Box offices take big hits from Covid measures
Box office revenues took a major blow over the Labour Day holiday because of Covid-19 controls in some of the nation’s major cities.
Total box office sales, including presales, for the long weekend from April 30 to May 4 added up to 100 million yuan (HK$119 million) as of noon yesterday, according to figures from Maoyan, a leading technology and entertainment service provider.
This was well below last year’s total of 1.7 billion yuan for the entire Labour Day holiday.
Walk-in sales were also on track to fall behind last year’s total, at around 21 million yuan at noon, compared with 440 million yuan for the whole day last year.
The three biggest draws were Stay With Me, a domestic film, and two Hollywood offerings: The Bad Guys and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, according to Maoyan.
The lacklustre box office takings for the holiday follows a 10-year low of 122 million yuan over the three-day Ching Ming holiday last month.
The wave of Omicron cases has led to lockdowns or strict mass testing in many big cities. Nomura estimates 46 cities are in full or partial lockdowns, affecting 343 million people.
Shanghai’s citywide lockdown has been in effect since April 1, and authorities have yet to give a time frame for lifting stringent measures in the financial hub.
Residents of Beijing will have to produce negative Covid-19 test results to enter public facilities when they head back to work and school after the holiday.
Zhu Yuqing, the founder of Ju Ying Hui, a platform that matches filmmakers and investors, said the priority now was to “save” the industry and “restore” the confidence of industry players.
Maoyan’s app said that so far the cinema operating rate in the country was 62.63 per cent.
Data from cultural consulting firm Top Century said cinemas across various cities were facing the risk of closing down, as the overall operating rate had been around 50 per cent since March.
Operators were also required to close down for 180 days in 2020 in the early days of Covid-19.
In an April report about cinema trends, Artisan Gateway wrote that online streamers including Bilibili, BesTV, Himalaya, Dragonfly FM and Migu Video had started sending free membership cards – typically lasting for 15 days – to Shanghai residents locked down at home.