Box Office: Cardboard Mini-Theater the Perfect Cinema During Real-Life Shutdown

A cardboard mini-theatre was a box-office hit for Qingdao resident, Qiu Jie, who recorded timelapse video of the replica’s creation during a coronavirus-driven shutdown.

This video shows Qiu cutting through a pack of cardboard and meticulously adapting the material into a mini-cinema with six rows of seats. He even added a moving figure to imitate a late-arriving audience member in the elaborated creation.

Qiu used an electronic device as the cinema screen, and the video goes on to show the craftsman enjoying a box of popcorn and a cup of Coke after the film starts.

“I haven’t gone to the cinema for a while. I missed the couples snugging on their seats and popcorn in the cinema. So I made one myself,” he wrote in the caption for the video.

Though the government of Qingdao, in Shandong Province, eased restrictions on cinemas on March 16, local media reported that none had reopened by March 23 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: Qiu Jie via Storyful