China's Christmas Eve box office plunges to 13-year low

A literature professor attributes the decline to a confluence of factors, including an unimpressive selection of films and the rise of streaming services

A person walks past movie posters at the Capital Cinema in Beijing, China Feb 21, 2024. REUTERS

China's box office revenues for Christmas Eve plummeted to the lowest in at least 13 years, data from ticket booking platform Maoyan showed on Wednesday.

Zhang Yiwu, a literature professor at Peking University, attributed the decline to a confluence of factors, including an unimpressive selection of films and the rise of streaming services.

"The leading reason in my view is a lack of blockbuster films," Zhang said.

Takings for Tuesday were 38.4 million yuan ($5.26 million), less than a quarter of last year's 170.5 million yuan, and the lowest since Maoyan began keeping records in 2011, when revenues were 115.9 million yuan.

Christmas Eve is not a public holiday in China and the big dates on cinema schedules are the week-long Spring Festival next month and National Day holiday in October, but Christmas Eve sales are closely watched because this is the last sprint at the end of the year.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, China's annual film box office was on an upward trajectory, peaking in 2019. However, the pandemic's restrictions on gatherings led to a decline in box office, and the recovery has been weaker than insiders' hopes in the past two years.