China frenzy moviegoers’ wait end

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services) 

China's frenzy moviegoers, denied the pleasure of watching their favourite movies due to the COVID-19 pandemic, don’t have to wait further as cinema houses are scheduled for reopening on July 20. There was a big rush as box office pre-sales for the day have surpassed 256,000 yuan ($36,700) as of afternoon on July 19.

According to the Maoyan Pro app which observes real-time box office information, pre-sales for cinemas across the Chinese mainland had exceeded 256,000 Yuan as of 3:00 pm and was going up rapidly. 

According to the app, a cinema called Chengdu Eying 1958 Movie Palace in Southwest China's Sichuan Province championed with 12,000 Yuan in box office pre-sales on July 19, with 589 viewers having booked their tickets. 

Altogether 12 screenings have been scheduled at Eying 1958 cinema and the only film that will be shown is A First Farewell, a movie produced in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region that tells the story of a local Xinjiang boy getting along with his friends and mother.

The top 10 cinemas with the largest presale bookings were mainly located in southern China, such as Hangzhou, Shanghai, Guangzhou and eastern China's Jiangsu and Anhui provinces. 

The China Film Administration announced on July 16 that cinemas in low-risk areas will be allowed to reopen starting from July 20, while those in high-risk areas will still remain closed. 

In order to ensure safety of the moviegoers, cinemas that reopen must strictly implement epidemic-related safety measures such as wearing of face masks, limiting seating capacity for each showing (no more than 30 percent), reducing the number of films to half that of the pre-epidemic period and banning all food and beverages in theaters, according to the announcement. 

Moviegoers must occupy alternate seats with a space of at least one meter between one another. The policy also requires that intervals between showings will be extended, for thorough cleaning and disinfection in between.