The price for a ticket to watch a movie in a cinema has increased substantially over the past ten years. For most people, going out to see a movie has become a luxury.

On weekends, there's rarely a full house at the cinema in Beijing. The price for watching the films being shown is at least 50 yuan per ticket --for some film the cost is one hundred yuan.

Wu Juan from Beijing Huaxing Cinema, says, "for our cinema, over 90 percent of the films are priced at 60 yuan, no matter whether the film is from overseas or domestic. Occasionally, some films such as 3D or Imax could be priced at around 80 yuan. "

Yuan Xin, General manager of Beijing Xingmei Cinema, "60-yuan films account for more than 60 percent, while 70-yuan films account for 20 to 30 percent. This is because the ticket is priced according to the minimum price set by the distributor."

Many people cannot afford this and say the current pricing scheme was the first factor keeping them out of the cinemas.

A cinema patron says, "I think it is higher if the ticket price is 60-70 yuan, 20-30 yuan is acceptable."

A cinema patron says, "I normally see the movie once a month. I would probably go to see a movie every week if the ticket is priced lower than 20-30 yuan."

The price of a cinema ticket in the international market normally accounts for less than 1 percent of average monthly income. In 2006, the average film price in Switzerland accounted for 0.4 percent of an ordinary person's income. It was 0.23 percent in America and 0.1 percent in India. But in China, it accounts for 3.22 percent.

Yu Jianhong, dean of Management dept. Beijing Film Academy, says, "in view of the number of screens in the cinema, China currently has 4,000 screens, that is about 0.5 screens for 100,000 people. In America, for every 100,000 people there are five screens."

Experts believe cinemas should add more screens, expand more sales channels to lessen the ticket burden, and set up a more reasonable pricing policy to reduce the cost of tickets.

(CCTV February 23, 2009)