Chapter 1128 Fare? Not a Problem at All!
Turning around, Yin Jun asked Wu Siyuan: "Have you determined the IMAX ticket price?"
The cost of IMAX is very, very high. The cost of a set of projection screens and other equipment alone is 8 million US dollars, and 100 sets is 800 million US dollars, which cost Yin Jun a full 4 billion Hong Kong dollars! More expensive than buying 7-11! !
It’s really hard to see where money is being spent! If not, who would have known that IMAX equipment was so ridiculously expensive?
This is also because IMAX is Yin Jun's private company, and the price they quoted to Yin Jun only had a small profit of 10%. If it were to be sold to others, they would be embarrassed if it cost 10 million less.
This is also a necessary step to promote new technologies.
Fortunately, Yin Jun knew that IMAX would definitely become popular in the future. Otherwise, whether he would dare to spend 4 billion Hong Kong dollars to start an IMAX theater would be a problem.
It was also because he started building IMAX cinemas that Yin Jun understood the important reason why in the future, 3D cinemas will be everywhere in China, but the number of IMAX cinemas will be less than one-tenth of the 3D cinemas.
Obviously, it's all about money.
Then, a roll of IMAX film is 70mm wide and weighs 400 kilograms after 120 minutes of editing. The cost of copying is 60,000 US dollars per film.
These two determine that the price of the IMAX hall will not be cheap.
The first thing Wu Siyuan did when he took over Kirin North America Cinemas was actually to target the pricing of this IMAX hall. Normally, it uses ordinary 2D screens and projection equipment together with the two ordinary halls, but when IMAX movies appear, Then the equipment must be replaced and used in a real IMAX hall.
Faced with Yin Jun's question, Wu Siyuan pondered and said: "It has almost been decided that the ticket price for the three sessions from 9 to 16 o'clock during the day is 15 US dollars, and the ticket price for the three sessions after 16 o'clock in the evening is 20 US dollars. "
"So expensive!?"
Robert Egger, who was not involved in the pricing discussion, couldn't help but gasped, "With this price...can we be sure that someone will come to see it? Can it guarantee a 30% attendance rate?"
Tanya and Londo on the theater side also opened their mouths. Although they did not speak, the meaning was still the same as Robert Egger.
"There is no way. If you add a series of costs and the cost conversion required by the IMAX system, without this price, there is no way to make it." Wu Siyuan also smiled bitterly with a headache, "And it must be the attendance rate. Only when it exceeds 40% can we guarantee profits. 30% is just about not losing money. We are all ready. If it doesn't work, we can only use the profits of the ordinary hall to subsidize the IMAX hall. I look forward to the success of this movie. Losing money, and then at least getting good reviews from fans is a victory."
"You are too arrogant to belittle yourself." Yin Jun shook his hand and said with a smile: "Now that the calculation is out, just do it according to your plan. How amazing IMAX is, and how good you will feel after watching it, you have all experienced it just now After that, I think there will still be many people willing to spend the money to watch. An attendance rate of 40% is not a problem at all.
What you need to do is to try your best to keep the IMAX equipment operating normally and not cause any problems during the playback process. I will also ask people from the IMAX company to provide technical support for these. This is our first battle in the IMAX theater, and we must not disappoint the audience! They were disappointed, and then it was our turn to be disappointed! "
Wu Siyuan was prepared to let Yin Jun talk, but he didn't expect Yin Jun to be more optimistic than him. He couldn't believe it.
Nowadays, movie ticket prices in the United States range from RMB 3 to RMB 5.
Some art films that are not big hits, or movies that are shown for a long time, are basically 3 US dollars.
For an ordinary movie, it's about $4 a movie.
Some new movies, and they are popular new movies, are priced at 5 yuan per movie, such as "E.T.", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "Superman 2", and "Speed" are at this price.
If you include the discounts from Monday to Friday, there may be an ultra-low price of $2.
Anyway, there were very few people watching it at that time, so if you could lure people into the theater at a low price, it would be a waste of money.
When we talk about the price of a movie ticket in the United States, don't just convert it into Hong Kong dollars or RMB in your mind. Americans earn US dollars. If the ticket price is 5 yuan, it is 5 yuan. There is no need to convert.
Today, the average salary in the United States is about US$600 per week, which is almost US$2,400 in a month.
This number is only about 20% lower than in 2020. This also shows that no matter how evil the Americans are outside, they still maintain their domestic price levels and salary system well. People basically do not feel any randomness. As the year changes, the salary in hand is not even enough for food and rent.
Based on an average salary of US$2,400, watching four to five movies a month is basically a common form of entertainment for people aged 18-40.
Calculated in this way, the average movie ticket cost per month is 20 yuan, which is nothing to bear. Even if popcorn and Coke are added, the total is only 50 US dollars.
But if you let them watch a movie that costs 15 yuan or even 20 yuan a movie, then many people will definitely think about it.
Such high consumption is really beyond the reach of ordinary people.
It may be okay to look at it occasionally, but it certainly won't work in the long term. After all, life is not just about entertainment. In North America, there are many, many people who live as hard as dogs.
