Cinema construction spree

The country had installed 41,179 screens by the end of 2016, exceeding the United States as the highest number globally.

The China Film Administration released a guideline in 2018, encouraging enterprises to accelerate cinema construction in urban areas, as well as financially encouraging theaters to update facilities with state-of-the-art technologies, ranging from installing giant screens to using laser projectors.

Before Chinese theaters were closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak on Jan 24 and reopened on July 20, nearly 70,000 screens had been installed in more than 10,000 cinemas, with most capable of screening 3D formats.

Entertainment-technology innovator IMAX has seen its giant-screen network expand from 381 in 2016 to about 670 screens at present on the Chinese mainland.

Most analysts believe China's annual theater admissions, which reached 1.7 billion in 2019, indicate the country has huge potential to draw more moviegoers if more cinemas can be constructed in central and western China.

Insiders have noticed an interesting trend among the cinema construction spree.

A single phenomenal hit can stimulate theaters to upgrade to the latest cinematic technology, with James Cameron's sci-fi epic Avatar being the most representative example. With its groundbreaking 3D and motion-capture technology, the film－released in China in January 2010－enticed people to stand in long lines to buy the limited 3D-screen tickets. This inspired the number of China's 3D screens to rise eightfold in a few months, China Business News reports.