16 | Thursday, September 3, 2020 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY LIFE
Above: Filmgoers watch a movie in a cinema in Shanghai. CHEN YUYU / FOR CHINA DAILY Top right: The Capital Cinema in Beijing’s Xidan receives its first customers on July 24, after theaters in the capital reopened. NIU YUNGANG / FOR CHINA DAILY Right: A film attendee gets her ticket from an automatic machine after booking it online. XU CONGJUN / FOR CHINA DAILY The silver screen shines again
Chinese cinemas are recovering from COVID19’s impact faster than some insiders expected, Xu Fan reports.
ropelled by the summer’s top blockbuster, Yu says audiences have become used to reserv The Eight Hundred, China’s movie market ing tickets online using their names and wearing is seeing a robust growth in boxoffice tak masks throughout the screenings. ings, indicating a stable recovery in the But a “challenge” is that staffers often find view Pwake of COVID19. ers bring snacks or drinks into the theaters, which As of Sept 2, over 9,600 cinemas — nearly 90 per isn’t allowed, Yu says. cent of the total — have opened across the country Song Bingmei, a manager of Nanning Minzu since the China Film Administration, the top sec Cinema in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous tor regulator, announced domestic theaters in low region, says her theater has encountered the same risk areas could reopen from July 20. situation. Although July grossed a modest boxoffice “We set out boxes for customers to deposit total of 216 million yuan ($31.5 million), August drinks and foods. But some are reluctant to fol saw sizable growth, with 53 films released, gen low the guideline, since they don’t want to miss a erating up to 3.4 billion yuan, according to Ali few minutes to go out for a sip of water,” says baba Pictures’ movieinformationtracking app Song. Beacon. “As most of the other audience members may be Director Guan Hu’s war epic, The Eight Hun unhappy about those who try to take off their dred, the first Asian film entirely shot on IMAX masks or eat during screenings, we’ve increased cameras, has earned more than 2 billion yuan, top inhouse patrols,” she adds. ping the country’s boxoffice charts since the With Christopher Nolan’s scifi thriller Tenet to reopening of domestic theaters. Over 1.9 million A moviegoer in Shanghai poses for a picture before entering a cinema for director Guan Hu’s come on Sept 4 and a bunch of domestic block tickets for The Eight Hundred have been sold in war epic, The Eight Hundred. CHEN YUYU / FOR CHINA DAILY busters like My People, My Homeland set for the China’s 657 IMAX theaters. weeklong National Day holiday, traditionally a The latest figures from CanadianUS filmtech lucrative boxoffice season, some industry watch nology supplier IMAX show the Chinese block theaters reopened, generating over 500 million A coincidence helpful to the war film’s populari ers expect the domestic market will continue gain buster has so far earned over 100 million yuan for yuan. ty is that the national film authority increased the ing momentum. IMAX China. The week between Aug 24 and 30 brought in 1.7 ater attendance from 30 percent to 50 percent of But some analysts are cautious. Beacon’s chief A dark horse to take second place is fantasyro billion yuan, up nearly 83 percent yearonyear. It total capacity and removed the twohour length researcher Yi Zongting predicts the pandemic’s mance Love You Forever, which has brought in was the first time this year that market perform requirement for each screening from Aug 14, as impact may last a year or two. over 430 million yuan. ance exceeded the same period of 2019. China effectively brought the epidemic under con “The total number of films being produced or Alongside the domestic film Wild Grass and the Beijingbased Capital Cinema’s deputy general trol. completed is shrinking a lot compared to the same Oscarwinning Little Women, the film has created manager Yu Chao considers The Eight Hundred, The Eight Hundred spans 147 minutes, while period of last year. China needs more appealing a new boxoffice bonanza on Qixi Festival, the Chi which started advanced screenings from Aug 14, a most recently released popular films — including bigbudget films to draw audiences back to thea nese equivalent of Valentine’s Day, which fell on turning point to “rescue” the sluggish market, add the old classics Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s ters,” says Yi. Aug 25. ing that the recovery has surpassed some insiders’ Stone and Inception — lasted more than two It was the highestgrossing day since Chinese expectations. hours. Contact the writer at [email protected]