By now, you might have heard about the coronavirus outbreak, a deadly strain of the disease that has affected almost a thousand people in China and killed over two dozen. Beyond the immediate illness, the coronavirus is causing another global ripple effect in an unexpected way: delaying movie releases. Variety reported China was pushing the release of seven movies including The Rescue, Jackie Chan’s Vanguard, and the much-anticipated Detective Chinatown 3.

Across the sea, Warner Bros., the U.S. distributor for Detective Chinatown 3, had plans for a specialty wide release of the blockbuster timed with Chinese New Year. However, Atom Tickets has learned that Warner Bros. intends to push Detective Chinatown 3‘s U.S. release by at least a week. This is all thanks to strict Chinese regulations that prohibit a Chinese-produced film from being released in another country before being released in mainland China. Exceptions like film festivals are sometimes permitted but must be granted government approval. It’s also designed to control the spread of rampant piracy of Chinese films feeding back to mainland China before a film’s release. If China delays a release and that delay runs past the scheduled release date of another country, the other country must push. Yay, film release politics!

Still, China has every reason to delay the release of movies during the Chinese New Year, traditionally the busiest time of year at the box office for China. The coronavirus epidemic has spread so quickly that Wuhan, China, where the outbreak started, has been put in quarantine, along with 11 other cities (up from the reported four cities yesterday). That accounts for about 33 million people on lockdown (a few cases have made their way to the U.S., too, though the CDC doesn’t think it runs the risk of spreading here). To put it into perspective, Wuhan alone has roughly 11 million people – that’s 3 million more people than New York City. So there’s currently the equivalent of four New York Cities on lockdown. Wrapping your head around those numbers, it’s understandable that China is pushing so many movie releases.

In other U.S. release news, I should note that movie showtimes and tickets for The Rescue have also been pulled from theatrical listings and movie ticketing apps, including Atom, though no official word has come from U.S. distributor CMC Pictures.

We’ll keep you updated about when these films might be releasing.

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