A scene from  Interstellar. [Photo/Mtime]

Encouraging signs 

After months-long closures meant to contain the COVID-19 epidemic, movie theaters were greenlighted to reopen from July 20 in parts of China deemed to be low-risk areas, with strict coronavirus containment measures being implemented.

The measures include a 30-percent limit on the number of people attending each show, with audience members who are strangers sitting at least one meter apart.

Most films screened to date have been re-releases or small-scale domestic and international titles, but the weekly box-office sales have posted robust growth.

Chinese mainland box-office revenue for the seven days from July 27 to Aug. 2 totaled 197 million yuan ($28 million), up 79 percent compared with the previous week, according to figures compiled by China Film News.

Theaters saw 6.9 million moviegoers during the same period, up 65 percent week-on-week.

Among the re-releases was Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. A re-run of the 2014 film from Sunday has generated box-office revenue of more than 50 million yuan as of Friday, bringing its total Chinese mainland box office worth of 800 million yuan, according to Maoyan, a movie-ticketing platform.

The total sales figure for the two weeks starting July 20 was 330 million yuan, a low number compared with last year's annual total of more than 64 billion yuan. However, given the attendance cap in place to contain COVID-19, the figures for the first two weeks are encouraging and suggest growing enthusiasm among Chinese moviegoers, according to Ming Zhenjiang, head of the China Film Producers' Association.