Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe belatedly declared a national emergency in Japan on Thursday, sending nearly all of the country's cinemas that were still operating into shutdown.
Japan is the world's third-largest theatrical film market, and a prolonged lockdown there will be a significant contributor to the global box office crash caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Japanese law doesn't provide a mechanism for forcing business closures or preventing people from going out — Abe's declaration amounts to just a strong urging — but much of Japan's populace has already been avoiding crowded spaces like cinemas for weeks.