According to latest information released by the China Movie Data Information Network, the Chinese box office has officially overtaken the North American box office with a difference of almost a billion dollars. As of yet, following the first quarter and almost finishing the second quarter of 2018, China has surpassed the United States to acquire the title of the world’s largest movie market of the year.
After the final digits were released to the public, it was evident that the Chinese box office acquired a total of 20.21 billion Yuan, or 3.17 billion USD within the first quarter of the year, whereas the North American box office barely reached 2.85 billion USD. The main cause behind these drastic differences is expected to be the immense rise in domestic Chinese produced films, which also made the list of the top 10 movies watched in the country, thereby acquiring almost 15 billion Yuan for the box office.
The military superhit Operation Red Sea was evidently the top-grossing film in Chinese theatres from January to March, solely being the reason for a revenue of 3.6 billion Yuan. Other movies like Detective Chinatown 2, and Monster Hunt also collaborated with Operation Red Sea to account for more than half of the total box office revenue during this time.
Despite Beijing restricting most of the foreign movies from being allowed to screen in China, American films like Black Panther, and Pacific Rim Uprising reached up to the second position during March’s calculations for the box office. The reason behind this sudden increase in Chinese box office revenue is also expected to be due to the fact that the country allowed an extended holiday for the Lunar New Year in February, which luckily coincided with many of the popular films being screened in the country.