With the current outbreak of the coronavirus in China, fear over further spreading of the contagion has forced China to close over 70,000 movie theaters in several regions.
At the same time, Hollywood's revenue in China have also taken a significant hit from the coronavirus crisis.
Several Oscar-nominated U.S. films and Hollywood movies were initially scheduled to premier in China in February. Nevertheless, with the coronavirus epidemic escalating and most of the theaters closed, the situation forced Hollywood to postpone the premieres of films including Doolittle, 1917, Jojo Rabbit, and Little Women, until the virus is no longer a public health threat.
Movies such as Marriage Story and Sonic the Hedgehog, which were scheduled to release later in February, could also miss out on the post-awards season high. In 2019, Green Book pulled an impressive $71 million in China after its Oscars wins.
With the recent news of the tremendous growth of Disney+ (NYSE: DIS) and staying power of Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), streaming services could prove to be a viable opportunity during this tough time for film distribution - though neither is available in China and it's unlikely they'd launch any time soon.
American film producers are not the only ones impacted by the enormous Chinese market's response to the coronavirus. As Chinese media reported, shares of many Chinese entertainment companies crashed when the market reopened at the beginning of this week.
In February 2019, China set a record for the most box office revenue ever generated by one country in a single month, eclipsing the $1.6 billion in ticket sales there a year earlier.
Theme parks, including the Shanghai Disney Resort, remain closed across China, as do all major film and television production facilities. Tuesday afternoon, the special administrative region of Macau, commonly referred to as China's Las Vegas, announced that all of its casinos would close for two weeks.