What has been the biggest impact of both the pandemic and the streaming wars on the U.S. film industry? Do you think shifts in how people watch movies will lead to long-term changes in the movie industry or will Hollywood eventually return to pre-COVID practices? Limit: 10 responses
Erin Fennell
ReplyDeletePT. 1
In recent years, the film industry has faced many hardships. Between the societal shift to streaming, and the pandemic, box office viewings have become less and less popular. With many people afraid to leave their homes, and streaming making new releases available from personal households, movie theaters became obsolete. Platforms like Netflix and Disney+ have profited strongly from this change, with Marvel releases on Disney Netflix originals available on their platform only. However, since COVID has slowed down, movie theaters have made some sort of a comeback. I personally love the movies, and nothing compares to going to see a new movie in theaters. “Spider Man: No Way Home” proves many others feel the same way as I do. AMC states, “[They] had 60 million guests visit theater locations globally in Q4” (Lang and Maas, 2022). The article continued, saying, “AMC chairman and CEO Adam Aron shot down industry speculation that the theatrical business would be unable to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, [saying], “What a load of cow dung.”’ (Lang and Maas, 2022). Articles about this upward trend in the box office continued with an LA Times article about newest releases “The Batman” and “Uncharted”. The article explains that “The Batman was projected to debut with at least $100 million in ticket sales and how, “that would make “The Batman” only the second pandemic-era movie to open with more than $100 million domestically, which would signal a new stage of the recovery for theatrical moviegoing in the sense that it would show “No Way Home” wasn’t a fluke” (Faughnder, 2022). A third article from The Hollywood Reporter states, “Box office revenue rose to $125.9 million, compared to $7.3 million a year earlier when Cineplex theaters were mostly shuttered, and food services revenues spiked to $87.2 million, against a year earlier $10.5 million in the final three months of 2020” (Vlessing, 2022). These movies and articles show that the movie theater industry may not be lost, and that it may even become more popular, since people have not been able to go in so long.
However, many people do prefer watching new releases in the comfort of their own homes. In a study by CivicScience, responses showed that “the majority of Americans, in fact, said they preferred to watch new releases at home rather than in a theater, even when both options are available simultaneously” (Vorel, 2021). The industry is basically split right now, but what will it look like in a few years? Before the pandemic many people didn’t enjoy going to the movies. The food was too expensive, and the public crowd could be unpleasant. This begs the question, “what happens when people get sick of going to the movies again?”. I think eventually, streaming will take over completely. Maybe not for a little while, but eventually people will value the benefits of being able to eat their own snacks, on their own couch, and watch a new movie. The days of being stuck at home will be over, and people will begin enjoying staying in to watch a movie again.
Erin Fennell
ReplyDeletePT. 2
Work cited
Faughnder, R. (2022, March 1). 'uncharted' was a win for theaters. now Here comes 'the batman'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 10, 2022, from https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/newsletter/2022-03-01/batmans-return-wide-shot-the-wide-shot
Lang, B., & Maas, J. (2022, March 2). AMC earnings climb thanks to 'spider-man: No way home'; Theater chain to experiment with 'the Batman' variable ticket pricing. Variety. Retrieved March 10, 2022, from https://variety.com/2022/film/news/amc-earnings-q4-spider-man-no-way-home-box-office-1235193411/
Vlessing, E. (2022, February 11). Cineplex CEO: Specialty Box Office will rebound post-omicron. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 10, 2022, from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/cineplex-ceo-specialty-box-office-will-rebound-post-omicron-1235091808/
Vorel, J. (2021, October 25). The majority of Americans say they'd rather watch new releases at home, rather than a theater. pastemagazine.com. Retrieved March 10, 2022, from https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/movie-theaters-vs-home-viewing-polling/#:~:text=In%20a%20series%20of%20new,both%20options%20are%20available%20simultaneously.
The Covid 19 pandemic has affected a lot of people and a lot of different industries. One industry that was deeply affected was the US film industry. No one could ever predict Covid 19 happening and how quickly it would spready throughout the world, but once Covid started spreading, there wasn’t much time for the U.S. film industry to react. One of the biggest impacts that Covid has had on the US film industry is the people going to the movie theaters to watch the movies that are released. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “consumers ages 35 and older still were more nervous than their younger counterparts.” This quote is saying that people who are older were still scared going out to the movies because they were afraid of getting Covid. Even when it seemed more people were going out, the numbers did drop at some point as there were Covid 19 spikes that were happening. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “yet those comfort levels plummeted 10 points to 66 percent by Christmas- the lowest since August, during the delta wave.” With Covid 19 happening and deeply affecting U.S. film industry, it has given a chance for international markets and companies like in China, to gain an advantage over U.S. film companies. According to Variety, “China will be the highest grossing territory for 2021. It is currently sitting at approximately 7 billion.” China seems to be taking advantage over the opportunity while U.S. film studios struggled during the Covid pandemic.
