Cinemas start to reopen in Japan, showing Hollywood classics like The Wizard of Oz and Ben Hur

East of Eden, Bonnie and Clyde and The Towering Inferno will also screen in select cinemas across the country, as lockdown restrictions ease

Cinemas across Japan have begun to reopen, after being closed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Without any new blockbuster releases, however, cinemas are resorting to screening old Hollywood classics to draw in crowds.

Sword-and-sandal flick Ben Hur and musical fantasy The Wizard of Oz are among the films returning to cinemas.

East of Eden, Bonnie and Clyde and The Towering Inferno will also screen in select cinemas across the country.

Japanese cinema chain Toho Cinemas has reopened 10 of its 66 theatres in areas that have been judged to be low coronavirus risk.

Another 23 Toho cinemas will also reopen on Friday, in prefectures where the state of emergency has been lifted by the government.

Cinemas in Tokyo and some of the other worst-affected cities currently remain closed.​

UK cinema chiefs have claimed that they hope for domestic screens to open around mid-July, in time for the planned premiere of Christopher Nolan’s high-budget sci-fi film Tenet.