Director Judd Apatow is known for his somewhat true to life comedy/drama films depicting possible real life events. What I mean by possible real life events is that the events portrayed in the films are events that could actually happen to people in everyday life. While the films have more exaggerated comedic storytelling, they also show what could actually be real comedic moments in life. Apatow has done an excellent job at portraying comedic realities over the years with films such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and This Is 40. Now he is working to make another film reality.
Also working on the film with Apatow is stand-up comedian Pete Davidson. Davidson is mostly known for his work on Saturday Night Live, or SNL, as well as his appearances on MTV. On MTV he has appeared on shows such as Guy Code, Wild n’ Out, and Failosophy. He has appeared to perform stand-up on shows like Adam DeVine’s House Party, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and Comedy Underground with Dave Attell. Now he is working with Apatow to make a semi-autobiographical film about his own life.
‘The King of Staten Island’ is a semi-autobiographical film which tells the story of the early life of comedian Pete Davidson. The film also includes the loss of his father in the 9/11 attacks and getting into the world of stand-up comedy. The premise of the film follows main character Scott, played by Davidson, as he tries to find his way in life having not truly grown up after his father’s death when he was seven. Normally he spends all day smoking weed, hanging out with his friends, and hooking up with his best friend. This changes when his mother starts dating a loudmouth firefighter and this forces him to try and move past his trauma to move forward in life.
‘The King of Staten Island’ was directed and written by Judd Apatow, and also written by Pete Davidson and Dave Sirus. The movie stars Pete Davidson, Marisa Tomei, Bill Burr, Bel Powley, Maude Apatow, and Steve Buscemi. The movies is being distributed to the general public by Universal Pictures. While the movie is slated to be released on June 19th of this year, it is still unknown whether this will hold up due to the current Covid-19 pandemic.
Besides films releasing on digital, there are films that are being delayed for their theatrical release. While the films being released on digital are losing out on revenue because they aren’t premiering theatrically, they are still being released to the public. The films that are being delayed are causing all sorts of calendar issues. ‘F9’ was one of the few films that got lucky and managed to fill itself into a new spot the same way ‘No Time to Die’ did. Disney is one of the companies affected the strongest by these issues and is resulting in countless scheduling issues.
Where the problems stem from is the fact that movies are given time slots for their releases. Taking the films from those slots means that they now need new release slots to be put into. No one knows how long this pandemic will last for, but for now there are still movies that have set release dates. Those films have not been bumped from their spots and it saves those companies a lot of headaches. As of now, Disney is getting the brunt of these headaches which stems mostly from them owning so many subsidiaries.
Their delays are creating issues for the rest of the 2020 calendar year and are even starting to affect the 2021 calendar. By moving film release slots around, there are compromises that must be made so the films can be released. This ends up moving other films around or just pushes back films entirely. They have to try and make sure that they don’t undercut other companies while ensuring their own releases don’t get ruined.
What we end up with, in the end, is a nightmare for companies that could completely change the way movies are released for years to come. So if there is any film that people are looking forward to, they may not get to see it for awhile. With films having to be released at later dates, they could end up selling poorly by comparison. Dates are strategically chosen in order to maximize the amount of money that they will end up making from its release. So now, companies will have to work hard after the pandemic to come up with proper release dates.
There are plenty of films that are currently being affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. One of the films that has been affected the hardest by the outbreak is the ‘Trolls World Tour’ film. Of the films that have been announced to be released to digital, ‘Trolls World Tour’ was a surprising addition. The film has not yet released, but it is set to be released on streaming services.
‘Trolls World Tour’ was slated for a release to theaters like any other movie, until the Covid-19 pandemic changed those plans. While not the only film that will instead be released to digital, it is the first to have been slated for digital before its theatrical release. This decision was not an easy one to have been made by Universal since this forces them to lose out on revenue in the long run. This plan of theirs has gone on to become slightly controversial in the industry now because of how the public are seeing it.
‘Trolls World Tour’ is a continuation of the original ‘Trolls’ film that sees the main characters traveling their world to stop evil trolls from taking over. The film stars a musical ensemble cast of Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, James Corden, Kunal Nayyar, Rachel Bloom, Anderson Paak, George Clinton, Mary J. Blige, Kenan Thompson, Kelly Clarkson, Gustavo Dudamel, Sam Rockwell, Walt Dohrn, Icona Pop, Ester Dean, Anthony Ramos, Ron Funches, Jamie Dornan, Charlyne Yi, Karan Soni, J Balvin, Red Velvet, and Kevin Michael Richardson. The film was directed by Walt Dohrn with co-direction by David P. Smith, produced by Gina Shay, and written by Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger, Elizabeth Tippet, Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky, from a story by Aibel and Berger. It will be available for digital release on April 10th, 2020.