ReplyDeleteAnother major way that Covid 19 has affect the U.S. film industry is that a lot of films were put on video streaming service. According to statenews.com, “In 2019, Netflix alone released 371 movies and TV shows. In 2021, Netflix was again in the lead with 39% of original content being released their studio with HBO Max just behind them at 37%.” This statement is saying that there has been a huge increase of movies being moved to video streaming services. Also, according to staenews.com, “Everyone is wanting to stay home and especially with schools being closed, everyone was just sitting down in their house streaming and watching movies and TV shows.” Since people were scared to go out, the U.S. film industry had to adjust what was happening in the world and put their films on video streaming services. I believe that it since Covid 19 happen, more movies will be put on streaming services, but I think that high major movies will be released in movie theaters. I think people are eager to get out more because they have been stuck at home for a while. Spiderman No Way Home is an indication that people are wanting to go out to see movies since Spiderman No Way Home made over a billion dollars. It will be interesting to see what the movie industry will be in the next ten years.
DeleteFrater, Patrick. “China Is Poised to Retain Worldwide Box Office Crown, While Decoupling from Global Film Industry.” Variety, Variety, 24 Dec. 2021, https://variety.com/2021/film/asia/china-box-office-champion-1235142005/.
Livingston, Maggie. “How Streaming Has Caused a Shift in the Film Industry.” How Streaming Has Caused a Shift in the Film Industry - The State News, 20 Sept. 2021, https://statenews.com/article/2021/09/how-streaming-has-caused-a-shift-in-the-film-industry?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_latest.
McClintock, Pamela. “‘It's a Leaner, Meaner Business’: Hollywood Braces for Volatile 2022 Box Office.” The Hollywood Reporter, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Jan. 2022, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/box-office-2022-1235070014/.
Matthew Miller
ReplyDeleteThe pandemic has had a significant impact on the streaming wars in the U.S. film industry. Before the pandemic streaming services were already on the rise, the pandemic only sped up the timeline. People were told to quarantine for most of the pandemic, so they had to find new ways to watch movies. This led to many people purchasing subscriptions to these streaming services. While not nearly as popular as they once were, theatres still saw some success due to Marvel Movies, primarily “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings“ and “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” Statistics show that “The total domestic box office in 2021 was $4.58 billion, according to Comscore. It doubles 2020’s total but was down nearly 60% from 2019.” (Clark 2022). 2019 was the last year before the pandemic, so it does not come as a surprise that there was such a massive decrease in percentage when it comes to the total amount of money.
At the start of the pandemic, things were sharply declining in Hollywood. With studios already struggling with ticket sales, they were also faced with the closings of theatres and production delays. With theatres closing and streaming services on the rise, “Netflix Inc. added 26 million customers in the first half of 2020, a record for new subscribers. And so media companies set aside legacy businesses and learned how to stream.” (Shaw 2021). Most people like to watch movies from the comfort of their home or a friend’s home. Because of this, streaming services saw a massive opportunity to make a profit and jumped at the chance. Netflix has been releasing movies directly on their streaming service for a long time, and they have sustained a long period of success. More companies are starting to follow this trend, with HBO Max and Disney + producing original shows and movies. HBO Max perhaps navigated the best during the pandemic as they would release movies on their platforms in conjunction with them being released in theatres. An example of this was when they released “Space Jam: A New Legacy” the same day it opened in theatres. Since this movie was essentially a sequel, a large audience wanted to see the film, which led to many people purchasing an HBO Max subscription just to do so. Tickets to see a movie in theatres are generally over $12, which is just for one movie. It is a no-brainer if people can get access to hundreds of movies for just $12.
With the pandemic not yet ending, streaming services will continue to prosper as theatres will struggle to see much success. Some companies are better equipped as “Sony was the supreme winner at year’s end (2021), thanks to fanboys flockinh yo see Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Christmas blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home, which has grossed nearly $1.4 billion and is the first film to do pre-pandemic level business.” (Mcclintock 2022). While I believe that shifts in how people watch movies will lead to long-term changes in the movie industry, I do not believe that the time for that has come yet as we are still seeing movies be successful on the big screen.
