The Last of Us is gaining traction. In its second week, the series jumped 22% from its debut viewership, drawing 5.7M viewers on Sunday night.
04.01.2023 - 14:05 / deadline.com
Hong Kong’s box office managed to stage a partial recovery in the second half of 2022, despite cinemas being closed for nearly four months earlier in the year, due to US titles including Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way Of Water and a strong line-up of local movies.
Total box office for 2022 came in at HK$1.14bn (US$146.41m), according to figures from Hong Kong Box Office Limited, which was only 5% down on 2021. However, these figures were more than 40% down on the 2019 pre-pandemic box office tally of HK$1.92bn (US$246.17), prompting Hong Kong Box Office to state that “the situation of the film industry is still very severe”.
Hong Kong cinemas were closed from January 7 to April 20 in 2022, wiping out the lucrative Chinese New Year and Easter periods, compared to a shutdown of 48 days in 2021. When cinemas finally reopened last year, they were subject to a 50% seating capacity for one month, then 85% capacity, which stayed in place until December 22.
Top Gun: Maverick was the top earner of the year, grossing HK$107.7m (US$13.79m), followed by Avatar: The Way Of Water with HK$97m (US$12.42m) and counting. Local sci-fi epic Warriors Of Future came in third with HK$81.78m ($10.47m), breaking records for both highest-grossing Hong Kong film and Asian film ever in Hong Kong.
In total, four Hong Kong films made it into the year-end top ten, also including Sunny Chan’s ensemble comedy Table For Six, which came in fourth with HK$77.08m (US$9.76m), along with Mama’s Affair, directed by Kearen Pang, and Ho Cheuk-Tin’s The Sparring Partner (see chart below).
No Hong Kong movies made it into the year-end top ten in the pre-pandemic years of 2018 and 2019. Two films managed that feat in 2020 (The Grand Grandmaster and
The Last of Us is gaining traction. In its second week, the series jumped 22% from its debut viewership, drawing 5.7M viewers on Sunday night.
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Refresh for latest…: It’s now official, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has become the sixth movie ever to cross the $2B mark worldwide. It is also the filmmaker’s third to hit the milestone, alongside Titanic and the original Avatar.
Sandra Seacat, a longtime New York and Hollywood acting teacher whose students would become or already were some of the biggest names in the business – Andrew Garfield, Jessica Lange, Laura Dern, Harvey Keitel, Michelle Williams and Common, to choose just a sampling, died of natural causes Wednesday surrounded by loved ones in Santa Monica. She was 87.
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The Last Of Us drew a healthy number for HBO on Sunday night.
Refresh for latest…: James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water continues to outdo itself having crossed $1.8B globally and reaching nearly $1.9B at the worldwide box office through this weekend.
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Japanese studio Toei announced today that its total box office revenue reached a record Yen32.56BN (US$246.6M) for the calendar year 2022, partly thanks to the strong performances of anime blockbusters One Piece Film Red and The First Slam Dunk.
A flying ace, rampaging dinosaurs, Marvel, DC, Minions and battling blue aliens on a distant planet were among the highlights of 2022 for the Hollywood studios at the global and international box office. Still, it was yet another year of transition, with worldwide grosses reaching an estimated $26B — a 27% increase on 2021 but 35% off the pre-pandemic three-year average, according to Gower Street Analytics. The upward trajectory also occurred overseas as some markets came back strongly, while others struggled and exchange rates went wild.
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Refresh for latest…: That was fast. Coming out of its fourth weekend of release, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has topped $1.7B globally and become the No. 7 biggest movie of all time worldwide.
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Global box office for 2022 reached nearly $26B, a 27% gain on the previous year, according to Gower Street Analytics. Of the estimated $25.9B total, the international box office represents $18.4B, a 16% increase on last year at current exchange rates, the total being dragged down by China. Stripping out that market, overseas is estimated at $14.1B for a 55% hike on 2021. Domestic was up 65% to $7.5B for a 65% increase, per Gower’s partners at comScore.
No surprise here: Walt Disney is the No. 1 studio at the box office, not just worldwide with $4.9 billion, but also domestic with $2 billion and overseas with $2.9 billion. This comes after an initial New Year’s weekend which saw Avatar: The Way of Water overperforming, that pic contributing close to $1 billion abroad. It’s the 7th consecutive year that Disney ahs been No. 1 at the global box office, from 2016-2022.
French cinemas amassed nearly 152 million admissions in 2022, new data from the National Cinema Center (CNC) shows. That’s an estimated 26.9% off the pre-pandemic three-year average (2017-2019), and an estimated 59.2% hike on 2021 which endured 138 days of movie theater closures. France reports its box office in terms of admissions, however, the total for the year is expected to exceed $1 billion.
China’s box office in 2022 dropped 36% versus 2021, reaching approximately RMB 30B ($4.35B). According to China.org, citing figures from the China Film Administration, 85% of the 2022 revenue was generated by local movies, led by The Battle at Lake Changjin II with RMB 4.07B ($636M at historical rates, per comScore). This past weekend, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water became the highest-grossing studio import of the year, overtaking Jurassic World Dominion with an estimated $152.8M through Sunday.