After cinemas around the world are closed and a curfew is imposed, hundreds of millions of people are forced to stay at home, due to the new Corona epidemic (Covid-19) sweeping the world these days, Hollywood's filmmaking is in a very critical situation.
There is no specific date for reopening the halls, and there are no guarantees that the form of life, which has changed greatly today, will be as it was before the virus, i.e. as Hollywood wanted it to be, all filming and production operations stopped indefinitely, as summer movie shows were postponed. And fall to next year, or beyond, and here is a quick review of some of the postponed films.
Postponing the second part of «d. String ”from November 2021 to March 2022. The movie“ Spiderman ”postponed the third part from July 2021 to November of the same year. The Spiderman movie“ In the Spider Virus ”was postponed from April 2022 to October of the same year.
"Fast 9" was postponed for an entire year, and Warner Bros. released a statement regarding the postponement of Christopher Nolan's Tenet film, without specifying the duration. The second part of "Wonder Woman" postponed only two months, from June to August this year.
Knockout
In light of the closure of cinema and the postponement of all summer movies, in addition to the bankruptcy of several cinemas in the United States as a result of the current crisis, the alternative, which is home streaming services, is living an invaluable historical moment, it is the only one in the entertainment market, and it has proven that investing in it It is ideal and immune to recession.
These services, if they competed vigorously with the cinema before the viral invasion, today they won the final blow, meaning that they won the battle of content in a well-deserved manner, after they flooded the theaters with silly superhero films, and they singled out people after Corona put the cinema out of the market for an indefinite period.
How will filmmaking cope with these variables, and what will the situation be for the rest of the year of the epidemic, given the public's fear of leaving the house and applying the rules of social separation?
Given the dates of the postponed blockbuster movies above, it is clear to us that the delay period ranged from one and a half years to two and a half years from today, and this period is required, at least, to reach a vaccine for «Covid-19». I mean, if theaters remain closed throughout this period, they will be taken out of the equation immediately, and cinemas to display films cannot be used for any other purpose throughout the closing period.
If we assume that the owners of the halls put in place strict sterilization plans, as did restaurants for example, and reduce the numbers of attendance while maintaining the rules of social spacing, and selling a certain number of seats to control the numbers of entrants and exits from the halls, is this a satisfactory solution to the problem?
This is one of the suggested compromises, and it serves certain types of movies and tastes, but there are two problems: The first is that the movie market dominates Disney and blockbuster movies, such as Superhero and Animation, which are based on the overcrowding factor to generate their profits, and it already guarantees the budget of any movie of this type in On its opening day, you earn profits in the following weeks.
If the blockbuster movie - meaning it has a huge budget - is shown in galleries of limited number, it will not come with a quarter of its budget until a month after its release. As for the second problem, it is showing films of other types in the halls, such as drama and comedies, and this in particular will find it difficult to attract the audience because it has become In the "Netflix" bag, and the new players (Apple / Amazon / Holo / HP or Max), in other words, are being introduced to home platforms and do not need to go outside to view them.
Some studios resorted to selling their films on Netflix, and others put their films directly on their digital platforms, claiming that they made profits, without issuing any numbers, such as "Universal".
On the other hand, the price of the cinema ticket has become unrealistic, whether in light of the spread of "Covid-19" or not, what the masses pay to the galleries for one movie is what is paid by the "Netflix" subscriber for a full month. This means that if the crisis persists and the closure continues, many people may rethink after they have finished just leaving the house to watch a movie in the hall, when more options are available at home.
In an exceptional decision, the Hollywood Association of Foreign Correspondents, responsible for organizing the Golden Globe Awards, has removed the condition of screening of films for its award-winning films, and the films will be available for online home viewing to members, but the association has not set the date for its annual concert next year.
Festivals are in trouble
Film festivals are also in severe trouble, and it is well known in cinematic circles that festivals are among the most common places where diseases spread, due to the crowd crowding in halls and galleries. Sometimes - this is the experience of this writer - you hear a cough in a festival hall more than in the hospital waiting area.
Given the state of phobia from coughing and sneezing caused by "Covid-19", the status of the festivals was not good at all, and only the Berlin Film Festival had survived until now. As for the "Film Festival", it was postponed to July, before the French President, Emmanuel Macron, was extended. The closure until mid-July, which prompted the festival administration to postpone it indefinitely, with the organizers acknowledging that "KAN" would not be organized at the same level every year. If "Kan" were postponed to August or September, it would collide with two major festivals, "Venice" and "Toronto", and they would get lost or lost between them, and critics and the public would be confused about what to choose. And if he postponed to October, he would find "London Film" awaiting him, although the latter is not at a "Kane" level, but chaos is very possible. And if it was postponed to November or December, there would be no point in holding the next session in May 2021, that is, after only five months. The cinema stands at a crossroads, the reason for its existence financially blockbuster movies, while the content is facing fierce competition from Internet TV, and on top of it "Netflix" that won half the battle.
Some US lounges went bankrupt as soon as one month after the virus spread in the United States, and others will go bankrupt in the closing period, which if it continued throughout the year it is very possible that «Covid-19» will be the last nail in the coffin of the cinema.
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The Oscar
The American Academy of Film Sciences, the organizer of the Oscar Awards, has canceled the condition of screening for the 93rd Oscar Award, and the films will be available on the Academy’s private platform on the Internet, but the Academy stressed that this decision pertains only to this year, and has kept the date of the ceremony as it is on 28 February 2021.
Streaming services live an invaluable historical moment, as they are the only ones in the entertainment market.
Given the state of phobia from coughing and sneezing, the status of festivals is never perfect.