The impact of COVID-19 on the global cinema business (as at 14/4/20)

In the UK, the lead film agency British Film Institute has launched several initiatives to help the sector through this time, and re-purposed nearly £5m in National lottery funding. The main plank is a $2m BFI Film Continuation Fund for independent UK productions interrupted by the COVID-19 crisis. For exhibitors, the BFI Film Audience Network has made available £1.3m in critical relief for the exhibition sector. There is also £800,000 for BFI funded films that have been interrupted.

Walt Disney has entered into a $5 billion, one-year credit agreement following on from the $6 billion company raised last month with a sale of debt securities. For other studios, Fox Corp completed the sale of $1.2 billion worth of senior notes, Comcast has sold $6 billion of senior notes and ViacomCBS has sold $2.5 billion worth. In the US exhibition sector, Cinemark is raising $250m in a debt sale, while AMC is reportedly exploring a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

ViacomCBS has created a relief fund worth $100m to support actors, filmmakers and crew in the industry that have been affected by COVID-19. Company is also to match any charitable donations made by its staff in the USA and UK, and latterly other parts of the world.

On the distribution side, Disney has announced new dates for its slate, including new Marvel movies, two years out (apologies, I missed this in a previous update).

Universal’s Trolls World Tour has now been released digitally and in some drive-in cinemas in the USA. The movie was booked into 25 drive-ins. Although hard figures are not available, the digital release is said to have done ten times the revenue of its previous ‘best-ever’ Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and become the best digital opening ever. It was the top seller on all major VOD platforms.

It is worth marking that this weekend would have seen the release of No Time To Die in normal circumstances.

Universal’s theme parks in Hollywood and Orlando will be shut until the end of May, at the earliest. The full-time staff at these resorts will also be asked to take pay cuts and part-time staff will be placed on furlough. Walt Disney has closed all its parks globally, and has now placed on furlough around 43,000 union workers while they remain closed.

The French government has also begun to put dates on a re-opening of the country. President Macron has said that some businesses will start opening again from 11 May 2020 as part of a gradual process. This extends the lock down until that date. This does not include cinemas, bars or restaurants, or tourist sites, which currently have no date on a re-opening. There would be no festivals until mid-July at the earliest. The government has also said it will produce a detailed plan within two weeks.

In other countries, Spain has lifted some restrictions on ‘outdoor’ businesses. Poland is to allow some shops to re-open from this Sunday. In some parts of Italy (not the most affected), there has been a very gradual easing of restrictions on some shops and businesses, including bookstores and children’s clothing shops. In Austria, the partial re-opening has begun, with shops under 400 sq m (4,300 sq ft) in size being allowed to reopen, along with hardware stores and garden centres from today. In Denmark, from Wednesday, primary schools will re-open and hospitals will re-open for non-critical procedures to non-COVID-19 patients. The European Commission is also working on a pan-European strategy to co-ordinate the re-opening.

In all these plans, cinemas don’t appear to be immediate priorities and we have no firm date yet for any cinemas to re-open. However, the same applies to many other sectors and types of business, such as bars and restaurants, and the timing on these will undoubtedly depend on the impact of the first wave of re-openings, which will be monitored very closely.

Further afield, while Wuhan is beginning to open up after a strict two-month lockdown, cinemas and other entertainment venues stay closed for now.