Hollywood In the COVID Era

Since March, we’ve seen the COVID pandemic hit the U.S. in ways no one could have foreseen. Impacting our daily life and trickling down to every industry. Entertainment is our usual escape from the world, but that very foundation is uneasy as well. Hollywood is at a standstill and needs to look in the mirror to move forward.

Many movie theaters remain closed for the foreseeable future, and many summer blockbusters have pushed back their releases. Christopher Nolan, Director & writer of the upcoming Sci-Fi epic ‘Tenet,’ was adamant with only releasing the film in theaters. After several pushbacks, ’Tenet’ has been delayed again with no new release date in sight.

Some films have pivoted with the situation and released their movies digitally. Since March, you have seen films like Capone, Artemis Fowl, The King of Staten Island, Just Mercy, Trolls World Tour, The Lovebirds, and many more have digital-only releases. It’ll be interesting to see the amount these films gross not being in theaters. There is a chance millions can be lost, but there can be some benefits for studios not having to pay for distribution to movie theaters to show their films. A film may have flopped during a regular release, but find success digitally—an exciting thought going forward for studios.

About a month ago, during a Livestream on Instagram, ‘Moonlight’ director Barry Jenkins brought up an interesting point that this could be an excellent time for small films and indie filmmakers. With massive budget Hollywood films having crews in the hundreds, standard shooting practices will need to be changed and looked at differently.

You can look at something like the NBA working on a return. The players and staff are isolated within a campus for several weeks, testing and monitoring those involved. A similar practice a film studio may have to take. Think about shooting a film and a member of the production crew test positive for COVID. To stay on the safe side, everyone else would need to be tested and, hopefully, come back negative. There are nightmare scenarios where the star actor could test positive, which would have to shut down production and delay the shooting until they were 100%.

This pandemic has impacted our lives in so many ways and will continue to going forward. As we set forth and get adjusted to the “new norm”, Hollywood needs to do the same. Will millions of dollars be lost during this time? Quite possibly will be the case! There is a chance something great can come out of the situation. True creatives will be able to take advantage of the situation and hopefully capitalize.

Folks will become tired of reruns and movies they’ve watched already, wanting new content. With big-budget films potentially being delayed for months and maybe years, this could be the perfect opportunity for indie films to have a new golden era. As we all try to navigate and figure out what to do next, the film industry will need to restructure and take a hard look at itself. The entertainment industry has always been to adjust and rebuild through the times. I’m excited and optimistic to see what will rise out of the ashes.