Works Cited
Clark, T. (2022, January 18). Disney and Sony topped the US box office in 2021, thanks to Marvel. here's how Hollywood's studios stacked up. Business Insider. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.businessinsider.com/hollywood-box-office-revenue-by-studio-in-the-us-ranked-2022-1
McClintock, P. (2022, January 12). "it's a leaner, meaner business": Hollywood braces for volatile 2022 box office. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/box-office-2022-1235070014/
Shaw, L. (2021, May 26). Here are the Ways the Pandemic Changed Hollywood. Bloomberg.com. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-05-26/pandemic-and-entertainment-how-hollywood-has-been-changed-by-covid
Elisa Leone
ReplyDeletePart 1
In the past couple of years, the film industry has gone downhill. This is because of the rise of streaming services and the global pandemic. These two factors are the main reason that the U.S. film industry has become less popular over the years because people were too scared to leave their homes where they can also retrieve the same content from their laptops. Since the rise of streaming services has become so popular, people are more inclined to stay in and watch movies in the comfort of their homes rather than going out. The decline of in-person viewers has impacted the film industry in a negative way because the box office numbers, and revenue have decreased. The Hollywood Reporter states, “According to ComScore, revenue for 2021 was nearly 60 percent behind 2019 ($11.4 billion). And the last time domestic revenue came in at $4.5 billion was 29 years ago — in 1992” (McClintock, 2022). The pandemic really changed the way that people consume media. Since the 2020 pandemic, the use of streaming services has increased and even two years after the pandemic streaming services still remain on top. All streaming services, especially the bigger ones, have greatly profited from this change. Disney+ made $16.9 billion in 2020 which was a jump of $7.6 billion from their revenue in 2019 (Iqbal, 2022). Just from one year, Disney+ generated $7.9 billion which is insane.
Movie theaters aren't the main source of movies anymore and the film industry should be worried. I think people will eventually stop going to the theaters but that won’t be for a long time. I think going to the movies is fun and exciting because it’s an experience. Anyone could have a movie night in their bed but what you don't get is the movie theater popcorn, the huge screen, and the feeling that you have just emerged into the movie. Personally, I have not been to the movies in a long time because not a lot of movies interested me to the point that I wanted to go and buy a ticket. The only movie I recently seen was Spider-man No Way Home but before that, I haven’t been to the movies in years. Also, movie ticket prices cost more than a subscription fee which would make people less inclined to go to the theaters. The Marvel movies are one of the only films that are keeping box offices afloat. Business Insider states, “Marvel movies gave the domestic box office a lifeline last year, as theaters in the US struggled through the pandemic” (Clark, 2022). Every time a new Marvel movie is released, the fans go crazy and want to view it in the theaters. If Marvel movies are the top-selling films then I think they should keep releasing more to increase the movie theater’s revenue.
Elisa Leone
DeletePart 2
I believe that streaming services and the pandemic will eventually cause long-term changes to the film industry but not anytime soon. Going to the movies is an experience and I think if Gen Z and above are still alive then movie theaters will still be up and running. It may not make nearly as much money as it used to, but it will be able to generate some revenue in the upcoming years. Overall, in the future, I do think movie theaters will decline but the film industry itself won’t because they can release their movies on a platform if they were to switch to streaming.
Work Cited
Clark, T. (2022, January 18). Disney and Sony topped the US box office in 2021, thanks to Marvel. here's how Hollywood's studios stacked up. Business Insider. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.businessinsider.com/hollywood-box-office-revenue-by-studio-in-the-us-ranked-2022-1
Disney plus revenue and Usage Statistics (2022). Business of Apps. (2022, January 11). Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.businessofapps.com/data/disney-plus-statistics/
McClintock, P. (2022, January 4). Box Office ends year 60 percent behind 2019 with $4.5B domestically. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/2021-box-office-revenue-stormy-year-1235067966/
Kylie Jenkins part 1
ReplyDeleteIt is not shocking that the pandemic has affected the U.S film industry, because honestly, there is nothing it hasn’t affected. The pandemic, however, is not the only thing that has affected the U.S. film industry. The big switch to streaming has played a role in the changes of the U.S film industry as well. Both of these played a role in the decline of the U.S. film industry in the past few years, but I think that the rise in streaming only happened because of the pandemic; if the pandemic never occurred, streaming would not be such a big issue facing the industry. Regardless of what the true issue was, the film industry suffered. According to an article in the Hollywood Reporter, “Facing strong headwinds, domestic box office revenue rose to $4.5 billion in 2021 as the theatrical business struggled to recover from the COVID-19 crisis. While that was up more than 101 percent over 2020, moviegoing still lagged far behind pre-pandemic levels.According to Comscore, revenue for 2021 was nearly 60 percent behind 2019 ($11.4 billion). And the last time domestic revenue came in at $4.5 billion was 29 years ago — in 1992.”(McClintock). Because of shutdowns globally due to the pandemic, not only could people not go to the movie theaters to watch films on the big screen, producers were also unable to make new movies during this time. Those that were allowed to make movies when restrictions started to be lessened still had to take a lot of safety precautions, especially with covid close contacts and tests, which I can only imagine cost a lot of money to keep up with. So although films could be made, they were not made efficiently as they were in the past.
