Gower Street Analytics estimates 2022 Global box office hit $25.9 billion through December 31. This represented a +27% gain on 2021, continuing global box office recovery. However, it still shows a significant way to go to return to pre-pandemic levels, coming in -35% behind the average of the last three pre-pandemic years (2017-2019) – a loss of approximately USD $14 billion at current exchange rates.
Having claimed the global #1 ranking in both 2020 and 2021 China relinquished that title back to the Domestic market this past year. According to the latest data from our partners at Comscore Movies, the Domestic market delivered an estimated $7.5 billion in 2022, +65% against 2021 and also -35% behind the 2017-2019 average. China is calculated to have finished at approximately $4.33 billion, putting it -36% behind 2021. It is one of only three markets Comscore and Gower Street track to show a year-on-year loss. China finished at close to half (-49%) its pre-pandemic three-year average.
The International market (excluding China) is estimated to have finished around USD $14.1 billion in 2022, representing a +55% gain on 2021 and a slimmer -29% deficit against the 2017-2019 average. All three key regions performed better compared to the three-year average than the Domestic or Chinese markets. Europe, Middle East and Africa delivered USD $7.1 billion, -31% against the pre-pandemic average and a gain of 52% over 2021. Asia Pacific (excluding China) is calculated to have delivered USD $5.2 billion in 2022, -26% behind the 2017-2019 average and +49% up on 2021. Latin America delivered just shy of $1.8 billion, -30% against the three-year average while showing the biggest gain over 2021 (+87%).
Japan was the star market of 2022 coming in just -9.4% behind its pre-pandemic average with an estimated USD $1.5 billion. In contrast the weakest market tracked, in terms of comparison to pre pandemic business, was Russia. The Eastern European major delivered an estimated USD $310 million in 2022, a drop of -43% on 2021 and a massive -57% behind pre-pandemic business. This dropped Russia out of the Top 5 EMEA markets.
Excluding India (for which Gower Street/Comscore do not have complete tracking) the top 15 international markets are estimated to be: China (USD $4.3bn), Japan (USD $1.5bn), UK/Ireland (USD $1.2bn), France (USD $1.1bn), South Korea (USD $0.9bn), Germany (USD $8bn), Australia (USD $0.64bn), Mexico (USD $0.63bn), Spain (USD $0.4bn), Brazil (USD $0.35bn), Italy (USD $0.33bn), Russia (USD $0.31bn), Netherlands (USD $0.27bn), Saudi Arabia (USD $0.25bn), UAE (USD $0.16bn).
About Gower Street Analytics Ltd
Gower Street Analytics is a leading global film tech company founded in 2015. Partnered with Comscore, Gower Street enables the film industry to best utilize global theatrical market data to maximize business potential through its proprietary Forecast system. Gower Street officially launched its latest Forecast Global service, simulating 95% of the global box office, at CinemaCon in April 2022.