Movie industry after Covid-19

Tools    





Has anyone here thought about the movie industry after the pandemic? I think it's looking grimmer and grimmer because banks will less willingly loan small movie studios. That means fewer movies except for big blockbuster, which means less cash and fewer viewers. Overall all the situation looks more and more desperate.
What do you think?



The trick is not minding
I think it’s too early to tell yet. With many theaters re opening now, along with Drive ins experiencing a resurgence, we’ll have a clearer picture after fall and winter.



Will China become villain in Hollywood movies like Russia was in the cold war or the left’s total dominance of Hollywood nowadays will ensure that China is spared ?



I'm thinking that smaller movies will be more able to get loans because they are smaller, less risky loans. In better times, I see a lot of low budget indy films that have tiny budgets. The audiences are expected to be small so nobody is worrying that a movie that doesn't do 50 million on opening night is a crash and burn. Low budget movies generally take a while to make money, don't make anybody rich but often they do make a profit, assuming that your expectations are right.

It will be interesting to see how the profit model works for streaming movies and whether big budget movies ever make that work. I'm thinking that the studios are holding their breath, hoping that this is over "soon" (whatever that means) and that the blockbuster model can be revived. I don't know whether that will ever work the same way, but, like it or not, the experiment is ongoing now.

The movie world survived after World War II. During the war, budgets were small and movies were pretty much turned into propaganda or cheesy escapist trifles. That went on for 4 years, but after the war, Hollywood went on to bigger and better things.



Has anyone here thought about the movie industry after the pandemic? I think it's looking grimmer and grimmer because banks will less willingly loan small movie studios. That means fewer movies except for big blockbuster, which means less cash and fewer viewers. Overall all the situation looks more and more desperate.
What do you think?
One bright point IMO is that 2020 & COVID19 will both be a rich source of material for books, plays, movies, even music composition. In the same way that the Great Depression produced the book & movie The Grapes of Wrath just to give a single example. Once we hopefully survive this pandemic it will be exciting to see what these terrifying times produce in the world of entertainment.
__________________
I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.



A lot of the industry re-emergence in the U.S. may rest upon what California does. If they soon realize that this covid thing was a vast over-reaction, and rescind much of the unnecessary lockdowns, distancing, etc. the industry will come back pretty quickly.

Until then I imagine that many film makers will be looking at more friendly states for movie making to locate their productions. We'll see.



The trick is not minding
A lot of the industry re-emergence in the U.S. may rest upon what California does. If they soon realize that this covid thing was a vast over-reaction, and rescind much of the unnecessary lockdowns, distancing, etc. the industry will come back pretty quickly.

Until then I imagine that many film makers will be looking at more friendly states for movie making to locate their productions. We'll see.
That implies it was an overreaction. Even *if* one concede it *may* have been, it is always better to be safe than sorry in these situations.
The death toll is nothing to sneeze at, after all.



That implies it was an overreaction. Even *if* one concede it *may* have been, it is always better to be safe than sorry in these situations.
The death toll is nothing to sneeze at, after all.
Yours is a common sentiment. But I disagree. The CDC has admitted that only 6% of the deaths attributed to covid in the U.S. were actually caused by covid. That's 10,000 deaths. Terrible? Yes. But fewer than a typical flu season, and only a fraction of the 180,000 number being bandied about. And for that, governments have totally wrecked the economy, put millions out of work, and caused untold misery, suffering and deaths among their citizens.

"Safety" is the new totalitarianism. And if the public continues to buy into it, there can be no limit to it's application.



Yours is a common sentiment. But I disagree. The CDC has admitted that only 6% of the deaths attributed to covid in the U.S. were actually caused by covid.
This is a clear misrepresentation of the facts, I'm afraid. The actual truth is that 6% of death certificates involving COVID mention no other illness or condition, which in no way suggests that the other 94% are unrelated to COVID. In some cases they clearly are, like when the death is listed as due to respiratory issues. "We should only count the deaths from people who have pristine health" is not a serious or defensible position and isn't how we measure deaths in any other area, either.

And I suspect you'd be surprised at how mild some of the other illnesses can be, if of course you decide to interrogate these numbers rather than reflexively accept them out of confirmation bias.

Regardless, this thread is about the business impact, and should stay on that topic.



