What has been the biggest impact of the pandemic
thus far on Hollywood/the entertainment industry? Which industry or group has
the most to lose? Which industries/companies could possibly gain/benefit from
the current situation? Do you think the pandemic will have any lasting impact/creating
any long-term changes in the entertainment industry? Limit: 8 responses
Works Cited
ReplyDeleteInsignares, Gio. “Amount of money lost from NCAA Tournament cancellation is staggering.” WUSA9, 18 Mar. 2020, https://www.wusa9.com/article/sports/the-amount-of-money-lost-from-the-ncaa-tournament-cancellation-is-staggering/65-cec95da1-2d01-4613-bbf8-543d60d26033
Littleton, Cynthia, “Hollywood Braces for Coronavirus Financial Hit That Could Change the Industry Forever.” Variety, Mar. 2020, https://variety.com/2020/biz/features/hollywood-coronavirus-financial-festivals-film-television-production-1203537442/
Travers, Ben. “Streaming Wars: Which Companies Are Built to Endure Coronavirus Delays?” IndieWire, 15 Mar. 2020, https://www.indiewire.com/2020/03/streaming-wars-netflix-hulu-coronavirus-delays-1202217651/
It is hard to predict how things could change in an unprecedented situation like this, but, so far, one of the biggest impacts in Hollywood, seems to be on pilot season. Pilot season is in spring and it’s when companies greenlight series for the next few months (Kilkenny). But, the disruption in pilot season is really only one aspect of the hardest hit part of Hollywood: production. Productions involve large amounts of people all working together at one time. Since there are CDC-recommended restrictions on work and gathering, this part of Hollywood is being hit hardest. Within this production part of the industry, “gig workers” are feeling the hit the most, according to Kilkenny, “Hollywood's freelance, below-the-line employees are feeling the brunt of the industry slowdown. Unlike office workers, production employees cannot do their work from home or remotely.” These workers, including anyone working in production as a whole, have the most to lose. Production employees find work on a job-to-job basis, meaning they don’t have a secure career like higher-up employees, and they often don’t receive healthcare or paid sick leave (Kilkenny). So, as productions are paused, pushed back, or even canceled indefinitely, a few weeks of unemployment could have very serious impact on these workers extending past those few weeks. And, although I will suggest that streamers are benefiting right now, production problems affect streaming as well as the traditional studios which is why I would suggest that production right now is a bigger problem than distribution.
ReplyDeleteLike I said, the streamers are the most likely to benefit from the situation for obvious reasons like indefinite isolation and boredom. Although streamers, like Netflix, who rely on originals could still feel the pain of production problems, many are currently benefiting from the pandemic with most people having nothing better to do. But, the streaming war still wages on. There are definitely still tiers to the benefits that these streamers are receiving because, as we know by now, they’re not all created equal. Disney+ is probably the best equipped for the long haul because, “Disney+ can keep releasing ‘new’ content for months, opening up that fabled Disney vault and highlighting old gems long forgotten as a means to freshen up their homepage” (Travers). Additionally, streamers with classic, long-running TV shows with loyal fan bases are in a good position. For instance, HBO has some of the “best television shows of all time” with wide appeal like “The Wire,” “The Sopranos,” “Friends,” and “The Big Bang Theory” (Travers). But of course, money is vital right now. So, Amazon Prime and Apple TV are likely to do okay as well simply because they are a branch of widely profitable tech companies (Travers).
I think the pandemic will cause delays in production that could be felt potentially for years to come until the schedule can get back on track. But, I’m skeptical of permanent changes to decades-old, industry-wide, scheduling conventions. Additionally, I don’t think the pandemic will lead to the permanent closure and devaluation of theaters. The people I’ve talked to are dying to go to the movies right now and get out of their houses. When cinemas reopen, I think people will be more enthusiastic than ever to go to a movie, and a boom like that could go towards the increasing profit loses for theaters right now. It will not be enough to cover the total loses but analysts shouldn’t write-off theaters altogether. Hopefully, the problems facing production crews and other “gig workers” will spark a bigger conversation about the lack of job benefits, job insecurity, and low wages that this group faced even before the pandemic began. Although, huge companies like the ones that currently dominate film and TV are not necessarily known for taking loses in order to make “below-the-line,” hourly workers more content. Am I being too cynical?
