Written by Sophie Yeo and Brenda Goh
BEIJING (Reuters) – Box office receipts in China on Christmas Eve fell to their lowest levels in at least 13 years, data from ticket booking platform Maoyan showed on Wednesday.
Zhang Yiwu, a professor of literature at Peking University, attributed this decline to a combination of factors, including an unimpressive selection of films and the rise of streaming services.
“The main reason from my perspective is the lack of blockbusters,” Zhang said.
Tuesday's revenue was 38.4 million yuan ($5.26 million), less than a quarter of last year's 170.5 million yuan, and the lowest since Maoyan started keeping records in 2011, when revenue was 115.9 million yuan.
Christmas Eve is not a public holiday in China, and the big dates in cinema schedules are the week-long Spring Festival next month and the National Day holiday in October, but Christmas Eve sales are closely monitored because this is the final race at the end of the year. year.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, China's annual film box office was on an upward trajectory, peaking in 2019. However, the pandemic's restrictions on gatherings led to a decline in the box office, and the recovery has been weaker than insiders had hoped in the past. Two years.
($1 = 7.2989 RMB)
