Harry Potter series will be re-released across Chinese cinemas again, but this time as an experiment for the country’s limited release model.
Due to the state-led distribution model, limited release is yet a market exercise in mainland China when it comes to film distribution business. In the past few years, city such as Shanghai has been active in utilising special film seasons to orchestrate small releases of foreign films. The special season model has proved to be very successful and attracted a lot of attention even from cities nearby.
Earlier this year, we have also supported the 2024 edition of the British Film Masters Retrospective in the metropolis, with most screenings selling out, attracted over 1,000 audience for one single show.
China’s box-office has yet bounced back since COVID-19, and it struggles to get audience back. The Harry Potter series have therefore been picked up once again as a tickets boost for the cinemas.
China has recently announced a new policy to support limited release. This time, the Harry Potter series are only released in certain cities at certain chains of cinema rather than the whole country. This is the first time that import films are being released under this model while previously, all import films are normally released across the whole country despite not all the cinemas are willing to programme them.
We wish Harry the best of luck, charging forward to reactivate cinema goers in this still very exciting market.
Bring back the magic.
Image (c) Warner Brothers.
