China Summer Box Office Slows Amid Star Crackdown Concerns
- Sales $1B for crucial period, down from record start to year
- Film industry has faced delta, regulators’ scrutiny of idols
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China is seeing one of its slowest summer holiday box office seasons in years after a delta-driven outbreak kept audiences home, while concerns grow that a regulatory crackdown on celebrities and idols could prevent the industry from bouncing back.
Ticket sales during the June-August summer holiday amounted to 6.7 billion yuan ($1 billion) as of Tuesday morning, according to ticketing platform Maoyan Entertainment. That’s the lowest number since 2013, excluding last year, which saw much of China locked down for months in a bid to contain the virus.