U.S. Jan-June Box Office of $5.5B tops China’s by 39%

Hollywood imports dominate China box office in June

Latest reboot of Paramount franchise gets a CFI Score of 6/10

Total ticket sales at the Chinese box office reached RMB 3.862 billion ($580 million) in June according to data compiled by 1905.com, the official website of state-run China Movie Channel.

The monthly haul was up 15% from June 2015 and represents the first monthly bump in box office revenue after two rare consecutive down months in April and May.

Imported films completely dominated the box office charts in June, accounting for 94.4% of June’s total ticket sales and helping Hollywood climb back to a more equitable 47% share of the annual box office total to date.

Top Ten Films (June 2016)

Film June 1-June 30 Gross Revenue (RMB) Warcraft 1.462B X-Men Apocalypse 802M Now You See Me 2 442M Independence Day: Resurgence 323M Finding Dory 218M Alice Through The Looking Glass 173M Angry Birds 150M Three 92.7M So, I Married My Anti-Fan 23.2M Captain America: Civil War 16.5M

As the Chinese box office continues to inch closer to overtaking North America as the world’s highest-grossing film market, CFI will track monthly box office comparisons between the two territories. North American data comes from our syndication partners at BoxOffice.com and Chinese data is provided by Artisan Gateway.

2016 Box Office Comparison – North America vs. China

Month North America (USD) China (USD) January $1,036,000,000 $583,400,000 February $799,000,000 $1,048,000,000 March $948,560,000 $580,167,000 April $777,900,000 $480,000,000 May $935,886,000 $476,000,000 June $1,064,500,000 $580,000,000 Total $5,561,846,000 $3,747,567,000

On-Screen This Week:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows

China Distribution: China Film Group Corporation (中国电影集团公司)

U.S. Distribution: Paramount Pictures

CFI Score – 6/10

Yet another Hollywood sequel comes to Chinese cinemas this weekend as Paramount Pictures’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Out of the Shadows is released nationwide on Saturday. Released in early June in most overseas territories, Out of the Shadows performed well below its 2014 predecessor at both the North American and global box office. Its commercial and critical failure (just 37% Fresh on RottenTomatoes) signals trouble and probably means an end for the franchise. Can China come through and save the “heroes in a half-shell”?

CFI believes this installment has the potential to surpass the RMB 387 million ($62.1 million) that the last reboot, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, grossed two years ago thanks to its prime summer release date — the first film was released in November, a particularly slow period for Chinese moviegoing — and the financial and promotional backing of Wanda subsidiary China Movie Media Group.

Out of the Shadows should dominate the box office in its first six days of release, but it will lose most of its screens starting Friday, July 8 as several domestic films with breakout potential enter cinemas.