What Will The Movie Industry Look Like After COVID?
* getty  The movie industry was in flux before the pandemic hit. But after nearly a year of theaters being shut down and hundreds of movies getting postponed, the future of the industry is even less certain. Long-term Delays  Movie production was hit hard by COVID. Theaters and movie sets were shut down for months, causing the U.S. box office to lose $5 billion in 2020. Only 338 movies were released in theaters in 2020, a 66% decline from 2019. The number of movies that began production in 2020 declined significantly, taking a 45% drop to 447. The release of hundreds of movies was delayed. The new James Bond movie, No Time To Die, was originally scheduled to be released in April 2020 and is now set for October 2021. Black Widow was also pushed back numerous times, from May 2020 to July 2021. Pushing back some movies creates a domino effect that will impact the movie pipeline for years. In the case of Black Widow, numerous other Marvel movieswhich tend to dominate the box officeare being pushed back. The delay in the current slate of movies also puts future movies up in the air. Many studios are focused on managing the logistics of their movies that are currently in production or pre-production instead of actively hunting for new films. That could lead to a sparse pipeline in coming years. Move From Theaters To Streaming  Long-term closures put movie theaters large and small in financial distress and caused many to close. Alamo Draft House filed for bankruptcy, while the future of many other theater chains and locations hangs in the balance. AMC Theaters, with nearly 1,000 locations, was only able to avoid bankruptcy in 2021 because of a $917 million infusion of cash from investors. Regal Cinemas is barely hanging on. With theaters closed, many movies moved to streaming. Universal Pictures made a deal with AMC Theaters to shrink the time its movies play exclusively in theaters from 90 days to 17. Warner Brothers started releasing its new movies on HBO Max the same day they go into theatersa move that will extend through at least the end of 2021. Disney+ followed a similar model by releasing some new movies on streaming for an additional cost, and others included in the basic subscription price. Customers love having access to new releases from the comfort of their homes. Disney+ released Cruella in theaters and for premier customers and made more than $20 million on each channel in the first weekend alone. Theaters and streaming are battling for customers, but many experts believe the two can co-exist. Although movies will likely be released simultaneously or much closer together on streaming and in theaters than they have in the past, watching a movie at home versus watching it in a theater offer wildly different experiences. There are pros and cons to both, but customers will likely continue to want to watch new releases both in the luxury of a theater and in the comfort of their own home. Future Of The Movie Industry  Going forward, what movies look like and how they are consumed could be very different. The increased cost of on-set safety precautions has been difficult for independent filmmakers. Larger studios tend to have the resources to fund and market their movies and can take bigger financial risks, but independent studios and filmmakers now have the added struggle of finding more funding. At least for the next few years, there will likely be fewer independent films. In the future, more movie studios will expand their animated offerings. Animated movies for families and adults tend to be easier to produce virtually with animators working from different locations, reducing the need for safety measures. Original scripts have been waning for years in favor of franchises and re-boots. That trend will grow in the future as studios opt for movies and series that have a proven track record instead of taking a risk on a new franchise or script. In-theater movie watching has long been a staple of the entertainment industry, but the pandemic may have changed all that. Going forward, well see major changes to the industry to put movies closer to customers than ever before. Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker and the author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her weekly newsletter here.