Screentime
China’s Box Office Becomes a Giant Headache for Hollywood
- U.S. movie releases this year are almost half 2020 level
- Disney’s first Asian superhero film doesn’t have opening date
When “Godzilla vs. Kong” opened with weekend sales of nearly $70 million in China in March, it seemed the market would be a bright spot for Hollywood studios: most theaters were open, while U.S. film-goers were still staying home because of the coronavirus.
But 2021 is turning into a disappointment for movie companies in China, which passed the U.S. last year to become the world’s largest film market. U.S. films have grabbed about 15% of the box office, on par with pandemic-impaired sales in 2020 and far less than the 32% they claimed in 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from the Chinese ticketing service Maoyan Entertainment.