Another problem is that this time "Terminator" is released in both IMAX and ordinary 2D formats at the same time, and the ticket price in ordinary theaters is only 5 yuan.
Watching an IMAX version is enough for you to watch the regular version three or four times. Whether it is cost-effective is really a question worth thinking about.
Don’t think that Americans don’t know how to save. There are not just one or two people who go out for a stylish trip and come back with tears in their eyes for months or even a year to pay off their debts.
This is also thanks to the fact that most of them travel on a budget and do not have any luxury travels. Otherwise, it would not be a matter of bills for one or two years. The long list of figures can easily make them despair.
Of course, to be fair, Yin Jun also thinks that the ticket price of 15-20 is a little expensive, but it is definitely not beyond people's affordability.
The young man knows that after IMAX becomes popular in the future, even in the United States, IMAX will cost about 10-20 yuan a piece, and those super blockbusters with 3D added may even cost as much as 25 dollars a piece.
Now that IMAX has just come out, various technologies have not been upgraded, production has not been ramped up, and R&D costs have not been evenly distributed. It is only natural that it costs 15-20 yuan a piece.
As for whether anyone is willing to watch IMAX, Yin Jun thinks it can be based on the reaction of Chinese movie fans when "Avatar" was released in 2010.
At that time, there were only eleven 3D and IMAX screens in China, and they were all concentrated in a limited number of cities, and the ticket price reached an unprecedented 130-200 yuan per screen!
You know, that was in 2010, when the average house price in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen was only about 30,000 yuan, unlike in 2020, when the average price reached about 100,000 square meters! !
Therefore, the ticket price at this price was completely beyond the average affordability of Chinese movie fans at that time.
But what was the result?
It's obvious. Yin Junke saw it on TV. Even a month after the release, people were still waiting in line for hundreds of meters to buy tickets. From morning to night, there was not a single empty seat in the IMAX hall. 90% of the time, the first and second rows will be free and all seats are occupied.
Why is this happening?
It is also very simple, it is spread through word of mouth from fans and word of mouth.
Everyone who has watched "Avatar" in IMAX-3D will definitely recommend it to their friends crazily after it comes out, and then their friends will do the same after watching it... This kind of accumulated sensational effect has created a sensation that has never been seen before in history. A miracle at the box office, as well as a miracle that the IMAX theater was still basically full despite being lined up for two or three months.
Yin Jun felt that everyone was a little crazy at the time.
But after he went to see it himself, he realized why everyone was so crazy - such craziness is definitely worth it!
James Cameron is definitely a technical genius.
Because of his efforts, he not only solved the problem of coexistence of 3D and IMAX screens, but also solved problems such as excessive blackness of 3D images, uneven image unevenness, etc. Such shocking visual effects are definitely not those produced by post-production conversion. 3D and giant screen movies can be compared.
In terms of living standards and salary structure, Americans in 1982 completely surpassed Chinese people in 2010.
The average monthly salary is 2,400 yuan, and it costs 20 yuan to watch an IMAX movie.
The monthly salary of Chinese people is 4,000 yuan, and the average cost to watch an IMAX movie is 150 yuan.
With such a ratio, it is obvious at a glance that the gap is still very huge.
Of course, the aroma of wine is not as good as the alley, which is also an important reason why Yin Jun spent 10 million US dollars to promote it across the United States.
The several promotional videos produced by Cameron are indeed very characteristic of him. They are sharp and dynamic, urgent and depressing, nervous and full of hope. They can be regarded as powerful short stories. Come and see.
Needless to say, Yin Jun said that Cameron also specially highlighted the viewing effect of IMAX, which I think will also be attractive to movie fans.
No matter when and where, there are always some people who are willing to try new things. This is especially true in the United States, a place that advocates self.
As long as the first batch of movie fans go in and watch it, if they still don't feel shocked, Yin Jun really suspects that these people have also returned to the present from 2020.
Therefore, it is only natural that they are captured by the huge charm of IMAX.
Then Yin Jun hopes that word of mouth will spread and IMAX will be welcomed by more people.
After all, Americans value enjoyment. By spending a little more money, they can get a different and different experience from ordinary people watching the same movie. Yin Jun thinks that many people will do this - in the decades after World War II, they But they all do it this way. To describe it as drunkenness and dreaming is a bit too much, but to describe it as carpe diem is not an overstatement at all.
More importantly, Yin Jun is definitely not looking forward to making money from his IMAX theater.
There are only 100 IMAX theaters now. How much more money can I make? How many movies does Yin Jun need to screen to earn back the 4 billion Hong Kong dollars he invested?
What he is even more looking forward to is that as word of mouth spreads about IMAX, other theater chains will come to IMAX and start building IMAX theaters to promote IMAX movies.
This in turn also encourages Hollywood directors to shoot IMAX movies, use more IMAX camera technology, and make more good-looking IMAX movies, so that movie fans will buy in, so that they will get used to and like to watch IMAX movies.
This series of feedback will allow IMAX to obtain enough returns, and then continue to develop new technologies and continuously reduce costs for development, so that IMAX technology can be promoted to the world like it was in previous generations!
At this point, Yin Jun's dream of a movie empire has been considered a success.