Do you remember, when was the last time you entered the cinema?
After the resumption of work in March was suspended and countless rumors of "return to work next week", nearly 180 days later, the mainland cinema finally ushered in the time to resume work: at 12 noon on July 16, the National Film Administration Issued the "Notice of the National Film Administration on Promoting the Reopening of Cinemas in an Orderly Way under Conditions of Normalization of Epidemic Prevention and Control", announcing that cinemas in low-risk areas can be reopened in an orderly manner on July 20. The film market finally ushered in the dawn of recovery.
01. Post-epidemic consumption rebounds, movie theaters bear the brunt
On April 29, the National Film Administration held a video conference on the film system's response to the epidemic. The meeting analyzed the huge impact and profound impact of the epidemic on the film industry. It is currently estimated that the annual box office loss will exceed 30 billion yuan, which is only for box office losses. The estimate is more conservative. So far, more than 40,000 companies engaged in the production, distribution, and projection of films and films have been revoked or cancelled. As one of the industries that were the first to close and resume work, the film market continued to bear the impact of the epidemic. In the film market, the movie theater line was the first to bear the brunt. Nowadays, after more than half a year of waiting, the cinema line finally ushered in the moment of restart. People in the film and television industry are optimistic about the future of the cinema line: "Stay at home for a long time. Once the new crown pneumonia epidemic has passed, movies will become the main entertainment consumption channel. Movie fans' desire to watch movies may usher in a rebound." This shows that the cinema chain is very likely to become a key market for a rebound in consumption in the second half of the year.
After the epidemic, the suspended film and television industry still needs a period of recovery. However, display companies that have chosen the LED movie screen market have never stopped their pace of development. According to Korean media reports, LG’s latest LED movie screen officially enters China In the Taiwan market, this is also the first commercialization of LG’s movie display products. Previously, Samsung, as an enterprise that entered the LED cinema market earlier, has implemented its Onyx LED movie screens in many places around the world. In terms of domestic manufacturers, The cooperation between Ming Technology and Barco Electronics is proceeding in an orderly manner, and screen companies are also accelerating their deployment in the LED cinema market.
02. Considerable market increment, LED screen display performance dominates
According to data released by the National Film Administration, as of November 30, 2019, there were 1074 new theaters nationwide in 2019. Currently, the total number of theaters nationwide has exceeded 14,000. The total number of screens is 79907, which is compared with the market capacity of 60079 screens at the beginning of 2018. There has been an increase of nearly 20,000 yuan. With an increase of nearly 20,000 yuan a year, the total number of screens in mainland China will enter the era of 80,000 yuan. In addition, the film culture of third- and fourth-tier cities and rural markets has not been fully developed. There are still many blank spots in the market. The number of screens per capita is significantly lower than that of North America and Europe. If the per capita value reaches 70% of that of the United States, our total screens The amount will double. Such a huge amount of growth is definitely a very impressive number for LED display companies that constantly want to eat the "cake" of the movie market.
From a technical point of view, in terms of brightness, the performance of LED displays is hard to match with traditional projectors. The self-luminous characteristics of LED display screens make it brighter, and the brightness of the projector's light will inevitably decrease after the process of refraction and projection. Moreover, compared with the latter's natural disadvantage of strictly controlling the light in the cinema to avoid the impact of screen brightness, LED screens are almost no problem even when used outdoors, not to mention indoor use; and in terms of color performance, traditional screens are probably only It can be expected, based on different light emitting principles, LED screens have a wide color gamut, with 1024-4096 grayscale control, and clear and vivid colors; with the implementation of the ultra-high-definition display industry and the 4K/8K development plan, LED movie screens require the screen resolution to reach At 4K level, comprehensive improvements in picture details, frame rate, color, depth of field, dynamic range, etc., make viewers feel immersed and bring a truly attractive viewing experience.
Due to the excellent display performance of the LED display, it also provides a better possibility for the diversified operation of the theater. Such as "movie + dining" model. The food here is not a traditional movie + popcorn/drink. It's the real diet. In the past, when the movie began to be shown, the entire auditorium was dark and it was not easy to find your own seat. However, in the LED display hall, you can avoid this situation, because the LED display is self-luminous and With the highlight feature, the entire theater will not be too dark. Under this condition, the theater can provide the audience with "movie + catering" services. In addition, it can better realize 3D projection and non-film content projection. Such as e-sports, concerts, event broadcasts, etc.
03. Overcoming cost and other factors, the future of LED movie screens can be expected
From the perspective of the entire movie industry, there are not a few domestic theaters that are newly built or need to be upgraded. Facing the many advantages of LED movie screens, most of them are relatively conservative on the issue of specific introduction. Indeed, the current price of LED movie screens is relatively Higher, compared to the projector, the cost of building a hall is much higher. In today's poor market environment, many domestic theaters have no incentive to introduce it, and some of them are more qualified to highlight the advanced and high-end theater facilities, but some insiders said that if domestic LED display brands can enter the theater market , The price is expected to drop significantly, under the premise of controllable costs and risks, try new technology products. Therefore, the key that really determines whether the film industry can develop on a large scale is the input cost.
Nevertheless, LED movie screens, which are mainly subject to the cost of semiconductor light-emitting components such as LEDs, follow "Moore's Law" to a certain extent, and their performance and price decrease are regular. Entering will speed up this process. We have reason to expect that LED movie screens will serve as a new form of cinema projection and become the infrastructure of the cinema's new operating format.
04. Conclusion
To sum up, in the post-epidemic era, the opening of the theater market by the National Film Bureau is an important step in promoting economic recovery. It will greatly promote the development of the theater market including hardware facilities such as LED movie screens. Today, the cinema line is highly competitive. Under the background, an LED screen cinema is regarded as a "marketing point for differentiated experience", and its future development is worth looking forward to, and how much and how far the LED movie screen can go depends more on the practical test of display effect, cost and stability . The curtain of 4K/8K technology and ultra-fine pitch applications has been opened, and it is only a matter of time before the LED movie screen market will usher in an explosion.
Post time: Sep-18-2020