Big Screen Return

China’s film industry begins the slow path to recovery as moviegoers head back

- Hu Fan

Zou Menglei felt a great relief when the release date for her company’s big-budget disaster film The Rescue was finally set for December 18, 2020. The film was originally intended for screening in January 2020 and had to be rescheduled due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

Zou is an accountant at Bona Film, a leading film producer and cinema operator in China. The company experienced a difficult time when cinemas across the country were shut down as a measure to control the epidemic. For over half a year, Zou and her colleagues at Bona, who had their salaries and work hours reduced, spent all that time worrying about when the big screens would ever light up again and if they would still have jobs.

The Rescue, directed by Hong Kong director Dante Lam, tells the story of a Chinese Coast Guard rescue unit that must put aside their personal differences to sort out a crisis situation. Zou was optimistic about its box-office prospects, considering the fact that viewers were returning to cinemas.

Big box-office revenue was raked during the eight-day National Day holiday starting on October 1, 2020. The total takings of about 3.7 billion yuan ($565 million) represented the second-highest figure for the period since comparable records began, only behind 2019’s 5 billion yuan ($764 million). However, overall takings for 2020 were about 70 percent down from that of 2019 when it was 64.3 billion yuan ($9.2 billion) .

Hard-earned recovery