Asian Box Office Recovery Leaves Korea Behind (Report)

Theatrical box office in the Asia Pacific region is recovering from the lows established early last year at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. But South Korea has not shared in the upswing.

Data from OpusData compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence showed a 79% increase in the first four months of 2021, compared with the same period in 2020. That gave a total of $3.49 billion.

China, which has been operating largely normally since October 2020, is not only the biggest market, it is also the biggest recovery story. It accounted for fully $2.93 billion of the regional aggregate.

Takings in the year through April rose 108% year over year in China. In Australia they grew 82% to $248 million. Japan saw a 0.2% year-over-year increase with film revenue totaling $231 million.

South Korea, in normal years one of the word’s largest box office territories, was the only tracked market to see a decline in film revenue, which fell 49.6% year over year to $78.1 million. Theaters in the country are open, but social distancing measures, cautions audiences and film distribution delays are impacting attendance levels.

S&P Global Market says that the recovery is accelerating. In the year through March, box office revenue increased 54% year over year, ending a period of decline. This was despite the number of releases falling in April compared to the first quarter. On a year-over-year basis, the number of releases rose 113% in April.

China’s “Hi, Mom” is the biggest film anywhere in the world this year, with a Chinese box office total of $836 million. The country has seen 199 releases to date, also the highest figure in the region.

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