China Orders All Movie Theaters To Close Again

The Hollywood Reporter reports:

China’s film regulators have slammed the brakes on plans to gradually reopen the country’s cinemas. Over 600 movie theaters across China were given the green light to reopen their doors over the past week, but Beijing’s Film Bureau put out a notice late Friday ordering all theaters to go back into shutdown.

No official explanation for the sudden reversal was provided. Industry insiders instantly began speculating that the government was worried about a potential second wave of coronavirus infections. The decision comes as a shock given the signals authorities had been sending as recently as a day ago.