The COVID-19 pandemic is getting deadlier by the day, and America’s go-to plan of just pretending it doesn’t exist shockingly isn’t working. 646 movie theaters have closed over the last week in the U.S. along with an additional 60 in Canada in response to the practically unchecked virus spread, and many in the industry are worried.
After a steady stream of ill-advised re-openings for theaters and other venues for public gatherings across the country, the perpetually-rising cases of this airborne virus that spreads through crowds did the unthinkable and continued to rise. Local governments began to enact emergency restrictions on such businesses as the infection and death rates reached new record numbers, leading many businesses to shut down just as quickly as they had started up again.
These closures follow a year of back and forth decisions regarding public safety, with a large number of normally crowded establishments quickly closing down early in the spring while others have remained open or re-opened as the summer went on. Notably, theaters in Los Angeles and New York City have remained closed for the current duration of the pandemic. This makes sense, due to the massive populations these two cities have, but now it seems others are being made to follow suit whether or not they agree.
Theater owners and others in the industry are understandably troubled from a financial standpoint, but taking a look at the actual revenue coming in to those which had re-opened, even keeping the theaters open isn’t enough to keep them afloat for very long. The newly released horror comedy film Freaky topped the charts over the weekend for the second time, but still only amounted to $1.2 million. It’s becoming painfully clear that the theater industry likely won’t survive in its traditional form on its own.
It’s understandable. Theater owners are in a difficult position. On one hand, they have a moral obligation to keep their customers safe, which means remaining closed during the pandemic. But on the other hand, movie theaters survive off the revenue of said customers. Without that steady stream, their only hope is outside assistance such as a bailout. Some have floated the idea of appealing to Congress for support, which would be a tough road at the moment since they currently have other issues occupying their time.
So what can be done to, at the very least, slow the decline of movie theaters? Perhaps a technological adjustment to get more with the times? Maybe leaning more into advertising private watch parties for small groups? It’s a lot to deal with, and since things are still likely to get worse before they get better, it looks like movie fans can expect more solemn news like this in the near future. Hopefully things quiet down a bit politically in January, leading to a Congress more amiable when dealing with requests for aid like this.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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