The film industry is poised to shake off 2020 and the world-shaking pandemic that has fundamentally changed the way films are made, distributed and enjoyed. But before the box office can roar alive again, there are still major issues Hollywood is grappling with, involving everything from film-full-balance balances to the evolution of studios’ comic book universes.
Here are five big questions the film industry faces as it looks like the page should become a page annus horribilis.
Can movie theaters remain solvable?
AMC, Cineworld and, to a lesser extent, Cinemark, have in recent years piled up the blame when they acquired competitors and tore up theaters to replace old seats with luxury couches. This left them with a smaller rainy day fund when the avalanche of the accident that was the coronavirus hit last year. AMC has already warned investors that it will need an additional $ 750 million not to file for bankruptcy this year, while Cineworld, which owns Regal Cinemas in the US, is shutting down locations in Europe and North America as a way to ward off insolvency. Smaller theaters that are independently owned and that are not publicly traded are also closed, although they can get federal help from Save Our Stages, which will not qualify the big chains. With the deployment of the vaccine so far slower than expected, can movie theaters keep going until the movie comes back? The smart thing is that at least one of these chains will find themselves in Chapter 11 unless the situation starts to improve quickly.
Is China still going to be a big source of cash?
In a twist straight to a Hollywood movie, China picked up a revival in mid-summer without any help from Tinseltown. To be sure, “Mulan”, “Tenet” and “Wonder Woman 1984” all starred in Chinese movie theaters, but local titles such as war epic “The Eight Hundred”, an animated film “Jiang Ziya: The Legend of Deification” and the patriotic anthology “My People, My Homeland” caused ticket sales to rise sharply, raising the country’s revenue above that of North America for the first time in history. (It is, of course, difficult to compare the two markets directly, as the US has not yet controlled coronavirus, which is stifling a national return to film traffic). However, the question of whether China will maintain its cash dominance in 2021 still persists. If you haven’t watched the news yet, tensions between America and China are at an all-time high, which could mean that Hollywood rates are not so passionately embraced by the public in the People’s Republic.
Will there be a summer movie season?
There is nothing to know about when movies are going to become normal, or what ‘normal’ means even in a post-pandemic world. Currently, only 35% of North American movie theaters are open and ticket sales have hovered at a low point. This brings the future of the summer movie season, the stretch between Memorial Day and Labor Day, which usually endangers 40% of the annual box office. Normally, new blockbusters debut almost every weekend of the summer. But given the ever-liquid release calendar, it’s unclear if the first summer premiere dates are – including ‘F9’ on May 28, ‘Ghostbusters: The Hereafter’ on June 11, ‘Top Gun Maverick’ on July 2 or ‘Shang -Chi and the legend of the ten rings ”on July 9 – will hold on. Studios may need to spread the wealth throughout the year in months removed from popcorn season, to avoid a congestion, as customers feel comfortable returning to theaters.
Will coronavirus change the types of movies that are popular?
Big blockbusters and franchise titles are largely the cause of Hollywood – it will not change any time soon. Yet the finances of producing a $ 200 million film (like potential blockbusters such as ‘No Time to Die’, ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ and ‘Black Widow’ regularly) do not exactly add up to traditional studios the big screen in favor of streaming services or digital rental platforms. In addition to time-tested superhero adventures and animated family planes, it remains to be seen what types of movies will be in high demand. Will people be hungry for feel-good movies? Will story lines induced by coronavirus, and with it, the mere sight of characters wearing masks and taking social distance, throw people back into an existential backstory? Possible!
Will moviegoers embrace the comic book multiverse?
Rivals Marvel Studios and DC Films both rely heavily on multiverses, the geeky concept of a constellation of parallel fictional worlds that still occasionally cross. It’s a story-complex gamble, introduced to the mainstream in Sony’s animated “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and in such upcoming live-action films as “Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” The Flash ”, and the next Spider-Man sequel, as well as streaming programs on Disney Plus and HBO Max. But working in Hall H of Comic Con does not always play with John and Jane Q. Public, and after months of put in relative isolation, they might have been looking more for escape than for thought-provoking storylines, and Marvel, which looks like a new phase after the Iron Man phase, proved with Ant-Man and the Guardians of the Galaxy that it can make blockbusters of lesser-known characters.But DC has struggled to achieve some consistency with its film production.Most moviegoers are ready to venture into the multiverse, or would they rather see Batman defeat the Joker again?