30年观影人次降九成 Cinema admissions plummet over 30 years

据《法制晚报》报道，如今国内的电影业蒸蒸日上，但一位专家描述的电影市场却远没那么乐观，证据是极低的观影人次。

中国人民大学的潘天强近日表示，2010年国内的观影人次达22.5亿，不及1979年最高纪录——293亿的一成。

去年，2.5亿名城镇居民走进电影院，几乎是4年前的三倍。但这个数字还不到美国去年城镇观影人次的两成，而中国的人口是美国的6倍。

普通中国人一年在电影院看0.19部电影，也就是说每5.3年只看一部电影。而在日本、韩国和美国，这个数字为每年1部到5部不等。去年，美国人平均85天进一次电影院。

潘天强强调，电影票价太高导致了如此低的观影次数。

国内现在平均票价约为40元，而在上海、北京这样的大城市，电影票起步价通常为60元。这对于平均月收入2000元的普通居民来说高得实在离谱。而美国的电影票价一直保持得很低，只占人们平均月收入的0.0025。

潘天强说，按照这个标准，中国的电影票价应定在7元。

Cinema admissions plummet over 30 years

Against the backdro of China's fast growing film industry, an expert painted a far-from-rosy picture of the country's film market, citing extremely low cinema admissions, the Legal Evening News reported.

Pan Tianqiang of Renmin University recently said that China's cinema admissions reached 2.25 billion in 2010, less than one-tenth of the record set in 1979 – 29.3 billion.

250 million urban residents went to theaters last year, almost three times more than four years ago. But the figure is still less than 20 percent of urban admissions last year in the US despite a population six times larger.

The average Chinese sees 0.19 films at the cinema a year, or just 1 movie every 5.3 years. In Japan, South Korea and the US, the figure ranges from 1 to 5 movies per year. Last year, Americans went to the theater every 85 days on average.

Pan said high ticket prices should be blamed for such low admissions.

The average ticket price is about 40 yuan in China, and in big cities like Shanghai and Beijing, prices usually starts at 60 yuan. This is too expensive for ordinary residents with an average monthly income of 2,000 yuan. Meanwhile, ticket prices in the US have remained very low, accounting for 0.0025 of average monthly income.

By this standard, China should have the price set at 7 yuan, Pan said.

(China.org.cn April 14, 2011)