Subject has limitations, Wuhan Wanda Cinema Park has been closed for 19 months

Since it opened for 19 months on December 20, 2014, Wuhan Film Park, which once had the halo of one of the "Wuhan Shuangjiao", has temporarily closed its curtain suspension, which has made Wuhan citizens and industry insiders both sigh and look forward to it.

About 400 people rushed to visit the movie park on the last day after spending 3.8 billion yuan and claimed to be the only one in the world that opened in just 19 months. Since it opened for 19 months on December 20, 2014, Wuhan Film Park, which once had the halo of one of the "Wuhan Shuangjiao", has temporarily closed its curtain suspension, which has made Wuhan citizens and industry insiders both sigh and look forward to it.

Hundreds of tourists came for the last game

at about 2 pm yesterday, and there were few tourists on the movie park square located at the western end of Chuhehan Street in the "Wuhan Central Cultural District".

At the ticket office on the right side of the main entrance of the movie park, only two of the 12 ticket windows are open. One of them is suspended and the other has six people queuing to buy tickets.

The announcements posted on the wall near the entrance are very eye-catching. Ms. Wu, who came here from Hankou to bring her children into the park, said that she had brought her son here to play shortly after the park opened. He was very impressed by the "Flying over Hubei" project and always talked about it. A few days ago, she learned that the park would be closed, and she didn't know when it would open again to welcome guests, let alone what it would look like after the renovation, so she took advantage of the weekend to bring her son to experience it again.

The conductor said that she only knew that upgrades would be carried out in early August and that no tourists would be received during the closing period, so she was not sure what form it would take.

The reporter randomly asked tourists who were queuing up to check in to enter the park. Some of them did not know that the park would be closed today. Most of them said they would rush to enter the park on the last day to experience it. More than 70 alumni from the former Wuhan University of Water Resources and Hydropower held a reunion for the 20th anniversary of graduation in Wuhan this weekend. One of the items of the party was to visit a movie park."After all, it was a sensation across the country when it opened, and it was close to my alma mater, so let's get together."

The movie park night security inspector said that the number of people entering the park at night is less than 100. Yesterday was the last one. Including weekends, the number of people is more than three times that of usual, reaching more than 250. An estimated 400 people will enter the park throughout the day.

Queue for an hour to play, ten minutes

to open, and it will be closed for 19 months. People who pay attention to Wuhan Wanda Cinema cannot help but ask: Why?

The reporter called Wanda Wuhan Film Technology Entertainment Co., Ltd. yesterday about this, but did not receive a reply as of press time last night.

In fact, the reason can be seen in the announcement. Industry insiders said that "enhancing the richness of Wuhan Film Park's content and improving the tourist experience" actually explains the situation the park is currently facing, that is, the content richness is not enough and the tourist experience needs to be improved.

This was also confirmed by tourists on the scene. Xiao Fu, a sophomore girl, said that 3 of the 6 events are more fun. Compared with other amusement parks, this is more technologically sensitive, but the queue time is too long. Xiao Yu, who was traveling with her, said that compared with the 150 yuan college student ticket, the playability and experience of the projects in the park are not too strong, but it is also good from the perspective of experience.

A former alumnus of Wuhan University of Water Resources and Hydropower said that he entered the park at 5 pm yesterday and left at 6:40 pm, but only opened three projects: Flying over Hubei, Power of Nature, and Star Trek. He waited for more than an hour and only played a project flying over Hubei, which took about 10 minutes.

A young couple with children said that the park is a good place for parent-child play, but the projects basically imitate the plot of movies, and they don't know much about these movies, so they don't have a strong sense of immersion when playing. They can only play with the children. In addition, the main problem is that the waiting time is too long. On weekends, there are relatively many people. Each project has to wait for nearly an hour, but only a few minutes can be experienced.

With the advent of the aura of "Wuhan Shuangjiao"

as Wanda Group's pioneering work into the cultural tourism industry, on December 20, 2014, the aura of "Wuhan Shuangjiao" above Hanxiu Theater and Film Park was launched on the same day.

