China won’t be home to world’s top box office any time soon
After years of strong growth, mainland cinemas are seeing sales stagnate, dimming hopes the country would soon be world’s biggest film market
The mainland’s box-office is suffering a particularly tough 2016 after years of robust growth, dimming its prospects of soon overtaking North America as the world’s biggest film market.
November was the sixth month this year – and the third in a row – that saw mainland box-office sales plunge below the corresponding period last year, despite government efforts to boost slowing growth by relaxing the limit on imported films.
The slowdown of the domestic film market follows an astounding jump of almost 50 per cent, to reach 44 billion yuan (HK$50 billion), in ticket sales in 2015. The solid performance continued in the first three months of this year, with record quarterly box-office receipts of 14.4 billion yuan, mainland media reported on Monday.
The film industry had been one of the mainland’s fastest growing sectors as Beijing steers the economy away from a heavy reliance on trade and investment towards consumption-driven growth.
Many in the industry expected box-office revenue to soar past US$10 billion this year. Some were confident enough to assert that the nation would soon become the world’s biggest film market, overtaking the US and Canada, which recorded US$11.1 billion in 2015.