2023 Chinese Box Office: Covid & Politics Prove An Unpredictable Mix

Reading the tea leaves with regard to China in 2023 is even more difficult than usual. The country's about-face on its longstanding zero-Covid policy has implications from geopolitics to economics and, closer to home for Hollywood, the state of the market after a dismal 2022. Exactly what those implications are is where the guesswork comes in. On the one hand, the loosening of restrictions already seems to have led to more tickets being sold in local cinemas. On the other, the sudden reemergence of a massive population with little natural or vaccine-derived protection will likely provide kindling for a wildfire…