Things have really taken a turn for the worst. Everyone’s life is changing because of the COVID-19 Virus pandemic.The virus is also making major changes to the entertainment world.
After the past several weeks of film releases getting pushed back almost by six months or more, mega movie theater chains such as AMC, Regal, and Cinemark have announced that they are temporarily closing all movie theaters in the United States. AMC Theaters is currently the largest movie theater chain in the United States with over 600 locations.
At first, AMC Theaters moved to the social distancing method for safety precautions. The theater chain placed a limited number of guests in a movie theater and spread them out. However it was just announced on Monday that AMC Theaters would be closing their doors for at least six to twelve weeks for safety measures amid the Coronavirus pandemic. AMC also thought it would be best to halt all operations in the United Kingdom as well. AMC Theaters CEO Adam Aaron said:
“We are ever so disappointed for our moviegoing guests and for our employee teams that the new CDC guidelines that Americans should not gather in groups larger than 10 people make it impossible to open our theatres,” CEO Adam Aron said in a statement.
“Still, the health and wellbeing of AMC guests and employees, and of all Americans, takes precedence above all else. We will continue to monitor this situation very closely and look forward to the day we can again delight moviegoers nationwide by reopening AMC movie theatres in accordance with guidance from the CDC and local health authorities.”
This Coronavirus pandemic has been very frightening to say the least. It’s so scary to think that movie theaters have shut down all across the nation. Usually, we as people go to the movies as a temporary escape from the dangers and stresses going on in the world, however we cannot even do that at this time. It is obviously a smart move. It’s the right move.
With AMC Theaters closing for at least 6 weeks, that is a lot of downtime for making profit. It is currently being speculated by traders, investors, and analysts that AMC Theaters will suffer a major financial loss by the time they reopen. Some analysts are even suggesting that AMC Theaters might go out of business by the time they reopen because of all the financial losses they suffered in 2019.
AMC Theaters really had no other choice. I honestly could not see them remaining open during this time. I really could not see any movie theater remaining open after the incredible downfall at the box office. Not only is the stock market crashing, but the movie box office as well is experiencing some trouble. According to Variety.Com, The box office just had its worst weekend for movie theaters in 22 years as it dropped over 60%.
It really does not come to a surprise that movie theater chains decided to halt business.
First off, people were vigilant and stayed home rather than going out to the theater, risking their chance of contracting the virus. Disney’s Pixar’s next animated film, Onward, was a major “box office bomb.”
While it is obvious that this is no sequel to The Incredibles or Toy Story, the original film was projected to make some serious cash over its opening weekend. The film went on to “disappointingly” make $39 million during its opening weekend domestically.
The animated film has so far made a total of $103 million at the worldwide box office. While that is some serious cash, it’s not quite what the movie studio was looking to make. Pixar’s previous original film, Coco, made roughly $50 million in it’s domestic opening. That’s also after the fact that the film did not have A-list celebrities such as Chris Pratt and Tom Holland.
But it is clear that the marketing for the film is not to blame or even the reviews. It is clear that it was the Coronavirus pandemic that kept movie goers and Pixar fans indoors. I am also certain that theater chains were probably spending more money paying their employees and keeping the screens running than they were making profit.
As it is, a movie theater’s income really relies on what they sell at the concession stands because film studios take a big percentage of the profits the theaters make from their films. For business and the health of the movie goers and employees, it was the right decision to cease business.
Now it is becoming very clear that it was a very smart move for movie studios to push back their release dates after seeing Onward’s performance at the global box office. However, the films will probably still make less than what they were supposed to, obviously with taking the Coronavirus pandemic out of the equation. Marvel’s Black Widow was just taken off the release schedule and will be released indefinitely. The film was set to open about a month from now on April 24, 2020.
Obviously, Disney and Marvel really had no choice in this because major movie theater chains are no longer open. This move was however very costly. Same goes for all the major movies that have been pushed back: Wonder Woman 1984, Mulan, James Bond: No Time To Die, etc. The move is costly because now all these movie studios must now rethink their marketing strategy for the films.
Will these studios have to put together new footage for trailers? Some studios such as Universal Studios are going to have to face this reality now that James Bond: No Time To Die has been pushed back until the fall. By then, the general audience will probably forget that this movie was coming out. By the fall, MGM & Universal are going to have to spend more millions of dollars on the marketing to promote the film, as it was originally going to open on April 10th in the United States.
Interestingly enough, Universal is pushing for the release of some of their other films on digital streaming rather than delaying them like they did for No Time To Die. Universal is doing this with its upcoming animated feature, Trolls World Tour.
While the Trolls sequel will simultaneously be playing on some movie theater screens, Universal is pushing for more of a digital release because of the shutdown of major movie theaters. This was such a smart move by Universal. If they pushed back the film, it would have to compete with a bunch of other movies and it would definitely generate less income.
Hopefully, other major film studios follow this route rather than delaying their films and risking how much profit they can make at the worldwide box office. It also gives people something to look forward to while they are in “quarantine”. Just last weekend, Lucasfilm released The Rise of Skywalker several days early on video on demand, as people were staying home from work or school because of the Coronavirus epidemic.
These are definitely strange times for everyone. Many of us were looking forward to the release of Black Widow and now the film has no release date. Will this affect the schedule Marvel has for the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Only time will tell.