Cinemas to reopen after 6-month closure

After being shuttered for nearly six months, China's cinemas－which have the most screens in the world－will begin to reopen in lowrisk areas starting on Monday, according to the China Film Administration, the sector's top regulator.

Theaters in medium-and high-risk areas will remain closed, the administration said on Thursday.

All tickets must be reserved online and buyers' identities provided, and viewers are required to wear masks, according to a guideline released with the statement.

Films can last no more than two hours and no more than 30 percent of seats can be sold for each screening. Cinemas can sell neither snacks nor drinks, and guests must sit at least 1 meter apart.

The news quickly stirred discussions online. Hashtags on the requirement to wear masks in cinemas had nearly 2 million views on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo.

Many netizens took online polls to vote on new films that they wanted to see, most of which were anticipated blockbusters once scheduled for the Spring Festival holiday back in January. The movies were all withdrawn or released online.

Yu Chao, deputy general manager of Capital Cinema in Beijing, predicted that most of the first films released in cinemas will be classic or art house films, as studios behind anticipated hits with big budgets may be reluctant to quickly release such new movies.

"For them, it is a financial risk when the market has just reopened with a limited audience," Yu said. "China's film industry may not see an obvious revival soon, as what can really draw audiences back to theaters is new content."

Last year, China's nearly 70,000 screens in over 10,000 cinemas raked in up to 31.1 billion yuan ($4.4 billion) at the box office from January to June.

The country's cinemas were mostly closed in late January, with the ticket revenue in the first half of this year falling to 2.24 billion yuan, according to the box-office tracking app Maoyan.

In another development, the 23rd Shanghai International Film Festival, which had been scheduled for mid-June, will open on July 25, organizers said on Thursday.