F9: Fast & Furious 9's release delayed until next year.

[JayMysterio]

With the virus affecting more & things out of concern, one area that will be very hard hit is the entertainment industry.

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/fast-and-furious-9-vin-diesel-coronavirus-1203531860/

“Fast 9” has pushed back its theatrical release date by a year.

Universal Studios, the company behind the “Fast & Furious” franchise, made the decision because of the impact that the fast-moving coronavirus is having on the global economy and the distribution landscape. Theaters remain closed in Italy, South Korea and China, where the virus has hit hardest. There’s also a mounting sense that some theaters will close in the U.S. as the outbreak continues to spread. “Fast 9” will now open globally in April 2021 and in the U.S. on April 2.

Vin Diesel made the announcement on social media. “We feel all the love and the anticipation you have for the next chapter in our saga,” he wrote. “That’s why it’s especially tough to let you know that we have to move the release date of the film. It’s become clear that it won’t be possible for all of our fans around the world to see the film this May.”

“While we know there is disappointment in having to wait a little while longer, this move is made with the safety of everyone as our foremost consideration,” Diesel added.

Makes you wonder if there will be a reassessment in how some movies are released for the rest of the year. As this will cripple movies, sporting events, concerts, and conventions. Suddenly streaming services from Netflix, Hulu, to Twitch will become much more important to many.

 

[jkcerda]

got a hopeful feeling the panic we are currently experiencing will be short termed, things back to normal in a month or two.

 

[JayMysterio]

got a hopeful feeling the panic we are currently experiencing will be short termed, things back to normal in a month or two.

No matter what, if things miraculously turned around, you won't see things back until Summer earliest. A lot of events already cancelled are being pencilled in tentatively for summer, others for the Fall.

 

[jkcerda]

summer is a couple of months away......

 

[JayMysterio]

That's in reference to some events that were cancelled earlier on, in hopes that this would blow over. Last month some didn't think things would get THIS bad already. I've already lost out on a few events starting in Feb, and it's been like a slow moving chain of dominoes watching events get cancelled. The biggest happening in summer and October, and we've already begun assuming those will be cancelled.

If you're in anything entertainment wise, this is an unplanned slow moving disaster, that you have to scramble to try and salvage. And worry about your health.

 

[44267547]

Honest question [But it’s rhetorical]: Does the fast and the furious film really deserve it’s own thread? I mean, given how horrible of a series it is/has turned into? (There’s some Snark intended here, but it’s also very truthful what I said.😁)

Anyways, I saw the trailer for the latest film while back, and I cannot believe they input John Cena into this. And I thought the other recent additions of the F&F were terrible, now it’s on another level of...well... Ridiculousness. Not trying to be negative, but I call it as I see it. [And for the record, I’ve been a fan additions of the first F&F films since the Paul walker days.]

 

[MacGizmo]

The local Harkins theaters near us have cut capacity of each theater. They now leave two empty seats between each two seats they sell (it's reserved seating).

 

[JayMysterio]

Honest question [But it’s rhetorical]: Does the fast and the furious film really deserve it’s own thread? I mean, given how horrible of a series it is/has turned into? (There’s some Snark intended here, but it’s also very truthful what I said.😁)

Anyways, I saw the trailer for the latest film while back, and I cannot believe they input John Cena into this. And I thought the other recent additions of the F&F were terrible, now it’s on another level of...well... Ridiculousness. Not trying to be negative, but I call it as I see it. [And for the record, I’ve been a fan additions of the first F&F films since the Paul walker days.]

It isn't so much about the FF movies, but the lengthy delay for it's release. This was before sports ended their seasons or delayed. Before more & more movies, and now television shows ended production.

Companies are now rethinking how they want to deliver their products to stay afloat.

In particular, artists & other sellers who make a good chunk of their livelihoods selling products at conventions have to count more on online sales. Some artists have even banded together to run streams on Twitch, so fans can interact in a way with them, that they can't now because of all the cancelled conventions.