Part 2
DeleteOne way that the streaming service has really changed the industry is with movie releases. During the pandemic when theaters were closed, movies were released to streaming services, therefore not amassing as much money as they would have in the box office. This caused the rules for a lot of award shows to change as well. According to an article from CBS “The shift to digital has even prompted the Oscars to change their eligibility rules -- whereas movies first had to be released in theaters to qualify for the awards competition, the Academy is now allowing movies released online to participate”(de la Cuetara). Now that the Oscars have changed their rules, I can only imagine they won’t change them back, at least not immediately, therefore changing award shows forever.
I think that although the way people view films now, during “pandemic times”, has changed, there is still hope for things to go back to “normal”. People enjoy being able to go to the movie theaters to see a film for the first time, it is a nostalgic feeling, and often a tradition for some people. In an article in The Hollywood Reporter, Cineplex CEO Ellis Jacob talks about how “During the latest quarter, theater attendance jumped to 10.2 million during the latest quarter, against 800,000 in the same period of 2020. That allowed Toronto-based Cineplex to shrunk its fourth quarter loss to $21.8 million, or 34 cents per diluted share, against a year-earlier $230.4 million or $3.64 per diluted share”(Vlessing). Despite the pandemic still going on (I say this loosely, but I cannot speak for everyone) attendance numbers are skyrocketing, and I can only assume they will continue growing. People are sick of staying home watching TV, they are ready to go back out into the real world and go to the theaters.
de la Cuetara, Ines. “How COVID-19 Changed the Movie Industry.” ABC News, ABC News Network, 18 July 2021, https://abcnews.go.com/US/covid-19-changed-movie-industry/story?id=78901700.
McClintock, Pamela. “Box Office Ends Year 60 Percent behind 2019 with $4.5B Domestically.” The Hollywood Reporter, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 Jan. 2022, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/2021-box-office-revenue-stormy-year-1235067966/.
Vlessing, Etan. “Cineplex CEO: Specialty Box Office Will Rebound Post-Omicron.” The Hollywood Reporter, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Feb. 2022, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/cineplex-ceo-specialty-box-office-will-rebound-post-omicron-1235091808/.
Paul Logue
ReplyDeleteBlog Post 6
Part 1
The film industry has drastically changed in just a few short years. To put it simply not as many people aren’t going to movie theaters anymore. Revenue this year from the box office was down 60 percent compared to 2019, (McClintock). This was largely due to COVID restrictions as theaters were one of the last things to reopen. However, COVID only expedited what was already starting to happen in the industry with streaming services taking over. It’s hard for the theaters to compete with at home viewing, especially when box offices movies are becoming available quicker on streaming services anyways. The pandemic has affected small theaters as well as large chains. AMC lost an estimated 4.59 billion dollars in 2020 and was in the negatives for the first nine months of 2021, (Eckhouse and Merrill). However, the bigger theaters can afford those loses. The theaters hit hardest are the smaller ones. They rely on such a small number of customers, that its next to impossible for them to stay open. It just isn’t worth it. My best friend’s family at home owns a smaller chain of theaters in the area and they have started to close some of their locations. This is because they only are really turning a profit on the bigger releases. People are only going to theaters to see the big releases, that they can’t wait to see. Otherwise, it’s just as easy to wait till the movie is available for rent or on a streaming platform. The movies that remain the most successful are the big budget blockbusters such as Spiderman: No Way Home, F9, and No Time to Die. No Way Home took in around 605 million dollars, (McClintock).
Paul Logue
ReplyDeletePart 2
Looking into the future I think that theaters will rebound slightly, but the landscape is going to look a lot different and its definitely not going to come close to pre pandemic levels. There’s going to be some consolidation. There’s not going to be a lot of room for smaller theaters to succeed. I think for a couple of years we will see an increase in the box office just because people missed going to the movies during COVID and some of those bigger releases people need to see in theaters. AMC just posted their best quarter in two years with posted revenue totaling 1.2 billion, (Lang and Mass). After a couple years it will level out and then go back down. There is just a smaller number of movies being released to theaters. Many of these streaming platforms are already making their own films, they don’t need to rely on theaters for success. It’s just so hard to compete with, people would rather watch movies from the comforts of home unless it’s a big release. I don’t think theaters will ever totally go out, there will just be fewer of them as streaming services are only going to continue cutting into their profits.
References
Eckhouse, Brian, and Dave Merrill. “Closed Movie Theaters Leave Void From Small Towns to Big Cities.” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-10/closed-movie-theaters-leave-void-from-small-towns-to-big-cities.
Lang, Brent, and Jennifer Maas. “AMC Earnings Climb Thanks to 'Spider-Man: No Way Home'; Theater Chain to Experiment with 'the Batman' Variable Ticket Pricing.” Variety, Variety, 2 Mar. 2022, https://variety.com/2022/film/news/amc-earnings-q4-spider-man-no-way-home-box-office-1235193411/.
