Coronavirus closes Chinese cinemas so they're selling snacks online

Cinema closures also threaten Disney’s live-action Mulan, which still doesn’t have a China release date

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

A theater at Wanda’s 50 billion yuan (US$7.1 billion) production studio Oriental Movie Metropolis in Qingdao in 2018. (Picture: Bloomberg)

Xinmei Shen

Published: 10:00pm, 21 Feb 2020

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Nobody likes buying overpriced snacks at the movie theater. But with cinemas in China dealing with a prolonged shutdown because of the coronavirus, they’re now hoping people will order theater snacks from the comfort of their own homes.

Chinese cinemas can no longer count on ticket sales thanks to people staying away from public venues. And to make things worse, they have an aging inventory of snacks they need to get rid of. So to compensate for some of the loss of business over the last several weeks, some cinemas are selling discounted snacks online.

In an article posted on WeChat, Chinese real estate and cinema giant Wanda Group said people can now call their local cinemas to order snacks like popcorn chicken, sausages and ice cream. Some local Wanda cinemas are also selling off other miscellaneous items they have on hand, like a Lunar New Year edition Mickey Mouse stuffed animal.

But smaller cinema chains might need help getting the word out. A Weibo user who operates a popular account dedicated to movie-related topics told us that he has been taking requests from cinemas across China to help post information about what snacks and drinks they want to sell.

The Weibo account, named “Theater chain movie database,” has more than 145,000 followers. We checked out some of the phone numbers left on the account and called three cinema employees in the cities of Kunming, Suzhou and Chongqing. They told us they’re selling snacks below cost or close to cost, but they’re still not getting a lot of orders.