(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-08-25 11:25

Restructuring China's theater chains is needed to meet people's demand for movie consumption, said a signed article in Shenzhen Business Daily. An excerpt follows:

Many people were injured in the mayhem caused by the sale of eight yuan movie tickets in Hangzhou earlier this month. This reflects common people's enthusiastic demand for low-price movie tickets.

Many commentators have criticized theater operators for setting high ticket prices. Some said that rising ticket prices is the major reasons for the shrinking box-office revenues. Decreased revenues have led to insufficient input in the movie industry.

Such an analysis seems reasonable but actually the crux lies more in the irrational structure of theater chains than high prices.

Movie theaters were all the rage two or three decades ago, when televisions were not popular, but they lost their glamor when Chinese people's recreational activities diversified.

After years of struggle, deluxe movie theaters began popping up. The operators have turned theaters into places for high-end leisure and tapped the new concept of up-market movie consumption. And such upper-bracket theaters are making good money by targeting high-end consumers.

A healthy movie industry should have a rational structure that is composed by high-, medium- and low-end parts aiming at different consumption levels.

Now the high-end market has taken the lead in development while the medium- and low-end reaches of movie showing are still underdeveloped. There will also be good economic results if the empty fields get filled. For example, a Shenzhen-based Yatu digital theatre chain has lowered ticket prices to five yuan each and is still making a profit.