McClintock , Pamela. “Box Office Ends Year 60 Percent Behind 2019 With $4.5B Domestically.” The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Jan. 2022.
The pandemic, starting in 2020, has created shifts in the way business is conducted, the way people are able to work collaboratively, and the way we receive information. Daily routines came to a halt for the general public when Covid hit and we have been adjusting ever since. Businesses in the U.S. film industry took a major hit due to the lockdown and have only recently begun to open back up to the public full time. Luckily for movie lovers, the industry took a new approach to accommodate the public by releasing movies on streaming services, such as HBO. Truthfully, without the ability to stream content on these platforms I think a lot of people would have gone crazy of boredom during the height of the pandemic. Streaming subscriptions skyrocketed in light of the pandemic and gave people an excuse to subscribe to multiple platforms to watch their favorite shows to make the time pass a little bit quicker. Scott Roxbourogh states in his article, “This can be seen as a reaction to a power shift in the industry as streaming and other digital entertainment grows in importance and traditional revenue streams, including theatrical box office, become less significant” (Roxbourogh). The pandemic was great business for these streaming platforms, but had the opposite effect on traditional movie theaters, as they were shut down due to covid. At first, I had almost forgotten the nostalgic feeling of going to the movies and buying a big tub of popcorn to watch a new movie, and I believe that common feeling is what will aid in resurrecting the businesses.
ReplyDeleteI have been to the movies twice since the Imax nearby was opened to the public, and I can confirm that there is a large demographic of people that are interested in getting back to the cinema as it was pre-covid. According to the Hollywood Reporter, “Box office revenue rose to $125.9 million, compared to $7.3 million a year earlier when Cineplex theaters were mostly shuttered, and food services revenues spiked to $87.2 million, against a year earlier $10.5 million in the final three months of 2020” (Vlessing). This data shows a major increase in revenue from movie theater goers and even provides hope for the future of the film industry aside from streaming options. AMC says they believe that the market will only continue to increase, stating “We are quite bullish that for the full calendar year of 2022 the industry box office could be nearly double that of 2021, with COVID impacts easing, and more and more major films on the docket for release” (Lang, Mass). Moreover, I believe that streaming platforms will continue to be a more popular, and easier choice for many film lovers, however I do believe that theaters have a unique place in the market because it carries a nostalgic feeling with it.
DeleteRoxborough, Scott. “Why Production Companies in 2022 Will Need to Get Big or Go Home.” The Hollywood Reporter, The Hollywood Reporter, 29 Dec. 2021, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/entertainment-consolidation-trend-2022-1235059819/.
Lang, Brent. “AMC Earnings Climb Thanks to 'Spider-Man: No Way Home'; Theater Chain to Experiment with 'the Batman' Variable Ticket Pricing.” Variety, Variety, 2 Mar. 2022, https://variety.com/2022/film/news/amc-earnings-q4-spider-man-no-way-home-box-office-1235193411/.
Vlessing, Etan. “Cineplex CEO: Specialty Box Office Will Rebound Post-Omicron.” The Hollywood Reporter, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Feb. 2022, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/cineplex-ceo-specialty-box-office-will-rebound-post-omicron-1235091808/.
ReplyDeleteAbigail Rica
The pandemic has affected many aspects of daily life. Including streaming services being used more daily and people binge watching TV shows. I think people enjoy binge watching TV shows, all from the comfort of their house. People like staying in their house because of COVID and now don’t want to leave. Who wouldn’t want to stay home and put sweats on while watching their favorite show, and not pay extra for snacks and drinks. As for COVID, people didn’t feel safe or comfortable to leave their house so people stayed home. I know for me when I think of a movie theater, I think a lot of people don’t want to sit at a theater. According to NY Times “ About 49 percent of prepandemic moviegoers are no longer buying tickets. Some of them, roughly 8 percent, have likely been lost forever. To win back the rest, multiplex owners must “urgently” rethink pricing and customer perks in addition to focusing on coronavirus safety”.(Barnes) As variants keep being more contagious of COVID, do people feel very safe going to watch movies in a theater? Or would rather wait till its available on streaming. But it seems like younger audiences are enjoying movie theaters more than other generations. According to one source, “ The box office recovery continues to be a slow process. The latest hurdle is the highly contagious omicron variant. The rise of streaming is also an enormous challenge for cinemas. So far, younger moviegoers between ages 18 and 34– and especially younger males– have fueled the recovery, resulting in superhero, action and horror dominating the top reaches of the yearly chart”. (McClintock) I think its hard to say what will happen in the future as far as Hollywood might not be able to return to pre-COVID ways. As people don’t want to work in person anymore. As people like being home and not leaving. I think COVID will always change the work force and certain activities. People want to return to a normal life, but that's hard with mask mandates, proof of the vaccine, and negative test results. Hollywood might have to be even more flexible than anyone else with COVID rules.
