With China’s film sector essentially shut down and release dates for even Hollywood tentpoles still up in the air, sellers are reluctant to commit to the Middle Kingdom:"The situation for the film industry is terrible."
of this year's market, all of them citing the inability to travel because of the coronavirus crisis that continues to paralyze broad swaths of the world's second-biggest economy.said they still planned to participate in the market from afar. "Most sellers have been very supportive in sharing their lineups with us by email and phone," said Cingy Mi Lin, CEO of distributor Infotainment China Media, at home in her apartment in Beijing.
Although new infections of the coronavirus in China have begun to slow, the country's 70,000 movie screens remain dark as health officials continue to urge the populace to stay home and avoid congregating in public places. The consensus among Beijing industry insiders is that cinemas are unlikely to reopen until May at the earliest. In the meantime, the backlog of Chinese and Hollywood tentpoles that will need to be rescheduled continues to accumulate.
Cai Gongming, one of the few influential Chinese distribution executives on the ground in Berlin, said he was only seriously considering projects in very early stages of development, because those are the titles most likely to be ready for release by the time China's market has stabilized. "The backlog is going to be very difficult to unwind and competition for release dates will be very hard," he said.
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Source: Variety - 🏆 108. / 63 Read more »