Variety put Gower Street statistics front and center of a new article focused on China’s box office recovery. The article, titled “China Enters Summer With Box Office at Full Throttle“, opens by noting that Gower Street recognised China as the first global market to achieve “full box office recovery“, as measured by our Blueprint To Recovery, back in August 2020. It then goes on to quote statistics from Gower Street’s International Road To Recovery report which compare China’s 2021 performance to date against both 2020, at the same stage, and figures for the three-year average of 2017-2019.
The article, written by Rebecca Davis, looks at the success stories of both 2020 post-reopening and 2021 to date. It also reflects on the struggles the market has endured – including consolidation in the exhibition sector; a ban on concessions; and the “uneven and unpredictable pipeline of films” caused by backlogged Hollywood product and production delays on local content.
Gower Street’s Director of Theatrical Insights, Rob Mitchell, was also quoted in the article. Rob discussed estimates for the Chinese full-year box office for 2021 and predicted China to easily retain the #1 Global Box Office Territory status it finally claimed in 2020 for the first time. Rob suggested that the “extraordinary Chinese New Year period has almost certainly given China too strong a head start on 2021 for the [North American] market to compete this year.”
Read the full article here or click on the image below.
