The Film Industry Has Had A Heart Attack

[clearspira]

Recently in another thread I noted that Disney is in serious trouble with 28,000 redundancies confirmed. Now we have 45,000 cinema jobs going that are not going to return until next year minimum.

Films will continue of course, they'll go streaming. But at a radically decreased rate. Probably with decreased budgets, probably with less fanfare. Probably as a series instead of an actual feature film as that will work better with the format. But for all intents and purposes, the entertainment industry as we knew it will take years to recover from this if at all.

And BTW, the producers of James Bond are short-sighted. I can understand why they delayed those films, but there won't be any cinemas to put them in if they wait until next year.

[CharlesPhipps]

Given that television show budgets are now in the area that movie budgets used to be, I think this issue is smaller than people imagine.

I also intend to return to movies ONCE A VACCINE IS OUT.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

From what we know about the virus, I don't really get how movie theaters come off as particularly high risk. I mean I'm not sure if that's how people see them or if it's faithful caution. The popcorn's only handled by one person, and yeah I could probably work to not make any real contact with the seat other than sitting in it. Unless you're bellowing with laughter in the auditorium, I don't see how discretely eating popcorn in there is risky.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Via Healthline:

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/despite-new-safety-guidelines-experts-say-movie-theaters-are-high-risk#Health-experts-say-its-too-soon-for-movie-theaters-to-reopen

“Extrapolating to the movie theater question, it is even harder to make such decisions because we cannot necessarily check the address and prevent people from one area with high COVID rates from going to an open theater in another area which has low COVID rates,” Narasimhan said.

“So I would require a much lower county-wide transmission rate to open an indoor entertainment venue than say a school. But of course, this is a public health and political decision.”

[Captain Crimson]

While my thoughts and hopes and prayers go to those affected by the disease, as a business, I hardly feel sorry for them.

They're struggling, we can all see that. What would help keep them afloat, even to a small extent, until the next wave of movies? Letting the old guard write more SWL stories, and they won't even let them do that. It's like Ms. Kennedy's firing of so many directors over "creative" differences. Mr. Karpyshyn would love to write a sequel to the DBT, a Darth Zannah book, and she won't even let him do that. He confirms on Twitter they are not interested. Make no mistake, COVID just exposed what were already shoddy and self-sabotaging business practices. A Darth Zannah book would sell like hotcakes, and I wanna read it.

But nah, we're too "dumb" to understand the concept of parallel timelines, evidently.

[Makeshift Python]

From what we know about the virus, I don't really get how movie theaters come off as particularly high risk. I mean I'm not sure if that's how people see them or if it's faithful caution. The popcorn's only handled by one person, and yeah I could probably work to not make any real contact with the seat other than sitting in it. Unless you're bellowing with laughter in the auditorium, I don't see how discretely eating popcorn in there is risky.

It just comes down to the fact that despite the low turnout in the US is due to people simply not feeling safe to go to the movies, especially since we have the worst cases in the world. It may be technically safer to go to theaters than a grocery store, but I think it just comes down to people prioritizing things over theaters, especially since we have enough of that at home with streaming. Then you have to consider how bad unemployment is, and that people don't want to spend money at a theater.

Theater chains and studios are better off at this point trying to get congress to send relief, using the "save the arts" motto and such. We'll see how that works out.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

From what we know about the virus, I don't really get how movie theaters come off as particularly high risk. I mean I'm not sure if that's how people see them or if it's faithful caution. The popcorn's only handled by one person, and yeah I could probably work to not make any real contact with the seat other than sitting in it. Unless you're bellowing with laughter in the auditorium, I don't see how discretely eating popcorn in there is risky.

It just comes down to the fact that despite the low turnout in the US is due to people simply not feeling safe to go to the movies, especially since we have the worst cases in the world. It may be technically safer to go to theaters than a grocery store, but I think it just comes down to people prioritizing things over theaters, especially since we have enough of that at home with streaming. Then you have to consider how bad unemployment is, and that people don't want to spend money at a theater.

Theater chains and studios are better off at this point trying to get congress to send relief, using the "save the arts" motto and such. We'll see how that works out.

I'm just making sure I don't come off as an asshole for seeing Tenet 3 times.

[Deledrius]

From what we know about the virus, I don't really get how movie theaters come off as particularly high risk

It doesn't matter if it's high risk, as long as it's completely voluntary and non-essential. I might be willing to take the risk for something important, but the more trivial the activity the less the risk has to be to be outweighed. I can watch movies from home, and heck, I don't even need to watch "new" ones. There are plenty I haven't seen that have been out for years. May as well use this as an opportunity to catch up. I have no obligation to prop up an ethically-dubious industry with my health, just because.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

If it was true, it might be nice.
If it was true, the death would be followed by something newer and better, rising to fill the void.
If it was true.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

From what we know about the virus, I don't really get how movie theaters come off as particularly high risk

It doesn't matter if it's high risk, as long as it's completely voluntary and non-essential. I might be willing to take the risk for something important, but the more trivial the activity the less the risk has to be to be outweighed. I can watch movies from home, and heck, I don't even need to watch "new" ones. There are plenty I haven't seen that have been out for years. May as well use this as an opportunity to catch up. I have no obligation to prop up an ethically-dubious industry with my health, just because.

That's good and all, but our social ordinance has moved beyond only go out for groceries and supplies and walks. Describing it as non essential puts into question most anything people are doing during the day.