China’s Box Office Fizzles as Consumers Spend More on Travel

(Bloomberg) — China’s film market unexpectedly cooled in early October, typically one of its most important seasons, as a dearth of blockbuster releases amid booming holiday travel demand kept people away from cinemas.

Box office receipts across the country amounted to 2.7 billion yuan ($370 million) during the eight-day Golden Week break that ended Friday. That’s down 39% from 2019, even though this year’s break was one day longer, according to data from ticketing platform Maoyan Entertainment. These levels are also well below estimates from major filmmaker China Film Co. and brokerages, which had forecast takings to top the record 4.5 billion yuan collected during the pre-Covid 2019 season.