The Box Office Will Take Time To Recover When It Re-Opens
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.