Pre- COVID movie theaters were doing great. The HollyWood Reporter states, “Before the latest pandemic- era shutdown, Cineplex during the fourth quarter did impressive business with Spider-Man:No Way Home, No Times to Die and Dune on its screens to record the company’s biggest box office of 2021. Christmas box office typically accounts for around 30 perfect of Cineplex’s fourth quarter performance”. (Vlessing) COVID has challenged many enjoyable experiences. In the sense that different expercines have different rules and regulations to follow. I think the best thing for everyone is factoring different levels of safety and comfort to each individual. Hollywood will have to adjust as actors and actresses all have different levels of comfort. That will make or break Hollywood after the pandemic is over.
Work cited
Barnes, B. (2021, November 29). Movie theaters must 'urgently' rethink the experience, a study says. The New York Times. Retrieved March 21, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/29/business/movie-theater-attendance.html
McClintock, P. (2022, January 4). Box Office ends year 60 percent behind 2019 with $4.5B domestically. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 21, 2022, from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-newshttps://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/2021-box-office-revenue-stormy-year-1235067966//2021-box-office-revenue-stormy-year-1235067966/
Vlessing, E. (2022, February 11). Cineplex CEO: Specialty Box Office will rebound post-omicron. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 21, 2022, from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/cineplex-ceo-specialty-box-office-will-rebound-post-omicron-1235091808/
Kyra Moos
ReplyDeletePart 1
As the pioneer in online streaming, Netflix changed the way that people watched shows and movies forever. As more and more companies began to follow in Netflix’s footsteps, a streaming war began. Today’s top streaming services and media conglomerates race to push out the best content and reach the highest number of subscribers. Streaming services became dramatically more popular as the COVID-19 pandemic spread globally. People were urged to stay home resulting in the downfall of movie theaters and momentarily Hollywood. This time period provided the perfect conditions necessary to launch a successful streaming service because everyone was home and had free time to watch content. Netflix and Disney+ gained large profits during this time period. Netlfix COVID-19 impacted the film industry since many productions had to be delayed or canceled. Potential risks of getting sick forced people to stay physically far from each other, making filming impossible. Many theaters and movie productions lost out on millions of dollars. The film industry had to get creative during this time to make up for their losses, so many companies looked at streaming services to help. Trolls World Tour was released a few months into the pandemic and was solely released digitally, bypassing the theaters (Faughnder, 2020). This in turn hurt theaters even more, resulting in many theaters refusing to ever play Trolls World Tour (Faughnder, 2020).
Kyra Moos
DeletePart 2
I believe that the film industry ultimately will overcome the challenges faced due to COVID-19. As COVID-19 has finally begun to subside, movies such as Spiderman: No Way Home brought in revenue for theaters. As vaccination rates increase, more and more people are beginning to feel comfortable going out in public for entertainment. It was even AMC’s best quarter they have had in two years. (Lang & Maas, 2022). Disney also opened titles such as Black Widow and Jungle Cruise in theaters and on Disney+’s Premier Access (McClintock, 2022).
The ways in which the film industry operated have been dramatically changed. I do not think that the movie industry will eventually return to pre-COVID practices because of the significant change in consumer behavior. Last year, 55% of Americans said they would prefer to see a movie at home via streaming service than in movie theaters (Forrester, 2021). For this reason more and more companies value subscriptions and large content libraries over box office sales. Large content libraries means more content spending than ever before. Streaming services aim to appeal to audiences through having many options. People love to have options to scroll through. Releasing movies via streaming services requires faster turnarounds and therefore allows more content to be made at a faster pace than ever before.
Streaming services and the film industry is undergoing a huge period of growth and expansion. As companies become more creative in their marketing and releasing, new opportunities will arise.
Works Cited
Faughnder, R. (2020, April 28). AMC says it will boycott universal movies as 'trolls' battle heats up. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 21, 2022, from https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2020-04-28/is-trolls-world-tour-the-future-of-movies-theaters-insist-no
Forrester. (2021, December 10). Post-pandemic media consumption: Online streaming accelerates a new content experience. Forbes. Retrieved March 21, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forrester/2021/06/28/post-pandemic-media-consumption-online-streaming-accelerates-a-new-content-experience/?sh=1a03ce4f18cf
Lang, B., & Maas, J. (2022, March 2). AMC earnings climb thanks to 'spider-man: No way home'; Theater chain to experiment with 'the Batman' variable ticket pricing. Variety. Retrieved March 21, 2022, from https://variety.com/2022/film/news/amc-earnings-q4-spider-man-no-way-home-box-office-1235193411/
McClintock, P. (2022, January 12). "it's a leaner, meaner business": Hollywood braces for volatile 2022 box office. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 21, 2022, from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/box-office-2022-1235070014/
Katie Mone
ReplyDeleteWe’ve seen time and time again how hard different media industries have been hit by the global pandemic. The current state of the film industry is just another example of COVID’s substantial impact on media consumption. As the pandemic amped up and streaming services continue to dominate in the media world while we were all stuck at home in quarantine, we saw a drastic decrease in traditional film viewing. Filming movies became very difficult. Going to the movie theater was no longer an option for many months. The whole industry saw significant decrease and disinterest from the public. But as COVID regulations are changing as the virus settles, the film industry might be able to bounce back.
