Leading box office markets worldwide 2021, by revenue

In 2021, China reported the highest box office revenue worldwide, at approximately 7.3 billion U.S. dollars. This is more than the revenues of the United States, Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom combined. France ranked fourth alongside the UK, each grossing around 800 million dollars at the box offices.

China: the top film market

The Chinese movie industry flourished throughout the past decades, reflecting the country's overall economic expansion. This skyrocketing market is also translating into higher demand for cinemas. After a decline in 2020, amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, the number of new movie theaters built in China went up once again in 2021. That year alone, the Asian giant erected almost one thousand new cinemas.

Is the North American movie market in decline?

To say that Hollywood days are counted would be an overstatement. The box office revenue in the U.S. and Canada – altogether known as the North American film market – grew by 113 percent between 2020 and 2021. However, the latter result amounted to less than 40 percent of the 11.3-billion-dollar revenue recorded in 2019, before the pandemic. Despite the slow recovery, younger American moviegoers have been catching up. Teenagers experienced the highest increase in films seen per capita at a movie theater in the U.S. in 2021.