Harry Potter is going to be one of the first films to hit Chinese cinemas following the closures due to the coronavirus pandemic. Warner Bros made the announcement hoping that audiences will flock back to the theatres now that coronavirus cases are at an all-time low for China.
The Harry Potter announcement came adorned with a new poster featuring Hedwig carrying Harry’s Hogwarts acceptance letter with the words “Magic is coming” as its tagline. How exciting is that?! In these gloomy times, it’s nice to see that things have improved somewhere in the world and that there is at least an attempt to begin to rebuild what once was.
As for now, an official release date has not been announced, however, a popular ticketing app, Maoyan, has put April 30 down as the date. It’s a pretty clever strategy considering May 1st is known as International Workers’ Day — a very busy weekend all around. It would be the perfect time to make this kind of move!
China: ‘Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone’ To Get 4K 3D Release After Cinemas Re-Open https://t.co/gFMVzx135p pic.twitter.com/J57uwsGFuz
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) March 19, 2020
It will be interesting to see how this plays out, considering theatres have been closed for quite some time in China. I assume patrons will be hesitant to go out regardless of the fact that theatres are trying to open up their doors, which some theatres in the far western Xinjiang region have tried to do. There have been no new confirmed cases there for a while, so it makes sense for them to give it a try.
In addition, Variety is reporting that from the capital of Beijing to the southwestern province of Yunnan, cinemas are preparing to re-open. Just this week, authorities there have authorized service and entertainment venues to resume business, and are. now just waiting on governmental approval of their “health precaution measures” so that they may open to the public.
In the coming days, it’ll be intriguing to see how this works out for the Chinese, and if patrons will indeed flock to theaters to watch Harry Potter. Whatever the case, it will take some time for things to get back to normal, especially given how deadly and how rapidly the coronavirus pandemic spread, and the fact that it still is having a major impact in other parts of the world.
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