Avatar 2, zero-Covid pivot fuel China box office as stock brokerages predict industry recovery
- Analysts at Guosen Securities and Caitong Securities see brighter outlook for film production houses, cinema operators in 2023
- Some economists caution China’s reopening will be a bumpy process and the hoped-for rebound in consumption spending may not materialise
Analysts at Guosen Securities and Caitong Securities said they expect cinema operators to outperform the broader market next year, aided by signs of Beijing’s zero-Covid pivot since November. Avatar: The Way of Water, released last Friday, is a springboard to recovery, they added.
“Avatar 2 powered an exponential surge of movie ticket sales,” and the momentum is likely to extend to the Lunar New Year holiday next month, Zhang Heng and Xia Yan at Guosen said in a report. “The recovery is getting stronger now, and some hiccups along the way will not have significant impacts on the uptrend.”
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Chinese fans flock to watch ‘Avatar’ sequel despite Covid-19 surge
James Cameron’s much-anticipated sequel to the 2009 movie grossed over 500 million yuan (US$71.6 million) a week after its run in mainland cities last Friday, according to local ticketing platform Maoyan. The movie is also on its way to become China’s Top 10 box-office movie with an estimated 1 billion yuan of ticket sales, it estimated.
The movie premiered in London on December 6 and was released in the US on December 16. Its screenings crashed equipment in some theatres across Japan, running into technical difficulties during its critical opening weekend in the country, according to a Bloomberg report.
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Chinese cinemas reopen after weeks of closure with easing of Covid curbs
