Small and medium-sized cinemas face operational management bottlenecks, refined management and non-box office revenue are the key

There are mergers and acquisitions disputes between the marketing departments of major theaters and theater brands, hoping to complete the process of "staking around the land" before the China market is fully opened to the outside world; however, small and medium-sized studios face operating difficulties due to the sharp decline in single-seat output and single-screen output. However, few people pay attention to the operating difficulties.

. The box office output of the film industry slowed down in 2016, but this did not hinder the rapid expansion of the number of cinemas and screens in China. There were 1612 new cinemas and 9552 new screens across the country. At present, the total number of screens in China has reached 41179, making it the country with the largest number of movie screens in the world. The total box office of movies nationwide was 45.712 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.73%; the number of movie visitors in urban theaters was 1.372 billion, a year-on-year increase of 8.89%.

But behind the rapid growth in the number of theaters and screens is the lack of relevant management talents and professional operation teams! There are mergers and acquisitions disputes between the marketing departments of major theaters and theater brands, hoping to complete the process of "staking around the land" before the China market is fully opened to the outside world; however, small and medium-sized studios face operating difficulties due to the sharp decline in single-seat output and single-screen output. However, few people pay attention to the operating difficulties. Mr. Wang Zheng, general manager of Luxin Cinema Line and president of Mianyang Zhonghuan Film City, hopes that through his many years of excellent theater management experience, he can change the operating status of small-scale theaters and small and medium-sized movie studios through his advanced concepts and services, and make the "Zhonghuan Model" the "Hilton" of the cinema industry.

"Cinema management should enter an era of refinement."

With the rapid development of the film industry, there has been a trend of building cinemas across the country. Wang Zheng divided these investment groups into: state-owned theaters (not discussed here), Internet companies, and listed companies., small and medium-sized private capital, purely investment fund institutions and individual investors, of which the majority invest in small and medium-cost cinemas. After these cinemas were completed, they lacked professional management capabilities, resulting in difficulties in making ends meet.

There are three major common problems among these theaters:

First, the goals are unclear: investors follow the trend or invest in theaters solely based on their enthusiasm for movies. They do not understand movies very well, let alone cinemas. They do not have clear and clear business ideas, and there is no professional and efficient management team, resulting in a mismatch between revenue and investment in design and decoration, barely breaking even, and even rushing to sell.

2. Imperfect team building: mainly exists in private capital and fund institutions. Because they see the development trend of the cultural industry and build some cinemas, the team formation ability is no longer enough, or the management team hired with high salaries has average ability, which leads to difficulty in making profits."In the past two years, the projection terminal has expanded too rapidly, resulting in talent training. lag behind, for example, the former front desk staff became the sales department manager, and the former person responsible for ticket sales was later responsible for arranging films, and the operating efficiency could not be guaranteed."

3. Lack of professional guidance: Most of the current cinemas in China are franchised and do not have a particularly close asset linkage."The cinemas joined by small and medium-sized movie studios do not have any help and guidance in terms of specific operation and management. It can even be said that the cinemas they join do not serve them." Lack of professional and effective guidance, and rely entirely on your own to explore.

In Wang Zheng's view, China's cinemas and theaters are currently facing structural adjustments and rely too much on the policy dividends of licenses for survival rather than on real franchise services. The majority of small and medium-sized film investment companies are relatively weak due to their relatively weak operating and management capabilities, and have no chain and are weak.

"Currently, 30% of the more than 8,000 cinemas in the country are facing losses. Especially in cities where market competition has entered the Red Sea, theaters with less than five halls are already very difficult to operate. So I mentioned that theater management must be down-to-earth, and theater managers must do a good job in theater management with sincerity, dedication, and refinement. In the past few years, everyone has said that theaters can make money while lying down. I don't think it's lying down now, but now it's a need to stand up and work hard to make money." During the recent national market research process, Wang Zheng found that many cities have added new studios in recent years. With the same construction quality, the box office has dropped by several million, but the rent has increased."Last year, the average box office and investment volume of a single room were 1:1. There was a bubble, and this year it dropped to 0.7: 1. But even if the overall breakeven means that a lot of money is losing money, because your income goes back to a few years ago, but the rental cost is several times that of a few years ago."

High box office is not a real skill, but selling well is a real skill.

