Why China’s Huge Theatrical Recovery Doesn’t Mean Big Business in Berlin Patrick Brzeski Exactly one year ago, Chinese film buyers were almost entirely absent from Berlin’s European Film Market as broad swaths of the world’s second-biggest economy remained in a state of total shutdown. Business in the U.S. and European industries, meanwhile, was blithely humming along as usual. Today, the situation is almost exactly reversed. Many Western film industry players will have a haunted look in their eyes as they switch on Zoom meetings to attempt to do business amid the persistent COVID-19 cinema shutdowns in their home territories. But China’s theatrical film market is agog with blockbuster good news.