Dont Tell NetflixDont Tell Netflix

By George Robbins

The internet is becoming the home for a lot of movies nowadays both new and old through the means of digital release which has become more and more popular as time goes on. Digital release is the method by which companies will put their new content, usually which has already had a theatrical run, onto some online service where it can be purchased. The alternative for this now is that studios are making their own services in the form of streaming services as a means to make as much money from their content as possible. Obviously this is something that can only be done with the bigger companies but it is the means by which many companies plan on getting the most out of their films. Unfortunately, the pandemic has had a strong effect on the movie industry and those effects are going to echo forward from now on.

Of course, when the pandemic began every type of business save for the essential ones were shut down to the public to make sure less people would end up having the opportunity to be exposed to the virus. For the first couple of months this seemed to have worked and, along with other rules involving masks and social distancing, it was pretty successful at shutting down the rate in new cases. This downturn in cases eventually led to governments all over trying to open up as many businesses as possible in order to get their economies back on track. Obviously the shut down had a positive effect for getting the number of new cases to drop dramatically, but it also left many nations in a state of financial ruin as their economies stagnated. This is why after only a few months, they decided to start slowly reopening businesses with new restrictions in place so the cases wouldn’t spike again.

Businesses such as restaurants and the like were among the first to reopen with restrictions on total occupancy and seating rules which saw a lot of outdoor dining. While annoying for some, it was for a good reason for them to do these things and while the number of cases did start rising a bit, it was controllable. Upon the reopening of various other businesses though, everything started taking a downward spiral and the number of cases started rising even more steadily. This would go on to cause a rapid spike in cases in a short amount of time and many businesses were once again forced to be wary and enforce the health and safety rules. Not only were there just a lot more people going out at that point but also, people were just starting to get tired of the rules and regulations.

People not wanting to listen to rules really isn’t anything new, but this is a period of time where people need to actually listen to what people tell them to keep other safe. The lack of people listening to experts has led a small but not so unavoidable group of people who have managed to make things more difficult for everyone. These are the people that don’t like listening to what people tell them to do and they are the ones which end up gathering for parties where new cases then start to run rampant in the area. It is because of things like this that businesses are now rightfully worried that they could end up being shut down again due to what is now a second wave of the virus hitting everywhere. Fortunately there is a vaccine out there that is currently being tested which may end up working but there are no guarantees.

The number of people out there that need to be injected with the vaccine is not an insignificant number of people and on top of this, it is not even guaranteed to work. Of course, they need as large of a sample size as they can get to truly discover whether the vaccine will end up being effective in everyone or only a small group of people. It could even end up working on most of the population while a small number of people would not be helped by it, but it is hoped that herd immunity among a population can actually make up for this in some way. If a large majority of the population has the vaccine work for them, then the smaller number who didn’t have it work for them will be safe because the virus cannot spread so easily to them. Even if things do end up turning out for the best, there is also the issue that we don’t even know how long it could be effective for which makes it even harder to gauge how things will turn out.

With the vaccine in its distribution phase, many are hopeful that this could be the end of the pandemic which only started earlier this year. The aforementioned issues are definitely present but most people are not really looking at those and are more focused on public businesses and venues possibly being opened some time in the near future at full capacity. This kind of thinking can actually end up causing even more harm than good as people will then be more eager to try and go out once again after so long. There are plenty of people out there now that think that they can get away with not having to worry about getting sick if they were to go out and do things. This way of thinking is now the reason why there is actually talk going around that businesses could be forced to close again in order to slow the rate of new cases.

They are probably not going to shut down businesses once again, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t be regulating them more harshly which is what they should have done after the summer surge. That was a point during the summer where a fair number of people ended up getting infected and it caused talks just like this where they thought about closing up again. While they may not have shut anything down, it was clear that this news had some kind of effect on businesses and many of them ended up losing a lot of money during what would be a peak season. Among the businesses which have suffered the most after reopening is the movie theater industry which has been in a state of rapid decline ever since most of them reopened in August. Now, they have been trying desperately to get more people to come through their doors before they eventually end up going bankrupt.

When theaters first reopened in August, they had already gotten off to a bad start as many people were not exactly keen on going out to places that were more likely to cause infection, like theaters, without some kind of incentive. Movie theaters thrive off of the fact that they have been the place for movies to start their release runs because of exclusivity which allows people to experience the film in a way they really wouldn’t be able to at home. This exclusivity allowed movie theaters to show new films for months before they could finally be released to the public for purchase by the production studio. Of course, once the pandemic hit, movie theaters shut down and any movies that were going to come out were delayed so that studios could release them in the future theatrically. Any movies that were already in theaters at the time had to be released by their production studio for purchase which just ended up being unfortunate for both studios and theaters.

