What happened
Cinemas are shut down in many parts of the world due to coronavirus lockdown restrictions however, Chinese consumers are watching movies so much these days that box-office revenues are breaking records. Chinese consumers returned to cinemas as the country contained the spread of COVID-19 in most regions last year.
What you should know
With travel restrictions surrounding the Lunar New Year holiday, watching movies has become a top entertainment choice. The early recovery helped make China the world’s largest film market in 2020, transcending the United States for the first time. Box office revenues during the Lunar New Year holiday that ran from February 11 to 17 surpassed $1 billion and broke the previous record of $910 million set in 2019. On the first day of the Year of Ox, Chinese moviegoers spent $260 million in total, the largest single-day box-office revenue in any single market, according to film data provider Maoyan Entertainment. 75 percent cap on cinema capacity has been put by most cities during the Lunar New Year holiday. Some social media users say it’s a struggle fighting for seats on ticketing apps.
Earlier
Previously, Hollywood blockbusters were big winners of China’s expanding film market, despite tight controls on the number of foreign films screened in the country. However, domestic films have dominated the theaters after U.S.-China tensions fuelled nationalistic sentiment and the pandemic stalled foreign productions.