Global Box-Office Decline Was Even Steeper Than in US Last Year

  • Sales slump in China, strong dollar crimped studios’ revenue
  • Even measured in local currency, results outside US were worse

A cinema in Beijing.

Photographer: Wang Zhao/AFP/Getty Images
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Hollywood executives and theater owners have fretted loudly and often about the tough box-office in the US. Turns out it’s worse overseas.

Global ticket sales fell at a double-digit clip last year due to a sharp drop in China, the world’s second-largest market, along with contractions in Japan, South Korea and Germany.