North America Set to Beat China as the Global Box Office’s Biggest Market
variety.comPatrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefCinema box office this year in North America is poised to overtake theatrical revenues in China, the country that has been the world’s largest movie market for the past two years.Before the latest weekend, gross revenues in the year to date stood at $2.38 billion for the North American compared with $2.43 billion for China, according to data from ComScore.U.K.-based research firm Gower Street Analytics forecast that the North American figure would overtake China’s revenues over the weekend or early this week.
That reflects business growth in North America and the current reversal in China, where anti-COVID measures are causing renewed cinema closures.Gower Street says that some 85% of global cinemas are now open for business, compared with pre-pandemic levels.
The researcher compares recent box office performance with mean 2018-19 low-, median- and top quartile score weekends to create a five-step scale of recovery in each market.On this scale, all except one major market had achieved Stage 5 at least once by the end of 2021.
With “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” changing audience behavior, these included the domestic market, France, Spain, Italy, Australia, Mexico and Brazil.Only South Korea, among the top 30 markets tracked by the company, had not achieved either Stages 4 or 5 by the end of 2021.
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