Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

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MichaelB
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Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#176 Post by MichaelB » Wed Apr 22, 2020 6:07 pm

hearthesilence wrote:
Sat Apr 04, 2020 8:40 pm
Marianne Faithfull hospitalised with coronavirus, she's reportedly ‘stable and responding to treatment.’
...and, in a rare bit of good news, she's now been discharged.

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colinr0380
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Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#177 Post by colinr0380 » Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:09 am

MichaelB wrote:
Wed Apr 22, 2020 6:07 pm
hearthesilence wrote:
Sat Apr 04, 2020 8:40 pm
Marianne Faithfull hospitalised with coronavirus, she's reportedly ‘stable and responding to treatment.’
...and, in a rare bit of good news, she's now been discharged.
Unfortunately though she insisted on driving herself home from hospital! :wink:

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DarkImbecile
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Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#178 Post by DarkImbecile » Tue Apr 28, 2020 5:08 pm

An update from Film at Lincoln Center on the future of Film Comment:
“Film at Lincoln Center” wrote:A message to our subscribers

We are in extraordinary times. As is the case with many nonprofit arts organizations responding to the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, our parent organization Film at Lincoln Center (FLC) has had to respond quickly and develop an intensive plan to ensure the future viability of both FLC and, by extension, Film Comment.

Last month the organization initiated across-the-board salary cuts, furloughs, layoffs of some full-time staff and all part-time theater staff, and other budget and program cuts. Due to the indefinite nature of Film at Lincoln Center’s current closure, all programs of the organization have been suspended, including Film Comment.

Even outside the context of the current crisis, the publishing business is challenging. Recently we’ve been exploring various ways to improve the reach and financial viability of our publication. Last year, we were tasked with starting to consider a variety of scenarios including discontinuing the bi-monthly print edition in favor of an all-digital publication. Now, in light of these new and unexpected developments, our conversations about the status of Film Comment have, of course, become more immediate.

The upcoming May-June issue of Film Comment will be delivered digitally rather than in print. The issue will be published on two platforms: the Zinio digital magazine store, which has hosted a digital version of the magazine for nearly 10 years, and in full on the filmcomment.com website. After that, Film Comment will temporarily cease operations. No new printed editions, digital articles, or podcasts will be created or shared during the hiatus. We will also cease publication on the Film Comment App. Users will be able to download and access already published issues until May 20, after which downloads will be disabled. Access to past articles and podcasts will remain available on our website.

We all sincerely hope that this period of uncertainty will be short and that we can soon resume sharing the best in film criticism with our readers, as we have for over 50 years. But the future is unknown at the moment and we’re currently unable to determine when that will be possible.

You will receive an email detailing how to obtain your digital May-June edition of Film Comment in early May. Subscriptions will then be considered frozen and no subscriptions will be renewed during this period. Our offices remain closed and we are unable to fulfill back issue orders for print versions of the magazine until we reopen, but digital back issues are available for purchase online.

Your continued engagement and enthusiasm mean the world to us. We’ve been buoyed by all the messages of support we’ve received. We ask for your patience as we work things out during this unprecedented time and we hope you will stick with us—we need your support now more than ever. We hope you are healthy and safe and we look forward to serving you again as soon as possible.

We will follow up with all subscribers at a later date to provide more details about our plans going forward, as they become more concrete. In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns specific to your subscription, please email us at custsvc_fc@fulcoinc.com. For any other questions or feedback, please contact us at FCfeedback@filmlinc.org. We will get back to you as soon as we can.

Thanks,

The Film Comment Team

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whaleallright
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Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#179 Post by whaleallright » Tue Apr 28, 2020 5:43 pm

n/a
Last edited by whaleallright on Sat May 02, 2020 7:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Ribs
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Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#180 Post by Ribs » Tue Apr 28, 2020 7:34 pm

In an extremely cool, rare bold action, AMC has announced effective immediately it will no longer be playing any Universal films.

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The Narrator Returns
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Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#181 Post by The Narrator Returns » Tue Apr 28, 2020 7:44 pm

I'll wait to call it bold until the time comes to not show Fast & Furious 9, because I don't see this lasting past that.

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movielocke
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Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#182 Post by movielocke » Tue Apr 28, 2020 8:00 pm

From universals POV they brought 95M into their coffers immediately and got to keep it all.

To net 95M from theatrical they’d need to clear 190M roughly not accounting for P&A, you figure they saved 50 million at least on that overhead, so that pushes the number up to 240M to match what they made. Naturally with a worldwide release, they should be able to easily exceed 95M cash returned to them, but it would be over months and there’s a lot of complexity in those cash flows so there’s a big corporate smile to just getting all the money straight to them right away.

