Poster of Mulan Photo: Maoyan

 As the box office in the US is hitting its lowest point in the past two decades, things seem to be turning around in China as positive signs indicate things will start warming up for the world's second-largest film market, which came to a stand still when the COVID-19 lockdown began back in January.

On Thursday, Warner Bros announced on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo that a 4K+3D version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone will be released in the Chinese mainland after cinemas reopen, which is scheduled to happen starting Thursday. Although no dates have been set for the release, the film may very well become the first movie to be screened since the deadly virus came under control in China. 

Earlier this week, China announced that a portion of its nearly 70,000 screens will reopen starting on Thursday and will implement protective measures such as temperature monitoring and capacity control.

Cinemas aren't the only businesses coming back to life. Chinese film studios have already started going back to work. For instance, Legendary Entertainment will allow its Beijing-based staff to return to work, Variety reported on Monday.

These signs show that China is ready to walk out from its darkest hours just as Hollywood has begun struggling with constant cancellations: the Cannes Film Festival, shooting on Mission Impossible 7 and the release of highly anticipated blockbusters such as Black Widow and Mulan.

With new confirmed cases reported in the US each day, the hope that people will return to cinemas in the country becomes more and more fleeting. Studios are turning to other alternatives such as VOD. For instance, Universal is pushing its new features Emma, The Hunt and The Invisible Man to VOD on Friday, where they can rented for $19.99 for 48 hours, almost double the price of a single theater ticket.

As the global film market suffers from the deadly virus, can Chinese theaters bring hope to the world?

The answer is probably yes, but things will turn around slowly and steadily. The year 2019 saw the nearly 70,000 screens in the Chinese mainland, the most in a single market, generate 64.2 billion yuan ($9.06 billion), the second highest box office take in the world. According to estimates, if it hadn't been for the virus, the total box office of China's Spring Festival season, the busiest time of the year, could have reached 7 billion yuan or more.

A new survey from Chinese ticketing site Maoyan released on Monday showed that half of moviegoers will be willing to head to the cinemas after the virus ends.

So, what is the strategy for the recovery of China's cinemas? Right now it looks like it will progress through various stages and waves, first kicking off with older films such as Chinese blockbusters such as The Wandering Earth and Wolf Warriors 2 and Harry Potter and then moving on to new releases by Chinese and overseas studios such as delayed films like 1917 and Jojo Rabbit. The best result for China, if everything goes well, is that we can hopefully watch Mulan before North American audiences.


Newspaper headline: Is the reopening of Chinese cinemas a ray of hope for global film industry?