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Cinema scams
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In 2013, China achieved a record-breaking high for its film industry's box-office revenues, which officially register at 21.769 billion yuan ($3.59 billion). But according to Wang Changtian, CEO of Enlight, that was at least 5 billion yuan short of the real number. Other experts put the gap at 2.4 billion, explaining the reported box-office figure at 10 percent less than the real one. That gap is someone's windfall, illegally pocketed by cinema owners and operators, professionally known as film exhibitors. And the regulating agency is getting tough on this kind of theft. Wang Changtian has reasons to be angry. Over the Lunar New Year season that has recently wound down, he received on his microblog numerous audience reports, complete with photos, of tickets to Dad, Where Are We Going?, a runaway hit his company distributes. The tickets had no movie title printed on them or the prices printed were lower than what was actually paid by the moviegoers - all signs that the movie's revenues were not correctly registered. The earliest manifestation of the shady practice of "box-office stealing" loomed a few years ago when individual moviegoers posted suspicious tickets online. Tickets of this type usually had movie title "A" computer-printed on it, but the printed title was scratched out by hand and title "B" written in. Fingers were pointed at the producer or distributor of title A, but more likely it was the movie theater that was behind it. The reason could be simple: Film A gives the exhibitor a larger share of the revenue than film B. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Industry insiders reveal it was much worse before computer systems were installed in the nation's cinemas, and of course, before social media websites turned everyone into a potential reporter of such business deceit. As a matter of fact, some cinema investors were not even aware that they had to split their revenue with other parties. "This phenomenon started from the age of planned economy," says Mao Yu, deputy director of the Film Bureau, a branch of the regulating agency. But it may have turned from guerrilla tactics to larger-scale con games. For group purchases, violators would not even issue tickets, essentially not reporting a single cent of revenue from a whole screening. Since a representative of the group usually deals with the cinema, unless he or she specifically demands a printed ticket for each member of the group, all of them would be in the dark about income reporting from the cinema to the distributor. Another trick lies in membership dues, which are often collected up front. When a paid member reimburses for a ticket, it may have only the screening room on it, and the exhibitors can choose to credit it to any movie they like, or not to any movie, in which case they pocket 100 percent of the revenue. Some cinemas would go as far as investing in a separate point-of-sale computer system so that each ticket buyer gets the right ticket, but none of the data shows up on the centralized system. Instead, another set of credible purchase data would be put in the correct system, but with lower attendance. Both distributors and exhibitors that I spoke to agree that cheating is much less rampant than before, say a dozen years ago, and now is mostly limited to third and fourth-tier cities. China Film Group, the nation's largest film production and distribution company, heads a consortium with several major private companies that hires 1,000 people to monitor cinemas nationwide, and Huaxia, another State-owned company, has a smaller army of 800. However, there are situations even these sharp-eyed monitors can do little about. For example, if a cinema sells a ticket for 80 yuan, which is normal for primetime, but gives away a free popcorn, it may attribute as much as 60 yuan of the ticket price to the popcorn, leaving only 20 as the ticket price. But it can argue that 20 yuan is the minimum price for this particular film agreed upon by both sides and therefore it does not violate any rule. A similar scheme was employed when Transformers 3 was bundled with Yang Shanzhou, a very small film with little box-office potential, making the latter into a strange film with eye-popping revenue (79 million yuan) but disproportionately fewer people who actually bothered to see it. There were sporadic online complaints about the practice even though consumers did not pay more for the package deal. The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, the regulating agency, announced