Imax CEO Explains How China's 70,000 Theaters Could Start to Reopen

By Andreas Wiseman

The movie theaters in China are once again closing amid the global crisis.

More than 200 movie theaters will resume operation in Shanghai on Saturday after two months of closure to contain the spread of coronavirus, local authorities said Thursday. The Chinese commercial capital is the country's first tier-one metropolis to resume theatrical moviegoing in a significant way, following the lead of less populous provinces that tested the water for limited cinema re-openings a week ago.

By Dino-Ray Ramos

More than 500 cinema screens have reopened in China, where the coronavirus outbreak is seen to be receding, though box office takings remain minimal as the public is mostly staying away.

As cinemas throughout North America and Europe move toward total lockdown, movie theaters in China, the world's second-biggest box office market, are beginning to take steps toward reopening. On Thursday, China hit a major milestone in its efforts to contain the new coronavirus: For the first time since the outbreak began, health authorities reported no new local infections of the virus.

China’s main state-owned distributor plans to issue a batch of half a dozen films, from which cinemas will keep all income, in order to get the country’s exhibition sector back on its feet after long closures due to coronavirus, it has said.

By Jill Goldsmith

As cinemas shutter for the foreseeable future across the U.S. and Europe in a historically unprecedented wave of closures to lower risks of exposure to coronavirus, a handful of cinemas in China have already re-opened and all signs indicate that many more will soon follow in their wake.

By Anthony D'Alessandro, Nancy Tartaglione

The international box office has taken a major hit because movie theaters in China, Italy, South Korea and other areas heavily impacted by coronavirus have been entirely or partially closed for weeks.