By George Robbins
Amusement parks have been shut down just as long as all other forms of public businesses, but will remain shut longer than most. At the start of the pandemic, one of the biggest concerns was that places with a lot more foot traffic would end up being the biggest source of infectious spread. This is how the spread of diseases, especially ones like the coronavirus, actually happens and so far places like those are reopening and creating more risk than necessary. Cases are even beginning to spike again following memorial day, and the US is currently the worst in the world in number of cases. This is why it is surprising that there is now an opening date for Disneyland in California.
California has been one of the states that has been holding out the longest in terms of reopening businesses. They have been strictly trying to keep the number of new cases from going back up, but also trying to keep up with the reopening of businesses to keep their economy from failing. This made it possible for a number of businesses to reopen their doors to the public, including theaters as of June 12th. This doesn’t change the fact that the virus is still a real threat and that it is now starting to make a strong resurgence. With that in mind, will things like amusement parks really even be able to reopen after all, or is it way too risky to open them back up amidst the chaos.
With the country full of protests at the moment, there is a dangerous amount of risk involving new cases cropping up. There is now telling how the next month or so will end up going, and we could even possibly see the pandemic ending up even worse than when it first began. If things get worse, we could only end up stuck where we are with no hope of things being better in the near future. All of the plans that have been in place to keep the infection from spreading during reopenings are going to soon become worthless. This means that businesses that have been allowed to reopen will not be able to stay opened for too much longer. The only way they were being allowed to stay opened recently was because of the drop in new cases.
Ultimately, places like Disneyland that wish to reopen within the next month may end up losing their chance to do so. The increase in positive cases could have states rescinding their original orders and people could end up in a worse off position than before. Disneyland in California has plans to reopen on July 17th to the public following guidelines similar to other parks regarding the virus. This plan for reopening their park is tenuous at best though since it will be up to the government to approve of the official plans to open up the gates to guests. So with the way things are currently going, we may just end up not seeing the park reopen anytime soon.
By George Robbins
For many years now the ‘Evil Dead‘ franchise has entertained an untold number of fans who love the blend of horror and tongue-in-cheek humor it is known for. Over the years the fanbase for the movie has managed to increase since the original movie became a sort of cult classic. Though it hasn’t been the only film of the series to gain popularity, since the other two films Sam Raimi worked on, the follow-up sequels to the original film, were equally beloved. ‘Evil Dead,’ ‘Evil Dead 2’, and ‘Army of Darkness’ are all great in their own way, even if they ended up as one giant trip down the rabbit hole. The love of these films gives the perfect opportunity for someone to make a new film for the franchise, but don’t expect Sam Raimi.
There was an attempt made in 2013 to satiate the appetites of ‘Evil Dead’ fans by giving them a remake of the original film. Directed by Fede Alvarez, the 2013 rendition of the film was, in its own right, a pretty good film, but for fans it wasn’t much of an ‘Evil Dead’ film, so to speak. The original films did something that wasn’t seen in the newest film where they brought out a pretty good blend of horror and comedy that made people fall in love with them. Now, with the announcement of an ‘Evil Dead 4’ fans are getting another opportunity to see a film that could possibly inhabit the spirit of the original films. The director that has been decided for the newest film, which has been titled ‘Evil Dead Now,’ is one Lee Cronin.
Cronin is not at all a household name when it comes to directors because this upcoming ‘Evil Dead’ film will potentially be his first big feature film theatrical release. He has had a film of his enter the spotlight on the film festival circuit which was called ‘The Hole in the Ground.’ That movie was a full length horror film, so he has some experience directing feature length horror films. While being relatively green when it comes to the release of feature length films, he has an already established universe to work with. That being said, the story for the newest film will be new and not based off the story following ‘Army of Darkness.’ Other than that, not much else is known about how the film will go down story-wise and whether it will be what fans expect.
