China’s Box Office Plummets $1.91 Billion in Two Months Due to Coronavirus Crisis1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteChina’s box office has plummeted $1.91 billion over the first two months of this year due to the coronavirus outbreak, but a nationwide resumption of movie theatres and production is unlikely to happen any time soon.
According to box-office data company Comscore, box-office receipts in China in January and February totalled only $238 million, compared with $2.148 billion in the comparative period in 2019, and $2.378 billion in 2018. Box office revenue for the whole of 2019 were a record $9.2 billion, having risen 5.4%.
Losses were heightened due to the fact that the Lunar New Year holiday season started on Jan. 25, much earlier compared with the usual date at the beginning of February, or in mid-February. “An early holiday season should’ve given more time for the box office to grow,” a report from China’s Ent Group said.
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