Posted on 03/27/2020 7:40:11 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Over the past two weeks, hundreds of movie theaters in the country had begun to reopen. No reason for the policy reversal was given, but insiders believe the government is worried about a potential second wave of coronavirus infections. China's film regulators has slammed the brakes on plans to gradually reopen the country's cinemas.
Over 600 movie theaters across China were given the green light to reopen their doors over the past week, but Beijing's Film Bureau put out a notice late Friday ordering all theaters to go back into shutdown.
No official explanation for the sudden reversal was provided. Industry insiders instantly began speculating that the government was worried about a potential second wave of coronavirus infections.
The decision comes as a shock given the signals authorities had been sending as recently as a day ago. On Thursday, Shanghai's municipal government announced that 205 of the city's movie theaters had received permission to resume business on Saturday. Earlier in the week, China Film Group, the dominant state-backed distributor, unveiled a plan to let cinemas rerelease past blockbusters to help lure customers back into seats. The scheme was to entail both local hits, such as Wolf Warrior 2 and The Wandering Earth, and Hollywood-made product, such as the full Avengers franchise and last year's Oscar best picture winner, Green Book.
The phased reopening of China's vast network of 70,000 movie screens had promised a rare bright spot on the global distribution map, given that cinemas are shuttered in virtually every other major market around the globe, including North America, Europe, Japan and elsewhere. Beijing's decision to reclose — or stay closed — was met with dismay by stakeholders throughout the Chinese industry.
"This second closure will not be a one- or two-week issue," an executive at a major exhibition company told The Hollywood Reporter, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of commenting on government policy related to the coronavirus. "They are going to be even more cautious when they attempt to reopen again — and this will set us back a long time."
Many production and distribution executives were frustrated for their own reasons. Regulators have been discouraging — in effect, ordering — studios not to sell their unreleased feature films to local streaming services, saying that they must hold back the titles to aid in the eventual reboot of the country's theatrical exhibition infrastructure.
"We're not allowed to go online with our films and we can't go to cinemas because they are again closed, so it's like there is no exit," said an executive at one of the country's top distribution companies. "They have to present a new policy and let us release some of our movies online, otherwise many of our film companies are going to go out of business."
In recent days, data from Beijing health authorities has suggested that domestic transmission of the coronavirus has been contained. Nearly all new cases have come from travelers and residents returning from overseas. On Thursday, China halted most incoming flights and imposed a blanket ban on the entry of all foreigners, even those with work permits. Authorities said the aggressive actions were taken to prevent China from succumbing to a second outbreak.
Shares in Imax, which has more than 700 giant-screen theaters in China — roughly half of its global network — fell by $1.11, or nearly 11 percent, to $9.14 in morning trading on Friday. Imax had been anticipating an imminent reopening of screens in China, along with the rest of the country's exhibition infrastructure.
Two crazy things coming out of China.
1. Overseas Chinese started believing ChiCom propaganda that China was WuFlu free, so they went back home.
ChiCom’s didn’t tell them, the returnees will locked up in quarantine camps with almost no food and water and no sanitation.....for at least 14 days.
Rioting has taken place at some camps.
2. ChiCom’s are using these returnees as an excuse.
ChiCom’s saying that these people coming back are bringing back WuFlu, especially those coming back from US.
That’s why ChiCom’s have closed the border to non-Chinese.
Hong Kong recorded new daily high of 65 cases yesterday. Any talking points about Hong Kong being able to bring the outbreak of the China virus under control are fake and propaganda.
It is COVID-2020.03, the latest iteration of the Wuhan virus.
There’s an issue with critically ill high risk people. If they’re initially treated with anti-virals and antibiotics their bodies won’t have time to produce antibodies for the virus. When they recover and are released they can easily be reinfected.
Was watching Youtube last night on Chinese treatment protocols. They classify patients into stages for treatment. Stages I and II are palliative care. Stage III is the person has produced antibodies and is fighting the virus. Only after this, in stage IV, are anti-virals and antibiotics administered. It ensures people have antibodies when released. But this is most likely is at the cost of at a significantly higher death rate. Only patients who can produce antibodies and show their body can fight the virus are considered for antivirals and antibiotic treatment.
[There’s an issue with critically ill high risk people. If they’re initially treated with anti-virals and antibiotics their bodies won’t have time to produce antibodies for the virus. When they recover and are released they can easily be reinfected.]
[Two crazy things coming out of China.
1. Overseas Chinese started believing ChiCom propaganda that China was WuFlu free, so they went back home.
ChiCom’s didn’t tell them, the returnees will locked up in quarantine camps with almost no food and water and no sanitation.....for at least 14 days.
Rioting has taken place at some camps.]
Oh goody! Another round of endless speculation, and of course more experts providing their catastrophic predictions buffered with “might”, “may”, “possibly” to cause yet another wave of hysteria and panic! This shit is never going to end! This has the potential to completely destroy our economy!
And how many Coronavirus deaths worldwide you ask? 27,365! And this is the basis for destroying our economy and our nation! The Media and Democrats are high-fiving each other at how easy this has been!
We are abject fools!
Oh goody! Another round of endless speculation, and of course more experts providing their catastrophic predictions buffered with “might”, “may”, “possibly” to cause yet another wave of hysteria and panic! This shit is never going to end! This has the potential to completely destroy our economy!
And how many Coronavirus deaths worldwide you ask? 27,365! And this is the basis for destroying our economy and our nation! The Media and Democrats are high-fiving each other at how easy this has been!
We are abject fools!
There were many videos on Weibo of the conditions in the camps and also of people complaining and asking for help.
But they all have been taken down.
Your prescription would escalate the panic and create a much, much worse economic and humanitarian disaster.
President Trump will scale back the quarantine when the time is right, which fortunately will be much later than you eant.
[There were many videos on Weibo of the conditions in the camps and also of people complaining and asking for help.
But they all have been taken down.]
And from this point going forward, this will become the norm! This is a scary precedent that is being set, and everyone is perfectly cool with it! Tell you what, talk with people who’ve lost their businesses and get back with me!
It’s Coronavirus today; what will it be after this? This mass hysteria scares me more than this virus! These losses in Freedom are going to be the new norm. Glad you are cool with this.
American tech companies helped
Nobody is cool with this but it’s the best choice out of bad choices.
The economy is going to take a hit with or without a quarantine. People are not going to flock back to restaurants, hotels, public events, etc. While the number of deaths is doubling every 2-3 days. I think stabilizing the virus first will be better for the economy in tyhe end.
Also I am more concerned about losing freedoms if Biden, Pelosi and Schumer are in control. I believe this can happen if Trump lets the virus spiral out of control like in Italy.
“Do you recall seeing info saying flights are still coming in, from China?”
A week ago Air China was still selling April trips, non-stop, to/from the US, according to this schedule:
https://www.airchina.us/US/GB/promotion/Adjustment?pid=TP_Adjustment:20200211:KV:KIRA:US:EN
But now there aren’t any. I think what changed was that China doesn’t want flights from the US landing there.
Trump’s January cut-off of flights to China only applied to US carriers (United, American, and Delta). Chinese airlines continued to fly here. However, they cut way back on frequency. Overall, I read that the number of people flying here had dropped from 15,000 to 1,000 daily, probably by February.
As it is, at this point, we’re more of a threat to sending the virus to China than they are to us.
I went to a movie theater in Seoul Korea years ago.
American movie The Graduate played with English sub titles.
Place was full. Very old lady sat next to me and about every 20 minutes she would hock a lugie on to the floor.
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