Slow sales in March means recovery at shaky China box office not yet in sight

CHINA’S embattled cinematic box office showed no signs of recovery in the first quarter of the year, with a weak March following an up- and- down first two months of 2017.

Box office revenue for March was 3.37 billion yuan ( RM2.15 billion), according to data from Ent Group. That was nine per cent lower than the total for March 2016.

Admissions were 101 million, down from 109 million in the equivalent month last year.

Data had shown January gaining on last year and February declining. But that was due in large part to the shift of the important Lunar New Year holiday period from February last year to January this time.

Since the beginning of this year, the fees earned by online ticketing agencies have been categorised separately. Removing those from the calculation makes March look even weaker with an adjusted gross figure of 3.11 billion ( RM1.98 billion).

After more than a decade of almost uninterrupted growth, cinematic box office in China ground to a sudden halt in mid- 2016. That was widely blamed on a reduction in the subsidies provided to consumers by the competing online ticketing agencies, something which drove up the net price to cinemagoers, and to a crackdown on misreporting of figures by cinema and distributors.

Blame was also pointed at a weak crop of films, both Hollywood and local, in 2016. In order to keep the turnstiles spinning, Chinese regulators allowed in far more Hollywood films than in previous years.

The weakness this year appears more clearly to lie with domestic titles. Only the five major Chinese movies released at Lunar New Year ( million; and

all released Jan 28) have had any impact.

A number of Hollywood films have surprised with bigger-thanexpect results.

These include: with US$ 164 with US$ 160 million; now on and US$ 85 million.

At CinemaCon, China’s industry bosses tried to sound optimistic that a turnaround will still happen.

Wanda Cinemas president John Zeng said that growth would normalise at 15-20 per cent per year.