Gower Street Reveals Global Box Office Surpassed Pre-Pandemic Levels in July

Global Box Office - July 2023 - Gower Street Chart
London ( August 3, 2023 ) -

Gower Street Analytics estimates that Global box office hit $4.54 billion in the month of July 2023. This is the single highest grossing month since before the pandemic began. The result sees July 2023 track +17% ahead of the July-average of the last three pre-pandemic years (2017-2019).

July 2023 also marked the first month since the pandemic began in 2020 that ALL three key component markets that make up the Global picture (Domestic, China, and International excluding China) tracked ahead of their pre-pandemic averages.

The following major International markets all out-performed their pre-pandemic July averages: UK/Ireland (+18%), France (+14%), Germany (+35%), Spain (+14%), Italy (+98%), Australia (+13%), Brazil (+5%). Mexico was on par (0%).

“Barbenheimer” accounted for an estimated $1.23 billion (27%) of the global July total.

The July success brings the global box office result through July 31 to an estimated $20.95 billion. This means that after just 7 months 2023 box office is less than 2% behind the full 12-month box office result of 2021.

Global box office is tracking -11% behind the 2017-2019 average at the end of July. This is a notable improvement from the -17% deficit shown at the end of June.

Global box office is tracking +31% ahead of 2022 at the end of July.

China’s 2023 total to date (est. $4.8bn) has already surpassed that market’s full-year 2022 total. Domestic and International (exc. China) 2023 totals have surpassed their full-year 2021 totals.

Key July stats:

  • Worldwide total $4.54 billion
  • +17% ahead of 3-year-average ($3.87bn)
  • Domestic $1.36bn
  • +11% ahead of 3-year average ($1.23bn)
  • China $1.2bn
  • +53% ahead of 3-year average ($0.785bn)
  • International $1.98bn
  • +7% ahead of 3-year average ($1.855bn)
  • EMEA $1.02bn (+18% vs $0.865bn)
  • APAC $0.6bn (-7% vs $0.64bn)
  • LATAM $0.36bn (+4% vs $0.35bn)

Key Year-to-Date Stats:

  • Global total through July 31 = est. $20.95 billion
  • -11% vs Jan-July 3-year average ($23.56bn)
  • Domestic $5.83bn (-18%)
  • China $4.81bn (0%)
  • Intl (exc. China) $10.3bn (-12%)
  • Europe, Middle East and Africa $5.23bn (-12%)
  • Asia Pacific (exc. China) $3.32bn (-15%)
  • Latin America $1.76bn (-3%)

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 2022.