Covid19 & Film Industry

DKM

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We all know it. Worldwide--the entertainment industry has taken a hit all because of Covid19. Having no exact figures it seems like the film industry has suffered the most with theatre closures and productions almost at a stand-still. All I can decipher is that everyone is hunkered down waiting for vaccines to work their way through the system. A good portion the population will finally be vaccinated by the middle of the year. But does that mean that movie industry will only start to come alive again at this time? To me, knowing--because so much can be done before an actual shooting starts (script reviews, finances, scouting locations—which can done safely--semi solo), that doesn’t seem like a logical way to operate.

At this time, it looks as if only anecdotal information is all one can get though, but I guess that’s better than nothing.

My immediate thoughts. Care to venture an alternative?
 

ChaseJxyz

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It's hard to say. There are TV shows that are still releasing new stuff (SVU has had multiple episodes about covid), and there's still movies that are coming out this year...albeit digitally. All the films slated to come out on HBO Max being one of them, Mulan and Soul going on Disney+ is another example. Granted I'm sure many of those films weren't filming once this all started, but there's also Michael Bay's Songbird about Covid-23 (ugh), so there are movies out there being filmed right now. Plus all those commercials being filmed about how we're all in this together!

The film industry has forced people to see new releases in physical theaters because of contracts. I think it was AMC that flipped out when Trollz World Tour was released to digital on the same day it went to physical theaters, saying that they wouldn't allow any of that studios films to be in AMC theaters for breaking the contract....but AMC also wanted to reopen and not require you to wear facemasks. They're not making the best decisions. A lot of people can't or don't want to go to theaters for many reasons (lack of closed captioning is the main reason for me) so having the freedom to watch new things at home, even if they're paying $20-30 for it, is going to draw in people who wouldn't have seen it otherwise. Trollz World Tour was a huge success; yes, Mulan not so much, but it required you to pay for Disney+ AND pay $30 BUT it was going to be on Disney+ for "free" in 2 months, anyways, so why bother? If they released it on Google Play etc it might not have failed so much, but Disney is pushing hard on Disney+ and they also expect every movie of theres to make a billion dollars, so their expectations aren't realistic.

VCRs didn't kill movie theaters, cable didn't kill movies, Netflix didn't kill movie theaters (though it did kill Blockbuster...). Disney hated VCRs when they first came out and look at how that turned out. Piracy didn't kill HBO, it pushed them to create HBO Go/Now/Max so people could watch Game of Thrones without paying $200 for cable. Giving customers more options to consume your stuff means they will consume more stuff. Forcing movie companies to release their content on digital at the same time or shortly after theaters gives more opportunity for people to see new releases. It also gives them additional options for releasing content; think of all the TV shows and movies that could never be on cable or a physical theater because it's too weird, too niche or too "much" for broadcast/wide audiences but they found big success on Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime. Digital creates new markets, it makes it easier to reach very tiny markets, and it doesn't require the investment to physically put a movie in a theater.