However they were releasing into a vaccuum which is special and undoubtedly significantly inflated their numbers

For example, Tim Burtons Alice in Wonderland, which was the first and only 3D film for several months post Avatar, and as a result was a billion dollar movie (with a hefty chunk of that being the 3D premium and large screen markups). After Avatar people wanted 3D product but there was none coming to market, Clash of the Titans also saw this and earned themselves a couple hundred extra million from the vacuum by doing a late gross 3D conversion

But then the market flooded with 3D and it wasn’t a money printing machine anymore.

AMC is totally right to do this to universal, though, because it’s the only way to preserve theatrical. Without this kind of bloc behavior from exhibitors, boards will require the movie studios to all abandon theatrical to get the instant cash for their quarterlys. But if the exhibitors cut them off the studios will miss out on billion dollar paydays from their big comic book and franchise movies. And no one thinks a comic book movie is going to do a billion dollars (or two) on the Trolls model, even in a vaccuum.

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Ribs
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Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#183 Post by Ribs » Tue Apr 28, 2020 8:17 pm

That $100m “success” is a complete failure - the movie’s never going to recoup it’s production and advertising cost at this point. The movie was poised to make several times that Worldwide - of which the studio would only get a cut - but then it would also have made good buck when coming out on VOD anyway. Whereas this represents the entirety of the film’s return. If the total return of this movie was $100m worldwide in a conventional release Universal would be in the process of firing several executives so that they’ve spun this as a success is completely laughable. Also, they don’t get a 100% return on VOD regardless (though the cut is of course considerably larger than theatrical returns).

AMC is basically saying that if Universal wants to play with this bullshit they need to give up on Fast & Furious and Jurassic Park making their money back (an impossibility if they went VOD and also if they come out without the biggest theater chain’s support) - which Universal cannot afford.

Cde.
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Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#184 Post by Cde. » Wed Apr 29, 2020 1:17 am

You see this being tried with Trolls 2 and Scoob but not with major tentpoles because a lot more of the business side of kids movies is tied up in merchandise. It's too late to delay the toys, and the marketing for the toys, etc. This way they still have the film releasing on time so that kids might desire the toys, and parents might order them to keep their kids entertained during quarantine. Box office is just a fraction of the story.

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Ribs
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Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#185 Post by Ribs » Wed Apr 29, 2020 7:55 am

And the toy sales for the King of Staten Island?

I don’t believe for a second that the toy sales for either of these movies is anywhere remotely near a fraction of the gross these movies have pulled in and neither does AMC - which says in their statement they found using commitments to toy manufacturing a convenient excuse they themselves also didn’t really believe in.

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The Elegant Dandy Fop
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Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#186 Post by The Elegant Dandy Fop » Wed Apr 29, 2020 1:58 pm

What’s stopping the streaming platforms from charging the 50% take the theaters were doing?

I feel like Trolls has to be a fluke considering the circumstances and the fact that it’s a family movie that can have entire households sit and watch, thus a reason to pay the $20 premium on this particular film. I take it Universal hasn’t released their box office numbers for a film like The Hunt, right?

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movielocke
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Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#187 Post by movielocke » Wed Apr 29, 2020 2:38 pm

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote:What’s stopping the streaming platforms from charging the 50% take the theaters were doing?

I feel like Trolls has to be a fluke considering the circumstances and the fact that it’s a family movie that can have entire households sit and watch, thus a reason to pay the $20 premium on this particular film. I take it Universal hasn’t released their box office numbers for a film like The Hunt, right?
Well studios have a stake in a lot of streaming platforms, so they have more vertically integrated options to compete with the tech company platforms. The tech zaibatsus can burn infinite money for market share and never suffer a downside from it so they don’t have an incentive right now to try to extract 50% plus, their incentive is in destroying theatrical, so that aligns with making the most attractive offers to studios.

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Monterey Jack
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Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#188 Post by Monterey Jack » Sat May 09, 2020 8:48 pm

Two months to the day since the last time I saw a movie in the theater.

Image

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goblinfootballs
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Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#189 Post by goblinfootballs » Sun May 10, 2020 1:16 am

Monterey Jack wrote:
Sat May 09, 2020 8:48 pm
Two months to the day since the last time I saw a movie in the theater.
March 11th, the night the NBA shut down, was also the night the Portland International Film Festival was cut short; I missed out on Vitalina Varela, First Cow, Bacurau, and To The Ends of the Earth.

