China's box office becomes a giant headache for Hollywood

No Time To Die is a handful of Hollywood movies which will be released in China. Photo: Reuters

But 2021 is turning into a disappointment for movie companies in China, which passed the United States last year to become the world's largest film market.

US films have grabbed about 15% of the box office, on par with pandemic-impaired sales in 2020 and far less than the 32% they claimed in 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from the Chinese ticketing service Maoyan Entertainment.