 

[44267547]

It isn't so much about the FF movies, but the lengthy delay for it's release. This was before sports ended their seasons or delayed. Before more & more movies, and now television shows ended

I get it, I was just razzing at the fact that the ‘fast and the furious’ franchise is atrocious, and I don’t think it deserves recognition by having its ‘own’ thread, but I Gather the larger meaning behind delays with other films as well, including Bond.

And let me tell ya, the movie theater is the last place I would go right now. I mean, if you’ve ever seen the movie ‘Outbreak’ with Dustin Hoffman, you know exactly what I’m talking about.😁

 

[JayMysterio]

Just as I was alluding to, companies are starting to change up their models, to adjust for the new ( hopefully ) temporary norm.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/universal-becomes-first-studio-to-offer-first-run-films-1842362107

With movie theaters across the world closing, Universal Pictures has become the first studio to embrace a whole new mode of distribution.

The company just announced that starting Friday, March 20, current theatrical films like The Hunt, The Invisible Man, and Emma “will be available on a wide variety of the most popular on-demand services for a 48-hour rental period at a suggested retail price of $19.99 in the U.S. and the price equivalent in international markets.” The release of Trolls World Tour on April 10 will happen both in theaters (if they’re open) and also online.

“Universal Pictures has a broad and diverse range of movies with 2020 being no exception. Rather than delaying these films or releasing them into a challenged distribution landscape, we wanted to provide an option for people to view these titles in the home that is both accessible and affordable,” said Jeff Shell, the CEO of NBCUniversal in a press release. “We hope and believe that people will still go to the movies in theaters where available, but we understand that for people in different areas of the world that is increasingly becoming less possible.”

Stemming from:
https://www.polygon.com/2020/3/15/2...ce-losses-hollywood-onward-bloodshot-the-hunt

Hollywood’s weekend was the worst of its kind since 1995’s Outbreak. Really.

This is one of those weekends where a film’s box office take truly is no indication of its appeal, to critics or audiences. Because everything was bad, thanks to COVID-19. Box Office Mojo reports that it is the lowest figure for this weekend on the calendar (the year’s 11th) in 25 years, even.

The total domestic box office for the top 5 earners for the week that just ended was $30.7 million, which wouldn’t be a good opening weekend for any of the films we usually write about. Of that, Onward grossed $10.5 million from U.S. screens, basically a quarter of what the Disney/Pixar flick took in its March 6 opening weekend.

The top 10, combined, pulled just $50.35 million. That cumulative top-10 gross is the lowest for weekend 11 since March 17-19, 1995, a weekend led by — we are not making this up — Outbreak. That film starred Rene Russo and Dustin Hoffman, involved an Ebola-like virus, and premiered at a time when an Ebola outbreak in Zaire was leading the news.

This week’s No. 2 earner, at an estimated $9.5 million, is I Still Believe, a romantic biopic about a Christian music star. That’s followed by Vin Diesel’s Bloodshot ($9.3 million), The Invisible Man ($6 million) and the premiere of The Hunt ($5.3 million), whose marketing was controversial enough that Universal pulled the film last fall. Sonic the Hedgehog, which premiered Feb. 14, was sixth with $2.5 million.

Deadline reports that COVID-19 could end up responsible for up to $17 billion in lost box office revenue, for the period comprising January through May, although that sum is a loose estimate. But it could be compounded by the fact that several distributors have moved releases (most notably, No Time to Die) in light of the fact most everyone in the world is being encouraged to stay at home if possible, and avoid crowds of people at all costs. Relatedly, Variety reported on Saturday that The Batman stopped production for two weeks because of the coronavirus outbreak.

