Two years ago, I wrote an analysis on which country goes to movies the most. In terms of the total number of moviegoers, China was number one followed by India. And it was the residents of Iceland who often went to the movies, 4.3 times a year in 2018. In this post, I am doing an analysis of the situation of moviegoers post-pandemic in 2023 in India and in the USA.
Summary
In 2022, India led the world in movie ticket sales with 981 million tickets sold, followed by China at 709 million and the United States at 699 million. However, the Indian film industry is facing some challenges. The number of movies released in India has yet to recover from the pre-pandemic levels. In 2023, only 1621 movies were released until September, compared to 1919 movies released in 2019. Additionally, Telugu is now the most popular language for movies in India, with 278 movies released in 2023, followed by Tamil with 257, Kannada with 243, and Hindi with 251. This possibly suggests that Hindi cinema, which was once the dominant force in India, is losing ground to regional languages.
In the United States, the number of movies released each year has been declining in recent years. In 2023, 141 movies were released, compared to 130 movies released in 2019. Additionally, ticket sales in Hollywood have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels. In 2023, box office collections were $10 billion, compared to $12.9 billion in 2019.
India leads in 2022.
In 2022, likely due to the pandemic situation, India was leading in the number of tickets sold at 981 million, followed by China at 709 million and the United States at 699 million. [Data Source: Statista.com, January 2023]
Source: Statista 2023 – Number of tickets sold in millions
Indian movies released in the last five years, from 2019 to September 2023
The number of movies released in India, across languages, is yet to recover from the pre-pandemic levels. There were a total of 1919 movies released in 2019, after a steep fall in 2020 due to the pandemic lockdowns, they have recovered to about 1621 in 2023 till September 2023.
| Year | Box Office India | IMDb | Wikipedia |
| 2023 | 1682 | 1654 | 1621 |
| 2022 | 1593 | 1579 | 1556 |
| 2021 | 1170 | 1162 | 1154 |
| 2020 | 971 | 963 | 955 |
| 2019 | 1935 | 1927 | 1919 |
Number of films released every year in India from 2019 to 2023 till September. Data Source: Google Bard & Wikipedia
Does Hindi have the largest number of movies released in 2023?
No. It was Telugu which leads with 278 movies released in 2023. It was followed by Tamil with 257, Kannada with 243 and Hindi at 251.
Number of films released per language in India. Source: Google Bard using IMDb
Are ticket sales in Hollywood (USA) back to Pre-Pandemic levels?
No. In 2023, box office collections, inflation-adjusted, were about three-fourths of the levels seen in 2019, $10 billion to $12.9 billion. But the price of individual tickets has risen from $9.16 to $10.53.
Annual Ticket Sales in the USA, Source: The-Numbers.com/market
In 2023, more Hollywood movies will be remakes and based on TV, Real-Life events.
When we discuss Hollywood movies, we feel there have been more remakes, and a smaller number of original stories, is this true?
Yes, it is true. As per the data from The Numbers, if we consider the total number of 16,122 movies made in Hollywood from 1995 to 2023: Original Screenplay were 44%, Based on book or short stories were 19%, Based on Comics or Novels were 11%. Remember these were the trends for three decades in aggregate. Unfortunately, in the last three years, the share of movies based on Original Screenplays came down sharply from 56% in 2020 to 31% in 2023. Similar has been the fall for stories based on Books (from 29% to 18%) and Novels (from 16% to 4%). So, what seems to be the growing source for movies in 2023, are Real Life Events, TV and Remakes – these three sources individually were about 2% each, and now they contribute about 6% each (total of 18%).
Movies sources share, Source: The-Numbers.com/market
Number of Hollywood movies released in a year?
Overall, in the last decade, the number of movies released in a year in the USA has been coming down. In 2007 there were a total of 168 movies released, whereas in 2019 it was 130 and in 2023 it was 141.
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