Why China’s Cinemas Have Closed Again After Partially Reopening1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteExhibitors across China were surprised last week when they received a notice from the China Film Administration implying they should close their cinemas, just hours after the city of Shanghai announced it would reopen 205 sites.
The notice was not a direct command, but a report of “urgent orders” sent to the film bureau in Jiangsu province, stating that “all theatres are temporarily not to resume business, and those that have should stop immediately”. On receiving this news, exhibitors across the country appear to have taken the hint and closed all the cinemas that had previously opened.
Cinema managers were quoted by local media saying the notice might be connected to a locally transmitted case of the Covid-19 coronavirus that was reported on Thursday in Zhejiang province, which neighbours Shanghai. Most of China’s recent new infection cases have been imported, as residents stream home from heavily affected countries in the West, so cases of local transmission cause greater alarm.
Around 500 cinemas had reopened the previous weekend (March 20-22) and in the absence of new titles were showing previously released films. However, box office was minimal and none of the country’s major nationwide chains had reopened. China’s 70,000 cinemas have been shuttered since January 24 as a safety measure to tackle the spread of the virus.
Image Credit: China Film Group
