With Wednesday’s worldwide box office grosses included, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has surpassed $2.054B globally, and jumped up a notch on the all-time worldwide chart.
09.01.2023 - 04:21 / deadline.com
Reading the tea leaves with regard to China in 2023 is even more difficult than usual. The country’s about-face on its longstanding zero-Covid policy has implications from geopolitics to economics and, closer to home for Hollywood, the state of the market after a dismal 2022. Exactly what those implications are is where the guesswork comes in.
On the one hand, the loosening of restrictions already seems to have led to more tickets being sold in local cinemas. On the other, the sudden reemergence of a massive population with little natural or vaccine-derived protection will likely provide kindling for a wildfire of infection and emerging variants unseen since the very beginning of the pandemic.
The Chinese box office was down an estimated 36% last year, reaching $4.35 billion with only two local titles in the global Top 10, versus three the previous year which were in much higher slots.
Hollywood, for its part, had relative hits in Jurassic World Dominion and more recently Avatar: The Way of Water. But it increasingly had to deal with late notification of release dates or no dates at all — there were only 12 studio movies to gain entry (there were also fewer than 20 in 2021 compared to 30-plus in 2019) and there still hasn’t been a Marvel title cleared in the market since Avengers: Endgame. Even local films struggled with short lead times in 2022.
While there were lockdowns throughout the year, there were windows where theaters could certainly have benefited from major imports, yet some of the biggest worldwide grossers never saw a screen in the Middle Kingdom. And then, amid a flurry of local protest movements, China wiped out its zero-Covid policy, leading to massive infection spikes and concern among much of the
With Wednesday’s worldwide box office grosses included, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has surpassed $2.054B globally, and jumped up a notch on the all-time worldwide chart.
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.
Several casualties have been reported following a shooting during Chinese Lunar New Year Celebrations in the US.
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.
A woman has shared a game-changing hack for eating Chinese food that people have described as "jaw-dropping".
Good afternoon Insiders, Max Goldbart here relaying a hugely busy week in the world of film and TV as the post-Christmas blues are very much washed away. Read on.
Chinese director, screenwriter and producer He Ping, best known internationally for his hybrid ‘Chinese Westerns’, has died aged 65. Local press reported that he died of illness in Beijing on January 10.
EXCLUSIVE: Trinity CineAsia has acquired UK and Ireland rights to Chinese sci-fi epic The Wandering Earth 2, which is scheduled for release on January 27, with previews running from January 22, day-and-date with its mainland China release.
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.
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.
Former China high-flyer Jack Ma’s influence is being further cut, as the Ant Group company he cofounded said he is reducing his voting rights at the financial technology firm as it restructures in line with a regulatory crackdown.
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.
Terrifying images from China appear to show families burning the bodies of loved ones as Covid infections overwhelm hospitals in the country.
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.
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.
With our New Year celebrations over and done with, there's another important date in the calendar coming up at the end of this month.
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.