Film Industry Post-Pandemic

On January 10, 2019, WHO (World Health Organization) announces the outbreak of a new virus in Wuhan, China. In the beginning, the world was not worried about how strong and fast this new virus will spread. COVID-19 spread so rapidly that there was no plan of action for many of the underdeveloped countries in Asia or the Middle East. On March 15, 2020, the world is in panic, and the United States shuts down all imports, exports, incoming flights, jobs in certain cities and only the most needed (“Essential”) jobs are allowed to continue.

The world stood still for a few months. Many industries survived due to their nature, and some thrived in this environment like the cyber security industry which allowed almost all its workers to work from the comfort of their homes. But many industries could not continue due to the necessity of gathering people in one place. One of these industries is the Film Industry. As Adam Epstein, an entertainment reporter for Quartz, takes an analysis from the Hollywood reporter news, “Analysts estimate the virus has already cost the global office as much as $5 billion.” Now, in November of 2022, the film industry looks like it has gained its pace back and has continued to produce and give jobs to its workers around the world. How did the Film industry survive this pandemic? By changing its structure of work and detailed processes of filming.

The original response to the COVID pandemic was complete panic. Many theater chains did not know what to do. Understandably, it was the first time anyone had faced something like this. People could not go out in certain states or countries or even go to work. Since going to work is one of the most essential things for survival, the entertainment industry or film industry was the last thing that customers wanted to have back. It was a big problem that the leaders of the industry had to solve.

Since watching a movie in movie theaters is a public activity, it had to be restricted. At the beginning of the pandemic, there was no way for the theaters to create an environment where every time a movie was shown they could come in a sanitize the environment while meeting the sanitation standards imposed by the CDC (Centers of Disease Control and Prevention). Many companies like AMC, Regal, Cinemark, Cineplex, and many others had to close or file for Bankruptcy. Parker Chojnowski, a teacher at Florida State University, said “Movie theaters have arguably been hit the hardest, and several major chains such as Cinemex have been forced to close down permanently.” Cinemex went out of business in 2021 due to its inability to adapt to the pandemic.

“Even AMC, the largest chain in America, may be forced to file for bankruptcy” At the time this was written, it seemed the AMC could potentially file for bankruptcy. One of the things that AMC, the largest theater chain in America, did was create another service called “Private Theater Rental” where you and your family and/or friends could rent an auditorium for yourself and watch a movie of your choice. Many other theaters, after seeing the success that AMC had with this idea, followed it. AMC had to run on a deficit for a long time until everything was sorted out. Adam Aron, CEO of AMC, said in a phone interview with Dan Bigman, “We went from having $450 million a month of revenue to $450,000 a month of revenue in one week. In a week. We had $600 million of cash on hand. But all of a sudden, when you’re burning $125 million in cash a month, $600 million doesn’t last you very long.”

Adam Aron also commented that to reduce the expenses of the company, AMC had to temporarily fire about 35,000 employees worldwide; something that no one in the company had considered before until the pandemic. On top of firing all those people, the corporate office also had difficulties of its own. Adam Aron states “We let people draw down vacation balances at full pay and draw down sick pay. But I told you, we went to zero pay status for 97% of our staff. I’d say about 50 to 100 of our staff were on 80% time and 80% pay and maybe another 100, 200 people were on 40% time at 40% pay.”This style of work continued for quite some time until everything could be settled down.

Many movie theaters like AMC also made it possible to allow customers to sit within a 6 feet social distance from each other while watching a movie. Surprisingly enough, most of the revenue that allowed these chains to survive the pandemic came from underdeveloped countries that did not comply with the mandates of the WHO.

In direct correlation to the theaters, Hollywood had to stop its operations for a while which made certain movies stop production mid-way through filming. Movies like Mission Impossible 7, No Time to Die, A Quiet Place Part II, and The Green Knight had to stop production and resume at some other time when the pandemic is gone, or the restrictions are lifted. Some movies stopped for over a year like in the case of “The Green Knight” by Dir. David Lowery.