What fans will be most disappointed by is the fact that the movie will not star Bruce Campbell and will instead star a different female protagonist. Campbell starred as the main protagonist Ash Williams in all of the original films and the TV series that continued the characters adventures. As stated by Campbell, the movies are supposed to be about ordinary people in situations beyond their control and so it is time for a new set of characters. This does, however present the perfect opportunity to put in entirely new characters to fit into a new time period because the time may have come for things to move forward. Here is to hoping that Cronin will be able to make the film that fans have been hoping for and it will scratch the itch fans have had for years at this point.
By George Robbins
Ever since the middle of March, theaters have had nothing but fun trying to figure out how to keep themselves afloat amidst closings. Without any open theaters, companies have had no way to bring in their income. This has resulted in massive losses for companies, but none perhaps have suffered as much as AMC. They are the largest of all of the movie theater company chains, but this definitely doesn’t work in their favor right now. They just made the reported announcement that they lost a total of $2.2 billion just over the past few months.
AMC theaters had not announced until recently when they would actually open up their doors to the public. The guess thus far was that they would reopen their doors when other theaters would in July. This was just confirmed by them to be true and they will actually open their doors back up to the public in July. They will have it tough moving forward due to the fact that they have a number of new health guidelines to follow which means they won’t get a lot of people walking through their doors. Not to mention the fact they have no new movies to show until mid to late July.
Many movie megaplexes have been in danger throughout this crisis, but AMC seems to be suffering especially hard due to previous success. Moving forward, they have to find a way to draw people in, and new movies are the best chance they have. New films are mostly dropping later this year and if the chain can survive by then they might have less movies than their competitors. There was a lot of drama recently between the company and Universal Films involving VOD, or Video On Demand. This resulted in them saying they would no longer show Universal movies.
With no Universal movies to show going later into the year, they might end up losing out on a lot of money. Compounded on top of the money they have already lost these past few months, they could end up losing more than they ever could have imagined this year. They will need every single person they can to walk through their doors and buy a ticket. Between limited capacity, and lack of new content, AMC’s reopening will be the start of a tough battle. From July to the end of the year, they have a lot of work to get done if they want to prevent bankruptcy.
By George Robbins
The coronavirus pandemic being announced immediately resulted in the shutdown of numerous businesses that had a lot of foot traffic. Movie theaters were obviously a huge danger in the wake of the virus due to the close proximity most people would have with one another. This is why many shut down before the announcement was even made to help stop the spread of the virus. AMC theaters are a massive part of the theater economy due to the sheer number of theaters they have worldwide. It has been on people’s mind just how much they could possibly be losing due to the closings with AMC previously stating it is a lot.
While the amount was never addressed before now, AMC has made statements about how much trouble they were in financially due to being closed. Hope has shined down on them in at least some small form recently due to the fact most states are allowing theaters to reopen. This doesn’t change the fact that they have already had a massive loss hit them by not being opened for the past three months. It was just reported that those losses ended up amounting to somewhere in the vicinity of $2.2 billion. So within the past three months, they managed to lose that much money from simply being closed.
While theaters are going to be opening back up again soon, they have a long and arduous road ahead of them due to studios not having anything for them. Most movies will not be released until later in the year plus there is the issue that many people don’t want to take the risk going out to a public place. There is the hope that people will want to go out to the movies just to leave the house even if older movies are all they have to show anyone. On top of the lack of new content to present to audiences, they are going to have their hands full due to the new health guidelines they must follow to stay open. This all adds up to theaters potentially losing even more in the coming months.
While there is the strong possibility that theaters will be slightly better off in the months coming up, they could still lose more than they gain. Keeping theaters staffed and maintained isn’t cheap and it means that theaters need to try and fill their currently limited capacity. The next month or so will be telling for whether theaters will end up having a leg to stand on. What makes the biggest difference right now is how theaters like AMC will handle their reopenings and try to mitigate losses that they will suffer moving forward. Hopefully that $2.2 billion will not double over the next few months, but like everything else right now, that remains to be seen.
