Boxoffice Pro

Industry BIG DATA
THE IMPACT OF
COVID-19 ON THE
GLOBAL BOX OFFICE
72% ↓ 80% ↓
The global movie
theater box office fell
by 72 percent.
The North American
movie theater box office
fell by 80 percent.
Global Box Office Down 72 Percent, Digital
Leads Home Entertainment in 2020, According
to the MPA’s 2020 THEME Report
BY DANIEL LORIA
In a beleaguered 2020, the global
movie theater box office fell by
72 percent, finishing the year with $12
billion in ticket sales, according to the
Motion Picture Association’s (MPA)
annual THEME report.
Overseas box office was responsible for
$9.8 billion in ticket sales, representing
81 percent of the overall global market.
Much of that business came from the $6
billion earned by the Asia Pacific region,
which hosted three of the world’s top five
box office markets in 2020: China (No. 1,
$3 billion), Japan (No. 3, $1.3 billion), and
South Korea (No. 5, $0.4 billion). The
Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA)
region suffered a 61 percent drop to $3.3.
billion, while Latin America suffered the
biggest losses during the pandemic, with
an 82 percent drop to $0.5 billion.
The North American market, comprising
the United States and Canada, experienced
an 80 percent decline in box office
($2.2 billion), translating to a total
of 240 million admissions in 2020. The
number of cinema admissions in the
United States had previously fluctuated
between 1.24 and 1.36 billion since 2011.
According to the MPA, the typical
moviegoer bought 1.5 tickets in 2020,
down from 4.6 the previous year.
Less than half of the U.S./Canada
population attended the cinema in 2020,
a year when digital home entertainment
accounted for 82 percent of the entire
entertainment sector. Streaming revenues
in the United States have more than
doubled over the last four years—from
$11.4 billion in 2016 to $26.5 billion in
2020—while physical media have shrunk
by more than half during the same term—
from $8 billion in 2016 to $3.5 billion in
2020. Theatrical revenues had consistently
surpassed $11 billion since 2016, until
falling to $2.2. billion in 2020 due to the
onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
2020 Top 10 Global Box Office Markets
– All Films (US$ Billions)
1
2
3
4
5
China
1 2 3
$3.0
North America (U.S. & Canada)
Japan
France
$0.5
$1.3
South Korea
$0.5
$2.2
Global Box Office Market — All Films (US$ Billions)
International
U.S./Canada
6
$0.4
U.K.
$45
$40
$39.9
$40.9 $41.8 $42.3
7
$0.4
India
$35
$30
$25
$27.9
(71%)
$27.9
(71%)
$27.9
(71%)
$27.9
(71%)
8 Germany
$0.4
$20
$15
$10
$5
$12.0
$9.8
$11.4
$11.4 $11.4 $11.4
(81%)
$2.2
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
9 Russia
$0.3
10 Australia
$0.3
Source: Omdia, local sources
26 Q2 2021