The Zhitong Finance App learned that the 8-day “Longest Spring Festival in History” has finally come to an end. The National Film Administration released data on February 18. China's 2024 Spring Festival movie box office reached 8,016 billion yuan, setting a new Spring Festival box office record, with 163 million viewers. Up to now, the 2024 Spring Festival program has set many new records for the box office, number of movie viewers, and number of movies watched during the Spring Festival in Chinese film history. In recent years, local films have improved markedly in terms of quality and box office, and the popularity of the Spring Festival program is likely to further boost the development of the film industry. Related subjects: Maoyan Entertainment (01896), Reading Group (00772), Alibaba Pictures (01060), IMAXCHINA (01970).

Specifically, in terms of individual movies, out of the 8 movies in the Spring Festival this year, the four movies “Hot and Hot,” “Life at the Speed 2,” “When Bears Came: Reversing Time and Space,” and “Article 20,” were far ahead in terms of box office, schedule, and attention. Among them, “Bears Show: Reversing Time and Space” produced in Guangdong became the box office winner of the Spring Festival cartoon in Chinese film history. “Article 20” directed by Zhang Yimou became the box office winner of the Spring Festival family film in Chinese film history.

It is worth noting that the 2024 Spring Festival program not only achieved impressive market data, but also received a good reputation. Chinese Film Audience Satisfaction Survey - According to the 2024 Spring Festival survey results, the audience satisfaction score for the Spring Festival program was 85.9, ranking second among the 9 Spring Festival programs surveyed since 2015. Among the 8 films surveyed, 4 of the 8 films surveyed were “Flying Fast and Furious”, “Hot and Hot”, and “Bears Incurred · Reversing Time and Space” with over 85 points.

Professor Yin Hong of Tsinghua University believes that the key to the excellent results of the Spring Festival program is that the market has strong supply and demand. In particular, the supply side provides the audience with diverse choices. Films with diverse themes and a rich variety of genres meet the needs of different audiences. The survey results also showed that the content matrix for this year's Spring Festival high-quality movies effectively boosted the atmosphere of watching movies and discussions. 90.3% of ordinary viewers thought that the space to choose to watch movies on a schedule was “very good” or “relatively good.”

During the Spring Festival festival, many viewers posted movie ticket stamps in their circle of friends, saying they had to “grab” movie tickets to buy them. The market is hot. On the one hand, it comes from supply-side efforts, and on the other hand, it also comes from measures to benefit the people launched by the film authorities to promote the upgrading of film consumption.

Relevant data shows that the average ticket price for this year's Spring Festival program has dropped significantly compared to last year. On the eve of the Spring Festival, in order to consolidate and enhance the positive trend of the film industry and further promote film consumption, the Film Administration, together with relevant departments of the People's Bank of China, guided 11 financial institutions to release preferential Spring Festival movie viewing initiatives, and invested more than 30 million yuan in digital renminbi movie consumption subsidies during the Spring Festival holiday. Through full cuts, vouchers, and digital red envelopes, etc., it brought real discounts to movie consumption such as ticket purchases.

Chen Jin, a data analyst at Lighthouse Professional Edition, said that the average ticket price for the Spring Festival program this year is less than 50 yuan, which is a significant reduction from last year's Spring Festival program. The subsidies on this year's ticketing platforms were quite strong during the pre-sale period. The actual ticket prices for many viewers were significantly more affordable compared to previous Spring Festival programs. This also made going to the cinema to be a cost-effective entertainment consumption option for the Spring Festival program.

The popularity of the Spring Festival box office is actually no accident. Looking back at history, judging from the overall situation in the film and television industry, the overall recovery trend of the domestic film market in 2023 is obvious. According to the data, the total box office of national movies in 2023 was 54.915 billion yuan (including service fees), up 83.5% from 2022, up 16.76% from 2021, and achieved a cumulative total of 1,299 billion moviegoers, up 82.56% from 2022 and 11.31% from 2021; the average ticket price was 42.27 yuan, up 0.45% from 2022 and 4.91% higher than 2021.

According to the Wanlian Securities Research Report, cinemas will all resume operations in 2023, and policies and measures to expand domestic demand and promote consumption will continue to gain strength. As an important scene for offline consumption, movies are showing a good recovery trend.

Judging from the overall development trend of the industry, the Everbright Securities Research Report points out that China's film market is still in the recovery stage, and it is expected that more high-quality films will be archived one after another after the stock list is released. According to the China Galaxy Securities Research Report, there is no change in the recovery and development trend of the film industry in 2024, and there is still room for the film market to continue to recover and grow.

Related concept stocks:

Maogan Entertainment (01896): The 2024 Spring Festival “Article 20” box office forecast is 1,88—2.1 billion yuan. The film is mainly controlled by Light Media and directed by Zhang Yimou. Light Media and Maogan Entertainment are the same actual controllers.

Reading Group (00772): The producers of “Hot and Hot and Hot” include Xinli Media, a subsidiary of Reading Wen.

Alibaba Pictures (01060): Producers of “Hot and Hot” include Xinli Media, a subsidiary of Reading Wen; China Film, Alibaba Pictures, Tianjin Yuewen Film and Television Culture Media, and Beijing Dabuan Entertainment Culture Media.

IMAXCHINA (01970): The global IMAX cinema network is an important film distribution platform for Hollywood movies. IMAX theaters use proprietary IMAX, IMAX3D, and IMAXDMR technologies to provide the world's top movie experience.