DeleteI think the other obvious, long-lasting impact will simply be the financial state of big studios. Yes, the big players in the film industry are making huge lumps of money, but they also pay huge price tags to produce films. As the season for blockbuster movie releases nears, the situation seems increasingly dire. The potential financial loses would come from both domestic and global box office failures, seeing that this is a global pandemic. China is as much of a part of blockbuster success as domestic sales, and the country has closed 70,000-some theaters (Lee). Already anticipating the detrimental loses of releasing a movie like No Time to Die now, MGM, Universal, and producers for the 25th James Bond installment decided to push the release from April all the way to Thanksgiving for theaters seeing that it could not afford to lose money on a film that already took $250 million to make (Lee). I think the biggest impacts on Hollywood will be financial before they are about scheduling, the cycle or some other insignificant factor in comparison.
Works Cited
Kilkenny, Katie. “Below-the-Line Hollywood Faces Sudden Unemployment Amid Coronavirus: ‘It's a Disaster.’” The Hollywood Reporter, 18 Mar. 2020, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/below-line-hollywood-faces-sudden-unemployment-coronavirus-a-disaster-1285110. Accessed 25 March 2020.
Lee, Chris. “Coronavirus Will Have 'Disastrous' Effects on the Movie Business.” Vulture, Vulture, 6 Mar. 2020, www.vulture.com/2020/03/coronavirus-will-have-disastrous-effects-on-movie-business.html. Accessed 25 March 2020.
Travers, Ben. “Streaming Wars: Which Companies Are Built to Endure Coronavirus Delays?” IndieWire, 15 Mar. 2020, www.indiewire.com/2020/03/streaming-wars-netflix-hulu-coronavirus-delays-1202217651/. Accessed 25 March 2020.
I’m really tired of COVID-19 causing so many problems, and I’m sure most people will agree with me. Something that really bothers me is how this pandemic is affecting Hollywood and the entertainment industry. Films and television shows have had release dates pushed back and productions halted, so I’m a little concerned about what this means for my future and the future of others working in the entertainment industry.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I’ve read, I believe the biggest impact on Hollywood so far is the uncertainty of production schedules. So many films and shows are budgeted with plans of specific release dates that are expected to yield the most financial benefit, but those plans have now become moot due to the ambiguity of the pandemic. Something like the Summer Olympics being rescheduled to the summer of 2021 could put advertising plans, movie and television premieres, and festivals into disarray (Littleton and Low). As someone who loves to have a plan set up, I can only imagine how difficult this uncertainty must be for the people who have developed these strategies and the people who were planning to get hired for certain projects.
I think we may finally see the ultimate downfall of the movie theater industry. This industry has been struggling even before the pandemic. As movie theaters have shut down indefinitely to follow CDC guidelines, some studios are testing an on-demand release for recent films that had theater time cut short (Masters). Unfortunately, I really don’t see many audiences going for on-demand options because people have just been using their streaming services to watch content. I’ll admit I am one of those people who will wait for a blockbuster movie to appear on my streaming service in a few months. Many people have become accustomed to either binge watching or waiting for certain movies to appear on streamers, so theaters don’t have much of a leg to stand on.
The time has come for streamers to take over the entertainment industry. The pandemic has done the one thing streamers rely on—keep people in their homes with nothing to do but watch video content. It’s time to finally watch all the shows and movies you said you’d get to when you had more free time. If there is any positive to this pandemic, it is the fact that we have a ton of entertainment easily accessible on our computers, phones, and televisions. Netflix has already been keeping audiences engaged with eight new releases on March 13th; Disney+ also released Frozen 2 on March 14th in response to more families being stuck at home (Travers). The streamers are poised to be there for audiences when television shows and movies may release later than scheduled.
