The Box Office has been in trouble since the middle of March and is only going to stay in trouble given the increase in movie delays. Delays started only a few days after the pandemic was announced and are still rolling out. As things are only getting worse in the country, delays are increasing in length and quantity. With delays, the Box Office is shut down with nothing to report on. Since films are releasing early on VOD, there are no delays at all for films that were already out, but almost every single film planned for the next two months has been delayed.
The more we hear about delays, the more we have to realize that the movie industry is currently drying up since, for now, there are no movies planned until June. As a saving grace, the Senate recently voted to make a financial aid package for theaters. This will protect the Box Office returns when theaters start to re-open and it will give a chance for companies to help their employees. NATO, the National Association of Theater Owners, is confident that having the backing of the Senate will ensure a strong comeback when things are back to normal.
So with movies not currently in theaters, the Box Office simply doesn’t exist, which is a first. The Box Office has never been closed for this long and movie studios haven’t all been shut down like this before. With nothing to report, and VOD numbers hard to come by, we don’t know how movies are doing now that they are released. Some people try to judge whether a film is worth watching based off those numbers. So, now that those numbers are unavailable, the sales for those movies aren’t going to be as high. We will have to wait and see to find out for sure.
There are a lot of businesses that are currently suffering as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak. Among all of the businesses that have been impacted are businesses that are a part of the entertainment industry. Theaters in particular have been affected pretty hard since they serve as a medium for entertainment purposes. Studios that give theaters copies of their films are making up for the financial damage impacting them by releasing films on video on-demand. Theaters have no such means of ensuring a steady revenue source.
The Coronavirus, or Covid-19, outbreak has forced people to practice social distancing and not being a part of gatherings. Social distancing essentially means trying to keep a fair distance away from other people outside those you interact with at home. Even people at home should try their best to limit contact and to keep themselves and everything around them disinfected. Not being a part of gatherings is just an extension of social distancing since not being in a crowd of people lowers risk of getting infected or transmitting infection to others. The two of these things resulted in entertainment industry businesses being shut down for the remainder of the outbreak.
Following the forced closure of theaters in order to keep the infection from spreading, theaters began their search for help. Theater owners and employees are in trouble because they still need to get paid in order to pay bills and make sure that theaters are ready to reopen when the time comes. This issue was put before the government so that they could try and help out theaters with some kind of bailout. The bailout would then directly help the theaters and employees so they can stay opened when they are allowed to start showing movies again.
For a time, theater owners weren’t even sure whether they would even be able to reopen post-coronavirus. Now, however, the National Association of Theater Owners, or NATO, are confident that they will be able to reopen without any trouble. The U.S. Senate managed to reach an agreement that would “provide relief to movie theaters, their employees, and so many other public-facing industries that have had to close their doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.” With this plan for aid in place, there is a massive weight lifted off of the shoulders of those in the industry.
It is already known that film studios have had to start releasing their films on video on-demand, or VOD. Many of these studios have stated that upcoming releases will be pushed back to another date. The studios that have pushed back dates for their movies include Disney. A couple of movies, like Trolls: World Tour from Universal, are going to be released directed to VOD instead of waiting for any kind of theatrical release. Disney has stated that they will not forego any premieres in theaters and they will, in fact, release films at a later date.
Although Disney has plans to push other releases back to an unspecified date for theatrical releases, they are putting the films they had in theaters out on digital. This is just the smart thing to do on Disney’s part in order to make revenue on the films. In following suit with other companies, Disney is releasing movies on VOD to both make up their losses from theaters and to make up losses on the other end of their industry. These releases are, of course, coming out much sooner than they usually would and it gives a lot of people a chance to see the movie.
The next movies up on Disney’s docket for VOD releases on March 27th are Downhill and Call of the Wild. The former tells the story of a family that managed to survive an avalanche while on a skiing trip. The resulting action of the family patriarch affects the way that the family interacts when they are rescued however, and that family’s lives are changed forever. Call of the Wild shows us the story of a dog who was transplanted to the Alaskan Yukon in the 1890’s. He has to find his way as a mail sled dog in a frontier the likes of which he never before imagined.
Obviously movies being released early on VOD is something that a lot of people may be grateful for given how long releases usually take. This is not meant to last and theaters will reopen at some point, so if people want to watch movies at home they’ll have to wait like they are used to. People keep trying to say that this should be the new norm when it comes to movie releases. That will never happen, because the point of these movies is to make money, and theatrical releases and then releases on VOD and then Blu-Ray are the most efficient way of doing so.
Aretha Franklin will go down as one of the greatest R&B artists of all time and it is surprising that we are only now getting a film. Though it is not too surprising given she only passed away in August of 2018. Movies centered around bands or musicians have gained some prominence over the past few years. Mostly, these films center on the groups or members during their formative years and then they focus on them at their highest peak and their decline. This gives the audience a clear beginning, middle, and end to a story most know nothing about.
