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.
By George Robbins
It should be no surprise to anyone at this point that there are issues cropping up involving the coronavirus where large gatherings of people are not allowed to come together. This has been a thing since the middle of March and it is unknown just how long it will end up being before people will be allowed to gather for things again. People are going against that rule now for the sake of protests, but that still doesn’t mean that there is no risk or anything of the sort. Gatherings are still incredibly dangerous, and while some businesses have been able to adapt to the new health and safety rules, there are some that simply cannot make changes due to how they are structured.
There is almost no better example for a situation that can’t be worked on properly due to the virus than an award ceremony. More specifically, something like the MTV Movie and TV awards, since they rely on viewership to make the ceremony worth anything to them. Award ceremonies themselves can still be held, but the awards would have to be announced with no one present and the awards themselves sent to the winners. Since setting something up remotely would be far too much of a hassle and would be bound to go wrong, it would make more sense just to postpone the ceremony. This wouldn’t be the first major event to be postponed and it probably won’t be the last one either.
This pandemic is a fluid situation that is constantly changing with no clear end in sight which is resulting in more major events to be postponed or cancelled entirely if they haven’t been already. The 2021 Oscars are among the events that have yet to be postponed due to the fact that they don’t take place for another 8 months, but it is seriously being considered that they should be postponed. Many concerts have already been cancelled since there is no other way to have them than to put large crowds of people in one place for a few hours and that absolutely will not be allowed. Sporting events have been completely cancelled due to the close contact involved with them, but recently the NBA has made its announcement that they would be restarting in Walt Disney World with no crowds in attendance. There is hope yet that there are ways for people to deal with not having crowds, but for some things it is just necessary.
Like all other award ceremonies for movies or television shows, the enticing part of it is the chance for people to see the winners take to the stage and give their speeches. This is still somewhat possible through the use of livestreaming, but the chances of technical difficulties happening with something on that large a scale are high. So then why take a risk when they can simply postpone the awards and hope that things will clear up enough for the awards by December of this year when they try to have them again. This is a move the broadcast company has apparently been trying to make even before the onset of the virus. There is still the chance, however, that the awards are canceled completely this year, but like everything else at this point, it is a wait and see situation.
By George Robbins
The very much anticipated sequel to the 2018 hit animated film ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2’ has been on people’s minds since the first film released. The ending of the first film suggested that we could actually end up seeing a sequel to the film, but it wasn’t decided upon until late 2019 that there would actually be one. The production for the movie would be similar to the production of the first film, so whenever it started, we knew it would take awhile to finish. So with that in mind, it would appear as though the sequel to the critically-acclaimed film has started its long production process as of now. It is still a long time off before we actually get to see a release for the film, but this is a huge step forward considering everything currently going on in the world.
With the coronavirus pandemic currently affecting the world there was no telling when the actual production would begin for the movie. Luckily, many businesses are finding ways to get back to work even if it isn’t at full capacity for a little while longer. There is a lot of work to be done if the first movie is anything to go off of and it is likely that due to the state of world affairs that there will probably be some issues that crop up during production. The first film was a visual marvel that played out like an actual comic book and it took a long time and a lot of hard work to develop the film into the masterpiece we ended up with. Hopefully we will not see any delays hit the film and eventually we will get another incredible film to watch.
The first film did something that we haven’t had the chance to see in another Spider-Man film up to that point, and that is seeing someone else be the titular web-slinger. ‘Into the Spider-Verse’ gives the role of the main character to Miles Morales who takes up the mantle in the Ultimate Spider-Man universe. The plot of the film revolves primarily around Miles as he learns what it means to be Spider-Man and he learns to reign in his powers that he had thrust on him. He isn’t alone in his adventure as he is joined by a number of Spider-People from other universes that do their best to teach him in order to save his home city. There is no telling what the plot of the second film will be, but it will be worth seeing considering how the film played out.
‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2’ will end up being a film that will no doubt have crowds of people lining up to watch it considering how well the first film did. While no where in sight, the release date for the film has been set for October 7th, 2022 and hopefully it will end up keeping that date. The first film managed to get a release set a little less than a week earlier than its original release date, but considering the difficulty involved in getting it done right now, there is no telling if the film will release on time. There is a lot going on in the world right now, and it is impressive that they are managing to work on the film at all right now. With this, we could end up seeing other films similar to it starting up production as well and when things start getting back to normal, we might just end up with a lot of content to keep us busy.
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