Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday night local time ordered all cinemas, pubs, restaurants, casinos, places of worship and health clubs to close from midday on Monday.
However, schools will remain open as Australia practices safety guidelines in a global coronavirus climate.
Several movie theaters around the world have been closed, including Europe, the Middle East, India, and the US/Canada. Disney, which has had Pixar’s Onward as its No. 1 movie worldwide for the past two weeks, announced it would not report global numbers for some time due to the shutdown of global movie infrastructure. Other studios also made plans to bring their current theatrical titles into homes as soon as possible.
Australia has an estimated 1,314 confirmed coronavirus cases, with nearly half of them in Sydney and New South Wales, home to much of the country’s film industry. Variety, which broke the news, said Australia’s Palace cinema chain closed last week, but other regional circuits such as Hoyts, Dendy and Event remained open but exercised cap levels on seating capacity. With major studios cutting back on releases over the next two months, Village Roadshow’s The Current War was the only notable title released in Australia over the weekend.
However, while movie theaters around the world are closed due to the spread of the new coronavirus, China, which is on the road to recovery, could reopen movie theaters as early as next weekend.
Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson are currently in Australia’s Gold Coast recovering from the coronavirus. Hanks was there, too, as production was scheduled to begin at Warner Bros. Hanks will play the legendary singer’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, in the Elvis Presley movie directed by Baz Luhrmann. Hanks and Wilson were recently released from the hospital and are self-isolating in their basement home. Meanwhile, Warner’s Elvis Presley films are on indefinite hiatus due to the coronavirus situation.
