As China was preparing for the lunar New Year holiday in January, Steven Xiang, the chief executive of Huanxi Media, was readying what was expected to be one of the blockbuster productions of the year.
The Hong Kong-listed Chinese film-maker had received Rmb600m from distributors who planned to release feel-good comedy Lost in Russia in many of the 80,000 cinemas across the mainland on January 25, at the height of the national break, and was expecting to receive much more in ticket sales.
But just hours before the film’s planned debut Mr Xiang was forced to swiftly change tack when the authorities began implementing lockdown measures around Wuhan, the city at the heart of the outbreak and China’s seventh largest, in the face of the Covid-19 virus.