Harry Potter 4K remaster hits Shanghai Film Festival as cinemas reopen in China
- After six months of closure, cinemas finally reopen in China with Hollywood films Coco and The Pursuit of Happyness
- Showings for older films at the Shanghai International Film Festival quickly sold out
After being closed for half a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, China’s cinemas are finally reopening. The nation’s moviegoers are overjoyed despite the fact that they’ll mostly just be able to watch films that first released years ago.
Among the anticipated re-releases are all eight Harry Potter films. Theatres in Shanghai will be showing the films remastered in 4K for the Shanghai International Film Festival, which starts July 25.
Each instalment is getting two showings, but it seems that’s not enough. Tickets sold out instantly, causing many people to complain on social media. Some said they’d be willing to pay more than the original price to get a ticket.
Tickets for most other films also sold out quickly, the film festival’s ticketing platform Taopiaopiao shows. The festival includes a line-up of films by Italian director Federico Fellini and French New Wave director Claude Chabrol, among a variety of other international and domestic films.
(South China Morning Post is owned by Alibaba, which operates Taopiaopiao.)
Tickets to film festivals in China have always been difficult to get. But grabbing tickets could be especially difficult this year given government restrictions on reopening theatres. The China Film Administration is requiring cinemas to cap capacity at 30 per cent, and the number of screenings is now half the normal volume. On top of that, theatres have also been told to avoid selling snacks and drinks “in general,” which could be a big financial blow if strictly followed.
Even with cinemas now reopening, though, moviegoers everywhere aren’t getting equal access to classic cinema. Cinephiles outside Shanghai, away from the film festival, will have fewer options. But 22 films still got a nationwide release on Monday.
Titles being re-released across the country include Pixar’s Coco, last year’s A Dog’s Journey and the 2006 Will Smith film The Pursuit of Happyness. A slate of older Chinese films are also being re-released along with one new film: An art house film set in Xinjiang titled A First Farewell.
The country is also getting some Hollywood films from this year that didn’t get a chance to release in China. Dolittle and Bloodshot will be released on July 24. Variety reports that Titanic and the Marvel’s first two Avengers films will be re-released at some point, but there are no dates yet.
Hashtags about cinemas reopening have been trending on Weibo since the weekend. Many users share the same sentiment: They can’t wait to go back to the cinema. But with greatly reduced capacity and the possibility of more cautious consumer behaviour during a pandemic, the reality for theatres isn’t matching moviegoers’ enthusiasm.
According to data from movie ticketing platform Maoyan, China’s box office for the first day of theatre reopenings on Monday was more than 3 million yuan (US$429,000). On the same day last year (July 20), the box office surpassed 248 million yuan (US$35.5 million).
