Netflix has increased its original movie releases by nearly a fifth this year, dialling up the pressure on the pandemic-stricken cinema industry.

The US streaming giant has unveiled a slate of 70 movies for 2021, marking a 17pc jump on 2020 - and the previous three years - when it released an average of 60 original films.

This year's line-up will span movies with Oscar winners Leonardo Di Caprio and Meryl Streep and action stars Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds.

Netflix will hand Monster's Ball star Halle Berry her directing debut with the release of Bruised.

Meanwhile, Hollywood mainstays Chris Hemsworth and Jennifer Garner will respectively star in Escape from Spiderhead and YES DAY.

The sight of Hollywood talent queuing up to star in or direct Netflix films only darkens the gloom over the cinema industry, which has been left paralysed by the Covid crisis.

Measures to contain the virus have brought the curtain down on many cinemas, accelerating a power shift from the silver screen to streaming services.

Netflix shot to power through big-budget dramas, but has been upping its ambition in film since winning three Oscars for Roma in 2019.

The Nasdaq-listed company said it will bring subscribers "a new movie every week" and "surprise and delight cinephiles" with films from award-winning filmmakers.

The slate from the debt-fuelled service does not include non-English films and it is also expected to make surprise movie announcements later in the year.

Disney and Netflix have been releasing original films as they battle for subscribers, while Hollywood studios have been shifting towards streaming services to cut their losses as cinemas remain off limits.

Such moves have led to the erosion of the fiercely guarded theatrical window, the time between a cinema release and the film being released on DVD or a streaming service.

Warner Bros has shrugged off age-old agreements by releasing this year's slate of 17 films to movie theatres and its subscription service HBO Max simultaneously.

Disney epic Mulan was also released directly to streaming service Disney+ in August.

Meanwhile, Universal struck a deal with the theatre chain Cinemark in November that will shorten the theatrical window from three months to 17 days.

The pressure on movie theatres forced Cineworld, the world's second-biggest cinema operator, to secure a debt lifeline worth £563m in November.

Its 127 Cineworld and Picturehouse theatres in the UK and 536 Regal ­theatres in the US have been shut since October as restrictions on social gatherings and film release delays made it too costly to keep its sites open.