45 Things QDaily Found Out About How Young People Watch Movies

For young people, the movie theater is a social venue. That means they care more about the theater itself and about the whole experience before, during and after a film — and it means they sort films by occasion.

When the foreign press writes about movie theaters now, it writes about the trouble they are in. Nobody dares draw a firm conclusion, but faintly alarmist wording — "Cinema Is Under Attack in an Era of Streaming," "Is Cinema Dead?" — keeps turning up in headlines. One New York Times report even put movie theaters in the same bracket as radio: both are media that have been around a while.

In China, going to the movies still looks a long way from "outdated." But in 2016 the number of moviegoer visits grew about 12.3% while the number of screens grew 18.2%. Screens grew faster than audiences, so the average screen took in less money. Total box office rose mainly because more screens were built, and the dividend from screen growth is already fading.

• The people who go to the movies most are also the people who use phones and tablets most. Right now they may be more inclined to give their time to the latter.
• More unusual theaters are drawing attention — small art-house cinemas, for instance, which have their own taste in what they program. And although the rights question has never gone away, private screening rooms persist in China too: KTV-style private rooms selling space, atmosphere and freedom.
• Young people in big cities have more to choose from. Exhibitions, music festivals and concerts take audiences away from theaters, which have to compete with all of them for young people's free time.
• When people don't feel like going out, television series and variety shows are lighter and easier to watch in pieces. Some are already unwilling to sit through a film longer than two hours.

Things are not as bad as they sound, though. A joint survey by National CineMedia and Nielsen in the US found that millennials still get more pleasure out of a film than other age groups do. Americans may see film as a slightly old-fashioned entertainment, but young people still supply a good share of the box office.

Young people are the main spenders in China's film market too. According to data from the ticketing site Maoyan, buyers born in the 1990s had already overtaken those born in the 1980s among online ticket buyers by 2014, at 52% of all users.

In China the common argument is not "will theaters die" but "upgrading the experience" and "market segmentation." Compared with the cultural spending of enthusiasts, film is cheap mass entertainment, so for the people selling it, improving the experience to pull people in matters more. American theaters sweat every detail: whether to change how seats are picked (from choosing freely once you reach the auditorium to reserving in advance), whether to offer a wider range of food and drink. And Wanda says it wants out of the old theater business of "movies plus popcorn," and wants to treat the theater as a doorway instead: "the theater of the future will be an entertainment complex."

There is indeed more to explore beyond "movies plus popcorn." Besides ticket sales, the theater looks more and more like a doorway to spending — never mind IP, games and merchandise; on space alone it brings business to the restaurants and shops around it.

So how do young people, who spend the most on film, actually see theatrical movies and the act of "going to the movies"?

Our main finding: for young people, the movie theater is a social venue. That means they care more about the theater itself and about the whole experience before, during and after a film — and it means they sort films by occasion. Below we've put what we learned about how young people watch movies into a list.

When Do They Go to the Theater?

In the QDaily Research Lab callout "What Made You Sit Through a Bad Movie at the Theater," the two most-upvoted reasons were "a friend or partner insisted on seeing it" and "a group of friends had nowhere else to go." The main reason people "willingly" sit through a bad film is socializing. Going to the movies sometimes looks more like consumption you didn't choose.

1. Having something to look at saves you from awkward conversation, which makes movies a big reason for dates. But picking a film that suits a date isn't easy.

2. Just as hard: picking "a film to watch after a breakup," "a film to watch before a wedding," or "a film to watch with your parents when there's nothing to do at home over Spring Festival."

3. Alone on a weekend with nothing to do, you might consider a morning show at the theater near your flat — the occasional 9.9-yuan deal in that slot is enough to trigger an impulse buy. It's the kind of situation in which people stop caring how good the film is.

4. Films can be watched at home. But on video sites, web movies pull less than web series: even young people who will happily pay online for a web series are reluctant to buy a membership just for a web movie.

