Do We Really Need to Look Like the World to Reach Out to It?
** China Becomes World’s Largest Box Office
Date: April 3, 2018
The Chinese box office for theatrical movie releases became the largest in the world in the first quarter, according to Variety and ComScore this week.
The Chinese box office earned at least $3.17 billion last quarter, a 39% increase, compared to only $2.89 billion for the North American box office. ComScore reported the North American box office dropped 3.7%, from $3 billion in the first quarter of 2017.
Forecasters have predicted the Chinese box office would overtake North America’s box office soon, but the growth in China’s box office stalled in 2016 and 2017.
China’s patriotic war movie, OPERATION RED SEA, was its top earner in the last quarter, followed by Disney’s BLACK PANTHER movie and PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING, a Hollywood science fiction movie produced by China’s Dallan Wanda group.
“The importance of China as a movie market cannot be overstated,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for ComScore.
– Source: Variety, 04/02/18.
