The Covid pandemic has continued to take its toll on China’s theatrical business with the box office down an estimated 36.4% last year, reaching $4.4bn (RMB30bn) in 2022.
The drop followed a twofold year-on-year increase in 2021 and was down 53.2% on pre-pandemic 2019, according to an annual report from the Maoyan Research Institute.
The report noted that the Chinese film industry was recovering in 2021 following the initial outbreak of Covid, but that fresh waves of the virus stalled the momentum. With on-and-off large-scale cinema closures, several high-profile titles were unable to release as scheduled, affecting several major release periods. “Uncertainty” was the keyword for the last three years.
Compared to 2020 – when cinema operations were brought to a complete standstill for 178 days – more than half of all cinemas were closed for 46 days in 2022. The operating rate for cinemas fell below 50% from March 21 to April 22 and below 40% from November 24-30. The number of cinemas reached 12,123 of which 54% earned between $146,000 and $731,000 (RMB1-5m) in annual ticket sales while 33.3% earned below $146,000 (RMB1m).
The attendance per screening was 8.6 based on a three-year average from 2020-022, down from 15.3, the average from 2017-2019, while the average ticket price was $5.86 (RMB40.1) from 2020-2022, compared to $5.21 (RMB35.7) from 2017-2019.
The operating rate had increased [to over 70% according to Maoyan’s real-time box office data] by the time Avatar: The Way Of Water opened on December 16. It took $139.4m (RMB953m) by year-end, falling below earlier market expectations partly because a surge in Covid cases kept people from going to the cinemas.
In 2010, Avatar became the first ever film to sell $146.2m (RMB1bn) of tickets in China. By coincidence, its sequel has become the 100th film to cross this threshold on January 1 this year.
Avatar: The Way Of Water was one of only two Hollywood blockbusters that entered the top 10 in 2022. The other was Jurassic World Dominion, which grossed $232.5m (RMB1.59bn). The top three titles of the year went to historical war drama The Battle at Lake Changjin II ($594.75m/RMB4.07bn), sci-fi comedy Moon Man ($453.6m/RMB3.1bn) and comedy Too Cool To Kill ($390m/RMB2.7bn), which accounted for a combined 32.5% market share of the total box office.
The number of first-run films released was 379 per year based on the three-year average from 2020 to 2022 (down 26% from 2017 to 2019), including 322 local productions (down 19%) and 57 foreign titles (down 48%).
Among the latest trends mentioned in the report was how preview screenings were used as a key marketing tool to make up for the short marketing period leading up to release. Moon Man, for example, was dated only 10 days prior to release, but it held 87,000 preview screenings over two days as part of its marketing campaign, which helped spread a positive buzz about the film and brought in $17.4m (RMB119m) in ticket sales before its opening on July 29.
Peasant drama Return To Dust was also noted in the report for its phenomenal commercial success. It took only $49,000 (RMB340,000) on its opening day but following strong word of mouth, it ended up with $15.9m (RMB109m) as its final gross even after it was launched on streaming platforms during its theatrical release.
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