By George Robbins
Jason Blum, the eponymous head of Blumhouse Productions, has become someone that is now known throughout the movie industry. His productions have defined the modern era of horror films and most have been relatively successful. They find success in the fact that they are produced with low-budgets, but very well done camera work which results in movies that can do bad theatrically and still not really lose much. The stories for the films have even been mostly original and provide entertainment to the audience even if they are not great films overall. This has resulted in many people becoming interested in whatever Blumhouse decides to work on next.
If a horror movie comes out nowadays and the plot seems like it is a strange horror movie, then more than likely it is because it is a Blumhouse production. That company has managed to become wildly successful due to the massive box office gross made in comparison to the budgets the films are made on. This has resulted in numerous sequels being born from their films that do almost as well or even better than the original film. Not many studios can say that they have succeeded the same way that Blumhouse has considering the sheer number of films they have put out in just the past few years alone.
Blum has announced that within his scope of upcoming projects, ‘Happy Death Day 3’ is one that he will be trying very hard to make happen. The original film, ‘Happy Death Day‘ is a black-comedy slasher film that sees a young woman reliving the day she was murdered over and over again while she tries to uncover just who it is killing her and how to stop them. In the follow-up sequel, that same girl finds herself in yet another timeloop caused by her death and must repeat what she did before in order to stop her new killer yet again. It seems as though this cycle of death is just never meant to end since Blum wants to make yet another sequel to make it a trilogy.
Fans have been wondering just when another movie would come out for the franchise since there was really no word on whether there would be another sequel. Blum has given hope by saying that despite the second film not performing as well as the first in the box office, a third film is less likely but not impossible. He has all of the power necessary to make a third film for the franchise, it is just a matter of whether it will be worth making in the near future. With everything going on in the world right now, this movie would be one of the last things on the list they would pay attention to. This doesn’t mean that it’s off of his radar though, so we could end up seeing the film released at some point down the road.
By George Robbins
Movie theaters have had some of the worst luck with the Covid-19 pandemic due to being shut down with absolutely no way of earning income. Theaters were among the first businesses to shut down when the pandemic hit back in the middle of March and are now on the verge of financial ruin. With the beginning of the pandemic came the closing of every business where people would gather for entertainment purposes. This is how we ended up with a long laundry list of films that now have new release dates and companies like AMC who are about to declare bankruptcy after only a few months of being shut down. Hope has come back to those companies in some way shape or form by way of new health guidelines allowing for the reopening of some businesses.
All over the United States, there are businesses which are still shut down due to individual state laws that dictate which ones can reopen and when. Many states are allowing businesses to reopen in phases where the ones most at risk for spreading disease are allowed to open last. This was believed to mean that theaters would not be allowed to reopen in states like California until much later due to being in a much later phase. It seems that due to the new guidelines being in place, Governor Newsom will allow theaters to open on June 12th, but only if they adhere to those guidelines perfectly. Saving businesses from failing is what they are currently focusing on, but it is more important that they keep the virus from making a comeback.
Even with the reopening of theaters, they are going to be having an uphill battle due to the fact they have nothing to show to the public. With all movies that were supposed to come out getting pushed back or released straight to digital, theaters have their work cut out for them. There isn’t anything new to draw the public in and without that, they can’t show anything but old content. This presents the biggest problem for all theaters which is the fact that they will simply not get enough customers walking through the doors to keep them afloat. As of now there are only a few new movies that are going to release over the next month and a half. Included on that current list is ‘Tenet,’ ‘Mulan,’ and ‘Unhinged.’
Among the movies that are coming out, it is unknown if ‘Tenet’ will even end up keeping its July release date at all. To make it all the more difficult for theaters, they must adhere to guidelines including limited theater capacity of 25 percent or no more than 100 attendees, face masks are to be worn by patrons when entering and exiting, and changing seating to maintain physical distance between audience members of different households. With all of these challenges in place, on top of not having any new content to show, they are relying on a dedicated crowd to help bring in revenue. Without it, there is a good chance many theaters could end up shutting down permanently.
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