It’s been a long time coming, but the theatrical industry is finally getting back on its feet, with the biggest danger of being knocked back to the canvas having long since passed. The bad news is that the global box office is still 80% down from pre-pandemic levels, but plenty of encouraging information is emanating from this month’s succession of smash hits.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, October business is running just 4% behind the average across 2017, 2018 and 2019, because let’s face it; we’d all much rather pretend that 2020 never happened at all. The summer months are typically when studio blockbusters make most of their money, but the tenth month of the year has been the most lucrative of 2021 by far.
No Time to Die has crossed $500 million globally, Venom: Let There Be Carnage passed $350 million at the weekend, Dune is already at $220 million and counting, Halloween Kills drastically over-performed to score a $50 million first frame and Chinese war epic Battle at Lake Changjin has amassed a mind-boggling $800 million, so there’s been a constant parade of heavy hitters to bump up the numbers across the board.
In fact, over a third of the estimated $21 billion total brought in from theaters this year will come from China alone, signaling how quickly the world’s largest market for cinema has rebounded compared to the rest, but things are looking good as we head into the tail end of 2021.