When theaters were finally given the green light by local governments, they immediately opened their doors, but the problem was that they really had nothing to show to the public. Once the summer surge hit, many studios delayed their summer releases, making it difficult for theaters to actually have anything to show to the general public. It is due to this that they even waited until August because it played out like a dance to see who would do something first. Theaters did not want to open if they had no guaranteed movie releases and studios did not want to release any new content if the vast majority of theaters were open. This made it incredibly difficult for any progress to be made and it wasn’t until theaters reopened that we finally started seeing definitive release dates.

Unfortunately for movie goers and the movie industry as a whole, the release dates given would end up being much later than originally anticipated. After theaters were able to reopen no studio was really willing to take the leap and release their films to the public because they were worried that people would not want to go out and see them. Warner Bros. decided to take the leap by releasing the blockbuster movie ‘Tenet.’ This didn’t work out so well for them though and they ended up losing a lot of money because people didn’t go out and see the movie. This drove almost every movie in the following month through the end of the year to be moved into some time next year. Obviously people are annoyed that movies that they were looking forward to were delayed again and that they wouldn’t be able to see them until some time next year.

It really isn’t all that surprising that they made this move though because much of their initial income from movies comes from their showing in theaters and they want the best possible chance to show their films. This would obviously be some time next year, assuming that the vaccine works and the pandemic ends soon, and it would allow them to once again get people back out to theaters. This would most definitely benefit them in the long run because it would mean that they can show their new movies to large crowds without worrying if people are going to go see them. This isn’t so beneficial to theaters though as they are losing a lot of money everyday that they aren’t showing new movies even if it would be just a small influx of customers. A few customers are better than none and that is what is just barely sustaining them now that they don’t have any new movies coming out any time soon.

To say that no new movies are coming out isn’t really correct though as there have most definitely been movie releases ever since theaters have reopened their doors. The problem has lied in fact that they can’t get enough people to come in and see new movies because of the obvious worry associated with the release of new movies to theaters. People are generally smart about the pandemic and want to avoid public spaces that have been or are shared by numerous people even if they have been separated and even if they must wear masks. This fear is one that has resulted in new movies that should have gotten a decent amount of revenue essentially being given the shaft and not really making anything from their theatrical runs. Luckily for studios, they don’t have to wait long to release their movies as a deal has resulted in them being able to release digitally after just 17 days in theaters.

Now some studios, namely Warner Bros., are going the step further and going with a plan that was originally discussed by Universal Pictures earlier in the year. Universal said that their plan for future releases would be that they would release their movies on both digital and in theaters simultaneously which led to a lot of backlash from theaters. Now that theaters are not exactly in a situation to complain about things like this, Warner is taking advantage of the situation to use this original plan for themselves. They are even going to use their next blockbuster ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ as a guinea pig for this on Christmas Day, December 25th by releasing it on both HBO Max and in theaters on the same day. Not all movies are bound to take on the same format, but it is highly likely because it works out much better in the studios’ favor, at least for the near future.

One movie that this necessarily hasn’t been decided for yet is the upcoming entry to the James Bond cinematic universe which is ‘No Time to Die.’ The James Bond films have been a staple of the action-spy genre for generations at this point and the final entry in Daniel Craig’s iteration of Bond was meant to appear already, but this was delayed. Just like most movies this year, the movie was delayed because of the pandemic and although it was meant to release earlier this year it was unfortunately not able to. The second release date that this entry of Bond was going to release on was some time in November but after what happened over the summer, this plan was swapped out for the new one which sees it releasing some time next year. It is unknown exactly how we will end up seeing it, whether that be at home by streaming it or in movie theaters, and it just might end up being both.

The James Bond films are going on to their 25th entry which is most certainly a huge milestone as the character has seen a lot of revamping over the years since its original inception. The recently-departed Sean Connery gave birth to the suave, sophisticated gentleman spy with a license to kill many years ago in the 1960’s. George Lazenby took over the role for one film before Connery returned to star in his final Bond film, ‘Diamonds Are Forever.’ Roger Moore then took the title from 1973-1985 and had one of the most memorable runs with the character as he made the character seem like a more cartoonish version of himself. After Moore was Timothy Dalton who took over for the character for two films before passing the baton to one Pierce Brosnan who would take the cartoonish version of the character even further. In 2006, we saw the franchise hit the reboot switch where it would go on to be more serious while simultaneously remaining incredibly interesting for people to watch.

When Daniel Craig took over the role in 2006 with the film ‘Casino Royale,’ no one knew what to think other than the fact that the character seemed to have returned to his roots. Over the years, we saw a version of Bond that went from inexperienced and all too serious to calm and collected spy with a license to kill. Now, we are about to see the end of an era for Bond films and it is a very big deal because Bond will continue onwards from here, but it will be different yet again. It has been a long road since the first film in this era and we would not have reached this point if not for the original films. So as of now, YouTube is allowing people to watch the first 19 films which made the character into what he is today for free with advertisements. Even if people are annoyed by the ads, YouTube really didn’t have to do this and it would be difficult to watch the films otherwise if you didn’t already own them.