The 12th Shanghai International Film Forum and Exhibition (CinemaS) 2025 was grandly held recently. As a pioneer exhibition brand influencing the development of Asia's film industry, the event gathered numerous renowned enterprises, experts, scholars, and industry leaders from home and abroad. Hubei Jili Food Co., Ltd. joined hands with Wuhan Jiapin Tianxia Technology Co., Ltd. to launch the brand-new intelligent automatic popcorn vending machine, which stood out at the exhibition and attracted extensive attention from industry professionals and visitors.

Innovate Products with Seven Features Leading the Industry

The intelligent automatic popcorn vending machine, a result of the strong collaboration between Hubei Jili Food and Wuhan Jiapin Tianxia Technology, boasts multiple innovative features, bringing a brand-new experience to snack vending in cinemas.

In terms of functions, the vending machine supports QR code payment. Consumers can obtain delicious popcorn in 30 seconds with simple operations. It offers 6 flavor options to cater to different taste preferences. Notably, the popcorn maintains an optimal temperature when dispensed, ensuring audiences can enjoy warm and tasty snacks at any time. Additionally, the device is equipped with an advertising screen, free fast mobile phone charging, and movie ticket printing functions, significantly enhancing user interactivity and added value.

The equipment features seven advantages: "independent research and development, world-first innovation, constant temperature system, intelligence and convenience, affordable pricing, public welfare service, and guaranteed revenue". In technological innovation, it monitors SKU sales rates in real time through IoT data, optimizes product combinations automatically via AI algorithms, and detects inventory to replenish goods promptly. This real-time monitoring and optimization of the vending machine precisely matches supply and demand, eliminates inferior products, and effectively improves sales efficiency.

In intelligent operation and maintenance, it remotely monitors temperature, inventory, and fault warnings, automatically generates replenishment lists, and supports access to third-party instant delivery, increasing operation and maintenance response efficiency by 200%. This intelligent operation and maintenance not only reduces operation and maintenance costs and management difficulties but also enhances large-scale replication capabilities, lowering expansion costs and market risks.

Grasp Industry Trends to Open up New Market Opportunities

Current new trends in the film industry bring broad prospects for the company's business development.

The film market is recovering with increasing content supply. As of April 24, the advance booking box office for new films during the 2025 May Day holiday exceeded 10 million yuan, demonstrating the strong recovery momentum of the film market. Meanwhile, the number of film filings from 2023 to 2024 has rebounded, and it is expected that the domestic film content supply will significantly increase in 2025. The recovery of the film market and the increase in content supply will directly drive the rise in cinema traffic. As an important supporting facility in cinemas, the intelligent automatic popcorn vending machine will see a corresponding increase in market demand.

Technological innovation and AI applications are accelerating in the film industry. In 2023, more than 50 films used AI-assisted editing and special effects synthesis technology, and this number is expected to double by 2025. The popularization of virtual production technology has also opened up new horizons for film creation. The application of AI and virtual production technologies reduces film production costs and improves efficiency, promoting the output of more high-quality films. This further enhances the attractiveness of cinemas, creating a broader market space for intelligent automatic popcorn vending machines.

Audience demands are diversifying with consumption upgrading. In 2025, audiences have more diversified demands for film content, with obvious differentiation in preferences between realistic themes and commercial genre films. Meanwhile, audiences have higher requirements for the movie-watching experience, paying more attention to emotional resonance and timely topics. This prompts cinemas to improve service quality, including providing better snack options, which the intelligent automatic popcorn vending machine can meet through technological innovation. In addition, as audiences pay more attention to health and environmental protection, the vending machine can launch low-sugar and low-fat popcorn products to adapt to market changes.

The derivative market and IP development have become new growth points in the film industry. In 2025, the film derivative market is regarded as a new growth point of the film industry, and diversified IP operation has become the key to future development. For example, the success of Nezha: Chaos in the Sea not only lies in its box office but also in the considerable revenue brought by its derivative development. The development of film IP will drive the sales of related derivatives. The intelligent automatic popcorn vending machine can cooperate with popular IPs to launch limited-edition popcorn packaging or movie-themed promotional activities, attracting more audiences to purchase. This cooperation model not only enhances the visibility of the vending machine but also increases sales through the influence of IPs.

Highlights of Exhibition Promotion Demonstrating Corporate Strength and Responsibility

Hubei Jili Food Co., Ltd. showed numerous highlights in booth promotion.

In product feature display, it highlighted intelligent operation: the intelligent automatic popcorn vending machine is equipped with an AI intelligent recognition system and IoT technology, realizing unattended operation, supporting QR code payment, and enabling 30-second fast delivery; it offers 6 flavor choices for diversification; in terms of health and environmental protection, it uses oil-free air fryer technology to make popcorn, and the packaging bags adopt environmentally friendly recyclable materials; it is rich in additional functions, equipped with an advertising screen, free fast mobile phone charging, and movie ticket printing.

In the on-site demonstration and interactive experience, audiences were invited to experience the operation process of scanning codes to purchase, selecting flavors, and receiving popcorn, personally feeling the convenience of intelligent vending.

In promotional activities, the brand story and public welfare feelings were displayed. Through promotional materials and on-site explanations, the company introduced its 27-year history of popcorn production and the public welfare project of "Hubei Hope Project · Jili Mars Education Fund". For each cup of popcorn sold, 1 cent is donated to the Hubei Hope Project, demonstrating corporate social responsibility. Meanwhile, the "5 zeros" policy for investment cooperation (0 franchise fee, 0 equipment maintenance fee, 0 system fee, 0 raw material purchase fee, 0 purchase risk) was explained in detail to attract potential partners. The market potential of the intelligent automatic popcorn vending machine was analyzed in combination with the recovery of the film industry and consumption upgrading trends to enhance audiences' confidence in the product.

Deepen Industry Development and Look Forward to the Future

Hubei Jili Food Co., Ltd. chose to participate in the Shanghai International Film Forum and Exhibition to achieve multi-faceted development through this important platform: communicating deeply with industry professionals to understand the latest market dynamics and technological trends and expanding cooperation opportunities; enhancing brand awareness, promoting the intelligent automatic popcorn vending machine, and expanding market share; and displaying the company's innovative achievements in the field of smart retail to promote the intelligent development of the popcorn industry.

The company has a profound understanding and positive outlook on the development trends of the film industry. It believes that under the drive of technological innovation, the application of AI and virtual production technologies will promote the improvement of film production efficiency and quality, and smart retail devices can also use these technologies to achieve more accurate user demand prediction and more efficient operation. In the context of consumption upgrading and diversified demands, the intelligent automatic popcorn vending machine can meet audiences' needs for convenient and diversified snacks and enhance the movie-watching experience. In the trend of environmental protection and sustainable development, the company actively responds to environmental protection requirements by adopting eco-friendly packaging and energy-saving technologies, enhancing the market competitiveness of its products.

This exhibition provided an excellent platform for Hubei Jili Food Co., Ltd. to display innovative achievements, expand cooperation opportunities, and enhance brand awareness. In the future, the company will continue to deepen the trinity strategy of "intelligent equipment + cloud services + data empowerment" to promote the wide application of smart retail devices in the film industry and bring more convenient and diversified movie-watching experiences to audiences. It looks forward to joining hands with more partners to jointly unlock a new "blooming" era of smart retail and contribute to the development of China's film industry.