Chinese cinemas are recovering from COVID-19's impact faster than some insiders expected, Xu Fan reports.

Filmgoers watch a movie in a cinema in Shanghai. (CHEN YUYU / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Propelled by the summer's top blockbuster, The Eight Hundred, China's movie market is seeing a robust growth in box-office takings, indicating a stable recovery in the wake of COVID-19.

As of Sept 2, over 9,600 cinemas－nearly 90 percent of the total－have opened across the country since the China Film Administration, the top sector regulator, announced domestic theaters in low-risk areas could reopen from July 20.

Although July grossed a modest box-office total of 216 million yuan (US$31.5 million), August saw sizable growth, with 53 films released, generating up to 3.4 billion yuan, according to Alibaba Pictures' movie-information-tracking app Beacon.

Director Guan Hu's war epic, The Eight Hundred, the first Asian film entirely shot on IMAX cameras, has earned more than 2 billion yuan, topping the country's box-office charts since the reopening of domestic theaters. Over 1.9 million tickets for The Eight Hundred have been sold in China's 657 IMAX theaters.

A moviegoer in Shanghai poses for a picture before entering a cinema for director Guan Hu's war epic, The Eight Hundred. (CHEN YUYU / FOR CHINA DAILY)

The latest figures from Canadian-US film-technology supplier IMAX show the Chinese blockbuster has so far earned over 100 million yuan for IMAX China.

A dark horse to take second place is fantasy-romance Love You Forever, which has brought in over 430 million yuan.

Alongside the domestic film Wild Grass and the Oscar-winning Little Women, the film has created a new box-office bonanza on Qixi Festival, the Chinese equivalent of Valentine's Day, which fell on Aug 25.

It was the highest-grossing day since Chinese theaters reopened, generating over 500 million yuan.

The week between Aug 24 and 30 brought in 1.7 billion yuan, up nearly 83 percent year-on-year. It was the first time this year that market performance exceeded the same period of 2019.

A film attendee gets her ticket from an automatic machine after booking it online. (XU CONGJUN / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Beijing-based Capital Cinema's deputy general manager Yu Chao considers The Eight Hundred, which started advanced screenings from Aug 14, a turning point to "rescue" the sluggish market, adding that the recovery has surpassed some insiders' expectations.

A coincidence helpful to the war film's popularity is that the national film authority increased theater attendance from 30 percent to 50 percent of total capacity and removed the two-hour length requirement for each screening from Aug 14, as China effectively brought the epidemic under control.

The Eight Hundred spans 147 minutes, while most recently released popular films－including the old classics Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Inception－lasted more than two hours.

Yu says audiences have become used to reserving tickets online using their names and wearing masks throughout the screenings.

But a "challenge" is that staffers often find viewers bring snacks or drinks into the theaters, which isn't allowed, Yu says.

The Capital Cinema in Beijing's Xidan receives its first customers on July 24, after theaters in the capital reopened. (NIU YUNGANG / FOR CHINA DAILY])

Song Bingmei, a manager of Nanning Minzu Cinema in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, says her theater has encountered the same situation.

"We set out boxes for customers to deposit drinks and foods. But some are reluctant to follow the guideline, since they don't want to miss a few minutes to go out for a sip of water," says Song.

"As most of the other audience members may be unhappy about those who try to take off their masks or eat during screenings, we've increased in-house patrols," she adds.

With Christopher Nolan's sci-fi thriller Tenet to come on Sept 4 and a bunch of domestic blockbusters like My People, My Homeland set for the weeklong National Day holiday, traditionally a lucrative box-office season, some industry watchers expect the domestic market will continue gaining momentum.

But some analysts are cautious. Beacon's chief researcher Yi Zongting predicts the pandemic's impact may last a year or two.

"The total number of films being produced or completed is shrinking a lot compared to the same period of last year. China needs more appealing big-budget films to draw audiences back to theaters," says Yi.

Contact the writer at xufan@chinadaily.com.cn