A Study Of Chinese Theatre Chain’s Development Strategy

The theatre chain system is a core section in the transformation of the Chinese film industry. It is the result of market economy and the need of the social development. The system was first introduced in2002and, after more than ten years of reform and development, it broken the state monopoly over the purchase and distribution of films that was designed for the planned economy in the past. The theatre chain system got through the adaptive period from2002to2004after it was initiated, and experienced a merge and reorganization era from2005to2008. Now the system has developed to brand integration time in recent years. It has formed a relatively stable market structure, and accumulated a certain amount of commercial experience in operation. There is a steady growth in box office and the number of screens, and it showed a trend of development in multiplex cinema and digital technology.However, due to a variety of reasons, including property, system, integration, marketing, and financing, China’s theatre chain system is still facing many constraints and obstacles. Cinema screen numbers still can not meet the increasing consumer demand. The homogenization of theater management and the lack of features largely restricted the development. And the relationship between theatres and theatre chains were not closely connected, and mostly they did not turn into a capital related relationship. Meanwhile, facing the challenge of globalization and diversification, how to explore our own advantages and how to integrate with the world became the problem we must solve.Therefore, this dissertation will trace the history of the chains in China and explore its contemporary development, as well as comparing the situation of Chinese film exhibition with its counterpart in United States and Korea to analyse the issues that the Chinese industry currently has. Then this dissertation will consider and summarize how to promote the standardization and health of the Chinese film exhibition market through studying the inspiration of American and Korean exhibition industry has on the development of the Chinese cinema chains. In addition, with the wish of gearing up the market practice, this dissertation will also cogitate how to build a Chinese characteristic brand of cinema chain, proposing a strategic advice for its development.As for choosing the American and the Korean cinema chains to compare with the Chinese local ones, there are two reasons. On the one hand, both countries have a relatively developed market with extensive operation experience. On the other hand, geographically Korea is the neighborhood of China, which enables more similarities between them. In this way, Korea has more use of reference for China.To combine the theory and practice, exploring the oversea experience and making a suggestion for the development of Chinese cinema chains, this dissertation will contain five parts, which form its basic structure:The first part of the dissertation shows the history of the chains in China and analyses the characteristics of the distribution and exhibition system to discuss the necessity of implementing the theatre chain system.Part two shows the achievements and advantages of the theatre chain and analyses the development trend of the system in recent years. It clearly shows the achievements and traits since the theatre chain system has implemented.In the third part, the inspiration of American and Korean exhibition industry is studied and the characteristics of the history about distribution and exhibition in each period is analysed.The forth part is an important chapter. Through vertical and horizontal comparison of the theatre chain development, it discovers its problems and its trends. The author offers her view of the directions the Chinese system should take in the end of this part.