For nearly a decade the Chinese New Year has been the defining force for the theatrical industry at home and the global box office in its’ particular month. This wasn’t different this year. However, performing at the low end of historical measures the Chinese impact was significantly diminished. Thankfully the rest of the global box office stepped up.
As in January the International (excluding China) and Domestic markets-combined recorded the highest grossing February since 2020 (-9%). Together they delivered a box office of $1.9 billion. That is +12% ahead of last year and +9% up on January 2023, the previous #1. It was a broad mix of global hits for different target groups and many local break-outs, some reaching all-time-high levels, which were driving the success.
The total global box office at the end of February is estimated at $5.7 billion. Weighted down by the Chinese performance this is currently tracking -18% behind 2025 and +3% ahead of 2024. The Global box office is further -20% (or $1.4 billion) below the average of the last three pre-pandemic years (2017-2019) at current exchange rates. Excluding China, the global year to date would be the best since 2020 (-11%), up in double digits on all years (2025: +14%; 2024: +21%; 2023: +10%, 2022: +60%).
A broad mix of new releases and holdovers contributed to the global box office in February. The six highest grossing globally-released non-Chinese movies grossed $630 million. That is a third (33%) of the February global gross without China.
The highest grossing global title in February was clearly Warner Bros’ WUTHERING HEIGHTS, generating $186 million in February. This was followed by two animated hits Sony’s release GOAT ($124m) and Disney’s phenomenal holdover ZOOTOPIA 2 which added $88 million in its fourth month in release for a cume of $1.857 billion at the end of the month.
China
With Chinese New Year (CNY) falling in February of course the outstanding market of the month was China with a 37% share of the global box office total. CNY – historically the most lucrative theatrical week of the Chinese calendar – pushed this February to a box office of $1.117 billion. That is the 7th highest monthly result since 2019 and the best of the past 12. February performed only -12% below the pre-pandemic three-year average. The second-best value of that metric in the same period.
Still, compared to the last four years with CNY set in February the result is disappointing, being down in double digits (2025: -51%; 2024: -31%; 2022: -25%, 2021: -36%). In a highly volatile decade at the Chinese box office, CNY was a period of stability delivering the five by far highest grossing monthly results of the decade.
This year there was just one major breakout CNY release with PEGASUS 3 grossing a massive $527 million. It’s already the highest grossing instalment in the franchise ahead of part 2 ($479m) from 2024 and the original ($251m) from 2019. Beside of PEGASUS 3 no other title was able to cross $200 million in the month.
The second highest grossing release was the comic-based live action production BLADES OF GUARDIANS with $154.75 million. This was followed in a neck-and-neck finish by spy thriller SCARE OUT with $154.73 million, which is directed by the legendary Zhang Yimou.
The newest instalment of the long running animation franchise BOONIE BEARS grossed $135 million. BOONIE BEARS: THE HIDDEN PROTECTOR will end as the third highest grossing of the twelve movies released since 2014 with a combined box office of $1.4 billion.
At the end of February, the Chinese cume for 2026 stands at $1.4 billion, which is the by far the lowest since the covid hit 2020. Clearly -56% down on the record-breaking last year, and -29% below 2024 and 2023 at the same point in time. The year-to-date gap to the three-year average is at -24%, only ranking #14 among the tracked Top 20 major markets.
International box office (excluding China)
The International box office (excluding China) continued to deliver strong results in February. The region grossed $1.37 billion. It was clearly the highest grossing February since 2020 (-4%), being +10% ahead of 2024, the previous highest. This January was also +16% ahead of the same period last year and -17% behind the pre-pandemic benchmark.
Domestic
The Domestic market performed weaker than most territories in February. It was -37% below the three-year average, only ranking #18 among the tracked top 20 major markets. Nevertheless, it recorded the highest grossing January since 2020 (-22%) with $509 million. That is +3% up year-on-year and on par with the same month in 2023, the previous highest. While the year-on-year growth is only modest, it’s still encouraging that it’s the third month in a row that is up on the same month year-on-year after being below for six consecutive months before.
The success was spread among more titles this February than in the same month in prior years. While there was no movie crossing $100 million, it was the first time since 2020 that three movies got above $50 million within the month. Additionally, one more title grossed more than $40 million, which is the most since January 2020 (5). At #1 WUTHERING HEIGHTS earned $70.3 million, just ahead of GOAT with $70.2 million. SCREAM 7 achieved $51 million and SEND HELP was #4 with $45 million.
At the end of February, the Domestic cume for the running year is at $1.15 billion. That is +10% above last year at the same time and +4% above the period in 2023, the highest since 2020 (-27%). The gap to the three-year average is at -34%.
Outlook
For the post 2020 period the beginning of a year has always suffered a lack of attractive new movies in numbers and diversity of genre plus target groups. This year marked a major step forward. While the offer of US-movies increased and widened, the quality and quantity of local content in numerous markets accelerated. Even with China falling short in its huge sure-fire season, the broad trend of growth around the world is a promising base for the months to come.
