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Chinese Cinemas Are Recovering from COVID19's Impact Faster Than Some Insiders Expected, Xu Fanreports

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Chinese Cinemas Are Recovering from COVID19's Impact Faster Than Some Insiders Expected, Xu Fanreports 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].
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