On October 23, 2015, Dadi Cinema 2016 strategic conference and the 9th anniversary celebration ceremony was held at Peninsula in Shenzhen. At the meeting, Dadi Cinema released their strategy for future development, and signed strategic contracts onsite with Hong Kong Film Directors' Guild, LETV Picture and Ali Pictures, to the promote sharing of resources, and jointly build the ecosystem of cinemas using the Internet concept. At the same time, it also released its own laser IMAX brand and the high-end brand - Freeman Theater.

Dadi Cinema’s previous layout entered the strategic harvest stage, ranking second in the box office share

With cinemas in the domestic first-tier cities becoming saturated, cities with box office exceeding 100 million went down to the second and third tier cities; the fourth or fifth tier cities have become new engines for box office increments. The major previous layout of Dadi Cinema is in the third and the fourth tier cities. Along with the rise of small town youth in the third and four-tier cities, the previous strategic layout of Dadi Cinema entered the harvest period. From a market share perspective, Dadi Cinema ranks the second in the Chinese cinema box office market, which is expected to exceed 2 billion yuan in 2015, with 70 million person-times; there is a huge space for the increase of box office in the future.

A new round of brand strategy upgrade: movie + profound operation of movie communities to build the ecosystem of cinemas

At the strategic conference, Dadi Cinema first proposed the "Film +" concept; that is, being centered on the film communities, make comprehensive and innovative breakthroughs, integrate all resources, strengthen cross-border cooperation, create an experiential cinema ecosystem integrating “Film + Creative Internet", “Film + Creative Catering” and “Film + Creative Retails” and many other formats, to enrich the public life with films. According to general manager of Dadi Cinema, Yu Xin, the "Film + Creative Internet" makes use of the Wechat business platform, to offer complete convenient whole-process film services for film communities from six aspects: online seat selection, on-line theater, local peripherals, intelligent hardware, content communities, and Wechat stores. At the same time, it will profoundly operate the membership system, realize cross-format integration through member cloud trading platform, and promote the membership operation by making use of big data. On the basis of films, Dadi Cinema will introduce innovative and creative catering and retail, to attract film communities in line with market positioning. In the future, catering brands, retail brands and cinemas under Dadi Cinema can be simultaneously settled in shopping malls, to achieve effective multi-format interactions and share the traffic resources, and thus bring vitality and traffic for shopping centers.

Monitoring data from entgroup.cn show that domestic cinemas accounted for more than 80% of box office revenues, while revenues from other formats accounted for a smaller part. Cinemas have larger space for value increase. Incomes from regular products, derivatives, and advertising are the main current direction, but a good mode of breakthrough has not yet been formed in the industry. With cinemas entering the stage of socialization and Internet technology, how to make use of new technologies and new platforms to establish sound and new business modes will become a problem that cinemas are confronted with. Dadi Cinema’s proposal and exploration of the "Film +" concept will also provide a new reference for the industry.

Internet technology: join hands with Ali and LETV to share resources

At the meeting, Dadi Cinema held signing ceremonies with both LETV Pictures and Ali Pictures, to form multi-screen interactions with LETV starting from online videos, and joint membership. With unique marketing advantages, Ali Pictures share complementary advantages with Dadi Cinema. Both sides will expand marketing channel of films through online ticketing, united film marketing and self-service ticketing machines. Data from entgroup.cn shows that it is expected that in 2015 the national online ticket sales (including online seat selection and group buying) will reach 64%. In the summer of this year, Dadi Cinema’s online revenue took up nearly 60%. The formation of moviegoers’ online consumption ecology triggered great imagination on the combination of cinemas with the Internet in terms of tickets, distribution marketing, and derivatives.

In addition, Dadi Cinema also launched its own laser IMAX brand LASERMAX and a high-end brand - Freeman Theater. In the future, it will join hands with the Hong Kong Film Directors 'Guild, with Shenzhen as a starting point, to create "Hong Kong Film Directors' Guild - Freeman Theater”, which will gradually cover other first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Data from entgroup.cn shows that there have been a number of influential brands of IMAX in the domestic market. The development of the IMAX field plays a direct positive role in enhancing cinema brands and the viewing experience of audiences. However, this also requires that the software and hardware as well as the industry become more standardized.