2020 has been a dark time for cinemagoers due to the pandemic. Cinemas like many industries had to shut down due to the pandemic and even after restrictions were lifted, cinemas have been struggling. Now the cinema has suffered another set of blows due to No Time to Die being delayed and Cineworld deciding to shut down all their sites in the UK and US for the rest of the year, resulting in thousands losing their jobs. The Odeon chain has followed by reducing the hours in a quarter of its locations.
The pandemic has had a massive impact on economics around the world. Industries like retail, hospitality, and entertainment have been some of the hardest hit. Within the UK Intu, the owner of many shopping centres went into admission, companies like DW Sports, Carluccio, and Brighthouse have gone out of business, and Food and Fuel Limited (owners of Frankie & Benny’s, Chiquitos, and Wagamagas) have closed many of their sites. People’s behaviour has changed such as using the internet more for shopping. Now cinemas are facing their reckoning
Even after the easing of lockdown restrictions cinemas struggled. Cinemas suffered from a double whammy because there has been a lack of major releases, and many people are reluctant to go out due to COVID. Cinema chains were pinning their hopes on No Time to Die reversing their fortunes but EON and Universal have decided to delay the release to April 2021. This was the reason Cineworld gave for their decision. Warner Bros. has decided to move Dune to next year, leaving Wonder Woman 1984 as the only major film left in the 2020 schedule and it is likely that film will be pushed back considering one of the world’s biggest cinema chains is now shut down.
At the time of writing the Global health situation is getting worst. Most of Northern England and Wales are under strict lockdown restrictions, and Central Scotland now has some the strictest lockdown measures in the UK. Paris has shutdown bars, swimming pools, and gyms for two weeks, and Ireland is on the edge of another national lockdown.
Tenet was the first major film to be released when lockdown restrictions were lifted. Despite it having a clear theatrical run it underperformed. There were a few reasons why this happened. The most obvious is audiences are not confident enough to go to the cinema due to the pandemic. Cinemas have to operate with social distancing measures so can only have half-filled screens. Finally, Tenet was not really the right film to restart cinemas due to the mixed reception (it has a 71% score on Rotten Tomatoes), a lack of name recognition like a franchise film, and it was a more cerebral type of film. Outside of The Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception, Christopher Nolan’s films make decent box-office numbers, but there are not megahits. Nolan’s previous films, Interstellar made $696 million and Dunkirk’s box office return was $527 million. Who knows what would have happened if films like F9, Mulan, or Black Widow were released during the summer.
Cinemas have suffered a double whammy due to the lack of content and audience fears. Due to the pandemic America’s biggest chain, AMC Theaters is on the edge of bankruptcy. However, the pandemic has shown that studios and cinemas need each other. Cinemas need studio releases because that’s what general moviegoers want to go, whilst studios need cinemas to make big box office revenue.
Since the Lockdown some studios have experimented with online distribution. Trolls World Tour was a success, but other films have disappointed. Trolls World Tour was a success because it was a family film with a lot of marketing behind it. Mulan was the first tentpole released as a PVOD release and it failed to make its money back. Mulan did have some specific circumstances that affected its performance: it was only released on Disney+ with a high price so many users decided to wait, had poor word of mouth from audiences despite the positive reviews from critics, and the film underperformed in China.
There have been calls to release major films online, like Black Widow and No Time To Die. However, if studios thought there could make a profit this way, they would have released their big-budget films by now. If the worst-case scenario happens and the cinema industry collapses, then tentpoles would no longer be viable. Some cinephiles may think this would be great because it would end studios’ franchise dependency on franchises and no more Transformers and Fast and Furious films would be made. But it would mean the end of other popular franchises like Bond and the MCU. Many of these films were made for the big screen. Film fans love going to the cinema and enjoy the energy of watching a film with an audience. The whole point of the tentpole system is they prop up the studios and allow studios to make smaller films.
The end of cinemas could result in two outcomes. The first is there would be less money invested in films, especially action films, meaning there would be fewer locations and special effects. The other outcome is tentpoles may simply move to streaming services with Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, et al, making big-budget films as a way to entice new subscribers.
Cinemas do have a lot of economic and cultural capital. Economically cinemas employ a lot of people, as proven by Cineworld’s closure. Around the world, 45,000 employees, including 6,000 in the UK are temporary out of work and the Odeon’s reduced opening times mean that a lot of employees must move to part-time hours. Cinemas also have a wider economic impact because their success means the whole industry is successful, leading to more people being employed. Cinemas are often in town centres or out of town leisure complexes and a lot of people combine a cinema trip with other activities like shopping or going out for a meal.
Cinemas often inspire a lot of people to become filmmakers or creatives. Many filmmakers want their films to be seen on the big screen. There are many cinemas that have a community feel to them. An example of this is the Little Theatre in Bath, which is a cinema that cinephiles enjoy going to, has lots of loyal patrons, and has history behind it. Haile Selassie, the emperor of Ethiopia visited the cinema when he was in exile. The Little Theatre even had a cameo in Wes Anderson’s adaption of Fantastic Mr. Fox and the cinema has had big-name guests like Mark Kermode and Ken Loach. Film Festivals need venues and often use a combination of big chain cinemas and smaller indie venues.
My experience I have grown quite friendly with the staff at my local Odeon and I wouldn’t want it to close down for their sake as well as my own self-interest. The service at my local Odeon has often been excellent.
When the pandemic is over people will want to go out again and be entertained. As well as going to the cinema people will want to go and see plays, musicals, concerts, gigs, and sporting events. I personally think it’s unfair for any business to shut due to something so unprecedented. The British government did give the Rugby Football League a £16 million loan and the arts deserve similar treatment. Even if the government doesn’t issue loans then there could be other actions like tax breaks or rent reductions so companies big and small can survive.