According to Wanda officials, Wuhan Film Park covers an area of 100,000 square meters and was built with an investment of 3.8 billion yuan. It demonstrates the perfect integration of Jingchu tourism culture and international top technology, and has become a new business card for tourism in Wuhan and even Hubei. As the world's only indoor movie theme park, the park is committed to creating the ultimate playing experience and an interactive atmosphere that transcends dreams. It has produced many blockbusters such as "Avatar","Speed and Passion", and "Transformers", and has won 31 Oscars. It took two and a half years to build it.

However, on the opening day, the movie park experienced frequent situations. Some equipment was out of service and the sound system failed, which made many citizens who came to try the movie return with regret.

An employee who has left Wanda Cinema told reporters that when the park first opened, the average daily passenger flow was about 200 people, and it has been in a tepid state so far, which is far from the original imagined 8,000 - 1,000 people. From the inside of the movie park, management and employees have been constantly changing for more than a year, which also reflects the urgent determination of the top management to change the status quo.

Another person in the Wuhan tourism industry analyzed that compared with theme parks such as Wuhan Polar Ocean Park and Wuhan Happy Valley, the popularity of Wanda Cinema Park has not increased with the increase of operating time, but its aura has become increasingly bleak. In some people's impressions, Wanda Cinema does not seem to be much different from Wanda Studios, and many taxi drivers do not know the specific location of the park.

The theme itself has limitations.

According to the above-mentioned analysis by former employees of Wanda Cinema Park, Cinema Park is a benchmark product for Wanda Group to enter the cultural tourism sector. It has invested heavily and took a lot of effort. The main reason why we have now suspended business is that the theme itself has not been to the extreme. He believes that compared with world theme parks such as Disney and Universal Studios, Wanda currently lacks well-known core IP (intellectual property). Although Wanda Cinema Park has a number of independent intellectual property rights and the cartoon image of Yoyo Monkey, its popularity is relatively low. As a result, the viscosity was not enough, but it was just a gust of wind when opening, which could not retain people and could not form a "word of mouth" effect.

This view coincides with the view of Professor Su Zuqin from the School of Public Administration of South-Central University for Nationalities. He believes that in the context of tourism market segmentation, theme parks are definitely a trend, but this theme must be extreme. Otherwise, it will not be attractive enough and it will be difficult to form a sustainable aggregation effect.

In addition to the above reasons, another employee who recently resigned from Wanda Cinema Park said that on the one hand, due to its own reasons, the park has a poor experience and a poor reputation among tourists. On the other hand, it is caused by external factors. At first, Wanda envisioned Wuhan City as a national central city, with high-speed rail extending in all directions, and the park would have a nationwide influence. However, during the operation of the market, they found that except for specific time points such as "cherry viewing", Wuhan is not a city that can retain tourists, and more often plays the role of a tourist transit city. For cross-border self-driving tours and group tours, the limited time in Wuhan will be reserved for well-known attractions such as East Lake and Yellow Crane Tower, and movie parks will not be included in the scope of play. The employee lamented that when internal and external unfavorable factors are intertwined, the limitations of the theme itself will aggravate the dilemma.

However, both of the above-mentioned employees said that Wuhan Cinema Park can be regarded as version 1.0 of Wanda Cinema Park. After Wuhan, Wanda has successively developed movie parks in Xishuangbanna, Nanchang, Hefei and other places, and their operations and market response have continued to improve. This also shows that Wuhan Wanda Film Park plays the role of "vanguard", its good things will be preserved and the unfavorable aspects will be corrected. As Wanda expands and accumulates in movies, it is believed that it will have more and more well-known IPs, thereby enhancing the heritage of the theme park.

As Wanda Group's pioneering work in the cultural tourism industry, on December 20, 2014, Wuhan Wanda Film Park and Hanxiu Theater opened their doors on the same day to welcome guests with the aura of "Wuhan Double Pride".

According to Wanda officials, Wuhan Wanda Cinema Park was built by many of the world's top special effects companies in two and a half years, with a total construction area of 100,000 square meters and an investment of approximately 3.8 billion yuan. It is currently the only indoor movie theme park in the world.

Editor: Nancy