Japan's April box office revenue falls 96.3% from a year earlier
CGTN

Japan's box office revenue in April fell 96.3 percent from the same period in 2019, the lowest on record, due to impacts from the COVID-19 outbreak, according to NHK.

According to the box office revenue data of Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPA), the combined box office revenue of 12 major film companies, including Toho and Shochiku, was about 688 million yen (about 6.4 million U.S. dollars) in April 2020 as compared to 18.5 billion yen (about 171 million U.S. dollars) in April 2019. It is the lowest on record since records began in 2000.

MPPA said ticket sales were hit in April by a sharp drop in cinema attendance during the COVID-19 and the closure of cinemas across Japan following the implementation of the declaration of emergency. Japan's film market continued to weaken in May and is expected to recover in June when cinemas reopen and new films are released, said the staff concerned.

(Cover image from VCG)