On March 2, 2020, amidst the start of the pandemic, Anthony D’Alessandro, a journalist from the Deadline articles, said “Despite industry panic about the coronavirus, SXSW is indeed moving forward.” while talking about the premiere of the movie with a premiere date of Friday, March 16, 2020, and that the theatrical release date would continue to be on May 29, 2020. Unfortunately, things would not stay like this as four days after that article was published, SXSW had to cancel the premiere, and A24, the main producer of the movie, canceled the theatrical release. It wasn’t until a full 8 months later that A24 came out with a statement announcing another release date being July 30, 2021. Many of the employees were fired because of the abrupt stop in production.

Even though A24 was a small independent production company that helped individual directors tell their stories with minimal intervention from producers, they were one of the first and fastest production companies that were able to change its whole business into digital to keep the workers from losing their jobs. Because A24 is known for making indie films that usually explain a very deep and intimate part of the culture, times, and people, it is in their best interest to take this event of the pandemic to tell a story that we can all empathize with.

Another movie that was eagerly awaited by fans and that was delayed 3 times was “No Time To Die” by Dir. Cary Joji Fukunaga. The Daniel Craig 007 series of movies was coming to an end as agent 007 found himself in the decision between saving his daughter or saving the world. BBC news said the following about No Time To Die: “It had originally been due to his screen in April 2020.” Now finally after a long wait and many eager fans, the film's website makes an announcement reading “No Time To Die will be released in cinemas globally on 8 October 2021.” Unfortunately, the film would be delayed a fourth time and officially released on HBO Max (streaming) and in the movie theaters on September 28, 2021. The reason why the film had to be delayed four times was that the main actor, Daniel Craig, kept getting sick and others sick, stopping the filming of the movie due to health concerns.

Many other companies exploited this scenario for their gain. Companies like Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, and many other streaming companies. Streaming was not a big thing in the day-to-day lives of the average people. It mainly served its purpose for shows and series. But when the restrictions of the pandemic started to take place, people needed something to take away their attention from being confined to their homes. Tanvi Dayal, an analyst from Jumpstart, says “The number of streaming service subscribers skyrocketed at the beginning of worldwide lockdowns in 2020. Netflix hit 200 million subscribers and Disney+, which is less than three years old, followed just behind with 100 million.” She also continues by saying that the “Box office revenues, which were at a record-breaking US$42.3 billion in 2019, came plunging by more than US$30 billion in 2020 due to the pandemic.

But now that we are going into the post-pandemic times, people are starting to forget about streaming and begin to explore the old pastimes of the pre-pandemic times. An article from Forbes says that “Fifteen months into the pandemic, 28% of US online adults say they are fatigued from watching so much TV and film, and 21% plan to spend less time watching TV/video as restrictions continue to ease.” These numbers show that the excitement of streaming services, which were once the only form of entertainment in the lives of many, is now the very thing that people are trying to get away from. The streaming service might’ve had its rise but that does not mean that it must fall. The demand for it is still there and will probably continue to stay steady for a couple of more years.

For a full year, it seemed that this was going to be a losing battle. Although the pandemic caused so many terrible things like job loss, movie cancellations, and theaters being closed, it also created something good that was almost forgotten. It gave the studios, directors, and writers more time to think, examine, and revise their work. As Paul Rudnick, a writer for many Broadway shows and plays, said “As a screenwriter, you need an enormous amount of time alone. Writing is ninety percent procrastination.”

It also decentralized Hollywood meaning that there is no need for the movie-making to be centralized in one place, it can all be done from different parts of the world. A24 was one of the few companies that adhered to this idea of not being tied down by the physical place of Hollywood as they are based in New York and still manage to create great films. The future of the filmmaking industry has many things to offer as the pandemic has allowed its workers to become more aware of the artistic capabilities they possess. The future is very uncertain, especially with the political and cultural climate, but since the lockdowns and restrictions have come down, the risk has now come to normal.

The film industry is a mature industry that does not have any more things to be researched or developed. It is simply a movie being shown on a big screen; it is the collective experience you get when you go to a movie theater and decide to watch a movie with other people that you have not seen before and that you probably never will after that. The film industry is mainly art, and the success of the industry is not measured by the amount of money that it brings, although important nonetheless, but it is measured by the impact it has on society, culture, and individual perspectives. You cannot make the film industry more successful by investing more money into it. It can only be more successful when better directors, writers, and storytellers arise and engage in the art of filmmaking.