Cumulative box office revenue in Asia-Pacific dipped 9.3% year over year to $2.69 billion in the first quarter of the year, OpusData figures compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence show.
Film earnings in the tracked markets of China, Japan and Australia dropped, while South Korea emerged as the only market to record positive film revenue figures. Overall, Asia-Pacific's film releases also declined 14.2% to 109 titles in March against 127 titles released in March 2022.
South Korea saw a 351.2% year-over-year improvement in box office collections for the first three months of the year with revenue at $434.4 million.
The rereleases of Walt Disney Co.'s animated musical fantasy film "Frozen" and its sequel "Frozen II" grabbed the top two slots among the three best films at the South Korean box office, collecting $67 million and $93.2 million, respectively. Japanese anime film "Elga Slam Dunk" came in third with $33.9 million.
China, which remained the top-earning market in the region, saw a 17.4% year-over-year drop in box office collections to $2.12 billion, with 38 titles released.
Huanxi Media Group Ltd.-produced "Mǎn Jiāng Hóng," a historical suspense comedy, topped the charts in China with $673.1 million, followed by China Film Group Corp.'s science fiction action-adventure film, "Liú Làng Dì Qiú 2," with $596.1 million.
The computer-animated science fiction and comedy film "Xióng Chū Mò Bàn Wǒ Xióng Xīn" was the third highest-grossing film with $220.2 million.
– Check out Asia-Pacific's box office figures in the first two months of the year.
– Check out the global film release report for March.
Meanwhile, Japanese cinemas gathered $20 million, a 75.6% fall over the same period in 2022, while Australian theaters earned $113.7 million, down 48%. Australia had the highest number of film releases among monitored markets with 155 titles.
Marvel Studios LLC's "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" was favored by moviegoers in Japan and Australia, earning $7.3 million and $10.3 million, respectively.
Drama was the preferred genre of films in Asia-Pacific, followed by action and adventure and comedy.
