Impact of COVID-19 on Global Film Industry
The human race is said to be going through the most difficult phase in the history which is fighting the pandemic of COVID-19. It is reported that the novel Coronavirus surfaced in last quarter of 2019 in China and spread in other parts of the world like a wildfire. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic on March 11, 2020 that has claimed over 1.45 million deaths across the globe till date. The novel Coronavirus has impacted our lives in many ways that were not expected at all by the humans and the global film industry has also not been escaped from its wrath.
According to the statistics at World Economic Forum, there are more than 2 million people directly employed with the Hollywood and 400,000 American businesses are associated with the industry which is indeed humongous. If we look at the British film and TV industry, it contributes around 60 million euro each day to the UK economy. In addition to that, some other big economies in the world are also following the footsteps and their film and TV industry is also eyeing greater successes in the coming years.
If we look at the MENA region, the plans are also soaring. According to a research by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC), the number of cinema screens is set to jump 38.4 percent to 1,800 in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the next 3-5 years. This kind of jump is certainly backed by a massive investment in the years to follow.
Overall, the plans look amazing and progress seem unbound, but COVID-19 has hit the momentum extremely hard and it seems difficult to achieve the targets as per plans.
The pandemic forced the closure of cinemas and theaters in most countries of the world that results into the contraction of revenue generating sector of film and industry from all aspects. The shootings of the films halted, many professionals lost their jobs, film releases got delayed, screening in cinemas stopped, associated business got severely affected, and above the all, contribution to the economy from film and TV industry is massively dropped.
As per a safe estimation in March 2020, global box office was expected to lose USD 5 billion due to the pandemic. With the pandemic intensifying after regular intervals, the unavoidable closure of cinemas and theaters has impacted the industry negatively all over the world and has become a major concern for the film producers. The mainstream revenue generation comes from the cinemas and theaters and the movie lovers are no longer able to visit the big screens to watch their favorite movie stars perform. Though, binge watching and digital platforms have said to acquired major share in the new releases during the pandemic but the main revenue stream still remains the same which is big screens.
In the conclusion, we can expect the disastrous impact of pandemic seems to continue on the global film and TV industry for some more time. But we are also hopeful that once the coronavirus vaccine is easily reachable to the masses, we will be able to lead the normal life once again and film lovers will again rush to the big screens.
