Hollywood Lifts China 2017 Box Office Back to Growth

(Variety) A big April, turbocharged by two Hollywood action titles, nudged China’s box office back on to a growth trend for the first four months of the year.

The month saw the release of “Kong: Skull Island” ($169 million) and “The Fate of the Furious,” which finished the month as the second highest grossing film of all time at the Chinese box office, with $362 million.

Between January and April, nationwide gross box office was $2.78 million (RMB19.3 billion,) according to data from Ent Group. That compares with $2.55 million (RMB17.6 billion) in the first four months of last year and implies an increase of 10%.

Using new reporting standards, the 2017 figure includes fees charged by online ticketing agencies – worth $165 million (RMB1.14 billion) in the first four months. Eliminating those gives an adjusted total of $2.63 billion (RMB18.16 billion,) implying adjusted box office growth of 3%.

Admissions showed 6.5% growth, with ticket sales reaching 550 million, compared with 516 million in the first four months of 2016.

April 2017 alone saw box office of $708 million (RMB4.87 billion,) an increase of 44% compared with March. On an adjusted basis, that is a 49% improvement on April 2016’s $451 million (RMB3.11 million).

Source: Variety by Patrick Frater

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