A Japanese theater employee who wished to remain anonymous shared their frustrations on an online forum about the excessive use of bonus promotions to attract audiences.
Movies, especially anime movies released in Japan often come with bonus gifts that tend to attract more audiences to the theater. This includes limited edition illustrations, stickers, additional manga chapters, and other goodies.
For example: Spy x Family: Code Whiteone of the recent films released in Japan, also came up tweet recently said that theatergoers will receive gifts and that the number of gifts is limited to create a sense of urgency.
According to the employee, this year, there were so many bonuses that all theater employees questioned whether their main focus was showing the movie or simply distributing bonus materials.
“I work at a movie theater, but I’m completely exhausted with the recent bonus strategy trend. This year, the impression is that there are really a lot of bonuses.
It’s no longer clear whether we’re showing a movie or just handing out prize money. Really hard.”
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Issues with bonus distribution and storage
The employee left to explain that bonus distribution times vary from Saturday to Friday and are usually limited to the first three days. Distribution methods include ‘continue until supplies last’ and ‘rotate weekly’, while the targets of the bounties range from everyone to only middle school students and under.
Post-distribution disposal, including in-theater disposal or costly returns, further exacerbates the challenges theater staff face.
Furthermore, batches of treats keep coming in, often without notice, creating storage problems and also causing them to incur additional costs for discarding or returning leftovers.
“They are sending more and more and it is even harder to find a place to put them. Furthermore, if there is any left over, throwing it away or returning it will cost money.
Recently, they said things like,’The image of this reward will be revealed from ● month ● day ● time, so please be careful when handling. We demand careful management.’ Or ‘recently, we have noticed bonus trading so we are asking theaters to carefully manage their inventory’. They even denounced the reselling staff. In the past (it feels like ancient times), leftover bonuses were given to part-time employees and there wasn’t much fuss about meticulous quantity management. But nowadays, even giving away freebies requires a lot of effort and attention. “It’s tiring,” they added.
Theatergoers’ attitudes
Another major problem this employee addressed was the surge in moviegoers coming to theaters looking for bonuses instead of enjoying the movie. Such people continue to go to many theaters just to receive bonuses and not to watch movies.
On top of that, this employee also said that many people came near the end of their movie screenings, just to receive bonuses and special benefits. This has led to theaters implementing regulations to control admission times and clarify that admission bonuses are not guaranteed with ticket purchases.
And in case the bonus distribution ends, the customer will request a refund of the ticket.
Announcing when the giveaway will end is very difficult, and basically, the main issue isn’t ‘is the movie?’” they said.
This has also led to disgruntled audiences expressing frustration over the availability of bonuses on social media and accusing theaters of unfair practices. This is something that employees find very frustrating.
“During a recent weekend, I came across a post like ‘Distribution ended so quickly because theater staff were reselling and reducing quantities.’ It disappointed me. I feel really devastated There is no way we can get such a significant number that will affect the number of screenings…” they added.
The employee ultimately attributed the current situation to film companies using bonuses as bait to extort money from devoted fans, describing it as “unpleasant” and “almost guilty” of behavior they wish companies would stop.
On the other hand, they also acknowledged the counter-argument that film companies are businesses with financial goals, but expressed concerns about the long-term impact of the current approach. The staffer criticized the industry’s focus on limiting repeat audiences, suggesting it could ultimately lead to the decline of movies as an art form.
“The Japanese film industry (not all of it of course, mainly some major film companies) seems to be more interested in providing bait for a certain number of people to continuously watch a series movie 100 times rather than letting 100 different people watch the movie they created,” the employee said. “But perhaps, if this continues, cinema will die. They will die buried under mountains of undistributed discarded bonuses.”
These comments raise concerns about the exploitation of fan communities and the long-term viability of niche marketing strategies in the entertainment industry.
Note: It is important to note that this is the opinion of one individual and does not necessarily reflect the views of the entire Japanese film industry.
Source: Hatelobo
