There are doubts about the qualification and copyright of cross-border film production in coffee shops and Internet cafes.

The personalized private room environment of private cinema is a major feature to attract consumers. Photo courtesy/Lime Shadow Coffee

An Internet cafe has been converted into a private theater, charging members of video sites to stream movies online.

If you want to see a movie, you have to go to the cinema? That would be out of fashion. Trendy private cinemas have long blossomed in Beijing. More and more fans are keen on this kind of movie viewing by walking into the exquisite theme room and enjoying an audio-visual feast with friends.

However, reporters recently visited a number of private cinemas found that these places and traditional cinemas contrast too much, some cafes and Internet cafes open a private room to set up a piece of white cloth dare to call themselves "cinema", film source copyright and internal environment mixed. Industry insiders call for copyright and access licensing problems for private cinemas to be solved as consumer demand for on-demand movies grows.

Internet cafes turn into "cinemas"

Enter "private cinema" on the public comment, and the information of 55 stores in Beijing pops up, but some businesses do not have the appearance of "cinema".

Entering a door near the Great Huangzhuang Bridge, the lobby is an Internet cafe and coffee table seats, and the two private rooms on the side are "private cinemas". In the private room, there was a computer on each side of the sofa that was not spacious. One could surf the Internet, and the other could be used for on-demand movies. You could watch movies by pulling down the projection cloth.

"Ten yuan an hour. It's charged by the hour." Staff said, Internet cafes have members of various video sites, so "as long as there are movies on the video site I can see here." "Is it a gun version? Is it clear?" The reporter asks, the other side says: "The resource of video website is very clear, it is online look, in Internet bar net speed is fast, won't card."

Some cafes, milk tea shops, billiards halls and KTV have also started private cinema businesses. Self-proclaimed "cinema", most stores are actually "cross-border operation", watching movies belongs to one of the entertainment items, charging is not ticket fee, but like KTV room fee or time fee.

People who want to see the latest blockbusters don't have illusions about private theaters, all of which say "they can't see movies with synchronized theaters." However, there are also businesses playing "edge ball","we copy the latest movie to the U disk, cinema this week next week can see, own U disk to watch movies also OK."

Chain private cinema popular

The visit found that non-chain brands, business does not focus on cinema stores passenger flow is scarce, and some chain private cinemas specializing in film viewing accounted for the majority in Beijing, hardware and environment compared with "cross-border cinema" a higher level, the price is a little more expensive,"film source multi-channel wide" as a selling point, and one after another to sell membership.

At a theme cinema near Beiwai, the price of watching a movie ranges from 98 yuan to 188 yuan, with eight private rooms of different sizes. "There are more than ten thousand movies in the library. For example,'Split' is being released in the United States. We can use this gap to play here." The clerk said the films were licensed by the distributor. Visiting several private cinemas near Zhongguancun (8.490, -0.10, -1.16%), the staff claimed that the film source came from 1905 film network and said that "only offline movies can be seen."

Go to a private theater and see an old movie. Does anyone buy it? To many people's surprise, many private cinemas are quite popular, especially the private cinemas around schools and business districts, which are peak from Friday night to Sunday. If you want to watch movies all night, you even need to book in advance. "The private cinema has a good environment and is more private. It's suitable for dating parties. The experience is very fresh." said Li Dan, a frequent visitor to private cinemas and graduate student at the National People's Congress. Some netizens revealed that it was very enjoyable to make an appointment with friends to watch 7 Harry Potter in a private box.

Non-cinema movies can also bring real money, which makes online video sites sit still and lay out offline cinemas one after another. Last year, the flagship store of BFC private cinema opened in Sanlitun SOHO was officially put into operation, and iQiyi's stake in "watching microcinema together" also blossomed all over the country. The video website itself has a large number of genuine film sources. Instead of granting copyright, it is better to extend its tentacles offline. It is obviously too costly to invest directly in cinemas, and private cinemas are a good choice.

The film meets regulatory difficulties

Will private cinemas be a flash in the pan like video halls? Or do you want to survive like an Internet cafe?

The reporter learned that copyright and license issues are the biggest embarrassment encountered by the industry at this stage. "Lime Shadow Cafe has more than 350 stores nationwide. The franchised stores are all registered cafes, water bars, restaurants and other business licenses. This is the case for practitioners all over the country. This is the industry's helpless move." Lime Shadow Coffee CEO Zhong Chao admitted that Lime Shadow Coffee Company registered is "movie screening" category, and at present private cinema is not able to register "cinema". Is private cinema legal? "SARFT has no regulations on private cinemas yet," Zhong said.

No rules, no regulation, copyright issues stuck in my throat. In September last year, the operator of Huimeng Film and Television Tea Bar was sentenced to 10 months in prison and fined RMB 5000 yuan for "copyright infringement" for "stealing, illegal projection and resale of films". This is the first case in China that was convicted of copyright infringement and directly sentenced for "cinema theft", which sounded alarm bells for operators in the industry.

However, there are still practitioners in the industry who ignore copyright issues and reap profits without spending much money, which makes some merchants who spend a lot of money to buy overseas copyrights unbalanced. A person in charge of a private cinema said that in the face of rising film copyright costs, many private cinemas saved money on "buying copyright" in order to save costs. In fact, in western countries such as the United States, in addition to traditional commercial cinemas, each community has its own community cinema, as well as art cinemas and other subdivision cinema models.

Industry insiders revealed that the state is likely to introduce policies related to on-demand cinemas in June, involving copyright, access permits and other issues, and even issue film screening licenses for on-demand cinemas. At that time, the industry will usher in a big reshuffle, Internet cafes, cafes in the "cinema" will be difficult to sustain.

Zhong Chao analyzed that the standardized development of on-demand cinemas can extend the profit cycle of films and promote the market scale of Chinese films (20.720,-0.27,-1.29%) to increase from the current 50 billion yuan to 100 billion yuan.