China’s box office drops 38% in the first half of 2022, North America still at the top

After two short years of dominance, China will cede the global box office crown to North America in 2022.

In the darkest days of the pandemic for Hollywood, when most of the big marquees were closed or moved to streaming, China surpassed total US ticket sales for the first time in movie history in 2020. The country repeated this last year. . Ticket revenue is $7.3 billion, compared to just $4.5 billion in North America.

But the first half of 2022 presented a very different picture. According to exhibition industry consultancy Artisan Gateway, ticket sales in China totaled just $2.6 billion in the past six months, down 38% from the same period in 2021. major population centers such as Shenzhen and Shanghai have plunged into city-wide lockdowns in response to the Omicron outbreak. The frozen political relationship between Washington and Beijing and the increasingly repressive political climate in China also meant that Hollywood films had fewer release dates, limiting the volume and frequency of bankable product deals.

Meanwhile, gross sales in North America rebounded in the first half of the year as studios began restoring exclusive theater windows for their biggest releases and pandemic restrictions took a back seat to civilian life. Thanks to great home runs from blockbusters like Top Gun: Maverick (US$571 million or more) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($410 million), two titles that were scrapped in China for unspecified political reasons, took in $3.7 billion at the North American box office in the first half of the year, up from just $1.11 billion at the North American box office. americans. the same period of 2021, according to Comscore. (However, sales are still below pre-pandemic levels; 2019 revenue for the same period in 2019 was $5.7 billion, says Artisan.)

The bad news for Hollywood is that films from American studios are grossing less in China than they have in nearly a decade, despite a return to theaters in the United States and elsewhere. Hollywood studios’ movie ticket sales accounted for just $400 million in China, compared to $700 million last year, and before the pandemic, American films were selling $1.9 billion in tickets in China. China in the first half of 2019.

“Pandemic control measures limited China’s total box office in the first half of 2022 and 2014-2015 to about 57.8% of the pre-pandemic first half of 2019,” notes Rance. Pow, president of Artisan Gateway. “And the gap between the market share of Chinese and imported films has widened,” adds Pau, noting that Chinese-language films have generated $2.2 billion in the last six months, compared to a measly $400 million from China for studies. americans.

China’s box office this year was stronger than ever, with eight films accounting for 60% of the total. The top-grossing was Bona Film Group’s nationalist war epic. Battle of Lake Changjin II ($626 million), Chinese comedy by Xing Wenxiong A very cool kill ($217 million) and Wen Mui’s hit drama beautiful view (US$ 211 million).

Top Gun: MaverickThe domestic total (now $571 million) may finally reach Battle of Lake Changjin IIChina’s staggering $626 million gross is a close contest with rival propaganda war films for the highest domestic gross. But China is still not a challenge for Hollywood cinema on a global scale. but Dissident grossed $544.5 million outside of North America (excluding the China release), Battle of Lake Changjin II It raised less than a million dollars outside China’s borders.

Artisan Gateway currently predicts that the Chinese box office will end 2022 with a gross of around $5.2 billion (RMB 35 billion). Any revenue above that amount will depend on the quantity and quality of imported films that Beijing regulators decide to allow into the market, the company said. Many analysts expect North American ticket revenue to reach $7.5 billion this year.

Major Chinese titles expected to boost domestic sales in the second half of the year include: Chen Sicheng’s sci-fi family comedy. mozart in space (Wanda Media), Alibaba Pictures Sci-Fi moon mancomedy thriller ZQ advance (funny age); The first film in Beijing’s fantastic cultural franchise. Fanshen Trilogy3D animation New Gods: Yang Jian (Chaser of Light), science fiction adventure deep sea (Beijing Enlight), Hong Kong long-running science fiction future warriors (Central Asia), continuation of crime white storm 3 (Universe Entertainment) and the latest nationalist epic from the Bona Film Group Anonymous s A common hero.

July 5 at 12pm (Pacific Time): Updated with Comscore numbers.