Back to the Theaters

WITH THE FALLING OFF OF THEATERS AND THE RISING UP OF STREAMING SERVICES, THE FUTURE OF CINEMA IS UNCERTAIN

After nearly 18 months of the pandemic and the shutdowns, social unrest, and political upheaval that came with it, we are only beginning to understand the ramifications of COVID-19. There hasn’t been one part of our world that wasn’t dramatically altered by the effects of COVID-19 and the world it wrought, and yes, that includes movies. Flashback to late 2019, when moviegoers were still going to their local theaters to watch “Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker” and looking forward to seeing movies like “Wonder Woman 1984” the following summer. As 2020 came to an end, many of those same people were forced to watch the heroine’s second movie debut from their own homes. “My wife and I watched the new Wonder Woman movie on HBO Max, and not in theaters,” said Spanish teacher and self-proclaimed nerd, Kenneth Beiser. “Going to the theater is an experience. I mean, getting your popcorn, getting your drink, going to your seat in a dark room, being cut-off from everything, you just can’t recreate that at home,” said Beiser. March 13, 2020. That was when the Greater Albany Public Schools closed down schools, with theaters following soon thereafter. Regal Cinemas, the second-largest movie theater chain in the U.S., was the first to announce it would close all North

By Brogan O’Hare

American locations until further notice. “Any time, at any Regal, it’s our goal to provide a safe and healthy environment for our employees and guests. At this time, we have made the difficult decision to close our theatres. We value our movie-loving customers and have no doubt we will be serving them again as soon as possible with a full slate of Hollywood blockbusters,” said Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Regal’s parent company Cineworld on March 17, 2020, in an official statement on the company’s website. Within 24 hours, AMC Theatres and others regretfully informed the public of their closures as well. But when one door closes, another opens, and that’s exactly what happened. According to a report by Nielsen Holdings, an American information, data, and market measurement firm, American consumers alone spent an estimated 400 billion minutes streaming content to their televisions over the first three weeks of March 2020, an approximate 85 percent increase from the same period in March 2019. Per the report, Netflix had the biggest growth in video streaming on television at 29 percent, followed by YouTube with 20 percent, Hulu at ten percent, and Amazon Prime Video rising nine percent. Though Regal and others opened back up in April 2021, the damage had already been done. According to a study done by IBISWorld, an Industry Market Research, Reports, & Statistics company, movie theaters saw a 60.5 percent drop in sales in 2020, and have only made back an estimated 33.8 percent in 2021, meaning they’re still down 26.7 percent from what they were in 2019. This drop in revenue has not gone unnoticed. On Oct. 13, 2020, AMC admitted in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that “substantial doubt exists about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a reasonable period of time.” AMC has since received a $917 million infusion of cash through investors who purchased AMC shares during the company’s December stock offering (worth an estimated $506 million) and by taking out a line of credit through its European subsidiary, Odeon (worth an estimated $411 million). And on January 25, 2021, CEO Adam Aron put out a statement saying “This means that any talk of an imminent bankruptcy for AMC is completely off the table.” Though receiving an almost billion-dollar deal, AMC and other theaters aren’t out of the woods yet. With recent movies such as “The Suicide Squad,” “Black Widow,” and “Mulan” underpreforming at the Box Office, production agencies seem to be getting worried. Paramount Pictures pushed back “Jackass Forever” from Oct. 22, 2021 to Feb. 4, 2022 due to COVID, with actor Stephen (Steve-O) Glover stating that “the comfort level for the public to go to movie theatres has dropped down,” in an interview with Thirty Mile Zone (TMZ). Disney also had to push back the release date of “Venom: Let There Be Carnage’’ from Sep. 24 to Oct. 15, 2021. However, shortly after “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” shattered Box Office expectations opening weekend, Sony announced shortly after the push-forward of their second symbiote movie, and it’s speculated that the success of Shang-Chi might’ve been why, though this theory has not been confirmed. However, it does show that success in the Box Office is noticed and rewarded. Though the return of movie theaters has been brief, it doesn’t have to stay that way. Safely watching movies in theaters ensures their survival. Jordyn Lockwood, the assistant manager at Regal Albany Cinemas and former West student, encourages you that if you’re comfortable, come to the theater. “The company [Cineworld] feels confident in staying open,” said Lockwood. “We’ve got a routine down with the masks and everything, and we have minimal contact with the guests.” Some of our West Albany family have already started going back to theaters or have plans to, Beiser being one of them. “A friend of mine and I went to the movie theater on a night where we were like the only ones there [to see “Black Widow”] so we felt good about going to the theater during the pandemic.” Beiser went on to say that “it’s gonna be harder and harder for me to not go to the theater coming up,” expanding on his thought by saying “Let’s be real, if a “Star Wars” movie comes out I am going to the movie theater even if there is a guarantee I’ll get sick. Those movies are meant to be seen in the movie theater.” If theaters can or can’t survive COVID, if streaming services become the “new-norm” or not, that’s all up in the air right now. The success of movies coming out now may change the way we view cinema forever.