Jayme Zimmermann explores how the film industry has been drastically upended due to the pandemic and the impacts this has had on consumers.

COVID-19 has had a major impact on the global film industry with the shutdown of cinemas and productions of countless films being put on hold. This has left people questioning how we as consumers are going to now be able to watch new films.

The film industry is a major consumer market, with The World Economic Forum stating that ‘global box office revenues totalled $42 billion last year – an all-time high – contributing almost one-third of the estimated $136 billion in the value of worldwide movie production and distribution.’ These figures highlight just how much we as consumers contribute to the growth of wealth in the film industry – but what happens when the content stops, and when will the new films be released?

Many film release dates have now been majorly pushed back, and with selected cinemas in some countries slowly opening their doors, however showing mostly films that were already released just before their closure. This is frustrating as a lot of major films such as ‘No Time To Die’, ‘A Quiet Place 2’, ‘Black Widow’, and many more set to have been released between March and May are completed but will now not be released until late November. This is because of the fact that cinemas are expected to be more operational later in the year but with the nature of the virus it is not yet confirmed.

There is a lot of uncertainty when it comes to the state of the global film industry and what the future hold.  There is little confidence with physical venues, especially when trying to maintain social distancing and masks being worn. Consumers are now mostly turning to streaming sites to receive new content. According to B&T ‘…there are now 15.74 million Australians with access to a subscription TV service, up 878,000 (5.9 per cent) in three months. The COVID-driven shift to subscription TV has reinforced Netflix’s dominance over the Australian market, with 13.28 million viewers an increase of over 1 million in only three months (+8.8 per cent).’

I believe it will take a long time for the global film industry to recover from this pandemic, especially with the US being a major player in this industry. With the coronavirus ravaging the US country with an estimated 181,000 deaths, it’s priority shouldn’t be films.

With a range of new shows and films added each month onto varied services, streaming services offer the best source of new flowing content in this current climate, in my opinion. I do hope to eventually be able to go to the movies again but perhaps we can resurrect drive-in movie theatres, with all this uncertainty who knows what the future may hold.

Feature Image: Jakob Owens via Unsplash, no changes made.