In recent years the film industry in Hong Kong has gone downhill. Many people are not willing to watch a film in a cinema, despite the fact that the price of film tickets is already quite low. The sales of film tickets are falling continuously.
First of all, why has the situation become so bad? One of the reasons is that many people choose to buy or rent a DVD and watch the film. Nowadays, many DVDs are of very high quality. For example, the blue-ray discs invented recently are of so high quality that we can even see every hair of the characters on the screen! As the quality of the discs is even higher than the film played in the cinema, many people choose to buy a DVD and watch the film in their home. Furthermore, many people feel that watching film at home is much more comfortable than watching it in cinema. There may be many people laughing and even talking in the cinema, which can be really disturbing. To prevent this, many people would rather choose to watch the films at home. Also, when one watches a film at home, he can watch the film in whatever ways he likes – he can stop the movies anytime he want, he can even lie on a bed to watch the movie. This gives more freedom to him, and can make him more comfortable.
Apart from that, the problem arises also due to the problem of pirated DVDs. Nowadays, we can easily buy a copy of pirated DVD in Mainland China with a very low price. One DVD may only worth 10 dollars or below. Viewing this, many people do not bother to watch movies in cinema, but buying pirated DVDs instead.
An even more major reason is the existence of the ‘sharing’ software such as foxy and BT. One can download a movie easily with these software. This is even a greater problem than pirated DVD; On the other hand, using these website, one only needs to press a button and want for a while to get a film. This is much more convenient and cheaper than buying a DVD. In fact, as many people don’t think that they will be caught for downloading movies, they actively engage in downloading the films. I have a friend who always downloads movies from the internet with foxy. He once told me. ‘Why should we go to a cinema? We can get a movie easily. Which are much more convenient and totally free of charge? I mean both money terms and law terms!’
To deal with the problem of, high quality DVDs and boost the film industry, cinemas can promote the 3D and 4D movies. Watching 3S movies mean that you need to wear a 3D eyeglass to watch them, which can give you an interesting 3 dimensional view. In the other hand, 4D movies are the ones that will give you special effects, such as water flushing on your face, in addition to the 3-D experience. I have once tried to watch a 4D movie. My seat was actually moving during the exciting scenes of the movie! A normal DVD can never give such a funny and interesting experience to the people. Therefore, if the cinemas promote 3D and 4D movies, I am sure that this can attract people to watch movies in cinemas.
Apart from that, to deal with the problem of pirates DVDs, the government should co-operate more with the Chinese government. They should launch more campaigns together to shut down the stores selling pirated DVDs so easily.
To solve the problem of downloading movies from the internet, both education and legislation are needed. On one hand, the school and the government can hold some talks to teach teenagers that downloading movies from internet is actually wrong. This can let teenagers know that they are in fact doing an illegal act and thus stop them from downloading movies again. On the other hand, the government should also set up legislation and increase the fine and years of imprisonment of downloading films. This can surely frighten the citizens and stop them from downloading film again.
To conclude, I think cinema can still have great attraction to citizens. If only the problems of pirated DVDs and illegal downloading are solved, I am sure that the film industry can be greatly improved.