At first glance, foreign movies in a foreign language that were unlikely to have ever troubled the Western box office seem of little interest to cinemagoers over here.

Even worse, the total box office from all the films released this weekend in China was $694million which is exactly one tired of the entire US box office for the whole of 2020.

Surely that sounds like depressing news, a reminder of how much has been lost?

The situation for studios and cinema owners is indeed extremely bleak at the moment but the huge amount of money spent over the past three days is excellent news for everyone, wherever they are in the world. 

What studio executives will take from these extraordinary figures is that audiences will always still want to see their favourite movies on the big screen.