As someone who has always enjoyed going to the movies, not being able to do so during the pandemic was discouraging. However, it’s not like we were missing too much. Many film productions were slowed or put on pause so not many new movies were being released. 2020 was a tough year for the film industry, but 2021 wasn’t much better. Deadline’s annual survey showed “largely diluted box office grosses and lackluster home viewership for major studio theatrical day-and-date movies” (D’Alessandro). This is very significant but also very telling of the times we’ve been living in.
COVID certainly put a damper on things, but not all hope is lost for 2022 as more and more people are comfortable going to the movies again. One source even shared that Hollywood tentpoles are returning to “big ticket sales” (Vlessing) at Cineplex, the local multiplex. But the movie industry continues to see the unfortunate pattern brought upon by the pandemic, “as blockbusters are released in theaters and smaller product likely heads straight to streaming services” (Vlessing). There is still a large demographic of individuals, including myself, who are interested in attending theaters even post-Omicron. But we are definitely seeing the select few number of at-home viewers steadily increase. People have grown accustomed to the convenience factor of streaming since quarantine and that is something I don’t think can ever be reversed.
I don’t think the industry will ever completely go back to how it was pre-COVID, but they can certainly try and are already taking steps to make things feel normal. It’s hard to say what the future will look like for those in the movie business. One Variety article talks about post-pandemic Hollywood, explaining that working in entertainment will probably never be the same. To give an idea of the current state of the entertainment workplace, nearly “80% of ViacomCBS’ more than 20,000 staffers will work in a hybrid environment after the pandemic” (Lang). But a positive to come out of working on movie sets is productivity has actually increased. Jason Blum, producer of Get Out and The Purge, gave his input regarding on-set work. “The work got more efficient. There’s not a lot of chitter-chatter and socializing. People want to get in there, get the work done and get home so they can take their mask off’” (Lang).
DeleteI would say that I see a few long-term changes in the film industry and movie consumption, but I do appreciate that they are trying to accommodate for everyone. There’s no doubt that the film industry has been one of the mose severely affected by COVID. Some of those working in entertainment are still not totally comfortable with returning to 100% in-person work. Movie theaters still don’t look like they did pre-pandemic, and streaming services are not helping their case. But it’s is evident that efforts have been made to return to normalcy.
Works Cited
D'Alessandro, A. (2022, January 3). With tentpoles bound to surge the 2022 box office, the Great Theatrical-Streaming Day & Date Experiment Goes Out like a dud in 2021. Deadline. Retrieved March 22, 2022, from https://deadline.com/2022/01/2022-box-office-theatrical-streaming-day-date-experiment-1234902774/
Lang, B. (2022, March 19). Post-pandemic Hollywood: Why working in entertainment will never be the same. Variety. Retrieved March 22, 2022, from https://variety.com/2021/film/entertainment-industry/working-in-hollywood-after-covid-19-1234932406/
Vlessing, E. (2022, February 11). Cineplex CEO: Specialty Box Office will rebound post-omicron. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 22, 2022, from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/cineplex-ceo-specialty-box-office-will-rebound-post-omicron-1235091808/
The biggest impact of both the pandemic and the streaming wars on the U.S film industry is that fewer people are watching new film releases in movie theaters. According to the Hollywood Reporter “revenue at the North American box office jumped 101 percent over 2020 but still lagged far behind pre-pandemic levels” (McClintock). Because of the pandemic, the movie theaters were closed, and we were not able to go to them. However, now we can go without restrictions again. According to Variety “AMC Entertainment, the exhibition giant that became an improbable meme stock, posted revenues $1.2 billion during the holiday quarter as “Spider-Man: No Way Home” galvanized ticket sales at the company. That Q4 performance, revealed Tuesday by AMC, represented a huge jump from the $162.5 million in revenues that AMC posted in the year-ago period and marked the best quarter for the company in two years” (Lang). This is great news for the film industry. However, I think that this jump is also because people are excited to go to the movie theater again because we were physically not allowed to go, but when people have gone once or twice that exciting feeling is gone. During the pandemic, a lot of people had more spare time than pre-COVID. We saw that streaming subscription spiked. According to Statista “A record year that saw Netflix add 36 million subscribers in 2020” (Richter). I do think that this shift in how people watch movies will lead to long-term changes in the movie industry. The reason why I think this is going to happen is because people consumed movies on streaming services during COVID-19, and I think they liked the convenience. They liked the convenience that they have a lot of choices, they can decide what time they will watch the movie. Another big factor is Gen-Z. Gen-Z is so used to streaming services that they often forget about movie theaters. During COVID-19 big blockbusters were released on streaming services instead of in the movie theater. I hope that the film industry is going to release the new blockbusters in the movie theaters again instead of on streaming services. I know they are already doing this, but I hope they keep doing it. I do think the movie theater industry should be worried. However, I do not think that movie theaters will go bankrupt, but they will not be so popular as pre-COVID. Going to the movie theater is a unique experience. Movie theaters have to keep investing in their chairs, food, speakers, quality, so the experience stays unique. I think it is never going to be the same as pre-COVID. It is a cultural/social shift in how we consume movies.
