My Forbidden Kingdom For A Screen!
As mentioned in the previous blog post, China has a total population in excess of 1.3 billion individuals - one billion more people than there are in the entire United States of America (1,322,000,000 vs. 303,000,000 estimated as of 2008). But there is a HUGE disparity between the number of people in China and the number of available movie screens. The U.S. boasts nearly 39,000 movie screens across the country. And how many movie screens does China have? Barely 3,900. 3,900 movie screens for 1.3 billion people! Let’s think about this for a moment. Despite having a population four times that of the U.S., China has merely one-tenth the number of screens. This works out as a screen-to-viewer ratio of approximately 1:7,800 in the U.S. vs. approximately 1:339,000 in China. Talk about an untapped market!
Another factor to consider is that the national Chinese per capita income as of 2006 was just around $2000 USD. Even when increased to $3500 USD in urban areas (as indicated in a subsequent 2008 study), this is still far below the U.S. average per capita income which exceeds $38,000 USD. Yet the average theater admission in the United States is only $7 USD (sorry, residents of Los Angeles and NYC) while in China movie tickets are priced at an average of $70 RMB: more than $10 USD. This additional disparity represents a hefty entertainment commitment for most Chinese families looking for a night out, and may go some way towards explaining the popularity of pirated DVDs on the mainland. Why pay more than $40 USD for your family to watch “Kung Fu Panda”, when you can view it repeatedly for a dollar? This is not to justify content piracy, but it certainly makes the phenomenon more “gettable”.
Cultural mores also make a contribution to the problem. Decades ago many Chinese watched movies for free, especially in rural areas and no doubt due to the “instructional value” of the medium at that time - a didactic approach to filmmaking that the Chinese are only now beginning to snap out of, after watching their lunch being eaten by creators of more entertaining content. Yet even today in modern China, going to the cinema is still seen by many as a luxury - especially at the current price point.
The prescription for China:
- Build more theaters
- Reduce admission prices
- Create more compelling content
- Allow more foreign films into the marketplace
- Distribute more Chinese films on the international stage
And not necessarily in that order. Making films that people actually want to SEE is certainly a good place to start. If you must dispense medicine, at the very least do so with a spoonful of sugar. 
And since personal bests are almost always improved by stiff competition, it doesn’t hurt to run alongside the “big boys” in the marketplace. This means letting more foreign films IN, and getting more Chinese films OUT. Finally, leverage upon China’s incredible population advantage by showing more films on more screens for less money per person, but greater revenue on the whole.
Tapping the Chinese film market to the fullest will take a revolution in storytelling, movie-making, financing and distribution… but then again, China knows a little something about revolutions.
Tags: China, film distribution, film industry, movie screens, movie theaters, United States