If they soon realize that this covid thing was a vast over-reaction, and rescind much of the unnecessary lockdowns, distancing, etc. the industry will come back pretty quickly.
Yes, the industry might “come back pretty quickly” & the virus could too.



Yes, the industry might “come back pretty quickly” & the virus could too.
Yeah, "coming back" is a big experiment with a deadly virus. I guess the question is how many people have to die in order to not postpone the release of another forgettable big budget action movie.

At one point in my life I actually worked in epidemiology and, it's a game of numbers when you post daily figures and calculate flattened curves, but when it's someone's family member, it's actually real and the brutal question is about how many deaths a movie is worth. I had a few close calls and had to get out of that line of work.



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
Has anyone here thought about the movie industry after the pandemic? I think it's looking grimmer and grimmer because banks will less willingly loan small movie studios. That means fewer movies except for big blockbuster, which means less cash and fewer viewers. Overall all the situation looks more and more desperate.
What do you think?
But wouldn't big blockbusters be harder to make now, because big blockbusters have larger casts, and more people on the shoots, where as movies that are not big blockbusters, usually have smaller casts, and less people working on the shoots.

So I thought therefore that smaller scale movies, would be easier to make during covid times, unless I am wrong?



But wouldn't big blockbusters be harder to make now, because big blockbusters have larger casts, and more people on the shoots, where as movies that are not big blockbusters, usually have smaller casts, and less people working on the shoots.

So I thought therefore that smaller scale movies, would be easier to make during covid times, unless I am wrong?
I'm thinking that, until this is behind us, it's smaller budgets, less FX, smaller casts, etc. It's probably also an opportunity for less known actors who take jobs for less money and can do the job as well as an actor with a big paycheck.

The results are a wild card. World War II was a similar body block to the movie industry, which had to re-tool overnight, replacing actors who were drafted, going low budget and tailoring scripts to the sentiments of the moment. Movies were considered to be essential to public morale, but had to adapt.

This will definitely re-adjust the whole theater-streaming balance.

I think it's interesting considering just how tired I had gotten last year of big budget action movies, with millions spent on digital FX, that were really no more interesting than a 30 minute TV show other than having big explosions, car wrecks, etc.

It's time for a change and now it is upon us.



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
The interesting thing is, is that now Hollywood movies have so much worse because a lot of movies are trying to be 'woke' now, and that is just getting worse, especially with the new Oscar requirements for it.

So now are we going to have a bunch of woke movies, but because of covid, they cannot afford the big budget action and FX now? So now woke movies, aren't going to have those positives either, are just going be low budget covid compromised woke movies?



The "woke" question is interesting. Given the production time, the plague will probably be on the wane before the movie pipeline catches up, but we will probably get those movies anyway. Movies about people getting sick seem like they'd be cheap on the FX, a lot like those made-for-tv, ripped from the headlines movies that have waxed and waned.



I think the bigger problem is that progressive opinion is often subject to constant revisions and increasing arcane purity tests, so the vanguard opinions tend to outflank the moderate ones. This means that even with a quick turnaround time, even very progressive notions in these shows are at danger of seeming retrograde to the kinds of people who would value them. The very first review of Woke I saw noted it seemed behind the times already. That's just built into the nature of the ideology.



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
Oh okay, are you saying that the woke agenda in a lot of Hollywood will be in the past soon theoretically then?



If I was an inspiring film maker, I'd be getting on it and making a quickie, personal type film with just a few people...Sort of like what was done with Coherence (2013). I don't mean the sci fi story stuff but the structure and type of film..It's a drama mystery set in a house and on a street and done with a small budget. I'd then stick my movie on Youtube and make it $1.99 for streaming.



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
In Canada we are seeing productions back up and running. The amount of money being spent on safety guidelines on set is being taken away from some shows budgets. Only a certain number of people allowed on set, lunch is very strict, etc.


Still too early to tell but I finally got called back to work full time at the end of August and not everyone I work with is back to full time. Once Nightmare Alley (Del Toro film) is back up, I hope the other employees will be back to full time.



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
Ontario had a second lockdown and many businesses went back on hiatus...but not the film industry. I guess cause we're essential? That can't be right, it must be because we bring in millions of dollars to the province. I guess money talks during a pandemic.

I hate it.
__________________
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews