China’s Cinema Halls Open to Audiences After Six Months Since the Coronavirus Outbreak

Workers were disinfecting and polishing at theaters in Beijing, which on Sunday downgraded its emergency response level after seeing no new cases of local infection in 14 days.

Conferences, exhibitions, sports events, performances and cinemas are expected to reopen gradually after passing risk appraisals and with “necessary prevention measures,” Chen Bei, the city government deputy secretary-general, told reporters.

Chinese are enthusiastic movie goers and the country was expected to surpass the U.S. this year as the world’s biggest box office before the pandemic hit.

The cinema re-openings come as China is relaxing many restrictions while maintaining mask wearing, temperature checks and social distancing. A cluster of cases in the far western region of Xinjiang is China’s only current outbreak of domestic infections, and mandatory two-week quarantines remain in effect for Chinese arriving from abroad to guard against imported cases.