‘West Side Story’ is a classic musical production which has seen countless time on stages over the years. It was so popular in fact that it spawned a musical film of the same name. That film would go on to win ten of the eleven academy awards that it was nominated for. The original production is widely regarded as one of the greatest Broadway musicals of all time. ‘West Side Story’ single-handedly changed American musical theater after its release.
The ‘West Side Story’ Broadway production was conceived, directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, produced by Robert E. Griffith and Harold Prince, and it marked Sondheim’s Broadway debut. The Broadway production of the film ran for a total of 732 performances before it went on tour. It was then nominated, in 1957, for six different Tony awards in which it won a couple of them. This musical became what would essentially become a standard in the industry fro years to come and gave us a lot of excellent performances.
For those unaware, the musical is based off the story of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ by William Shakespeare. It tells the story of young protagonist Tony falling in love with Maria in the Upper West Side neighborhood in New York. Tony used to be a member of the Jets, a white gang, and Maria is the sister of Bernardo, the leader of the Jets’ rivals, the Sharks which is a Puerto Rican gang. With its dark themes, well-written music, and extended dance numbers, the musical became an iconic part of Broadway. The film adaptation follows the story of the musical closely, to the point that it will always remain a classic.
Even in the year 2020, ‘West Side Story’ remains a film that should be shared across generations, and we will get to see a modern adaptation of the film. The new release of the film is directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg, with a screenplay by Tony Kushner. The movie stars Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, Corey Stoll, Brian d’Arcy James, Rita Moreno, Mike Faist, and Curtiss Cook. The screenplay for the film is expected to adhere more closely to the Broadway script than the 1961 film adaptation. ‘West Side Story is expected to release on December 18th, 2020.
Following the Covid-19 outbreak, there are a number of things happening that we have yet to experience in this generation. Studios are not reporting sales for any tickets to see their movies. This isn’t really all that surprising, however, since theaters have shut down with the exception of small privately functioning ones including drive-ins. With that in mind, companies haven’t even deemed it necessary to report ticket sales as it is entirely negligible. This is the first time that the Box Office reports haven’t been released solely due to the fact there were none.
The last time their was a lull in Box Office reports was in 1994 when an earthquake hit Northridge in California. An analyst at the time, Paul Dergarabedian, had to sneak into the offices just to release the reports to the press. Unlike that time, the reason as to why there are no reports is because there is no information to release. There is absolutely nothing that can be sent out to the press at this time that will give a report on ticket sales.
This just goes to show that we are in a time that is slightly unprecedented in history. There have been pandemics before, but not in this modern age which is shutting down everything. In an age where everyone is more connected, it is easier to see the affect that it is having on the world, especially the entertainment industry. The Box Office not having anything to report is just the beginning of a series of issues that will continue to pop up down the line.
For the general public, the way that it goes when a film releases is that a person will go to the movies then they will wait for a movie to release on digital or DVD. With the Covid-19 pandemic currently keeping people from going to the movies, this process becomes much more difficult. While we almost certainly won’t see movies that haven’t released to cinemas come out to the public, it is a possibility that movies in cinemas will release early. If movies haven’t made it to theaters yet, they can be released later as ordinary cinema releases, but the same can’t be said for films that were already in cinemas.
Due to just horrible timing and bad luck, many films don’t have much of a choice as to what can be done with them. The films have started their theatrical releases, so trying to reschedule them simply would not work out with full release plans and could result in even more money lost. With that in mind, studios are just releasing the films onto on-demand services so that they don’t lose out on even more money than they already are. Some people think that this will change the industry as a whole, but it really won’t, and it is just to keep some movies from completely flopping.
Companies, as already stated, are making the move to allow currently playing movies to become available to the general public on digital on-demand. Universal made the move to allow films like The Invisible Man, Emma, and The Hunt to be made available starting Friday March, 20th. Following, in suit, is Sony who plans to make Vin Diesel’s Bloodshot available digitally on March 24th after it had an eleven day run in the cinemas. Also planned for digital release on March 24th is Birds of Prey, a decision that had been made by Warner Bros. with the pandemic in effect.
Theaters being closed is just one of the massive impacts that are currently affecting the entertainment industry. There closing is up there as one of thee worst aspects of the pandemic in the industry and I would say it is included as part of the production process. With these processes ground to a halt, jobs have been lost or they are in danger and these companies doing what they are could be seen as a way of curbing the financial impact at least a little. This will also make it possible for people who are stuck at home to be able to watch the films, stay occupied, and support the films they had planned on seeing from the start.
To be honest, there is no telling what will happen in the industry post-virus, but with the actions that we are seeing now, many are confident in recovery. Those in the film industry have stated that they believe it is possible to make a recovery when everything is said and done. The best way to tell whether there is a strong recovery or not is how well theaters do when it is all over. Ticket sales for the year were already at a twenty year low before the outbreak started, so things aren’t all that great for them. Hopefully theaters will be capable of bouncing back and it won’t be too long before they are able to reopen to the public.
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