"An excellent theater needs to 'play well' the first half and the second half at the same time." In Wang Zheng's view,"The first half refers to site selection, planning, construction and other preliminary hardware work. They can determine the minimum income of the studio to a considerable extent. However, what really affects the overall income of the studio is the second half, that is, the operation and management of the studio, including the marketing of films and sales, the maintenance of the studio brand and customers, the studio operation, the application of related technologies, and the management of personnel and team management."

Comparing cinema investment to "a football game", the hardware work such as site selection, preparation, decoration, and equipment before opening belongs to the "first half". They can determine the minimum income of the studio to a considerable extent. However, what really affects the overall income of the studio is the second half, that is, the operation and management of the studio, including the marketing of films and sales, the maintenance of the studio brand and customers, the operation of the studio, the application of related technologies, and the management of personnel and team. "The whistle for the second half of the game sounded from the day the theater opened." How to gain an advantage in the "second half", Mr. Wang Zheng used the Zhonghuan Cinema in Mianyang, Sichuan, where he invested as an example-

in 2012, Wang Zheng proposed a "4+4+4" cinema management system that included "commodities, scheduling, training, marketing","ticketing, sales, venue services, screening", and "maintenance, manpower, safety, and finance". It is believed that theater management should bid farewell to the extensive development method and enter the era of refinement."Today, customers need benefits, convenience, comfort and respect, employees pursue stability, springboard, growth and value, and shareholders are eager for scale, profits, talents and Income, so the management of the studio should take a good stand in these three aspects and find a good balance."

"When people come, they can't sell anything because you are stupid."

Under the pressure of expanding production capacity in the domestic film market, the challenges in theater operating efficiency are intensifying."In two years, 2500 studios have been added, and the phenomenon of four or five studios in one county has also appeared in the central region. The county town with a population of 180,000 already has three cinemas." Trends such as high rental fees and even having to be split with "landlords" at the box office, declining attendance and single-screen output make box office revenue far from being able to support the survival of a theater. Expanding non-box office revenue with high gross profit and large growth space has become a common issue for current theaters and theater operators.

Creating a high-quality cinema environment is the basic condition for all cinema operations. Currently, there are only a handful of companies in China that have the strength to build comprehensive cinemas in all aspects. From the perspective of building giant cinemas alone, there are only China giant screens in China, Cinelab laser giant screens, and Oriental giant screens. Several manufacturers are relatively active in the market. In terms of overall operation and management of the theater, only Chenxing Technology, the founding company of Cinelab Laser Giant Screen Cinema, has the ability to comprehensively implement software and hardware. This reality more fully tells us that establishing in-depth cooperation with domestic professional cinema equipment service providers will also be a method for future cinema management innovation, service innovation, and marketing innovation.

In addition to strengthening hardware strength, Wang Zheng believes that if theaters want to gain a broader living space, sales and marketing are the two core links of small and medium-cost theater operations.

At the specific operational level, Wang Zheng believes that to increase the sales revenue of small and medium-sized studios, on the one hand, they must continue to increase the number of movie-goers and increase the attendance rate, so as to drive the growth of SPP (sales amount per audience) with greater passenger flow, but more importantly, it is to improve the efficiency of sales services and provide viewers with services to purchase and sell products remotely and pick them up at the store. In addition, it is possible to expand the purchase scenarios of sales items. For example, in addition to the sales items available at the box office, sales items can be provided in the area between the movie hall and the ticket gate, or when there are many people queuing up to buy and sell items, you can pre-order and go to the movie hall and have the food delivered by the service staff.

According to Wang Zheng, the four cinemas under the Central Committee in Mianyang, Sichuan have achieved very good results. "On Christmas Eve in 2014, 8000 apples were sold; in 2015, 100,000 cups of coffee were sold; 10000 barrels of popcorn were sold in a single week, etc. Currently, the SPP of the four studios has exceeded 6 yuan, or even exceeded 10 yuan. The national average sales level remains around 12-13%, and SPP is about 3 yuan, but the average sales level in Central is 20-30%, and SPP has exceeded 6 yuan."

So how does Zhonghuan market its own sales concepts and methods? Wang Zheng said "simply and rudely","Whether the theater investment can be repaid depends on the attendance rate. As for the profit, it depends on the products sold. The quality of the products sold reflects the team's combat effectiveness, the management level and strategic indicators of the studio." That is, there are many reasons for whether the box office is good, but if the non-ticket revenue is not good, it is the incompetence of the management team. Have you got anything about theater operations?

Editor: Nancy