The success ofDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of MadnessandTop Gun: Maverickhelped North America reclaim its place as the most lucrative film market in the world after the first half of 2022 showed increased recovery from COVID-era lows.
In 2020, the Chinese film market surpassed North America as the most lucrative in the world, thanks largely to the COVID-19 pandemic, which swept the globe early that year. China’s effective (though controversial) handling of the pandemic insulated its film market from negative effects, while the USA’s disastrous handling crippled its film industry. In 2022, however, the shoe was on the other foot, thanks in part toDoctor Strange 2andTop Gun: Maverick.
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Per The Hollywood Reporter, in the first half of this year, China saw a 38% decrease in ticket sales from the same period last year, with only $2.6 billion in revenue. This is due in part to a worsening of COVID woes in China, where strict lockdowns in major population centers like Shanghai and Shenzhen have had brutal financial effects. Meanwhile, the loosening of COVID restrictions in the United States, the increased normalization of movie-going, and the return of major franchises to the screen have led to a substantial recovery of the North American film market. In the first half of this year, North America generated $3.7 billion, almost equal to the entirety of 2021 ticket sales. Part of this story has been thefantastic performance of blockbusters likeTop Gun: Maverick(which grossed $571 million domestically so far) andDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness(with $410 million), which both had numbers so colossal they bring one back to the good old days before the viral apocalypse. Although this recovery is great news, there’s still a long way to go: this year’s earnings so far are only 65% of what they were in 2019, before COVID.
The rise of the Chinese market has, up until now, not exactly been the death knell of Hollywood, though. For the past several years, the prospect of the Chinese market has made Hollywood executives' mouths water. Most US blockbusters are now explicitly designed to play to the Chinese market. Sometimes this means explicit co-productions likeThe Great Wall(2016), sometimes it means incorporating pro-Chinese sentiment intoUS films such asThe Martian(2015), and sometimes it means submitting films to the Chinese government to make sure it passes censorship standards.
However, since COVID and the weakening of US-China relations, Hollywood films are earning far less in China than they used to. In the first half of 2019, US films made $1.9 billion in China alone. This year, that went down to $400 million, the lowest in nearly a decade. The Chinese film market is becoming more and more self-sufficient, and its revenue is increasingly made by domestic productions. The biggest film in China this year has been the blockbuster war filmBattle at Lake Changjin II, which has made $626 million. That’s evenmore thanTop Gun: Maverickhas madein the United States, though the latter may yet surpass that.
When you consider the global market, though,Top Gun: Maverickhas made far morethanBattle at Lake Changjin II. The Chinese market is highly insular, and their films rarely get traction abroad — at least for now. While Hollywood has seen the growth of China primarily as a place to make its own fortunes, this too may be permanently changing. It’s hard to tell what the future holds, but one thing is certain: North America’s place at the top is looking very shaky indeed.
Top Gun: MaverickandDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnessare currently in theaters.
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