The global box office hit $33.9bn in 2023, up 30.5% compared to 2022, according to estimates from UK data and insights company Gower Street Analytics. However, takings were still 15% behind the average of the last three pre-pandemic years (2017-2019).
The domestic market remained the top global market with an estimated $9.1bn, accounting for 26.8% of the global result. Domestic takings were up 21% year on year, but still 21% behind the 2017-19 average.
Even so, the theatrical business barely could keep up with Netflix, as the streamer alone has estimated 34B+ revenue (which won’t be shared with several studios, distributors, exhibitors) over the same year!
The international market, excluding China, delivered $17.1bn at the box office last year, up 20% on 2022. International box office was down 15% compared to the 2017-19 average.
China’s box office was up 83% on 2022, ending the year on $7.7bn after the December 30 release of Shining For One Thing provided a last-minute boost. These takings are just 6% down on the pre-pandemic average.
China led the way for the international markets, followed by Japan on $1.48bn; UK and Ireland on $1.36bn; France on $1.35bn; Germany on $1.01bn; South Korea on $0.97bn; Mexico on $0.94bn; Australia on $0.67bn; Italy on $0.55bn; Spain on $0.54bn; Brazil on $0.47bn; Netherlands on $0.36bn; Russia on $0.33bn; Saudi Arabia on $0.25bn and Argentina on $0.21bn. The results do not include India.
The Netherlands was the only top international market to increase on its 2017-2019 takings and was up 3%.
Box office for Europe, the Middle East and Africa were just shy of $9bn, up 25% on 2022. The region accounted for 26.5% of the global box office but was slightly down on 2022 where it made up 27.7%.
The Asia Pacific region, without China, made a 9% year-on-year increase to $5.5bn though has fallen in overall percentage to 16.1%. With China, takings account for 39%. Latin America made up 8% of the global box office in 2023, led by Mexico on 3% and Brazil on 1% of the overall total.
Gower Street also recently estimated that the 2024 box office is projected to drop 7% to $31.5bn due in part to a strike-impacted release calendar.
Note: India is not included by Gower due to difficulties to track market as we know, India does not have a reliable, unified box office tracking system but India’s 2023 Top 10 highest grossing movies alone grossed 570 million combined locally which means that India could land somewhere in between Australia and Mexico when adding all remaining grosses locally in 2023.
Bollywood Dominated Indian Market
There were murmurs for few years within Indian market that cinema from down south is making moolah at box office. Bollywood stamped its authority in 2023 in such a big way that it’s business surpassed 4650 crore and remained higher than business of Telugu, Tami, Kannada and all other regional languages.
Bollywood’s Box office King Shah Rukh Khan made a smashing comeback with more than 2625 crore worldwide gross with his three massive films, out of which 1000 crore gross came from overseas itself. He rewrote box office record book and established records in such a way that it will be milestone for years to come.
Following are the rough data for box office business of various industries:
Hindi: 4650 crore
Telugu: 2300 crore
Tamil: 2160 crore
Hollywood: 675 crore
Hindi Box Office scenario looks bleak as major stars will not have any release & Bollywood will depend on box office surprises & few actors who are trying to revive their box office fortune via franchise films.
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