Foreign films share only 16% of ticket revenues

Hollywood is losing its place in front of Chinese films in its largest market

China begins 2021 box office records for New Year's Eve.

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Foreign movie revenues in Chinese theaters fell by more than half in 2020, which poses a difficult challenge for Hollywood, in one of its few main markets that has begun to recover from the repercussions of the outbreak of the Corona virus.

In the year in which China snatched the lead from the United States, becoming the number one market for movies in the world, with revenues of 20.4 billion yuan ($ 3.2 billion), foreign films accounted for only 16% of ticket revenues.

The new percentage of foreign films compared to the 36% that were registered in 2019, according to data from the local ticketing platform, Mayuan Entertainment.

And after China managed to contain the outbreak of the virus strongly within months, theaters reopened on the mainland early, which began in mid-July, while a group of films were presented, including the one with the largest revenue in the world during the past year, It is a historical war drama film, "The Eight Handred" (The Eighty Hundred).

The film, which has a global revenue of about $ 473 billion, revolves around a group of Chinese soldiers fighting against the Japanese army for victory or death during the Battle of Shanghai in 1937.

On the other hand, the United States and Europe are still struggling to contain the Corona pandemic.

Closure measures have been imposed again in many countries, in light of the increasing number of cases of "Covid-19" and the resulting deaths, which led to the closure of galleries, delaying the production of films in Hollywood, in addition to postponing their launch dates.

For his part, Wilson Zhao, who is head of global technology, media and communications industry at PricewaterhouseCoopers Review and Consulting (PWC), says, “China is the fastest country in terms of emerging from the impact of the epidemic, and the Chinese people are fully prepared to exit. And watch movies in theaters ».

He added that "Hollywood released fewer big movies in the past year, so the level of Chinese viewers' attraction to them is less."

In 2021, China began recording records in box office revenues on New Year's Eve, as movie theaters revenue jumped this night to $ 83 million, making it the highest revenue on this occasion since records began in 2011.

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