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Rabat – The Covid-19 Pandemic left no stone unturned, affecting every facet of our lives. Worsening the global economy, the pandemic also contributed to increasing unemployment and closing businesses, upended the educational system of several countries with the closure of schools, paved the way for further inequality and discrimination, and completely disabled the entertainment industry beginning with sports and ending with cinema.
Lockdowns imposed by many countries to stop the spread of Covid-19 completely disabled the entertainment industry. Movie theaters shut down, and shooting was delayed, costing the industry millions of dollars. Even after lockdowns were lifted, many people were still afraid to go to packed places, including movie theaters as well.
The global box office pulled over 42 billion dollars in 2019, but the numbers then dropped exponentially to 11 billion dollars the following year. The industry experienced a partial recovery with revenues that totaled 21 billion dollars in 2021, according to a survey published by Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA).
Hollywood is the biggest and most powerful conglomerate of movie production companies, among which are six major studios often referred to as “The Big Six”. It makes up to 90% of the American and Canadian box office, providing a little over two million jobs and supporting more than 200,000 businesses.
Now that lockdowns have been lifted and safety protocols respected, the movie industry’s next challenge was to convince people to go back to theaters. A task that Tom Cruise completely understood with the release of his long awaited movie ‘Top-Gun: Maverick’, a sequel to the 1986 movie ‘Top Gun’.
Starring and produced by Tom Cruise, with a budget of over 170 million dollars, the film made 1.4 billion dollars at the global box office. An achievement that made Steven Spielberg, director of films such as ‘Saving Private Ryan’, ‘Schindler’s List’, and ‘Jaws’, tell Tom Cruise during the Oscars nominees luncheon “‘Maverick’ might have saved the entire theatrical industry.”
Other major films also played a part in bringing people back to movie theaters after the pandemic. For instance, A24 film ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ collected 7 Academy Awards, and 140 million dollars in revenue at the box office.
With the simultaneous release of ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’, a large number of people rushed to their local movie theaters to watch the new movies that went on to become a global sensation and internet phenomenon dubbed ‘Barbenheimer.
Greta Gergwig’s ‘Barbie’ surpassed the one billion barrier in the global box office to become the first female directed movie to do so in history while Christopher Nolan’s film about the creation of the first nuclear bomb bagged over 500 million dollars, as of the publication of this article.
Read also: ‘Humorous and Serious: How ‘Barbie’ Resonated with Audiences’.
Despite recent successes, the industry continues to face challenges.
Prices of labor, transportation, and set-building materials have skyrocketed in the past couple of years. According to Doug Jeffery, founder of 41 sets, the 30 dollar sheet of plywood has tripled in cost. All of which makes it hard for producers to stay on budget, and can sometimes lead to a poor final product.
Strikes have also led to a halt in many productions. Screenwriters began striking more than three months ago, and the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), an American labor union with 160,000 median professionals worldwide recently decided to join.
The decision came after negotiations failed between the guild and the association representing the top studios of the industry. Fran Drescher, president of the union, called for drafting contracts that protect the performers and writers from being exploited through the use of artificial intelligence. The unions also demand fair compensation in light of the industry’s shift towards streaming services.
Actors Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, and others from the union went on strike, halting a long list of projects — including Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator 2” and Shawn Lewy’s “Deadpool 3”, in the process.
The increase in streaming services has also dealt a major blow to movie theaters and the film industry.
Subscription Video on Demand and streaming video services were a thorn in the side of cinema even before the pandemic. Cinema has faced plunging ticket sales in face of rising streaming services subscriptions. In 2019, while the global box office collected 42.2 billion dollars, the global home and mobile entertainment earned a whopping 58.8 billion dollars.
During lockdown, streaming services were the only solution for people to get their daily dose of movies and shows, which led to a change in consumer behavior. Hollywood was quick to react and shift its focus towards streaming services with the creation of Disney+ and HBO Max.
James Cameron, Avatar director, expressed his concern when it comes to the recovery of cinema by saying “Let’s pray that movie theaters are still there after this pandemic and after this shift towards streaming, not that I have anything against streaming. There’s great writing and great shows in [streaming].”
“Let’s remember that movie theaters are a sacred experience for all of us.”
