China’s box office revenues surpassed North America’s for the first time ever in the first quarter of 2018 at 20 billion yuan (approx. USD$3.14 billion), 42% ahead of the $2.22 billion earned by North American theatres across the same period, according to data from domestic industry tracker Maoyan.
China’s quarterly box office revenues received a boost from the release of a slew of crowd pleasing domestic blockbusters during the Chinese New Year, led by “Operation Red Sea.”
While all five of the top-grossing movies in China for the first quarter were domestic productions, analysts expect the second-quarter to be dominated by overseas blockbusters such as “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.”
Maoyan expects “Avengers” to reap 480 million yuan on its 11 May opening day in China, beating the previous record a foreign production.
Marvel movies released in the wake of the 2012 opening instalment of the “Avengers” series have reaped an average of more than 600 million yuan in box office revenues each, as compared to under 100 million yuan for the preceding period.