Films which show us bands and individual musicians include Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocket Man, Straight Outta’ Compton, The Dirt, etc. These films have all done an excellent job of giving us insight into the lives of those celebrities. What made them want to be musicians, how they managed to make it big, and for some, the downfall of the group or person. This basically just explores what happened after the height of those careers, because not every musician has something horrible happen after their career peaks. Some end up going on to live great lives while the end for some may be the death of a musician. Now, in this age, it is an interesting story to tell and this gives us these movies.
Franklin was an icon who stood at the top with many people the world over and was regarded as a national treasure. All through her life, she held her head high and gave people her voice to give them courage. She helped numerous people and this was why she was chosen to receive the highest honor a U.S. civilian can, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This recognizes people as having made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors”. Her work as an artist and individual is why an autobiographical film is being made about her.
‘Respect’ is a film being made in order to tell the life story of the legendary artist Aretha Franklin, so the move is bound to tell an interesting tale. The film follows the rise of Aretha Franklin’s career from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to her international superstardom. The movie stars Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Audra McDonald, Marc Maron, Tituss Burgess, Saycon Sengbloh, Hailey Kilgore, Tate Donovan, Heather Headley, Skye Dakota Turner, and Mary J. Blige. ‘Respect’ is directed by Liesl Tommy and produced by Scott Bernstein and Harvey Mason Jr.. The movie is slated for a theatrical release on October 9th, 2020.
A film series that many thought was unlikely to ever come into existence, a G.I. Joe franchise. It isn’t all that surprising though, considering it wasn’t the only line of toys that ended up being turned into a full length feature film series. Following suit with the Transformers series of films, G.I. Joe was released to audiences everywhere. To be honest, it just ended up being a generic action film, but it was played off due to it being based off a famous line of toys. Similar to the Transformers, this gave it an air of levity that allowed it to spawn a sequel, and now a spin-off.
The story of the films follows the story that has been made up for the in-universe characters. The G.I. Joe team is forced to go up against the terrorist organization known as Cobra. All of this has been established by the Hasbro company which manufactured the original toy lines and made the films to increase sales. This ended up working out for Hasbro as, just like with Transformers, sales for that line of toys increased. So what would any company do in that scenario; they started working on a second movie.
No matter how badly a Transformer or G.I. Joe film end up being, sales for that merchandise go up. So, between ticket sales and the increase in merchandise sales, the company made out pretty well. They also decided to keep making sequels for the former and a sequel for the latter. Now, they are working on a third film for the G.I Joe series, but in the meantime they are doing a spin-off. What that means, is we are getting a film focused on this article’s titular character ‘Snake Eyes.’
For those unaware, the story of the G.I. Joe team follows a team of elite soldiers as they go toe-to-toe with Cobra. Of all G.I. Joe team members, the most enigmatic would be the ninja Snake Eyes. The movie ‘Snake Eyes’ is a spin-off which tells the origin story of the ninja and how he became a member of the team. The film stars Henry Golding, Andrew Koji, Samara Weaving, Úrsula Corberó, Iko Uwais, Takehiro Hira. It is directed by Robert Schwentke and produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Brian Goldner. As of now, it is set to release to theaters on October 23rd, 2020.
It is of absolutely no surprise that amusement parks were one of the first public places to shut down in light of the Covid-19 pandemic currently sweeping the world. No matter how large or small the amusement park is, it was shut down for health concerns. Of course this was terrible news for a number of parks due to parent companies needing the income. On top of that, a lot of people are currently out of a job due to the parks’ closing. Naturally every park that was closed wants to reopen as soon as they possibly can, but they are going to get caught up along the way.
Amusement park closures have already been stated to be one of the biggest losses of revenue that is currently afflicting the entertainment industry. Disney has already reported that the closure of their U.S. parks is costing them a total of $20 million a day. On top of the parks losing money, it has to be taken into account that the people who were working there aren’t getting paid what they normally would if the parks were open. Parks being shut down is only natural, but time hasn’t stopped for the industry and it is costing all of them.
In the middle of March, many parks announced their closure until the end of the month in order to help stop the spread of Covid-19. This was only a temporary date they had in mind though, so now it seems like the date for reopening has been pushed back another two weeks until the middle of April. Universal Orlando was set to reopen on the first of April, but due to the rapid spread of the virus, and therefore an increase in reported cases, they have changed the date to April 19th. With no one knowing what approach to take in the following weeks, it is only natural that they would end up doing this.
This pandemic is presenting a lot of different unknown scenarios that companies have to contend with moving forward. They can’t really reopen because of the rule put in place by the government in order to help flatten the curve of infection. The parks will have to continue to push back their reopening dates if this outbreak continues to expand the way it has been. Many are hoping that things can go back to normal soon, and hopefully with restrictions the way they are now, we will get to see it all go back to normal soon.
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