By George Robbins
The movie sector of the entertainment industry has been dealing with a lot these past few months, and it doesn’t seem like it will be getting any easier. Countless movies were given massive delays until their full theatrical releases due to the coronavirus pandemic. Due to the movies being delayed so heavily, movie theaters haven’t been able to have a proper reopening because they need to have new films to even attempt to properly draw audiences in. Then, the fact still remains that they have restrictions in place that sees them having to limit the occupancy of any and all theaters tremendously to maintain the social distancing policy. This has all resulted in a terrible climate for movies that are trying to release and the theaters that want to show those movies.
Although that aspect of the industry is not doing so well right now, there is still good news that we are seeing in other parts of the industry as of late. Many movies, although having to follow strict guidelines, have started their productions back up or they are in the process of doing so. Also, even though most theaters are not open, Fandango has made it easier on the general public to interact with the theaters by launching entirely new services to help people find what they are looking for. Some of these services include a locator to see what theaters are currently open nearby and also offers the ability for people to purchase contact-less tickets where no one actually has to interact with one another. Then, on top of these things is the individual news we are discovering about upcoming movies such as ‘Jurassic World 3.’
The upcoming end chapter of the ‘Jurassic World’ trilogy which is aptly named ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ sees the world after the end of the second film ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.’ For those that haven’t seen it yet, Spoilers ahead. The end of the movie sees all of the dinosaurs that were rescued from Isla Nublar- the original site of ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘Jurassic World’- being released from captivity. This has given them all free reign to run wild all over the place with no restrictions and has essentially returned dinosaurs to the world. Spoiler End: No one is quite sure how the upcoming movie will play out as no plot details have really been revealed as of yet. All we now know is that the original cast from the first ‘Jurassic Park’ trilogy will be making their return in the upcoming film.
Sam Neill, the actor who portrayed Alan Grant in the original ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘Jurassic Park 3’ will be returning to reprise his role in the upcoming film. He has since announced that not only will he be returning to his role from the films, but also Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum will be returning as their characters from the first few films as well. Not only will they be appearing in the movie as Neill also said that they will actually have major roles in the upcoming film and play those roles throughout the entirety off the film. For many fans of the original trilogy, this is very exciting as we only ended up with a cameo from Jeff Goldblum in ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ and he was never seen again throughout the rest of the film. So now, we have something to look forward to in the upcoming film and we will get to see those characters and their current roles in that universe.
By George Robbins
Movie theaters really are having the worst time right now due to the lack of new movie releases ever since restrictions have been lifted enough for theaters to reopen. Many places have started allowing theaters to reopen their doors with restrictions that limit the overall number of people that can occupy a theater at once. This stacked on top of the lack of new film releases kind of ruins any kind of incentive for people to go to the movies other than leaving the house. Even that isn’t that much of an incentive because there are other activities available to people now than going out to see old movies that they can pay just as much to rent at home. With this in mind, it is no wonder that most theaters only want to really reopen around the time there will be new releases.
Among the movie theater chains there is no guarantee nowadays as to when they can open up their locations since it seems trouble keeps brewing on the horizon. AMC was meant to reopen their theaters in the middle of July, but they have since announced that they will be pushing back the reopening date by at least two weeks. Given the fact that new films such as ‘Tenet’ and ‘Mulan’ have been pushed back due to the surge in new virus cases, they have had no reason to open up at this point in time. The moment that at least one new film becomes available for theaters to show, there will be enough incentive for theaters to properly open up. This is why it appears as though theater reopenings are chasing after film release dates.
Reportedly, studios are starting to worry over whether it is even a good idea to release movies over the course of these next two months. There are films such as ‘No Time to Die‘ that were meant to release back in April that have had their release dates pushed very far back to the last couple of months during the year. This seems to have been the better bet as the number of cases is now increasing once again which makes it kind of difficult for companies to stay open. If there is a high risk that movie theaters are just going to end up shutting down as soon as they open, then there is no point in releasing films because it wastes time and money and could ruin the overall release of a film. This is becoming more and more apparent to movie studios that know that these coming months are going to be full of tough decisions.
The danger has become so clear that even movies scheduled for September or later like ‘The Conjuring 3‘ are going to have a rough go of things. There is no telling if even those films will keep their release dates because the entire industry is in a sort of panicked state where no one really knows what is going on right now. This has caused companies like Warner and Disney to re-think their delay plans and they may just end up delaying their film releases again to September. At this point, the industry is working to figure things out on a day-to-day basis because that is the basis that people are watching the spread of the virus on. It is still very dangerous out in public and it seems like they are acknowledging that to some degree by re-thinking their release dates.
