China’s film industry has entered a deep winter amid the communist regime’s draconian COVID-19 lockdowns, with box office attendance in the first half of 2022 down nearly 40 percent year-on-year and no clear sign of recovery.
Despite the summer holiday, which is the peak season for China’s film industry, box office sales have been lackluster due to strict COVID-19 policies. In the first six months of 2022, China’s box offices raked in 17.18 billion yuan (about $2.65 billion), down 37.7 percent year-on-year, and saw 398 million moviegoers, down 41.7 percent year-on-year.
China’s total box office revenue from March to June was only 4.11 billion yuan (about $630 million), less than half that of the same period in 2021 and a 65.6 percent nosedive, with March, April, and May all hitting multi-year lows.
Due to the COVID-19 policies implemented in some mega cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, many cinemas were closed and film release plans were disrupted, which greatly affected cinema attendance.
China Film Co.,Ltd., the country’s first film company, expects net profit to shareholders to fall 91-94 percent year-on-year to $2.77 million to $4 million, according to its earnings forecast for the first half of 2022.