CHINA’S BOX OFFICE HIT NEW HEIGHTS IN 2019,
AS HOLLYWOOD’S SHARE SHRANK
Hollywood films had a historically unsuccessful
year at the China box office in 2019, data from
Chinese authorities and online ticketing platform
Maoyan show, although the country’s theatrical
revenues rose to a new all−time high.
American titles accounted for just two of the
country’s top ten grossers last year, with “Avengers
:Endgame” placing third and “Fast & Furiou
Presents: Hobbs &Shaw” placing tenth. Meanwhile,
nine out of China’s top ten highest grossing films
of all time are now Chinese, four of which came
out in 2019. “Avengers Endgame” is the only
foreign title to remain on the list.
Yet even without Hollywood, the Chinese market
continued to grow. Box office revenue rose 5.4% to
a new record of $9.2 billion (RMB64.3 billion) in
2019 ― albeit at a slower rate of growth than its 9%
rise last year.
Chinese animation “Ne Zha,” Chinese new year
sci-fi blockbuster “The Wandering Earth,” and
“Avengers” were the top three films of the year,
followed by patriotic so-called “main melody” films
“My People, My Country” and “The Captain.” Bona
Film Group backed four out of year’s top ten
grossers.
As of the end of 2019, China now has 69,787
cinema screens, up 9,708 from 2018, according to
the Communist party mouthpiece the People’s
Daily, which added that more than 1.7 billion
tickets were sold. The propagandistic publication
went so far as to deem the current moment a
“golden age” for the Chinese film industry
development, as “the market bubble fades… and
Chinese films continue to steadily improve.”
One reason is that over the past three years,
foreign films have accounted for a shrinking slice
of the box office, with Chinese films performing
proportionally better. In 2019, Chinese films
accounted for 64% of the total box office, or 5.9
million (RMB41.2 billion) in ticket sales ― up from
62% in 2018 and 53.8% in 2017. This rise occurred
despite there being la smaller percentage
difference between the number of films Imported
in 2019 and the year before, with foreign films
making up 22% of 2019’s total number of
screened titles.
Other than a few exceptions, including “Avengers:
Endgame” and “Frozen 2,” the latest instalments
of Hollywood franchises didn't perform as well
their predecessors did in China, indicating
audiences eager for something fresh. These
included “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden
World,” “Jumanji: The Next Level,” “X-Men: Dark
Phoenix,” and most recently, “Star Wars: The Rise
of Skywalker.”
“Local films are catching up to Hollywood on many
indicators like IP, story, special effects and genre,
while Hollywood films are caught in a bottleneck
period of self-repetition and a lack of originality.
[Chinese] audiences’preference for it will naturally
decrease,” wrote Chinese website Mirror.
Entertainment. Chinese viewers in the past year
have also started to favor smaller, realistic
imports in The vein of ”Green Book,” Lebanon’s
“Capernaum” and India’s “Andhadhun,” rather than
just big U.S. blockbusters, it noted.
Data from Maoyan for the top 20 performing films
of the year showed that Chinese films were rated
higher by users, both overall as well as separately
for story and special effects.
The most successful new genres in China in 2019
were, in oder of year-on-year box office earnings,
disaster films (e.g. “The Bravest,” witch set a box
office new record for genre, “Godzilla: King of
Monsters”), biographies (“Chinese Pilot,” which
also set a genre record “Green Book”), fantasy
(“Ne Zha,” also a record-setter, “Avengers
Endgame”), sci-fi (“The Wondering Earth,” also a
genre record high) and animation, according to
Maoyan. “Box office success is no longer limited
by subject or genre ― it's all about the content,”
the ticketing firm said.
Last year, movie- going during the four major
holiday periods ― Chinese New Year, summer,
National Day and the calendar new year ―
accounted for nearly 50% of the total annual
number of trips to the cinema, Maoyan side.
Chinese fare took larger market share last year not
because of a sudden bonanza of strong local titles,
but because a small handful od hits took the lion’s
share. Maoyan showed that over the past three
years, the market share of big blockbusters
grossing more than RMB2 billion ($287 million) in
China has steadily increased from 18.5% of the
total box office in 2017 to 29.9% in 2018 and 36.9%
last year ― on the back of just six films. This rise
has come at the expense of mid-level films
grossing RMB10 million to RMB2 billion, whose
market share has fallen over the same period from
80.5% to 62.3%.
Ten out of the 15 films that made over RMB1
billion ($144 million) last year were Chinese, as
were 47 out of the 88 films that made more than
RMB100 million ($14.4 million).
Last year, China produced a total of 1,037 films,
including 850 narrative feature films, 51 animated
films, 74 science and educational titles, 47
documentaries, and 15 specialized movies,
according to the National Film Bureau. This is
down from the 1,082 films put out in 2018, likely
due to production slowdowns brought on by new
regulations and tax schemes.
The deeply political nature and implications of
success in the world’s second-largest film market
was highlight in official Chinese reports on the
2019 statistics, which took care to single out and
emphasize how the “main melody,” jingoistic films
from the National Day holiday period were a great
success.
A spokesperson for the film bureau told the
Chinese press that in 2020, the “vast majority” of
people working in film should “thoroughly study
and implement the important guiding spirit of
General Secretary Xi Jinping” so as to advance
the film industry.
TOP 20 FILMS BY ADMISSIONS IN CHINA
1.ナタ ～魔童降臨～ (🇨🇳) 137,794,925人
2.流転の地球 (🇨🇳) 103,301,157人
3.アベンジャーズ／エンドゲーム
(🇺🇸) 86,296,740人
4.愛しの母国 (🇨🇳) 78,110,749人
5.フライト・キャプテン
高度１万メートル、奇跡の実話
(🇨🇳) 77,059,234人
6.Crazy Ailen (🇨🇳) 51,783,513人
7.ＢＲＡＶＥ／ブレイブ 大都市焼失
(🇨🇳) 47,282,870人
8.少年の君 (🇨🇳) 43,435,705人
9.ペガサス／飛馳人生 (🇨🇳) 40,694,235人
10.ワイルド・スピード／スーパーコンボ
(🇺🇸) 39,684,295人
11.スパイダーマン：ファー・フロム・ホーム
(🇺🇸) 38,791,331人
12.ホワイト・ストーム (🇭🇰🇨🇳) 35,974,977人
13.バンブルビー (🇺🇸) 31,510,992人
14.悲しみより、もっと悲しい物語
(🇹🇼) 30,792,466人
15.クライマーズ (🇨🇳) 29,447,814人
16.キャプテン・マーベル (🇺🇸) 27,609,640人
17.ゴジラ キング・オブ・モンスター
(🇺🇸) 26,294,882人
18.共謀家族 (🇨🇳) 26,085,749人
19.銀河学習塾 (🇨🇳) 25,598,449人
20.イップ・マン 完結 (🇭🇰🇨🇳) 23,627,993人
SOURCE：VARIETY, COMSCORE