China overtakes U.S. as world's biggest box office

    1 of 1 2 of 1

      Did you feel that?

      That sudden tilt of the earth was China, for the first time, knocking the U.S. off the top spot as the world's biggest box office.

      Thanks to a boost for the Lunar New Year and the annual lull period for U.S. releases (during the Oscar season), the Chinese box office raked in a record $650 million to become the world's biggest movie market in February.

      The total North America box office amassed $710. However, once Canada was factored out of the equation, the U.S. total was revealed to be $640 million.

      Just as notable, none of the films in China's top five were Hollywood productions—they were all domestic blockbusters.

      The highest grossing movie in China in February was The Man From Macau II (or From Vegas to Macau) starring Chow Yun-Fat, which hauled in $104 million.

      The Jackie Chan action flick Dragon Blade, which also stars John Cusack and Adrien Brody, came in second with $95 million.

      The China-France coproduction Wolf Totem, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, followed in third place with $40 million.

      Rounding out the top five were Peter Pau and Zhao Tianyu's Zhong Kui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal ($56 million) and Xu Jinglei's Somewhere Only We Know ($44 million).

      Meanwhile, Running Man, a film adaptation of a reality TV show (based on a Korean format) managed to surpass The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies in its opening week and collected $42 million in February.  

      According to the Hollywood Reporter, China is projected to gross about half of the U.S. market ($12 billion) by 2018.  

      Comments

      4 Comments

      uhhh duh?

      Mar 4, 2015 at 9:39am

      Look at their population. Give us the same population and we would destroy them hands down. And do we even care about chinese films? Most are going to say, hell no..

      Korl

      Mar 4, 2015 at 12:33pm

      And why is the first time if the Chinese population is so big?

      @Korl

      Mar 5, 2015 at 2:14pm

      Because back in the day they didn't have nearly as many wealthy and rich people as they do now. Do the math, plus with technology and progess they obviously have way more theatres now than they ever did before. Doesn't anyone think of this?? Where we have had the same numbers (almost) for quite awhile now. It's simple...

      Craig Takeuchi

      Mar 9, 2015 at 1:12pm

      It is significant industry news for being the first time that China has done this, after being called the second-largest film market for quite some time.
      Also, not sure who you mean by "we" since Vancouver includes people of Chinese descent, non-Chinese people interested in Asian film, and more.