China’s Box Office Flops as Covid Flare-Ups Curb Screenings

China’s weekly box office this month hit the lowest level since the beginning of July, as some film producers halted the screening of their works and numerous cinemas suspended operations due to the latest Covid-19 flare-ups.

In the week through August 8, the country’s cinemas sold 544 million yuan ($84 million) worth of tickets, a drop of 29% from the previous seven days, according to statistics from China Movie Data Information Network.

During the week, the highest-grossing flick was action film “Rage: Serious Case,” which raked in 295 million yuan in ticket sales, or nearly half of the total. It was followed by romance movie “Upcoming Summer,” animated film “White Snake 2: The Tribulation of the Green Snake” and patriotic pandemic film “Chinese Doctors,” with respective box offices of 95 million yuan, 70 million yuan and 31 million yuan.

Other films generally had poor performances last week, with none pulling in over 10 million yuan.

After the Covid-19 outbreak in the Chinese city of Nanjing, linked to a passenger flight from Russia last month, spread to at least 29 cities across 13 provinces, strict prevention and control measures have been reinstated, impacting the normal screening of films.

On August 5, Chinese film producer Bona Film Group Ltd., which is behind “Chinese Doctors,” announced that it would cancel the screening of the highly anticipated war film “The Battle at Lake Changjin,” originally set for theatrical release on August 12, citing concerns about the coronavirus. Other films seeing similar fate include war film “Sharpshooter” and comedy film “Five Water Boys.”

Bona’s announcement coincided with the release of a China Film Administration circular stipulating that cinemas across the country should cap their attendance at 75% of capacity in low-risk areas and suspend their operations in medium and high-risk regions in support of national efforts to control the resurgent pandemic.

The number of cinemas suspending operations due to the coronavirus stood at 3,088 as of August 7, with their ticket sales for this year estimated to represent just about 20% of the country’s total in 2021, according to data provided by Top Consulting, a Beijing-based film market research firm.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com) and editor Flynn Murphy (flynnmurphy@caixin.com)

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