The local box office has experienced a decline in its earnings for the month of July. (Photo : Getty Images)
Chinese mainland box office experienced a 17-percent decrease in its earnings as the previous month's 5.29 billion yuan dropped to only 4.39 billion yuan ($661.4 million) for July, the Global Times reported.
Based on a report from cnr.cn, this was China's biggest year-on-year decrease in the past five years.
Analysts say that this decrease definitely hindered Chinese mainland box office's journey to becoming the largest in the world.
The decrease can be attributed to the emerging internet technology which enables viewers to catch the films through online streaming. Further, July has been known to be a "month of protection" for Chinese box office. Only domestic films premiered in theaters, except for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Still, despite this, this year's July earnings are significantly lower than that of 2015.
"Skiptrace" topped this month's highest-earning films with 696.54 million yuan. Other top-grossing films are "Cold War II" (667.90 million yuan), "Bigfish & Begonia" (556.93 million yuan), "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows" (393.09 million yuan), and "Never Gone" (335.76 million yuan).
Veteran film critic Gao Jun had this to say: "The films this summer seem to be in various genres, but they are more a hodgepodge than anything else. Last year's extraordinary performance happened because many new types of films stood out."
Moreover, Jiang Yong, an expert in film market research, cites the lack of good comedy film as the biggest factor behind the fallout.
The few fantasy and comedy works that came out in July, such as "When Larry Met Mary" and "For a Few Bullets" did not quite impress the Chinese audience.
From the point of view of those in the film-making industry, the lack of ticket promotion can also be considered as a cause of the decrease.
These promotions tend to give discounts to Chinese filmgoers, so when there were not enough ticket promotions in the past few months, the audience was less enthused to go the theaters.
According to Jiang, "because of these ticket promotions, there were some 'fake best-seller ing' films. But this year shows the reality. This is the real market. Audiences are just not that crazy about Chinese films."
Insiders and film critics are nonetheless hopeful, perceiving the decrease as a healthy sign and that the Chinese mainland box office will kick back its way to being the largest box office in the world.
