GOING to the movies costs a lot in China because there are so few screens - just around 4,000. But expanding cheap digital cinema will bring down prices. Xu Wei buys a ticket. Over the past four years, the sale of half-price tickets on Tuesdays by all city cinemas has delighted moviegoers.
Tuesday screenings, of course, are packed for blockbusters like "Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen" and "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."
Last Tuesday when Kevin Yang, an IT supervisor, and his girlfriend rushed to a downtown cinema at 6pm to see "Transformers 2," they were out of luck. The next available screening was after 10pm.
They gave it a pass since they needed to get up early for work the next morning.
"We postponed it until an early weekend morning when tickets are half price," he says. Before noon many cinemas also sell reduced-price tickets.
Tickets for big films like "Transformers 2" costs 100 yuan (US$14.7) at most cinemas, a lot for many moderate-income people like Yang. That means the cost of a date is more than 300 yuan, including eating out and transport.
In the United States last year, the average movie ticket cost US$7.18.
A recent survey by the Chinese film industry shows that spending on movies represents 5 percent of a person's monthly salary. That's higher than in the US and South Korea.
The high cost of tickets in China is determined by the market.
Compared with the 40,000 or so screens in the States, China has only about 4,000, according to Lin.
"The small number of screens can't satisfy the demands of a large population," he says. Just as cell phone and computer prices fell when output increased, ticket prices will fall when there are more theaters and economies of scale, he observers.
The price is lower both because the theater is more distant and the digital technology is cheaper.
Though many Chinese moviegoers have little idea about digital cinema and can hardly tell it from standard one, developing digital cinema is a big trend worldwide.
In 2008 there were 8,614 digital screens worldwide, 33 percent more than in 2007, according to entgroup.cn.
China has around 800 digital cinemas, ranking second after the US that has 5,474.
The Chinese government is encouraging domestic cinema chains to adopt digital cinema.
The National Film Supervisory Bureau under the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) gives financial support to new digital cinemas. The plan is to expand it to small and medium-sized cities as well as major urban centers.
The state-owned Shanghai United Cinema Lines, the city's largest chain, is rapidly developing digital capacity. By the end of this year it plans to have 160-190 screens.
Digital cinemas are also good news for young film makers.
Lin, from Dadi Digital Cinemas, says that distributors for low-budget films usually can't afford to develop several hundred traditional Data-Transmission System (DTS) film copies around the country.
"But with the increasing number of digital screens, their dream to promote films at major theaters will come true," he says. "Going digital can also drive diversity in Chinese cinemas."
According to film professor Gu Xiaoming from Fudan University, the rapid development of digital cinemas will give movie theaters new functions.
"Besides movie screenings, cinemas can also provide digital projection of a live broadcast of a performance, a game or other events," Professor Gu says. "Many Western theaters can also reap big profits from acting as a meeting room or a 3G product demonstration center."
Experts suggest that theaters offer lower ticket prices for second runs of popular films and for less-desirable seats closer to the screen.
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