China’s biggest film weekend of the year has been derailed by the crisis over the coronavirus outbreak gripping the country, with a knock-on effect of wrecking a major effort by the Chinese film industry to penetrate the international box office.
The lunar new year holiday (this year, 25 January) is traditionally a high season for movie distributors and cinema chains as people gather and enjoy leisure activities such as watching movies during the week-long holiday. But the coronavirus outbreak, which has prompted a lockdown of central China’s Wuhan city, as well as in neighbouring Huanggang, has led film companies to cancel their releases.
These include a film about China’s national female volleyball team titled Leap, starring Gong Li, while Detective Chinatown 3, the third episode of a popular comedy whose first two instalments were commercially successful, will not open on 25 January, as had been planned. A statement by the makers of Lost in Russia said its premiere date would be rescheduled because there were risks of the virus spreading in enclosed areas such as cinemas. The team behind kids’ animation Boonie Bears: The Wild Life posted a statement on microblogging site Weibo saying: “For the ‘Boonie Bears,’ nothing is more important than the safety of your family and children!”
The swathe of cancellations has meant that plans to release overseas also have to be scrapped, as regulations state that Chinese-produced films must be released in the home market first. CMC, the studio behind big-budget action drama The Rescue, have issued a statement that the international release of the film has been “postponed until further notice” to “avoid exposing our audiences to any unnecessary health risks”. The Rescue was due to open in more than 30 venues in the UK, and more than 70 cities in the US and Canada. Plans for Detective Chinatown 3 were even bigger, with 47 venues in the UK and 150 in North America.
China’s film box office raked in 64.2bn yuan ($9.3bn) in 2019, according to the country’s film administration, making it the second-largest market for movie makers after the US. The virus and its impact on the film industry has driven down the share prices of related companies in recent days. Wanda Film Holding Co, the studio behind Detective Chinatown 3, dropped 21% in the four-trading-day week, declining as much as 7% on Thursday alone. Alibaba Pictures, which participated in the distribution of Leap and Detective Chinatown 3, fell 13%.
