'Contagion' stars including Matt Damon, Kate Winslet film PSAs to offer COVID-19 advice

Movie epitomizes coronavirus fight

The movie cast's PSA videos then went viral on Chinese social media following their release, with "ContagionCastOnPandemicPrevention" soon becoming one of the hottest hashtags on China's Twitter-like platform Weibo and accumulating more than 140 million views so far.

A user commented: "It is impressive that the character Kate played was still thinking about saving and taking care of others even when she herself was surviving after being infected."

"That is indeed an epitome of the doctors and nurses currently fighting on the frontline."

Given its the similarities to the current pandemic, Contagion has been drawing great attention since the coronavirus outbreak began. The rentals, sales and downloads of the movie have skyrocketed in recent weeks.

It climbed to the 10th place on Friday on the iTunes movie charts for the U.S., one spot above the newly-released "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker."

The prescient thriller, directed by Steven Soderbergh, follows a mysterious deadly infection that spreads quickly around the world, causing a breakdown in society, and efforts by medical staff and scientists to save lives and find a cure.