Chart of the Day: Chinese Box Office Takings Dip By 5%

Box offices around China took in 26.97 billion yuan ($3.9 billion) in the first five months of the year, down from 28.43 billion yuan for the same period in 2018.

The fall was largely due to a poor first-quarter performance when takings dropped 8% year-on-year. In China, the first quarter includes Lunar New Year holiday, which usually falls in February or January and is typically the busiest and most important season for box office takings.

Of the top 10 performing movies for the period, four were from the U.S., including Hollywood blockbuster “Avengers: Endgame” which netted 4.2 billion yuan.

Taiwanese romance drama “More than Blue” checked in at No. 7 with box office takings of 950 million yuan.

The rest were from the Chinese mainland, with sci-fi hit “The Wandering Earth” topping the box office. An adaptation of a novella by renowned Chinese author Liu Cixin, the film is set in a distant future where humankind must work together to move Earth out of the path of an expanding sun.

Contact reporter Mo Yelin (yelinmo@caixin.com)