Say Goodbye to Movie Theaters. For now.

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/03/the-coronavirus-pandemic-is-hollywoods-nightmare/608104/

When MGM delayed the release of the next James Bond movie, No Time to Die, on March 4, it was a decision made in the face of economic realities. Because of the spread of the coronavirus, movie theaters were closed all across China, and there were growing concerns that large gatherings in mainland Europe would soon need to be limited. But no other studio immediately followed suit; MGM seemed to be in a uniquely precarious position, needing the Bond film to open big, because it had little else on its 2020 slate.

What a difference a couple of weeks make.

The dominoes are now falling for the rest of Hollywood: Fast & Furious 9 was pushed from May to April of next year. A Quiet Place Part II was delayed indefinitely. Disney actually held some press screenings of its Mulan remake, but then announced that it would be delayed, along with the planned April releases of The New Mutants and Antlers. As of now, the next wide release being planned by a major studio is Universal’s Trolls World Tour on April 10. But it will likely have to wait, along with big May releases such as Marvel’s Black Widow. (Today, NBCUniversal said that several of its films, including Trolls World Tour, would be available on demand to rent as soon as they hit theaters.) It’s hard to guess when normalcy will return and when people will feel comfortable going back to crowded movie theaters—if the theaters are even allowed to reopen.

Many major municipalities, such as New York and Los Angeles, have closed all movie theaters as part of wider bans on group gatherings. The theaters that remain open around America are trying to limit audience sizes—AMC and Regal, the country’s two biggest cinema chains, have reduced capacity by 50 percent in all their screens. Last weekend’s box office sold a total of about $55.3 million in tickets, the worst figure for Hollywood since 2000 (without adjusting for inflation).

It’s hard to offer any meaningful analysis of the weekend’s box office. Pixar’s Onward was still No. 1, but dipped 73 percent from the weekend before, almost double the typical kind of drop for a children’s animated feature. Vin Diesel’s action flick Bloodshot and the inspirational Christian drama I Still Believe both took about $9 million. Also on offer to viewers are the controversial Blumhouse thriller The Hunt and leftovers such as The Invisible Man, Sonic the Hedgehog, and The Way Back. Whatever theaters do stay open in the coming weeks will have little else to tempt viewers with.

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