China’s cinemas may now reopen for business if they follow coronavirus prevention protocols like capping visitor numbers, new guidelines issued by the country’s top administrative body said Friday.

The guidelines are the first official signal that Chinese authorities have softened their strict stance on exhibition sector closures. However, no dates were mentioned. As of Friday evening, no films had been programmed and no cinemas reopened.

Nevertheless, the news was met with an outpouring of enthusiasm on Chinese social media, with the hashtag “Cinemas Are Going to Reopen” viewed more than 340 million times on the Twitter-like social media platform Weibo by Friday night. “Finally, there’s a glimmer of hope!” wrote one enthusiastic cinephile.

China’s cabinet, the State Council, said that “cinemas, theaters, recreation halls and other enclosed entertainment and leisure venues may hold all types of necessary meetings and exhibition activities” in its list of new policy recommendations for how to “normalize prevention and control” of the deadly disease.



China should “adopt methods like appointment systems and limiting visitor numbers to open parks, tourist attractions, sports venues, libraries, museums, art galleries and other indoor venues” like cinemas, the body said in a statement dated to Thursday but issued publicly Friday evening. It also urged the country to “fully open” other types of businesses key to daily living like supermarkets, restaurants and shopping malls.

Venues should strengthen ventilation and implement daily cleaning and disinfection, it added, while members of the public should continue to wear masks in closed, crowded places and do their best to maintain social distance.

Beijing is doing its best to reboot its economy now that its coronavirus case load is more or less under control.

Cinemas have been shut since late January, despite a brief period when around 4% of them attempted to reopen.

Although restaurants, factories and offices across the country have long been operational again, cinemas and indoor entertainment venues considered less economically essential and higher risk to citizens have been singled out for prolonged closures.

In its last list of guidelines issued in mid-April, the State Council called broadly for business of all types to pick up again yet requested a “temporary ban” on enclosed leisure venues “to avoid clustering that risks spreading the virus.”

The consequences of continued closures have been devastating. At least 2,300 cinemas went bust during the first two months of the shutdown alone, research consultancy Artisan Gateway estimates. Chinese authorities estimate ticket sales will drop by more than $4.2 billion this year — nearly half last year’s $9.2 billion annual total.

On Friday, thousands of Weibo users said they were thrilled they’d soon get to see films on the big screen after a months-long hiatus, with many particularly excited about the prospect of finally catching hotly anticipated but previously postponed titles. A frequent query was: “Does this mean we get to see ‘Mulan’ soon?”

Others were more circumspect. “Even if they open, I still wouldn’t dare go yet,” one commenter said.

The top response to a poll of 19,000 people about the re-openings conducted by the online news outlet Sina Film, selected by around 37% of respondents, was that users could “hardly hold back the desire to return to cinemas.” The second most popular option, chosen by about 28% of respondents, was that they would rather “wait until good films come out, then go support” cinemas. Only 15% of participants said that they wouldn’t go even if cinemas reopened.

However, as frequent readers of Sina Film, the group polled is likely self-selecting and not very representative of the broader public.

Many echoed the sentiment of one conflicted Weibo user who posted, “I so want to go watch movies!! But I’m also pretty nervous about it.”

Disney’s Frozen has become Broadway’s first long-running casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic and industrywide shutdown. The production, which opened March 22, 2018, at the St. James Theatre, announced today that it will not return when Broadway reopens — whenever that might be.

In the closure announcement, producers said the musical will not re-open “as a result of the industry-wide shutdown and resulting economic fallout.” The production’s final performance was Wednesday March 11, having played 825 performances and 26 previews.

“In the summer of 2013 when Frozen began its road to Broadway,” said Thomas Schumacher, President & Producer Disney Theatrical Productions, “two things were unimaginable: that we’d soon have five productions worldwide, and a global pandemic would so alter the world economy that running three Disney shows on Broadway would become untenable.

Over its two-year Broadway run, Frozen, which cost close to $35M to mount, grossed more than $150M, with total attendance topping 1.3M people. (Disney does not disclose whether a show has recouped its investment, but the Frozen figures would not seem to suggest the musical had become profitable.) A North American tour is expected to resume performances at an undetermined date, while productions in Australia, the UK, Japan and Germany are scheduled to open by next year. (Producers said the Broadway costumes and scenic elements will be repurposed for future productions to reduce cost and waste.)

Based on writer-director Chris Buck’s Oscar-winning 2013 film that unleashed the Oscar-winning song “Let It Go” on the world, Broadway’s Frozen was directed by Michael Grandage and choreographed by Rob Ashford. The show was nominated for a Best Musical Tony Award, as well as for its book and score, but lost all three (the year’s Best Musical was The Band’s Visit).