Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that, during China’s National Day holiday period right after the Chinese stock market recently soared, movie consumption (an important part of the holiday economy) was particularly weak.
According to latest statistics, this year’s China National Day period (October 1st to 7th) box office totals reached RMB 1.82 billion yuan (around US$258 million), including pre-sold tickets. This year’s “Golden Week” number was not only dramatically lower than the RMB 2.734 billion yuan (around US$397 million) for the same period last year, but also less than half of the RMB 5.049 billion yuan (around US$715 million) seen in 2019. Moreover, this year’s box office results were achieved with the help of heavy official subsidies.
In order to attract people to watch movies, many local governments launched programs such as movie-viewing-coupon initiatives. For example, the Beijing Film Bureau issued RMB 10 million yuan (around US$1.42 million) in movie viewing subsidies to more than 250 theaters in the city, while the Shanghai government issued 30 million yuan (around US$4.25 million) in movie consumption vouchers.
In recent years, China’s consumer spending as a share of GDP has declined, rather than increasing. Analysts expressed the belief that the government will have a hard time effectively stimulating consumption unless the financial pressure on ordinary people from the “three big mountains” (housing, education and medical care) is removed.
Source: Lianhe Zaobao, October 6, 2024
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/finance/china/story20241006-4954583