With China re-opening its Hubei district (where the coronavirus originated), and the country also taking further steps to contain the virus. Other moves are being made to bring back a sense of normality; one of these steps is to bring back movie theaters. China closed down most of its theaters back in January during the early days of the outbreak. According to The Hollywood Reporter, China is starting to re-open approximately 600-700 movie theaters.
“An estimated 600 to 700 Chinese movie theaters open for business,” and now to boost business, all four Avengers movies, Avatar, Inception, and Interstellar will be re-released. Hollywood Reporter explained that a source at one of China’s nationwide cinema operators told them that “whenever the DCPs reach the cinemas,” the films will be available to them. In addition to this, the article notes that the Hollywood studios re-releasing their films in China will still “receive their usual 25 percent share of sales.”
Releasing some of the biggest blockbusters of the last 10 years (and Avatar) will allow nostalgic fans to go to the theaters. As for local filmmakers according to The Hollywood Reporter:
“Over the past week, China’s Film Bureau has introduced measures to help address the bottleneck. In a deal hashed out with Chinese studios last week, state-backed distributor China Film Group said it would allow local theaters to rerelease a raft of past local blockbusters — including Wolf Warrior 2, The Wandering Earth and Wolf Totem, among others — while giving cinemas the right to keep 100 percent of ticket revenue.”
The closed down of theaters has had a strong impact in different markets such as Italy. Movies such as No Time to Die, F9, and Sonic The Hedgehog had their international release days postpone. While this news doesn’t mean that we will start seeing newer movies arrive in theaters, it is a step in the right direction. The only way for studios to see if the theater openings are worth bring the newer movies to them is all going to come down to how much revenue will be made. While 600-700 theaters is a large number, it is not enough to justify new movies trying to break even.
Recently Troll 2: World Tour was announced to release both theatrical and digitally at the same time. Black Widow stars are also campaigning for Black Widow also to be released digitally. While I am on board with movies being available for both theater and streaming at the same time, there is something magical about experiencing a movie in theaters for the first time.
The Prince of Whales has tested positive for coronavirus, Clarence House has announced. “Prince Charles, (71), is displaying mild symptoms, but otherwise remains in good health, ” a spokesman said, the Duchess of Cornwall, 72, has been tested but does not have the virus.
Prince of Wales, 71, tests positive for coronavirus and has mild symptoms "but otherwise remains in good health" https://t.co/cQWwM4rHmP
As of now Charles and Camilla are self-isolating at Balmoral.
It is essential to point out that it takes up to 14 days for symptoms of the coronavirus to manifest. According to Buckingham Palace, the Queen last saw the prince, the heir to the throne, on March, 12, but was, ‘in good health.’ The Duke of Edinburgh was not present at that meeting, and that the Queen was now, “Following all the appropriate advice with regards to her welfare.”
A Clarence House statement read: “In accordance with government and medical advice, the prince and the duchess are now self-isolating at home in Scotland. The tests were carried out by NHS is Aberdeenshire, where they met the criteria required for testing,” the statement continued, “it is not possible to ascertain from whom the prince caught the virus owing to the high number of engagements he carried out in his public role during recent weeks.”
According to reports, the Prince is following government procedures by staying in self-isolation. However, he is still active and in good spirits. As for the Queen, she is in good health and is taking all the proper steps to maintain her health. The American government has recently closed all travel between the U.S and U.K to control the outbreak of coronavirus. The number of coronavirus deaths in the U.K. stands at 427, with more than 8,000 confirmed cases of the virus.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered a “complete” lockdown of India.
Modi said the lockdown would start at midnight local time, would last for a minimum of 21 days, and would apply to all of India’s 36 states and territories.”You have seen the worldwide situations arising from the coronavirus pandemic in the news. You have also seen how the most powerful nations have become helpless in the face of this pandemic,” Modi said in a live televised address to the nation on Tuesday evening ahead of the deadline.
The order marks one of the biggest lockdowns too date, with India having the world’s second-largest population. Much like America, essential workers are still allowed to go to work. However, all shops, commercial establishments, factories, workshops, offices, markets, and places of worship will be closed, and interstate buses and metros will be suspended. Construction activity will also be on a halt during this period. As for the financial impact that this might have on their economy Modi, on Tuesday, pointed out countermeasures that are in place to prevent this. Deadlines to file tax returns have been extended by three months, charges on minimum bank balances have been waived, and no fees will be charged for using other banks’ ATMs.The threshold for invoking insolvency has been raised to $131,000 from $1,300.
On the other hand, China announced that it was lifting its lockdown on the province of Hubei, where the coronavirus pandemic began. Allowing its 60 million residents to leave, ending nearly two months of lockdown.
With America also going under lockdown, it almost feels surreal that almost the whole world is closing down. With that said, China’s lift on Hubei at least gives hope that the lockdown will soon end.
As we start our second week of social distancing, some of the funniest videos that had taken over are celebrities finding ways to pass the time. For some getting lock up at home is just buniess as usual with Late Show host Seth Meyers, and Daily Show host Trevor Noah hosting their respective TV shows from the comfort of their homes:
Jimmy Falon and Stephen Colbert also started to blog from their homes.
Other celebrities decided to have a little bit of fun with their newfound spare time. Gal Gadot surprise the internet by gathering some of her friends (Jimmy Fallon, Will Ferrell, Zoe Kravitz, Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo, Sarah Silverman, and Kristen Wiig.) to sing “Imagine,” by John Lennon on Instagram.
Not everyone is enjoying their time indoors, Tom Hanks was diagnosed with the Coronavirus while filming in Australia. Tom Hanks was the first celebrity to be reported to have the virus. Idris Elba would follow along with NBA star Kevin Durant. Tom Hanks has announced that he is feeling better, which is great news:
Despite being stuck at home it is fun to see our favorite celebrities find new ways to entertain us. While also giving us hope that everything will be fine.
With the influx of people staying home to practice social distancing, Netflix (and other streaming services) needed to make adjustments to their servers to lower the strain of having so many people watching at the same time. In order to do this, Netflix is squeezing back video bit rate to reduce the strain on bandwidth-stressed networks worldwide in Europe and the U.K as a response from the European Union who urged to degrade video quality to conserve internet bandwidth. The cutbacks started in Italy and Spain, where the networks have been hit the hardest. Ken Florance, Netflix’s VP of content delivery, wrote in a blog post:
“The action we’ve taken maintains the full range of video resolutions. So whether you paid for Ultra-High Definition (UHD), High Definition (HD), or Standard Definition (SD), that is what you should continue to get (depending on the device you are using).” To chop bandwidth utilization, Netflix for the next 30 days has “removed the highest-bandwidth streams,” i.e., those with the best quality.” Florance attempted to justify the move by writing, “if you are particularly tuned into video quality you may notice a very slight decrease in quality within each resolution,” Florance wrote. “But you will still get the video quality you paid for.”
Australia and India also saw a reduction in traffic networks by 25%. The move has gain criticism for lowering the quality but still keeping the prices the same. With the public given time to pay bills, and loans, it only makes sense for Netflix to lower costs since a significant amount of people are not going to work. Joining Netflix on the effort is Amazon, Youtube, Disney+, and Apple in response to the EE.UU request. The internet has evolved to not only be considered a luxury but a necessity of life. Without it, we are truly isolated from society, so it is imperative to keep the internet going, and if that means less than 1080p, then that is a fair sacrifice.