There is no doubt in my mind that the entertainment industry will be able to bounce back from all these delays, but I think the way Hollywood distributes films may change and I’m worried about the fate of the independent film industry. The cancelation of the South by Southwest festival and the delay of Cannes Film Festival does not bode well for the films that were going to be showcased (Wilkinson). These festivals are extremely important for indie filmmakers who are looking to get recognized in the industry. It may be harder for indie filmmakers to recover compared to people established in Hollywood. I also think that movie theaters are going to have a very hard time coming back from this loss of business. It may be time for Hollywood to give in to streamer distribution and change the film industry for everyone.
Works Cited
DeleteLittleton, Cynthia, and Elaine Low. “Hollywood Braces for Coronavirus Financial Hit That Could Change the Industry Forever.” Variety, 18 Mar. 2020, variety.com/2020/biz/features/hollywood-coronavirus-financial-festivals-film-television-production-1203537442/. Accessed 26 Mar. 2020.
Masters, Kim. “Virus Crisis Forces Hollywood to Reckon With Collapsing Theatrical Windows.” The Hollywood Reporter, 19 Mar. 2020, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/virus-crisis-forces-hollywood-reckon-collapsing-theatrical-windows-1285366?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR%27s%20Today%20in%20Entertainment_2020-03-20%2007:15:00_aweprin&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_tie. Accessed 26 Mar. 2020.
Travers, Ben. “Streaming Wars: Which Companies Are Built to Endure Coronavirus Delays?” IndieWire, 15 Mar. 2020, www.indiewire.com/2020/03/streaming-wars-netflix-hulu-coronavirus-delays-1202217651/. Accessed 26 Mar. 2020.
Wilkinson, Alissa. “How the Coronavirus Outbreak Is Roiling the Film and Entertainment Industries.” Vox, 10 Mar. 2020, www.vox.com/culture/2020/3/10/21173376/coronavirus-cancel-delay-wonder-woman-olympics-cannes-disney. Accessed 26 Mar. 2020.
Brett Gosselin
ReplyDeleteWrestlemania will be in front of zero fans. If you know wrestling in any way you know how crazy that statement is for a lot of people, the biggest sports entertainment shows In the world will have played out in front of zero present fans. That’s how hard COVID-19 has hit the entire world and the entire entertainment industry is suffering. What we are facing in the world today is unprecedented, everything is shut down, I’m stuck in my home on campus and the entertainment industry should be thriving right now. It’s not though, movie theaters are shut down, Broadway shows have been postponed, the WWE is performing in front of empty arenas at their performance center. It’s an incredibly weird time for the entertainment industry. So many films have been pushed back, such as the new Fast and Furious movie and the new James Bond film, films I was genuinely excited to see. Now one is delayed until November and the other isn’t coming out until next year. You question what industry out of all of this has the most to lose and it’s no doubt the film industry. Right now, all theaters are closed, and no movies are being released. When the industry you work for relies on that what can you really do? To me it shows there’s still a place for theaters in today’s world as there’s no way you could release films on streaming services such as Netflix because they wouldn’t be able to get their money back. Some studios have changed it up such as releasing some on demand movies but then will release statements such as “Sony Pictures is firmly committed to theatrical exhibition and we support windowing,” he said. “This is a unique and exceedingly rare circumstance.” (Littleton, 2020) Why releases this movie? And why not release the other movies I mentioned earlier? Because this film wasn’t expected to draw as much as the others. Bloodshot doesn’t have the same name value as Fast and Furious or the James Bond franchise. With that said, it was expected for this movie to not draw as well as those other franchises. Sony was most likely expecting a loss on that Bloodshot, so they had no real issue releasing it on demand. Right now, with no theaters open there no way to make box office money. So these movie studios had no choice but to delay these films and make no money. Not to mention production has halted on a lot of sets because of this outbreak. Overall production on movies has completely ceased and movies being released just isn’t common right now. When an entire industry is stopped and virtually can’t do anything due to this entire outbreak its safe to say that it’s the most affected out of all of them.
