E-releases of films change eyeball game

The recent New House Guest Report VR, a spin-off from popular sitcom iPartment, allowed its audiences to actually visit the apartment shown in the film, by scrolling on iQiyi's VR app and iQiyi's VR devices.

A recent episode allowed audiences to customize endings to the story by clicking buttons offering different choices at certain points in the story.

Amid all this online buzz, cinemas across China continue their months-long struggle for survival.

Wang Zheng, general manager of MianyangZhonghuan Culture Communications, which owns eight cinemas and manages 22 others across China, said the firm is facing great challenges as monthly payments toward rent, equipment, and wages have to be made in spite of little revenue.

In January, the firm may have lost about 10 million yuan in box-office receipts, 1.8 million yuan in sales of food, beverages, and film derivative products, and about 12 million yuan in advertising revenue, Wang estimated.

During the same period, about 600,000 yuan had to be paid toward rent, about 700,000 yuan in wages, about 400,000 yuan for utilities, and about 100,000 yuan for laser equipment.

And to think MianyangZhonghuan is a mid-size firm. Cinema giants, the established players in the field who had made huge investments, face bigger losses.

For instance, in the first quarter, Wanda Film reported to have lost 600 million yuan. Huayi Brothers said it lost 143 million yuan. Jinyi Media reported a loss of 153 million yuan. Both Wanda Film and Huayi Brothers announced they have planned the development of their online businesses.

Wei Pengju, director of the Institute of Cultural Economics at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, said the battle for eyeballs between cinemas and online video-streaming platforms had started long ago, but the coronavirus outbreak has intensified it now.

"Certainly cinemas have advantages like better audio and image quality, but that part is increasingly challenged by evolving technologies like home cinema and improved projection systems that can be linked to phones and laptops," Wei said.

He said the boom in online video-streaming platforms is not just a short-term phenomenon resulting from the pandemic; it may well continue into the future.

"Going forward, cinema operators may need to consider diversifying their revenue sources to include on-demand film services, VR video-watching experiences, and also consider by-products or services like sales via both online and offline channels, to save themselves from pandemic-related losses, and to learn to survive," Wei said.