5. People still tie commercial films to theaters and popcorn. A film with good action and effects should be seen at the theater; with an ordinary niche film, missing the run and watching it at home later is no great loss.

6. Young people are more used to fitting television series and variety shows around meals and bedtime than films — the length and the content both suit those moments better.

7. When you really want to watch a film, the theater's constraints — no fast-forward, no switching it off, no easy phone — give it a rare advantage in getting you to finish it with your full attention. Films saved on a device often sit there for months.

8. More people are buying opening-day tickets. When they finally hit on a film they genuinely want to see (usually a foreign one), they'll rush to the theater even after watching a camcorder bootleg online. (@ Maoyan film consumption data report)

How Do They Pick a Film?

Going to the movies comes in two kinds: "on the spur of the moment" and "wanted to see it for ages." The first happens when you're stuck in a mall on a rainy day with nowhere to go, or a gathering hits a lull; the second comes from learning about a release early on social media. People pick films differently in the two cases.

1. When they don't know what to watch, people lean on recommendations from WeChat official accounts such as Dushe Movie, or from film blogs. Having taken the tip, they'll leave a comment under the film's short reviews saying they came with the "Dushe tour group."

2. To make their recommendations stick, official accounts and influencers cite Douban scores, IMDb ratings and Rotten Tomatoes freshness — because audiences want those numbers.

3. A well-curated list sells a film just as well. Listicles like "Your 2016 watchlist needs these 10 prestige pictures" or "10 mystery films worth your time: tight plots, tangled minds" pull hard.

4. Deciding on the spur of the moment, people pick whichever film showing nearby they've heard the name of lately. If it isn't a film they want to see, even a discount doesn't tempt them much.

5. After the resigned choice made for the sake of company, the second main reason people end up watching a bad film is being misled by ratings — from ticketing sites and apps, or from Douban scores fixed by paid commenters.

6. Even bad films have a pecking order of contempt. In the QDaily Research Lab callout "Which Movie Marketing Clichés Are You Sick Of?," we found that young people know exactly what the labels mean: a film sold as a "youth film" is usually melodrama, and "effects team from Hollywood" usually means effects that look like they cost seventy cents.

7. Youth films above all. In the callout "What Kind of Nostalgia Can't You Stand?," we found that the nostalgia young people tolerate least is not Moments posts or inspirational chicken-soup articles but "films and shows that mine memories of youth and do it without shame."

8. The loudest complaint about bad youth films is "our youth was nothing like that." (They are also, usually, exactly the audience that marketing is aimed at.)

9. The worst minefield when watching a film with your parents, young people say, is "campus youth films that keep bringing up sex, drugs and rock and roll."

10. Lazy, phoned-in scenes become material for mockery and conversation. In "The Laziest Movie Scenes," the top three were "the villain usually dies of talking too much while recapping his plan," "nobody ever looks back at the explosion they set off," and "hackers crack a computer and steal the files absurdly fast."

11. Very occasionally, a bad film's melodrama becomes part of internet culture, and some people go "purely to mock it."

12. The people who like discussing obscure films and buy a projector to watch Blu-rays at home are a minority, and niche film really does stay at the top of the pecking order and outside most people's range.

13. Some believe blockbusters belong in theaters while niche films sell on disc and streaming, but blockbusters still dominate disc sales as well.

14. When the film is really there to meet a social need, the urge to sort films by occasion gets stronger: people care less about the film than about who they're watching it with. They want to know in advance whether it's "all right to bring your parents to" or "suitable for kids," and they often ask on Moments and other social networks.

15. For a film that is only a social backdrop, "does no harm" already satisfies most tastes — stars, good-looking images or effects can make up for a flat plot.

16. One complaint among young people: the more effects, action and stars a film has, the more their elders back home think it was "worth the money." Though sometimes they think so themselves.

17. Young people are far less tolerant of spoilers than their parents' generation. A spoiler can ruin the mood for a film altogether.