Masters, Kim. “Virus Crisis Forces Hollywood to Reckon With Collapsing Theatrical Windows.” The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Mar. 2020, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/virus-crisis-forces-hollywood-reckon-collapsing-theatrical-windows-1285366?utm_source=Sailthru&%3Butm_medium=email&%3Butm_campaign=THR%27s%2BToday%2Bin%2BEntertainment_2020-03-20%2B07%3A15%3A00_aweprin&%3Butm_term=hollywoodreporter_tie.
Littleton, Cynthia, and Elaine Low. “Hollywood Braces for Coronavirus Financial Hit That Could Change the Industry Forever.” Variety, 19 Mar. 2020, variety.com/2020/biz/features/hollywood-coronavirus-financial-festivals-film-television-production-1203537442/.
Travers, Ben. “Streaming Wars: Which Companies Are Built to Endure Coronavirus Delays?” IndieWire, 15 Mar. 2020, www.indiewire.com/2020/03/streaming-wars-netflix-hulu-coronavirus-delays-1202217651/.
Kayla Gaudet
ReplyDeleteThe outbreak of COVID-19 has caused chaos across the globe. It’s affected everyone’s lives whether it’s closing down schools, shutting cities down, or putting massive amounts of Americans out of work. When we look specifically at media, we can see a major change in the success of certain industries. During this pandemic, the film and tv industry has taken a major hit. In an article written by The Variety, it discusses how the movie theatre and Disney Park shutdowns will have a major impact on those employed at these establishments, and how it will start to climb the ladder. Millions of Americans will already be out of a job just from shutting these places down, but it won’t stop there. The article explains that at the end of this chaos, it appears that only the strongest companies will survive. Many TV shows and movies that were prepared to launch are going to spend millions in marketing to push their dates back, and some networks won’t have the money to make that happen. The Variety explained as an example how “Fast and Furious 9” was originally set to release on May 22 but has now been pushed to April 2, 2021 which will cost millions in marketing changes. Disney, one of the top conglomerates will also take a major hit due to the live-action remake of “Mulan” being pushed back. One of the biggest impacts for the TV industry will be the 2020 Olympics being pushed a year. The effects this will have on Comcast will be astronomical as they will lose all the money they put into marketing. On top of that, The Hollywood Reporter discusses the effects of all TV shows stopping production. The article explains the two different types of shutdowns. Broadcast TV for example, has been stopped altogether until further notice. On the other hand, cable or streaming shows have had some dates shifted but haven’t stopped. Just like the movie industry, some networks will suffer from these shutdowns and it won’t be too easy to get started once this is all over. Some networks might not be financially stable enough to keep going after a certain point and we may see some major shifts in content.
While the TV and movie industry seem to be struggling, it appears that this is the perfect time for the music industry to flourish in certain aspects. Although the cancellation of concerts took a major toll on artists, the radio industry is booming. According to BBC, streaming of radio stations has gone up by 18%, while streaming apps such as Spotify have taken a small dip. Not only does the radio have the entertainment aspect, but it also gives people quick updates on the virus, which has constantly been on everyone’s minds. With the cancellation of many big events such as Coachella, Tours, Movie releases, and other events, this could have a major impact on the entire entertainment industry. I see the movie and tv industry taking major loses by the end of this pandemic. Although some artists will take a hit for the cancellation of their tours and the drop is Spotify streaming, they will still be able to stay afloat. However, the tv and film industry is at a standstill until further notice. Not only are they losing money in marketing redoes, but they have had to put a stop to all filming which will take them very off schedule, forcing them to release content much later than expected. Although some companies will have the funds to tread water for a bit, smaller companies will most likely suffer or possibly shut down.
“Coronavirus: Radio Listening Booms While Music Streaming Stalls.” BBC News, BBC, 25 Mar. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/technology-52037461.
Goldberg, Lesley. “TV Has Mostly Stopped Production. What Happens Next?” The Hollywood Reporter, 19 Mar. 2020, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-has-stopped-production-what-happens-next-1285099.
Littleton, Cynthia, and Elaine Low. “Hollywood Braces for Coronavirus Financial Hit That Could Change the Industry Forever.” Variety, 19 Mar. 2020, variety.com/2020/biz/features/hollywood-coronavirus-financial-festivals-film-television-production-1203537442/.