Less than one-third of more than 6,000 theaters can change their tickets, and the trend is blocked and there are many difficulties

In fact, the number of cinemas across the country has exceeded 6000, and only a small number of cinemas can accept movie ticket refunds and changes. It seems unrealistic at present to fully implement refunds and changes. Movie ticket refunds and changes are just what the audience needs. Why is it so difficult to promote it?

. Nowadays, online shopping can be "unconditionally refunded within 7 days", and group buying can also be "unconditionally returned". However, movie tickets have long followed the iron industry rule of "once sold, no refund will be made", which has become a pain point in the hearts of audiences. Not long ago, the Cat's Eye Booking APP platform launched a free online movie ticket change service in some theaters, which was originally very satisfying. However, if movie ticket refunds and changes want to be fully realized, there are still many obstacles, and industry insiders have even poured cold water on it.

Eighty percent of the audience's pain points complained about the inability to change tickets

. Before Internet platforms intervened in ticketing, according to traditional habits, audiences would go to theaters to buy tickets directly to watch movies. They rarely purchased tickets in advance, and cinemas would not sell tickets for the next day in advance. But the situation has changed greatly now. The Internet has fully intervened in the film industry, and e-commerce ticket sales have grown rapidly. The vast majority of movie tickets are sold through online ticket sales platforms. The proportion of online ticket sales for the Spring Festival this year exceeded 80%. However, most cinemas still mark that they will not be refunded or replaced after purchasing tickets.

In fact, there are a large number of cases where audiences want to refund or change movie tickets due to temporary matters. According to the relevant person in charge of Cat's Eye, the product and service planning for the Cat's Eye movie ticket online change function began in the second half of 2015."We found that platform data shows that in customer feedback, the proportion of complaints that movie tickets cannot be changed is as high as 80%, and among refund users, a very high proportion of users will purchase tickets again. Therefore, we feel that it is necessary to change movie tickets online. This is a real pain point for users and a user just needs it."

Therefore, Cat Eye officially established a project before the National Day last year and started product development. After three months of development and testing, it launched an online movie ticket change service at the beginning of this year, and gradually received support from nearly 2000 domestic theaters. However, according to Cat's Eye's online change rules, there are certain restrictions on the change time range, which is generally within 30 minutes to 3 hours before the opening, which depends on the respective operating needs of different theaters; in addition, the change is not a refund. You need to change your ticket to another show within 24 hours, and you must also watch the movie at this theater. Otherwise, this movie ticket will be invalid.

Different from online ticket changes on the Cat Eye platform, other e-commerce companies such as Guevara and Weipiao have cooperated with nearly 2000 theaters in Dadi and CGV to launch a "refundable" service, which stipulates that refunds must be made two hours before the opening., and the reasons for the refund must be submitted. However, in order to protect the interests of cinemas, Guevara and Weibo do not currently provide movie ticket change services.

In fact, the number of cinemas across the country has exceeded 6000, and only a small number of cinemas can accept movie ticket refunds and changes. It seems unrealistic at present to fully implement refunds and changes.

Cinema difficulties are unwilling to bear the trouble caused by refunds and

changes. Movie ticket refunds and changes are just what the audience needs. Why is it so difficult to promote it?

The relevant person in charge of Cat's Eye said that the studio had always wanted to implement this service, but for the studio, before online purchase of movie tickets was fully popularized, theaters actually did not have good technical means to solve the problem of movie ticket changes. Industry services. Because, without strong platform support, relying solely on manual processing at the theater front desk will not be able to meet the needs of a large number of users for online refunds and changes.

For cinemas, the refund and change of movie tickets not only brings about an increase in personnel and capital costs, but also has varying degrees of impact on theater scheduling and attendance. According to the relevant person in charge of Cat's Eye,"lacking sufficient technical support and unwillingness to bear the risk of excessive refund rates, it is an unwritten rule for theaters not to refund or replace movie tickets."

Liu Jianfeng, spokesperson of Poly Cinema, admitted that it is indeed the audience's right to refund and change movie tickets, but it is very troublesome for theaters. "For example, if you change your ticket from the original event to another event, if it is not a popular movie and the number of seats is not saturated, changing the ticket will not be a problem; but if you encounter a popular movie, consumers want to change their ticket to a golden event, there will be problems." She also explained that cinemas generally do not accept refunds, because once ticket income is recorded, if you want to refund it, you have to withdraw it from the original way, which will lead to loopholes in financial management. Therefore, most cinemas do not allow refunds.

Last year, it was reported that Alibaba's Yueke Software and Capital Cinema Financial Street Store planned to launch pilot services for movie ticket refunds and changes. However, this service has not yet been launched. Yu Chao, manager of the Capital Cinema, also admitted that movie ticket refunds and changes are only implemented among members and cannot be fully carried out, also because financial management is troublesome. Another example is that although UME theaters have a manual telephone refund service, they do not have a ticket change function. Viewers can only re-purchase the ticket after refunding the ticket, and cannot directly change the ticket.

Industry highlights: Refunds and changes are a trend. Most theaters

are taking a wait-and-see attitude towards the online movie ticket change service launched by Cat's Eye.

"It is not easy to change movie tickets because the prices of different screenings and different films are different, and theaters are not allowed to change tickets, which can prevent box office theft between different films." Wang Cheng, public relations manager of UME Shuangjing Store, said that in fact, many ticket sellers will also use the refund function to purchase a large number of cheap tickets from e-commerce, sell them at a high price, and use them to refund tickets if they cannot be sold.

"We fully consider this mentality of theater operators and meet consumers 'online ticket change needs without imposing additional burdens and impact on theater operations. We support theaters to limit the time and number of ticket change services, so that it will not affect movie attendance; on the other hand, the number of movie tickets changed online must be greater than or equal to the original order number, which will also affect the number of tickets issued by theaters. There will be guarantees." The relevant person in charge of Cat Eye said.

According to the relevant person in charge of micro-ticket, there is currently no unified standard for movie ticket refunds and changes in the industry, but it must be a trend in the future. Micro-ticket will be committed to improving users 'movie-viewing experience, while respecting the opinions of theaters, and allowing more consumers to get rid of time constraints and watch movies more satisfactorily. However, the competition among major e-commerce companies is very fierce. Everyone wants to implement the service of refund and change, but no one is willing to give in, and there is also great resistance to competition from each other.

It is difficult to promote movie ticket refunds and changes, and it is inseparable from the "power game" between theaters and e-commerce. "E-commerce companies compete with each other, and Cat's Eye is playing a concept. It is only a third party. After all, the theater and the audience are the two parties that ultimately connect." Liu Jianfeng said that e-commerce now has a large ticket sales volume and has the right to control theaters, but theaters may not be willing to lose their autonomy. The most typical example is Wanda Theater, which has started online ticket sales. It seems that there will be a difficult game behind the withdrawal and change of visa.

Editor: vian