Chinese Box Office Slumps

 It appears that the familiar cries of ‘COVID concerns’ and ‘not enough product’ have finally struck the Chinese Box Office, too. We’ve seen a rather profound drop in numbers compared with their reasonably buoyant 2021 statistics. Entertainment attorney with Blake & Wang P.A, Brandon Blake, has the news.

Brandon Blake

36% Drop on 2021

Reaching just over RMB 30B, or $4.35B, the 2022 Chinese Box Office closes 36% below its 2021 benchmark. Echoing a trend we’ve seen from the country of later, 85% of those takings were generated by local movies, with the much-celebrated Battle at Lake Changjin 2 the top performer for the year.

On the studio import side, and rather unsurprisingly, Avatar: The Way of Water takes the top spot for highest-grossing imported studio film, managing to pip Jurassic World: Dominion in the final days of the year.

Health Concerns

Despite the dropping of China’s brutal Zero COVID policy in the middle of the year (or possibly because of it) concerns around the spread of the virus and several severe lockdowns in key cities are mostly to blame for the lackluster performance. Despite the rollercoaster caused by random cinema shutdowns, the lifting of the policy may have done more damage, with fearful theater-goers no longer willing to venture out into public spaces.

However, we do have to give a nod to the lack of international fare for the screens, too. And in cases where international films were shown, it was often too close to the release date for adequate promotion and marketing activity- an issue that hit several local releases, too. 

Traditionally, the fast-approaching Chinese New Year holiday is one of the market’s most lucrative weekends, and it falls even earlier than usual this year, too. Whether this continued concern about social interaction and disease risk will continue to impact this key point in the Chinese calendar is unclear, but a rather worrying thought. At this point, we shall simply have to wait and see.