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2026 Box Office - January through June - First Half

International Box Office Recovery Accelerates as Local Films Gain Ground

Selected markets across Europe, Asia and Australia reported stronger revenue or attendance during the first half of 2026, with China the major exception and domestic productions increasingly powering the rebound. One year ago, the international theatrical recovery still looked fragile, uneven and he…

2024 Film Releases - First Half

Mixed Results for Global Box Office During First Half of 2024

With the first six months of 2024 in the books, it a natural time to take a quick look at the theatrical box office statistics of various geographic territories during the first half of the year. As expected, box office was down against 2023 in most countries during the January through June time fra…

Chinese Spring Festival Sees Strong Box Office Return

The recently concluded Chinese Spring Festival holiday saw a strong return for local movies, following a significant decline in the box office in 2022. In total 126 million tickets were sold, adding up to CNY 6.65 billion (USD $982 million) as of last Friday. Four local titles dominated the new rele…

Chinese Cinema Openings Below 60%

The number of cinemas in China that are open has fallen below 60%, as “temporary” lockdowns related to the country’s Zero Covid policy continues to drag down the industry. As of 25 October there were 7,395 cinemas in operation, a decline of 109 from the day before. The operating ra…

Chinese $450m Cinema Merger Points to Recovery

Chinese cinema operator Hengdian Film and Television (known as HG Entertainment) looks set to become the country’s second largest operator, following a proposed Shanghai Xingyi Cinema. This is the first large-scale merger and acquisition in China since the start of the pandemic, and points to…

Uncharted China Poster

Cinemas in China Face New Wave of Closures

Cinemas across several parts of China have closed as part of regional lockdowns in response to outbreaks of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. This comes after cinemas in China enjoyed a long period of remaining open following the first lockdown two years ago. China’s Zero Covid policy means tha…

China 2021 Box Office - CJ Cinema Summit

China on Track to Top Global Box Office in 2022 for Third Successive Year

The latest CJCinemaSummit featured a special focus on China, the world’s biggest cinema market in terms of box office and screens. With the blockbuster Spring Festival just concluded, we heard from experts at Comscore and Vista Group about the outlook for the year ahead, how Chinese releases c…

AET Cinema LED Display - Certification

New Chinese Cinema LED Gets DCI Certification

Chinese company AET Altai has become the latest manufacturer to get DCI certification for its Cinema LED screen technology. AET Altai thus joins the likes of Samsung, Sony and LG Electronics in having a non-projector cinema display solution that is certified to show first-run Hollywood films. The ce…

New Wave of Cinema Closures Across Europe and China

The contagious Delta variant of the Coronavirus has led to cinemas once again closing in places such as Beijing, Moscow and Latvia. There is a fear that the onset of winter in the Northern Hemisphere could lead to further restrictions on public life and possibly new cinema shutterings. However, in o…

By The Numbers: Predicting Cinema’s Post-COVID Recovery

At the end of last year the Celluloid Junkie editorial team began discussing its annual predictions piece for 2021. However, most expert forecasts for 2020 crumbled like volcanic lava sliding into the ocean. We stared into the 2021 crystal ball and saw a lot of fog regarding the return of cinema and…