measures in late January to curb under-reporting and cheating on box-office revenues. A special fund is set up to subsidize the upgrading of computer software at point of sale. The current system was installed in 2005 and "cannot keep up with the new situation", in the words of Jiang Tao, director of the fund. "The new system will fix loopholes and shorten the reporting window to only 10 minutes after a sale is made instead of waiting till next noon, which is the current reporting lapse in time, which leaves room for manipulation. The national platform will be ready by May and the cinema side will complete their upgrading by October." Apart from putting a stamp of authorization on all sales systems, SAPPRFT insists that all film tickets carry correct prices and movie admission. But conspicuously absent are concrete penalties for violations. The software upgrade will certainly be a great help, admit distributors and exhibitors, but it may not be enough. "The cost of violation is still too low. If you're caught under-reporting 10 tickets, all you need to do is make up for the shortfall," says Huang Ziyan, vice-president of Le Vision Pictures in charge of sales. Cao Yong, a manager with the Huaxing UME cinema chain, suggests that violators should have their business license revoked. "Cinemas invest tens of millions of yuan and, with punishment of this severity, it would not make sense for them to steal 80,000 or 100,000 yuan from the box office." Other ideas have been floated such as the use of an infra-red camera that automatically scans a movie theater for attendance. The technology has been available for eight or nine years and it claims to have 95 percent accuracy. But it has never been put into use. Filmmakers are reluctant to stand firm when they become victims because they do not want to offend the exhibition branch of the business chain - the branch that deals directly with end users. Some say they are no longer sad at the irregularity, but have come to the stage of despair. This time it's for real, and "we'll cleanse the industry of this illegal and irregular behavior", says Zhang Hongsen, director of SAPPRFT's Film Bureau. By Raymond Zhou ( China Daily) |
2013年,中國電影行業(yè)票房收入創(chuàng)下歷史新高,據(jù)官方統(tǒng)計,收入達217.69億元人民幣(35.9億美元)。據(jù)光線傳媒總裁王長田透露,這一數(shù)字比實際數(shù)字少了至少50億元。還有專家認為二者之間相差24億元,票房上報數(shù)字與實際數(shù)字之間相差至少10%。其中的差額,進了一些人的腰包,成為了放映方,即影院所有人和經(jīng)營者的非法收入。監(jiān)管機構(gòu)開始對此類事件進行嚴肅管理。 王長田的氣憤是有理由的。在剛剛結(jié)束的春節(jié)檔期,他的微博上收到許多觀眾留言,并附上電影《爸爸去哪兒》的電影票照片。這部電影是光線傳媒公司發(fā)行的熱門影片。有的電影票上沒有電影的名字,而一些電影票上標出的價格要低于觀眾實際購票的價格。這些都說明上報的電影收入并不真實。 幾年以前,就有觀眾將可疑的電影票上傳到網(wǎng)上,那時候就出現(xiàn)了“偷票房”的惡劣行為。電腦打出的電影票上往往標記為A電影,但后來被涂改成B。有人指責A電影出品人和發(fā)行人,而幕后的操作者更有可能是影院方面的人員。原因很簡單。相比B電影而言,放映方從A影片中得到的收入更多。 但這只是冰山一角。業(yè)內(nèi)人士透露,在中國電影院尚未安裝電腦系統(tǒng),社交網(wǎng)站還沒有讓所有人都成為此類商業(yè)騙行的潛在報道者之前,這類事件要更加嚴重。事實上,部分電影投資者甚至根本不知道,其他人在分享他們的收入。電影監(jiān)管機構(gòu)、國家新聞出版廣電總局電影局副局長毛羽說,"計劃經(jīng)濟時代就出現(xiàn)了這種現(xiàn)象"。 但是,這已經(jīng)從零散的現(xiàn)象,變成了規(guī)模巨大的騙局。違反規(guī)定的人甚至不會給團購觀眾發(fā)放電影票,在整場放映中基本不上報一分錢的收入。只有團購代表會與電影院直接打交道,所以如果他沒有提出特殊要求,為每一位成員打印電影票,在電影院上報給發(fā)行方的收入報告中,是不會顯示團購情況的。 在會費方面也會耍手腕,因為會費是提前收取的。會員的電影票上只顯示在幾號放映廳,放映方可以將電影票任意對應(yīng)到別的影片上,或者根本不記錄會員看過電影,這樣他們就可以私吞所有的收入。 一些影院投資了單獨的零售電腦系統(tǒng),可以讓購票者買到正確的電影票,同時不會讓中央系統(tǒng)中顯示任何數(shù)據(jù)。而另外一組可信的購買數(shù)據(jù)會被輸入正確的系統(tǒng)中,但顯示的上座率較低。 我了解到的發(fā)行商和放映方都認為如今的欺騙行為較從前,就是十幾年前,收斂了很多;現(xiàn)在只有三、四線城市會出現(xiàn)這樣的行為。中國最大的電影制作和發(fā)行公司中國電影集團同數(shù)家大型私人公司共同組建并領(lǐng)導了一個協(xié)會,雇傭1000人監(jiān)督全國的影院。另一家國有電影公司華夏電影公司也擁有一支八百人的隊伍。 但是,即使是這些精明的監(jiān)督者也有力所不及的情況。例如,影院出售一張80元的電影票(熱映電影的正常票價),同時贈送免費的爆米花。這時候,爆米花可能占去票價中的60元,而電影票只能占票價中的20元。電影院聲稱,雙方商議的影片最低價格就是20元,因此影院沒有違反任何規(guī)定。 《變形金剛3》同票房潛力很小的小制作電影《楊善洲》捆綁,讓后者取得了令人震驚的票房收入(7900萬元),但是這一數(shù)字同極少量的觀影人數(shù)并不相符。這是一種類似的手段。雖然消費者不會為這樣的捆綁交易多付錢,但網(wǎng)上還是有一些對這類行為的投訴。 作為監(jiān)管機構(gòu),國家新聞出版廣電總局一月底公布了治理虛報、謊報票房收入的辦法。成立專門基金,補貼銷售點電腦軟件的升級。國家電影專資辦主任姜濤表示,安裝于2005年的現(xiàn)行系統(tǒng)“跟不上新情況”。 “新系統(tǒng)會修補漏洞,銷售結(jié)束十分鐘以后即結(jié)束上報窗口,而不再等到第二天中午”,延緩上報時間,會為弄虛作假留下空間。五月即將建成國家級平臺,影院方面將于十月完成升級。 除了對所有銷售系統(tǒng)進行管理,國家新聞出版廣電總局堅持要求所有電影票顯示正確的價格和入場費。但沒有對違反規(guī)定的具體處罰措施。發(fā)行方和放映方承認,軟件更新一定會提供很大幫助,但幫助可能不夠。 “違反規(guī)定的代價還是太低了。如果被發(fā)現(xiàn)虛報了10次票價,只需要補上缺口即可,”樂視影業(yè)市場副總裁黃紫燕說。 華星UME影城的經(jīng)理曹勇建議吊銷違反規(guī)定的單位的營業(yè)執(zhí)照。“電影院的投資上千萬,這樣嚴厲的懲罰,會讓他們覺得為了8萬、10萬的票房受這樣的懲罰劃不來?!?/p> 還有人想到其他辦法,如運用可以自動掃描影院放映廳上座率的紅外攝像機。未來8到9年,將可以利用這項技術(shù),據(jù)稱這項技術(shù)的準確率為95%。但現(xiàn)在這項技術(shù)尚未得到使用。 電影制作方在受到損失時,不愿意太過嚴厲,因為他們不想得罪放映方,原因在于在商業(yè)鏈上放映方所處的環(huán)節(jié)直接接觸終端用戶。一些人說不再為這樣的不規(guī)矩行為感到難過,而是開始失望。 這一次真的要采取行動,“我們要肅清行業(yè)中的這類非法,違規(guī)行為”,國家新聞出版廣電總局電影局局長張宏森說。 相關(guān)閱讀 (英文原文:中國日報周黎明 譯者 張懿angela) |
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