ReplyDeleteWorks Cited
Lang, Brent. “AMC Earnings Climb Thanks to 'Spider-Man: No Way Home'; Theater Chain to Experiment with 'the Batman' Variable Ticket Pricing.” Variety, Variety, 2 Mar. 2022, https://variety.com/2022/film/news/amc-earnings-q4-spider-man-no-way-home-box-office-1235193411/.
McClintock, Pamela. “Box Office Ends Year 60 Percent behind 2019 with $4.5B Domestically.” The Hollywood Reporter, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 Jan. 2022, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/2021-box-office- revenue-stormy-year-1235067966/.
Richter, Felix. “Netflix Sees Slowest Growth in Years Following Pandemic Spurt.” Statista Infographics, 21 Jan. 2022, www.statista.com/chart/21465/global-paid-net-subscriber-additions-by-netflix.
Fleur Cordier
ReplyDeleteThe biggest impact of both the pandemic and the streaming wars on the U.S film industry is that fewer people are watching new film releases in movie theaters. According to the Hollywood Reporter “revenue at the North American box office jumped 101 percent over 2020 but still lagged far behind pre-pandemic levels” (McClintock). Because of the pandemic, the movie theaters were closed, and we were not able to go to them. However, now we can go without restrictions again. According to Variety “AMC Entertainment, the exhibition giant that became an improbable meme stock, posted revenues $1.2 billion during the holiday quarter as “Spider-Man: No Way Home” galvanized ticket sales at the company. That Q4 performance, revealed Tuesday by AMC, represented a huge jump from the $162.5 million in revenues that AMC posted in the year-ago period and marked the best quarter for the company in two years” (Lang). This is great news for the film industry. However, I think that this jump is also because people are excited to go to the movie theater again because we were physically not allowed to go, but when people have gone once or twice that exciting feeling is gone. During the pandemic, a lot of people had more spare time than pre-COVID. We saw that streaming subscription spiked. According to Statista “A record year that saw Netflix add 36 million subscribers in 2020” (Richter). I do think that this shift in how people watch movies will lead to long-term changes in the movie industry. The reason why I think this is going to happen is because people consumed movies on streaming services during COVID-19, and I think they liked the convenience. They liked the convenience that they have a lot of choices, they can decide what time they will watch the movie. Another big factor is Gen-Z. Gen-Z is so used to streaming services that they often forget about movie theaters. During COVID-19 big blockbusters were released on streaming services instead of in the movie theater. I hope that the film industry is going to release the new blockbusters in the movie theaters again instead of on streaming services. I know they are already doing this, but I hope they keep doing it. I do think the movie theater industry should be worried. However, I do not think that movie theaters will go bankrupt, but they will not be so popular as pre-COVID. Going to the movie theater is a unique experience. Movie theaters have to keep investing in their chairs, food, speakers, quality, so the experience stays unique. I think it is never going to be the same as pre-COVID. It is a cultural/social shift in how we consume movies.
Works Cited
Lang, Brent. “AMC Earnings Climb Thanks to 'Spider-Man: No Way Home'; Theater Chain to Experiment with 'the Batman' Variable Ticket Pricing.” Variety, Variety, 2 Mar. 2022, https://variety.com/2022/film/news/amc-earnings-q4-spider-man-no-way-home-box-office-1235193411/.
McClintock, Pamela. “Box Office Ends Year 60 Percent behind 2019 with $4.5B Domestically.” The Hollywood Reporter, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 Jan. 2022, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/2021-box-office- revenue-stormy-year-1235067966/.
Richter, Felix. “Netflix Sees Slowest Growth in Years Following Pandemic Spurt.” Statista Infographics, 21 Jan. 2022, www.statista.com/chart/21465/global-paid-net-subscriber-additions-by-netflix.
Fleur Cordier, Sorry for the spam... The third one is the right one!
ReplyDelete