When the movie box office goes down in 2020, it is difficult not to regard these figures as disastrous.

After five consecutive years of North American revenue of more than $11 billion, this year is expected to reach the lowest level in nearly 40 years, about $2.3 billion. According to comScore, a data company, this will be 80% lower than last year. Globally, the film market has been able to recover more comprehensively, and the box office revenue may eventually be between $11 billion and $12 billion. Last year, this figure reached $42.5 billion. But of course, 2020 is a year with a big asterisk.

"This is a different year," said Jim orr, President of domestic cinema distribution at Universal Pictures. "We have never seen such a small business in this industry."

Except for January and February, it is impossible to judge this year's box office by pre epidemic standards. Generally speaking, in normal years, the box office is predictable. But Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at comScore, said that all this "disappeared" after the cinema closed on March 20. "Unpredictability becomes a constant."

Most North American cinemas do not show for six months during the summer, which usually accounts for about 40% of the annual profit. Over the past two years, the summer film season has grossed more than $4.3 billion. This year, the film's box office revenue was $176.5 million, most of which came from auto theaters.

"The car theater has become a hero this summer," said de galabedian.

When the indoor theater reopened in late August and early September, its capacity and products were very limited. At present, about 35% of theaters in the United States are showing, and some of the largest theaters such as New York and Los Angeles are still closed. Although there is a steady stream of new films, there are few blockbusters. Some people turned to streaming media services, some people turned to high-end digital leasing, but most people retreated to 2021 or later.

Perhaps nothing can explain the problem better than 2020. This is the first time in more than a decade that there is no marvel film. The superhero factory of Walt Disney Co. has won the year-end box office title with Avengers: endgame and black panther in the past two years, and two or more films have entered the top ten.

As expected, the movie news of the top ten films in 2020 is a little chaotic, most of which are films in the first two months of this year. Sony's Will Smith sequel bad boys for life has topped the North American box office with $206.3 million since it was released in January. Ranked second in the world, second only to the Chinese film "800 people" - this is the first time that the world's top films come from outside Hollywood. Only Christopher Nolan's tenet and the cartoon the crazy primitive: a new age ranked eighth with a box office of $57.2 million, and the latter was released on Thanksgiving Day. So far, it has won a box office of $30.8 million, ranking tenth.

Among the top 100 movie news, at least 15 are retro films, including hocus pocus, the Empire Strikes Back and the nightmares before Christmas.

"The glimmer of hope in the cinema is that people will choose to go to the cinema even if they have unlimited choices at home," said de galabedian. "People are eager to go out and have fun. This desire has not changed, but their ability to do so has been greatly limited."

It has even changed the way a movie's premiere weekend is evaluated, which used to be a reliable indicator of a movie's long-term prospects and may last for some time.

"In the past, after we opened on Friday, we could bring immediate satisfaction on Sunday morning? This may not happen again for a long time."