By George Robbins
As of now, it is difficult for anyone to know what will happen over the course of the next few months with almost every form of industry. There are still a lot of restrictions in place for a number of different businesses, but we should be expecting more restrictions to be put back into place. With a surge in new coronavirus cases, many places all over the nation have had no choice but to shut down. On top of many businesses having to shut down again so soon after opening back up again, many production companies have pushed back theatrical releases. This has also created ripples throughout the movie theater industry and made it difficult for them to continue business.
Movies have had it rough these past few months and it doesn’t seem like it will be getting better any time soon. Most films that were meant to release from March through the summer have been delayed to either the end of summer or some time late this year. Even films that were meant to release late this year like ‘Godzilla vs Kong’ have been delayed until some time next year. This has become a common theme as time goes on and it seems like it will continue to happen as the next couple of months go on. There may just be no stop to the delays and theaters are suffering because of it.
Movie theaters have mostly been shut down since mid-March with many theaters belonging to chains staying shut the longest. One of the biggest issues is that theaters are national and unless they all open up, they really won’t get any new movies or business in general. Theaters that have been open have had to show older movies in an effort to try and draw in as many people as they can. This is also difficult as they have to restrict the overall number of occupants to maintain the social distancing policy. They have had almost no choice when it comes to delaying their reopenings like AMC, which had to push their reopening by two weeks, so that they can chase new movie releases.
There is no guarantee that movies will keep their release dates in the coming months due to the spike in cases. As stated, even movies with late release dates this year will probably be pushed into next year. Among those movies that could end up pushed to 2021 is ‘The Conjuring 3’ which will follow the same Ed and Lorraine Warren from the previous two movies. This time they will be involved in a murder case with the same motif as the subtitle of the film, “the Devil made me do it.” As of now it is meant to have a September release, but like many of their films right now, Warner is nervous about this release date and could end up significantly delaying it until some time in 2021.
By George Robbins
Disney is now a juggernaut in the entertainment industry because over the past 20 years or so they have developed films that have captivated audiences and created a whole new market for them. Before that, however, they were having a difficult time bringing in audiences the way that they used to with the older animated films. At the time, the parks were the best source of income for the company, but they wanted to get in on the movie business even more. In order to cement a place in the box-office, they would need a live-action hit that would give them a leg to stand on for future entries. While still years off from acquiring Lucasfilms, Marvel, and even Pixar, they had to come up with something that would end up being a hit. This is how we ended up with the hit that start a successful franchise, ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’
The ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ franchise was Disney’s biggest money-maker franchise before they took over Marvel, Pixar, and Lucasfilms. It gave them a good leg to stand on when they made their push into live-action movies and paved the way for many others to come. The first three films in the franchise propelled Disney forward and gave people characters that they were highly entertained by. They needed the win at the time because most everything else they were doing was considered a failure and people didn’t find most of their content interesting, save for the year before the release of ‘Pirates’ with the movie ‘Lilo & Stitch.’ With the new forward momentum, they made their acquisitions and helped build or maintain massive franchises which created many marketing opportunities for them.
Even some parts of their parks were changed in small ways to reflect moments from the movies and even this was a well loved idea among everyday guests. The movie was a success based upon the strong story it presented and the phenomenal acting that gave us a good idea as to what the characters were really like. Johnny Depp’s depiction of Captain Jack Sparrow will remain as one of the most memorable characters to ever be in a live-action film. Thus, the next two movies were spawned from the original which told a story that followed a specific group of characters and the adventure they found themselves on. However, the fourth and fifth films took a step in the opposite direction and were not really all that well received due to what appears to be a change in the characters and what made the first films interesting.
The story of Captain Jack Sparrow was one that many believed should have ended after the third film like William Turner’s and Elizabeth Swann’s. Instead, the adventure continued and people started getting tired of the same old characters, so instead of stopping the films altogether, Disney is going to reboot the series in the sixth film. There are even two versions of the film that could end up playing out where one is a soft reboot that could possibly contain some of the same characters from the original movies and the other is a hard reboot. If they go with the hard reboot, then the movie would feature a cast of entirely new characters going on new adventures that haven’t been seen in the other films. In the end, they will more than likely go with the second one in order to completely move away from the tale of Captain Jack Sparrow as his tale has essentially ended.
