Chinese Cinemas Cash On Marvel Fans’ Passion for The Upcoming ‘Avengers: Endgame’

Avengers: Endgame is set to release in China on April 24 and Chinese Marvel fans have been expressing their eagerness to see the film by leaving comments on Marvel’s official Weibo account. Although the film’s ticket pre-sale hasn’t officially started on ticketing platforms such as Maoyan and Tao Piaopiao, many Chinese cinemas, including Wanda, BeStar Cinema, Novo United Films and Shanghai Lianhe Cinema Line, have started selling advanced tickets to the film’s opening screenings through their own on-site box office and WeChat accounts, which actually violate China’s regulations on movie ticketing. Pricing of the advanced tickets is also chaos. A ticket for a prime seat can be as high as RMB 300 ($45). In general, the average ticket price for an IMAX screening in China is in the range of RMB 40 – 80. Read more on entgroup.com

Who’s to Blame for the Weak March Box Office?

China’s March box office earnings decreased by RMB 977 million ($145.4 million) compared to the same period last year. While some people blame the rise of ticket price for the weak box office, data says otherwise. Data shows that the average price for a movie ticket went from RMB 34.9 (Jan.) to RMB 42.5 (Feb.) to 34.1 (Mar.), which means that ticket price went back to normal in March after the rise in February during Chinese new year holiday. It’s more likely that the films released in March were less appealing to Chinese moviegoers, which led to decrease in box office numbers. According to Mtime’s analysis, movie theaters in tier 3 and tier 4 cities suffer the most right now. Over the past few years, many movie theaters were built in tier 3 and tier 4 cities to make quick cash without fully considering surrounding environment, local demographics and standard of living. Read more on Mtime

Huayi Brothers Saw A $12.91 M Profit Loss in Q1

On April 9, Huayi Brothers’ stock price went up by 7.08%. On the same day, the company released its Q1 performance report and also announced that the company’s chairman Wang Zhongjun had decided to loan RMB 270 million ($40.19 million) to the company without interest. The performance report shows that Huayi Brothers had an estimated loss in net profit ranging from RMB 86.72 million ($12.91 million) to RMB 91.72 million ($13.65 million) during the reporting period. Last year, the company made RMB 259 million ($38.55 million) in net profit in Q1. In the report, the profit loss was attributed to the poor performance of the company’s films and TV shows released in Q1. Read more on zhipianrenneican