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Adam X
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Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#190 Post by Adam X » Thu May 14, 2020 11:55 am

Well, it's just over 2 months since I had a single shift, thanks to working in the live performance industry. You'll get over it.

Orlac
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Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#191 Post by Orlac » Thu May 14, 2020 12:31 pm

Last film I saw in the cinema, was Sonic on Valentine's day. Feels a lifetime ago...

beamish14
Joined: Fri May 18, 2018 3:07 pm

Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#192 Post by beamish14 » Thu May 14, 2020 12:55 pm

I'm definitely worried about the long-term viability of single screen movie houses like the New Beverly, and nonprofits like
the American Cinematheque (which had an enormously expensive nitrate retrofitting at the Egyptian location) and
The Cinematheque in Vancouver (which I don't think was exactly thriving prior to the current crisis).

Interestingly, the last major video rental store on the West Coast, Cinefile, IS reopening next week
for pick-up service. I'm going to miss endlessly browsing in there, though. That was definitely one of the major appeals of that establishment.

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goblinfootballs
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Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#193 Post by goblinfootballs » Thu May 14, 2020 1:00 pm

Adam Grikepelis wrote:
Thu May 14, 2020 11:55 am
Well, it's just over 2 months since I had a single shift, thanks to working in the live performance industry. You'll get over it.
I am sorry to hear that! Have you been able to get any support from unemployment, crowdsourced fundraisers, &c. (beyond the $1200)?

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Adam X
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 5:04 am

Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#194 Post by Adam X » Fri May 15, 2020 8:21 am

Thanks, I have (I'm in Australia, and the pricks in charge have very little interest in supporting the arts or those that work in the industry, but I was lucky enough to work for someone who qualified for government support - though that'll last who knows how long, they're being very cagey about it), but it's the complete lack of work that's the problem. Not that my income's dropped, just mentally. I really need to get it together and find some work til things pick up, but it's tough developing any momentum.

(by the way, I was responding to Monterey Jack rather than yourself, so please don't read anyting into it)

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colinr0380
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Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#195 Post by colinr0380 » Fri May 15, 2020 6:07 pm

You all have me worried about how those "Puppetry of the Penis" guys are getting on now! Hopefully they are keeping it up and practicing in the privacy of their own homes so that they are not rusty once they are able to perform live once again!

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Adam X
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Re: Coronavirus' Effect on the Entertainment Industry

#196 Post by Adam X » Sat May 16, 2020 2:19 am

Wow, that’s a show I haven’t heard of for a long while. I found a website for them and seems they had shows booked for June in the UK. Can’t believe it’s still running after 20 years!

Also, I hope everyone here’s doing ok right now, and wherever you are, you can see an end in sight no matter how far away it seems. Especially those living in countries with leaders who don’t seem to know what the hell they’re doing, and just make things worse every tine they open their mouths.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Tenet (Christopher Nolan, 2020)

#197 Post by FrauBlucher » Sun May 24, 2020 9:39 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Sun May 24, 2020 9:32 pm
Nolan may be the only mainstream direct with enough studio sway to get away with a 3+ hour film. I think WB would probably bend over backwards for any of his demands, especially since we all know whenever this does get released, it will be a license for printing money regardless of the number of shows a day theatres can squeeze in
But no one can be sure theaters will be able to pack the rooms due to the new normal, especially in NY, Chicago and LA. This may be the first blockbuster to test the current nature of things

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domino harvey
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Re: Tenet (Christopher Nolan, 2020)

#198 Post by domino harvey » Sun May 24, 2020 9:42 pm

I would be shocked if it keeps its release date. It's hard to think of a worse place to prevent disease spreading than a theatre (wasn't the initial outbreak in Outbreak in a movie theatre?), so I can't imagine things changing enough in a month and a half to allow for stadium seating engagements for the packed houses this will inspire regardless of the risk

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Re: Tenet (Christopher Nolan, 2020)

#199 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon May 25, 2020 3:23 pm

I will wait dutifully for it to stream. I haven't been to a theater in nearly 3 years anyway.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Tenet (Christopher Nolan, 2020)

#200 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon May 25, 2020 3:30 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Sun May 24, 2020 9:42 pm
I would be shocked if it keeps its release date. It's hard to think of a worse place to prevent disease spreading than a theatre (wasn't the initial outbreak in Outbreak in a movie theatre?)
Yeah we followed the molecule from a sneeze into the laughing mouth of a theatre patron. However, since this is not a comedy and there will be no laughing, I think we're safe and it'll keep its release date.

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