Maoyan: Having a Good Story is Key to Box Office Success

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Nov 07, 2019, 22:04 ET

BEIJING, Nov. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Maoyan Entertainment ("Maoyan" or "the Company") (Hong Kong: 1896), a leading platform providing innovative Internet-empowered entertainment services in China, demonstrated with its data and analysis that quality movies with good stories are essential to attracting an audience and boosting the box office in China.

In October, the total China box office hit RMB8.167 billion (US$1.17 billion), according to Maoyan data, only the third time that the monthly box office has ever exceeded RMB8 billion, following February 2018 and 2019. In North America, the box office in October was US$778.6 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

During China's National Day holiday (October 1 to 7), the box office reached RMB4.38 billion, a record for this holiday and an increase of 129% over the same period last year.

"A series of high-quality movies in October attracted movie-goers to theaters again and again, which was the key reason to drive the box office in the month," said Liu Zhenfei, data analyst with Maoyan Pro app.

The top-grossing movies at the box office in October were "My People, My Country", "The Captain" and "The Climbers". During the week-long National Day holiday, about 6.5% of the audience for "My People, My Country" saw the movie more than once, and 5.6% viewers of "The Captain" watched it more than once.

According to Maoyan data, among viewers of "My People, My Country", 19% also went to see "The Captain", and 21% of the audience for "The Captain" saw "My People, My Country" as well during the holiday.

"Content is still the king for the movie industry, and good stories are essential for blockbuster movies," said Liu. "A movie with a good story, even with a low budget, can always win the audience. To succeed at the box office, even big-budget commercial movies with spectacular special effects and action still need to tell good stories."

"Godzilla: King of the Monsters" and "Kong: Skull Island" are both monster movies with almost the same Maoyan rating. However, the box office for "Kong: Skull Island" was RMB200 million more than that for "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" in China. Based on Maoyan's big data analysis, viewers had the same rating on special effects for the two movies, but for story, the rating for "Kong: Skull Island" was 0.6 points higher than "Godzilla: King of the Monsters".

Viewers' rating on story is highly correlated with the movie's box office performance, according to Maoyan data. "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw" was released in August in China and earned RMB1.42 billion at the box office, far lower than RMB2.67 billion grossed for "The Fate of the Furious" in 2017. For viewers' rating on story, "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw" was 1.1 points lower than "The Fate of the Furious".

Several blockbuster foreign and Chinese movies will be released in the fourth quarter this year and the first quarter next year, which is expected to further boost box office revenues in China.

As a comprehensive platform servicing the movie and other entertainment industries in China, Maoyan is leveraging its large user base, valuable data insights and extensive media resources to support the industry in the content production and promotion, and help grow the market.

About Maoyan Entertainment
Maoyan Entertainment (Hong Kong: 1896) is a leading platform providing innovative Internet-empowered entertainment services in China. Since its inception, Maoyan has grown from an online movie ticketing service provider to an innovative one-stop platform for entertainment services. Maoyan has a comprehensive strategy to become a leading platform servicing the entire entertainment industry in China. The upgraded strategy is supported by five key platform pillars: online ticketing platform, products and services platform, data platform, marketing platform, and funding platform.

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SOURCE Maoyan Entertainment