Caffeinated Clint
On the tail end of the Coronavirus outbreak, China are set to re-open most of their theaters- but surprisingly, they won’t re-open with the latest blockbusters.
In addition to screening a 4k copy of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”, the 600 to 700 cinemas that have reopened will be relying on past hits to put cheeks on seats.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the four “Avengers” movies, as well as James Cameron’s “Avatar” and Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” and “Interstellar” will return to theaters in a hope it’ll entice folks to take a punt on the cinema again.
The films will release “basically, whenever the DCPs reach the cinemas.”
In addition to Hollywood blockbusters, state-backed distributor China Film Group said it would allow local theaters to rerelease a raft of past local blockbusters — including “Wolf Warrior 2”, “The Wandering Earth” and “Wolf Totem”. The distrib will also let theaters keep 100 percent of tickets sold.
Hollywood isn’t letting the Chinese theaters take all the profit on tickets sold though, still requiring their 25 percent share of sales. Considering the usual is 40 to 50 percent in other markets around the world, the 25 percent isn’t so bad.
Theater owners are confident re-releasing past blockbusters is the way to go as they re-open. In 2012, a 3D rerelease of “Titanic” earned $145 million, and a couple of years later, animated classic “Spirited Away” was re-run and earned $69 million.
