China has been the first nation in the spotlight since the coronavirus spread, and the quarantine has led to a change in how films are being released there.

Last month China had been unaffected by the trend which had seen streaming services such as Netflix change the film industry by shortening cinematic release windows or skipping them completely.

This is because the nation is home to the second largest film market in the world and it generated over $8.6 billion at the box office last year.

However, the coronavirus outbreak has led to production companies being forced to skip the cinematic release process and take films straight to streaming platforms as cinemas have been closed by the government.

For example, Chinese filmmaker Xu Zheng announced last month that new film Lost in Russia would be available for free streaming from the first day of the Lunar New Year after it was dropped from cinemas alongside several other blockbuster films.

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