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Chinese cinemas ‘on their knees,’ reduced to selling popcorn, wedding packages as Netflix, streaming sites gain viewers
- Cinema closures could double this year as lockdown leaves smaller operators in lower-tier cities on the brink, PwC says
- Netflix and ByteDance streaming platforms have gained more members and viewers during the pandemic
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Cinema owners in mainland China are being reduced to selling popcorn without movies, and offering their sites for wedding shoots, while consumers turn to Netflix and other popular streaming services for entertainment during the coronavirus outbreak.
Without a blockbuster since the Lunar New Year in late January, analysts expect the number of closures to double this year, after 267 of 12,408 went out of business last year. Wanda Films, which operates 603 cinemas in the country, has warned of deep losses after nearly 100 days of suspension in screenings to help contain the outbreak.
“More than five cinema operators have approached me this week, asking whether I have clients looking to shoot wedding pictures in their screening houses,” said Sam Wang, a photographer based in Tianjin. “They are really on their knees.”
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Wedding shoots used to cost 500 yuan (US$70) an hour and would only take place on weekday mornings, he said. Now, it is two hours for the same price, on any day of the week.
The viral outbreak, which was first detected in Wuhan in central Hubei province, prompted the government to cordon off large swathes of cities across the nation to stem the infection. The measures have since entrenched a shift in spending and consumption habits.
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