2023 won’t be the year that cinemas get back to pre-pandemic numbers either, states a new global report.
Global box office takings for 2022 were better than the previous year, something you’d expect given that 2021 found the world very much in the throes of a global pandemic which shuttered cinemas and devastated the global film industry’s production pipeline. According to UK film tech company Gower Street Analytics, 2022’s global box office was up on the previous year by 27%, coming just short of $26bn in total.
That’s the good news over though, as the global total for 2022 is over a third less than the pre-pandemic annual average, a problem which is estimated to have cost the industry around $14bn. The grim reading doesn’t end there either with the forecast that 2023 will bring in around $29bn, an improvement on last year but still not a full return to pre-pandemic business levels.
Cinemas in 2022 were hamstrung by a lack of films, not to mention finding themselves a casualty of the ongoing battle for supremacy between streaming platforms. Whilst 2023 should see the former issue be less of a worry, the mercurial whims of streaming platforms will continue to hamper cinemas’ progress, whilst some major box office contributors such as China still haven’t returned to a state of pre-pandemic normality.
Still, despite the gloomy reading, things are at least moving in the right direction and who knows, with so many brilliant films set to release in 2023 (and hopefully most of them in cinemas) then this year’s global box office performance may pleasantly surprise everybody when it’s announced in a year’s time. Fingers crossed.
Image: BigStock
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