished about 3am, some movie lovers wanted to buy tickets for the next performance to watch it again.
Looking through past years, three huge movies with much impressive box office were the happiest times for cinemas -- in 2009, movies such as "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf," "Transformer 2," "The Founding of People's Republic of China" and "2012" all broke through for a domestic box office of 100 million yuan.
When these movies were being screened, attendances would often reach 100 percent.
The Minhang box office champion of 2009 goes to Shanghai CGV. Located on the fourth floor of Zhongsheng Department Store, it only took eight months to hit a 16 million yuan box office and over 650,000 patrons.
Among all the 118 cinemas of Shanghai United Cinema Line, the city's leading chain, it ranks No. 4, which is an astonishing result for a newly opened cinema.
"It's pretty uncommon that a cinema could make profits in its first year," said one official of Shanghai CGV.
In the daily business of Shanghai CGV, membership plays a very important role. As a VIP member, you can enjoy the special discount and activities, and get feedback when you have collected enough consumer points. It's a complete set of membership rewards.
Before the formal opening, the cinema had already attracted about 30,000 VIP members through free screenings and effective community promotion.
The free concept is actually a brilliant move -- the cinema offered over 250 free shows two months before the opening, and all movies were new release, attracting over 50,000 patrons to view the new cinema.
During the free screenings, the cinema was also doing research and surveys and acquired a lot of information on daily work and rest time of local residents. All the information they've collected has been applied to arrange the schedules.
For example, the cinema learned from the free shows that there're many Japanese residents living in the area.
So when they put on the Japanese cartoon "Detective Conan: Raven Chaser," they manage to get the copy of original Japanese sound and Chinese subtitles, which are very few around cities in China.
With such efforts, at least 20 percent of the original "free audiences" have been their repeat customers after it formally opened.
For a district such as Minhang with highly developed communities but weak commercial circles, what those grand cinemas can bring is of course far more beyond the income of box office.
These four cinemas are all located in commercial circles -- the Century Friendship is opened in Friendship Store; Shanghai CGV is in Zhongsheng Store; La Rive Gauche is in Hongqiao Shopping Center; and Dadi Digital Cinema is in Metroplaza of Meilong Town.
The increasing popularity coming with the new cinemas is obviously more valuable for these regions.
For instance, on the night of the "Avatar" premiere, many restaurants around the cinemas doubled or even tripled their daily sales within a short time.
What can be expected is, such situations will happen repeatedly around the four cinemas in the following days, months and years.
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