1. Those who set their hearts on some film — usually a niche one — and wait to see it at the theater often never get to. Apart from a few outposts in first-tier cities (the China Film Archive in Beijing, say), anyone who wants to see a niche or art-house film in a theater keeps running into "too few screenings, too far away, too short a run," and ends up watching it online.

2. A new gimmick attracts some people when it first appears and loses its charm soon after — 3D and IMAX, sometimes overused; adaptations of existing works; IP.

3. As for bullet-screen showings, meant to catch young people's eye: so far they're still a joke. Outside Bilibili, where the bullet screen was born, the feature isn't necessarily welcome on other video sites.

4. When a film is available in the original audio, young people generally don't choose the dubbed version. They can live with not understanding the language and reading subtitles; they can't live with dubbing that sounds awkward.

How Do They Pick a Theater, and Buy Tickets?

A foreign survey found that young people watch more films after 6 p.m. — as part of a social outing, a film often follows dinner with friends. When it comes to choosing a theater, the chains' brands have begun to mean something: young people note which chains have comfortable seats and good picture and sound.

1. Besides a film's rating, they check the theater's rating. They care whether the fittings are new, how good the screen is, and whether the 3D glasses are clean and intact — and also whether the theater is easy to reach and whether there is somewhere convenient to eat nearby.

2. They are so used to buying online that even with the group already standing at the theater door, they'll still pull out their phones.

3. Outside the periods when subsidies pile up, it's hard to say which ticketing app is cheapest. So people don't bother with the extra step of a price-comparison app.

4. At a theater they've never been to, most people agonize over which seat to take — it depends on the screen size, the room and the kind of film, and the bigger the group, the harder the decision.

5. People have plenty of complaints about ordinary theaters, but they don't know much yet about the new "private screening rooms." One common reaction: "isn't this just the old video parlor?"

What Do They Complain About During the Film?

Most of the time a movie theater is not a pleasant public space. In the poll "What Do You Expect From a Movie Theater?," we found that the most annoying thing during a film is children, followed by leg-jiggling and smoking, and by the person behind you kicking your seat.

1. One complaint about theater membership cards: "there isn't even a members' lounge — get there early and there's nothing to do."

2. If they arrive early, what they want most is Wi-Fi and a comfortable chair.

3. Besides popcorn, they want other "snacks fit for eating in a theater."

4. They keep to a schedule better than their elders when planning a social outing, which makes them likelier to buy tickets in advance. (@ NCM and Nielsen survey data)

5. Young people make up a sizeable share of online ticket buyers. Among them, 79% also buy food and drink at the same time. That fairly high 79% has to do with young people's need to socialize, and with the fact that buying online tends to mean a planned outing rather than a spontaneous one. (@ Maoyan 2015 data)

What Do They Do After the Film Ends?

The QDaily Research Lab once ran a poll, "What Are You Like After a Film You Completely Didn't Understand?," and collected 2,146 responses. The results show that most people would rather not reveal their first, unguarded reaction to a film.

1. Rather than discuss a film with the people they came with, they'd rather look up reviews on Douban and Zhihu and post reviews of their own on social media. Sometimes they spend longer scrolling through reviews than they did watching the film.

2. On rating sites, people hesitate longer before praising a film than before panning it, or they check other people's verdicts first — they're afraid of missing a flaw and making fools of themselves. Panning it first feels safer.

3. They hold "a film you realize afterwards you didn't understand at all" in a kind of awe. In our callout, the most common reaction was "don't dare say anything, go check Douban."

1. More and more, people would rather discuss and judge the acting than the plot — because judging acting is less likely to expose the gaps in what you know and think.

2. Saying what you feel takes some skill. Sometimes it isn't that people reach for a word like "masterpiece" to sound deep; it's that the hundreds of small, stirring feelings inside have no obvious way out, so they borrow the phrasing of the influencers when they write about a film.

3. People used to love keeping a ticket stub or two. They still do. They photograph them and post them on social media, and though the ink fades, some people keep the habit of holding on to them.