China's box office saw an 18% fall in sales despite increase in film releases

In July, China’s box office saw a fall of 18% from last year, despite a 50% increase of movie releases in the first half of the year. Observers have said that memberships to online video sites as well as ticket prices and a preference for foreign blockbusters are responsible for this fall in revenue.
Miracles previously seen at the Chinese movie box office have started to falter in recent months.

The summer months are usually when domestic films are able to sweep across cinemas and take in a small fortune.

However, in July, China's movie ticket sales only reached 4.5 billion yuan, or around 680 million US dollars, an 18% drop from last year.

The fall in revenues has come despite a 50% increase in the number of new releases during the first half of the year and a strong performance during the early months of the year.

Wu Hehu, a manager at the Time Antaeus Cinema Group, offers some insight.

"Last year China saw over 8,000 new screens being set up, that's almost like a new one every hour. So the production teams felt that they needed to bring on more new films as well. But with more and more movies released at the same time, each one will have a smaller audience. It only takes three days to decide whether a film will succeed in the market, and after another week, you see another batch of new movies being released. Every Friday we could have seven or eight new movies."

Meanwhile, people say factors such as online distribution channels, taste in movies and ticket prices seem to have also affected overall ticket sales.

"I've bought the membership of an online video website, so I can watch movies every month. Basically they put new ones up just one or two months after they were aired on the big screen, so it's pretty fast."

"I don't really expect much from this year's domestic movies. I prefer foreign blockbusters, and I sometimes watch them online."

"Ticket prices are going up. A few years ago, theaters would offer big discounts, but now there aren't many. At least that's what's happening in Shanghai."

China's box office receipts last year reached 50 billion yuan, or 7.5 billion US dollars.

Many have been hoping that the figure could reach 60 billion yuan this year. However, industry experts say the market will be lucky just to maintain last year's performance.