Finally, a newly released film has penetrated China’s box office top five, the first time this has happened in a month.
But “Serendipity Love”The incumbent was not displaced by it because of its small impact “Home Coming”From the first place. Nationally, the theatrical industry suffered its worst weekend performance in a decade.
According to consultancy Artisan Gateway the film industry’s total was $9.7million over the last Friday to Sunday weekend. Two weekends in 2022 were weaker: April and May when Shanghai was locked down.
The continuing theatrical decline means that the box-office deficit is growing compared to previous years.
China’s cinema box office is currently down 35% on 2021, with a year-to-date total of $3.88 billion.
It is now down by over half compared to 2019, which was the last year before COVID. China’s box office total at the same point in 2019 stood at $8.11 billion.
“Home Coming,”A patriotic adventure drama about North Africa’s rescue mission, earned $3.8million (RMB27.1million) between Friday and Sunday. It remained at top for six consecutive weekends. Since its release on September 30, 2022, the latest increment has given the film a cumulative total of $211 million (RMB1.52 millions).
“Serendipity Love,”A romantic melodrama that earned $2.3 million (RMB16.6million) in its first three days.
Third place: “Give Me Five,”It was released Sept. 9, 2022 and earned $1.8 Million in its ninth weekend. Its cumulative total stands at $72.2million (RMB520million).
The fourth place went to “Ordinary Hero,”With a weekend score $472,000 (RMB3.4 Million). The cumulative score since Sept. 30, 2022 is $29.6 Million (RMB213,000,000).
Chinese animation films occupied the fifth spot “New Happy Dad and Son 5: My Alien’s Friend.”It cost $250,000 (RMB1.8million) to complete the weekend. This brings the total amount of $11.2 million (RMB80.8million) to date since its debut on October 1, 2022.
The Communist Party congress has been firmly behind us, and the box office weekend woes this weekend cannot be attributed solely to political events. The film industry is being dragged to the bottom by a lack of new significant films.
Chinese film distributors are reluctant to distribute local films in a market that is weakened by strict COVID control policies. This can cause sudden lockdowns or mass testing and also slow down the economy. Distributors of foreign films also have little to no options, as import films are not currently on the forward releasing schedule.
In the last week there has been yet further confusion over the direction of China’s COVID control measures. One official suggested that the controls could be relaxed over the next six-months, which caused stock markets in Hong Kong and mainland China to soar on Friday. However, over the weekend, Guangdong Province’s economically significant COVID case number doubled, and officials from the central government stated that China will not relent. ‘Dynamic COVID-zero’policy throughout the winter, which will drive case numbers up again.
“We will hold fast to ‘Dynamic zero-Covid’ and continue to improve control measures to adapt to changes in the virus,”On Saturday, a spokesperson from the National Administration of Disease Control and Prevention said. “Practice has proved that our control strategy and strategic measures are completely correct, most economical and effective.”