At the end of last year, the COVID-19 outbreak hadn’t yet become a pandemic—and, as far as we knew, the virus was contained to the continent of Asia. A lot has changed. Nearly every country in the world has been touched by the virus, there are travel restrictions at most borders and, for the imminent future, we’re all staying pretty close to home.

Although similar worries as those in the U.S. about the future of the industry amid COVID-19 had plagued Asia’s movie business at the start of the pandemic, audiences are now piling back into theaters and spurring record box-office hauls. Has the pandemic dimmed the houselights for good at American movie theaters? Stay-at-home orders, capacity limits and simple fear of the virus have kept cinema crowds away for nearly a year. So, too, have studio decisions to delay the release of anticipated blockbusters.

NEW YORK/SHANGHAI -- China is cautiously reopening movie theaters after months of lockdowns aimed at combating the coronavirus outbreak, but a full recovery from the pandemic is likely months away and the long-term damage to the film industry -- both financial and creative -- could last far longer.

As COVID-19 has spread across the globe, hundreds of governments are attempting to deal with the rapidly spreading pandemic. The first and most important factor in assessing the damage that coronavirus has caused is measured in human lives. According to the most recent accounts from the New York Times, coronavirus has sickened more than 170,400 people, with 6,619 deaths. The pandemic has spread to at least 140 countries.  

Data from S&P Global Market Intelligence and OPUSData shows that box office revenue declined in Asia for the first quarter of 2020, amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. China, one of Asia’s key markets and the world’s second largest theatrical box office market after the United States and Canada, with a box office growth rate of about 250 percent since 2012, recorded the highest year-over-year loss in box office revenue in the region with a fall of 97.4 percent in ticket sales.

While the U.S. box office continues to suffer under the heel of the pandemic, theaters on the other side of the Pacific are attracting customers in droves. In Japan, a record number of people saw movies in Imax Corp. theaters over the weekend, according to Chief Executive Officer Rich Gelfond. In China, December ticket sales at the company’s big-screen theaters jumped 28% from a year earlier, when few people had heard of the novel coronavirus.

EXCLUSIVE: Covid-19 vaccinations of casts and crews will not be mandatory on film and TV productions under the industry’s newly renegotiated return-to-work protocols, which now extend to June 30. “To mandate at this point may be premature,” a source told Deadline. “That subject has been skirted.”

Thailand has become the latest country to unveil protocols for film and TV production following the coronavirus outbreak. Developed by the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Public Health and the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration, the rules are intended to apply to inbound international productions, the local crews they work with, and to local productions.

A new survey has revealed a major mental health crisis is permeating the U.K. film and TV industry, with close to 90% of off-screen professionals experiencing mental health issues on the job – significantly worse than the general population, in which 65% struggle with mental health at work.

The recognition that long hours, freelance contracts and distressing storylines can make the film industry a challenging place to work is leading to the creation of some innovative support mechanisms.