 

[JayMysterio]

And that makes it a wrap...

https://www.polygon.com/2020/3/16/21182474/regal-cinemas-closing-movie-theaters-coronavirus-covid-19

In the latest of a long series of closing announcements associated with government efforts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, all 543 Regal Cinemas locations in the U.S. will close as of Tuesday, March 17, the movie theater chain announced Monday afternoon. “All theatres will remain closed until further notice,” the company said in a news release, making Regal the first nationwide cinema chain to announce a complete shutdown.

Other chains rapidly followed suit. Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas, which had already shuttered locations in Los Angeles and New York City, announced that all its corporate-owned locations were closed until further notice. The small independent chain Harkin closed all theaters through March 31. The Showcase Cinema chain will close through April 7. Bow Tie Cinema locations have closed, with no announced reopening date. And AMC Theaters, among the largest American chain, shut down with a terse message on its corporate website: “All AMC theatres are temporarily closed in accordance with local and federal guidelines. They will re-open when those guidelines allow.”

“When we re-open after this unprecedented and indefinite hiatus, it will be in a dramatically altered world, and in an industry that’s been shaken to its core,” read a statement on the Alamo website. “We’ll be in close contact over the coming days and weeks with our teams, suppliers, and colleagues on what these closures mean and what we plan to do next.”

Hope everyone's got some good internet and/or lots of physical media.

 

[44267547]

It’s necessary, especially in movie theaters with the amount of people in an enclosed environment with the impact at its highest for dispersing C/19, and it’s going to be this way for a while.

I don’t really make my way to the movie theater often (Actually, I try to avoid them due to the amount of distractions/smart phone ‘dependent’ people who can’t put their phone down for four seconds)., as a matter of fact, the last movie I saw in theaters was’ IT Chapter 2...it was mediocre at Best.

Anyways, it’s not so much the film industry that I actually have any type of sympathy for, it’s the localized employees who are relying on their job, rather it be a highschooler on weeknights after school for some extra spending money or the General manager who worked full-time supporting their family, etc. This is just another impact in a community of the many businesses that will fail, which I suspect the movie theater/film industry will probably never fully recover given the circumstances, which will probably create a new ‘paradigm shift’ moving forward with guidelines and those who actually choose to attend with how the future is panning out.

*****************************

Oh, here is a quick link based on front page article given the contents of this thread being tethered:

Universal to Make Theatrical Movie Releases Available as $20 Digital Rentals on Same Day

Universal Pictures is set to make new movies on global theatrical release concurrently available for rental via iTunes, Amazon, and other digital platforms, NBCUniversal has announced (via Deadline). New releases including The Invisible Man, The Hunt, and Emma will be available to watch...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[D.T.]

Anyways, it’s not so much the film industry that I actually have any type of sympathy for, it’s the localized employees who are relying on their job, rather it be a highschooler on weeknights after school for some extra spending money or the General manager who worked full-time supporting their family, etc.

It's easy to be dismissive of the "film industry", because while you might think it's just a bunch of actors/directors/producers/studio execs, who are plenty wealthy enough to weather this, but there's a __huge__ number of "average Joes" in the 1000s of support roles/industries that are extraordinary impacted by this.

I have an acquaintance on the west coast, whose company provides fab/construction/carpentry services for films, and they had months of contracts suspended due to this, and they had apparently just purchased some additional - very expensive - equipment, to support several new hires - to accommodate these contracts.

The local high school student will figure things out, sit at home, deal with this easily, the guy above with 15-20 employees, a recent multi-$10K purchase, wife and two kids, they're severely, negatively impacted.

I think this is a good example of how easy it is to overlook the cascading effects to people's income this has, even outside of the obvious industries (food services, etc.).

 

[MacGizmo]

I think this is a good example of how easy it is to overlook the cascading effects to people's income this has, even outside of the obvious industries (food services, etc.).

Yeah, I think about that too. It's not just an office closing and 50-100 employees working from home. It means a cleaning crew, coffee service, water cooler delivery, recycling service, and a host of other things don't have work either.