By George Robbins
As of late there has been a lot of different movie news that has been poignant for many of the films currently in production. Not all of the news that we have been hearing about has been news that was well received because it revealed flaws in the movie industry that are becoming more and more apparent. Recently, there have been a lot of discussions about studio interference in the filming of a movie production and how it results in an end product that nobody wants. This has been brought up again in the wake of the announcement that the Zach Snyder Director’s Cut for the Justice League movie will be releasing on HBO Max some time next year. It was a hope of fans that this would end up happening given the proper amount of time and petitioning from the fan base.
Snyder never had the chance to make the movie the way he wanted due to the fact he had to leave the director’s chair to spend time with family following a personal tragedy. As a result, Joss Whedon took over the chair and the production as a whole which resulted in a number of reshoots that changed the movie in its entirety. The reshoots are not entirely Whedon’s fault as it has been reported that WarnerMedia executives reportedly decided that certain aspects of the movie should be changed. They wanted this as they thought that it was more in line with what the audience would respond to better. The end result was a movie that became difficult to follow and wasn’t at all what fans thought the movie would end up being.
The ‘Justice League’ movie was not the only film that was interfered with by WarnerMedia when it came to movies in the DCEU apparently. David Ayer, the director of ‘Suicide Squad’ has already said multiple times recently that the version of the movie that he ended up making was not the one he intended to make. The version of the movie that was released theatrically was, in the end, one that was reshot and redone by Warner executives that were trying to make the movie more appealing to audiences. Of all of the things Ayer wanted left alone in his version of the movie, the only thing he was able to keep in the movie was Diablo’s backstory. Ayer has since said that just like the Snyder Cut he wants to be able to put his own version of his film out there and that he has a version of it almost finished.
These types of changes are nothing new in the industry, but they can take a movie that could have been well-received and turns it into one that people dislike. They tried turning the first ‘Suicide Squad’ movie into a different version of the very successful ‘Deadpool’ movie and it failed because it just didn’t fit into the story that was being told. The tone of the film was one that didn’t feel right and confused audiences which was the exact opposite of what the executives wanted. The director of the new movie ‘The Suicide Squad,’ James Gunn, and the director of ‘Birds of Prey,’ Cathy Yan, agreed that what happened to Ayer should not have happened at all. This is why Gunn recently announced that it would be his version of the film that will end up in theaters, so lets hope that he is telling the truth and that it ends up being the movie many expected the first one to be.
By George Robbins
This upcoming month is a huge one for a number of different industries, but maybe none more-so than the entertainment industry. The movie industry is kind of at a crossroads right now because many movies have had to have their theatrical release dates pushed back even further. Beyond just that, movie theaters have had to delay their reopenings to try and chase after the movie release dates because they need the new content to actually open up. Without any new movies until the end of July, many theaters will not be opening their doors until the middle or end of July in order to save themselves a lot of hassle. Like every other business, they have restrictions limiting the number of people they can sell tickets to and on top of that, they only have older movies to show that people can just watch some other way.
The movie theater industry is in hot water right now simply due to the fact that everything else is going down the drain due to a new surge in virus cases. This new surge is one that is sweeping across the nation causing many officials to start shutting some businesses down again. This doesn’t bode well for studios that want to maximize profits by releasing theatrically because no one would be able to go out to the movies. Plus, if businesses are being shut down, it wouldn’t make sense to put movies out in theaters if they will be shut down almost immediately afterward. There is also the fear in people’s minds about what kind of damage can be done if we aren’t smarter about the way we handle things going forward. This sentiment is shared by a lot of people throughout the entertainment industry as well as government officials who have the duty to try and keep people safe.
Disney is a massive part of the entertainment industry and those same fears are starting to present themselves as time goes on and they plan the reopening of their parks. Due to the spike in cases, Governor Newsom called for more restrictions to be put in place in California which changed the plan for Disney to reopen Disneyland to a new undetermined date. Although the date for the reopening of Disneyland has not been officially decided, the date that Disney World is meant to start reopening has not changed. the Disney World parks will begin the reopening procedure on July 11th and over the course of a few days all of the Disney World parks are meant to open to the public. It seems that this has all become a cause for concern and outrage from employees that will soon have to go back to work in the parks.
With California among the states that have had the largest surge in cases recently, it is no surprise that employees at Disneyland are concerned about what will happen. There will be a Park Pass system that is meant to be put in place to limit the number of guests entering the park, but there is no guarantee that this could work as intended or that it would even be set up for Disneyland. Also, even though guests are supposed to wear masks, there is no way of policing them well enough in the park to keep them from walking around without them. This combined with the fact that Disney has no plans to test any of their employees has created a lot of anger among the workforce that must go back to work dealing with people that could endanger many people’s lives. It is no wonder so many employees are bringing these issues up before an official reopening date is decided.
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