Dont Tell NetflixDont Tell Netflix

By George Robbins

It is universally acknowledged by this point that this year has been a long one that no one is really ever going to forget in part because of the coronavirus, but because it truly has been an eventful year thus far. While the year is about to end, the events which have made it such a long year are nowhere close to actually being finished just yet and it will be awhile before they are. There are countless events that have been seen happening over this past year which have had people clamoring for the new year to begin in a haste because they simply want this year to be over so we could all move on. Unfortunately, just going into the new year won’t actually do anything in the long run and there isn’t really any hoping that things will get better that easily. We still have a long way to go before things may actually start turning out better than they have been as of late.

The way that this pandemic has been playing out has heavily affected a decent number of industries at this point due to the way the pandemic works. After the initial announcement that the pandemic was beginning, we were given an immediate look into how various forms of business would handle dealing with the pandemic as a whole. They were immediately shut down in order to prevent the spread of the virus among the general populace, but there were a lot of businesses that suffered this way. Obviously, having your doors closed to the public will generate issues with bringing in revenue, but some did not realize just how much of an issue would be presented by this in the end. When businesses shut down, it was the non-essential businesses that saw the most issues as opposed to those that were deemed essential.

After they finally came up with new rules and regulations that could be followed properly by most businesses, some local governments started the process of reopening some businesses. First they reopened the businesses that were the least at risk for spreading the infection before slowly starting to make the move to businesses that were considered to be a higher risk overall. This led to various businesses all over the country, and even the world, eventually being opened up to the public once again in some form or another. However, this did not guarantee that those businesses would actually end up getting their customers back which is what is being dealt with now by various small businesses and companies which are having issues bringing people back. Although those businesses are opened once again, that doesn’t mean that they are able to bring people back because the pandemic was still a very real threat.

Movie theaters started losing out on revenue, like most other businesses, the moment that they were forced to shut their doors to the public which unfortunately meant they were doomed from the start. They immediately started missing out on extremely important revenue that could help them in the long run because they simply weren’t allowed to have customers. After months had passed and other businesses were given the go-ahead to start reopening their doors, they patiently awaited their opportunity to do the same but it didn’t turn out so well. They eventually started getting impatient waiting for their chance to open and it resulted in them not being able to cope with not being open. Eventually they were given the go-ahead and most theaters managed to reopen all over at around the mid-August mark where things were once again getting difficult.

What followed was a period of time for theaters that we can really only refer to as the “dark times” at this point due to the affect that it had on the movie theater industry. Movie releases have been vying for the perfect windows to actually release to the public and movie theaters have become increasingly difficult for movies to release in. When they managed to reopen back in August, they immediately started showing any movies they could that were available to them and among those titles were new movies as well as old movies that have been able to draw people back for years. Unfortunately, these movies were not enough of a drive to actually get people to come back to theaters which resulted in theaters opening with no one coming into them. This led to theaters being open with little to no customers resulting in the loss of a lot of revenue over the past months that is close to causing theaters to go into bankruptcy before the year is actually out.

Needless to say, the state of movie theaters at the moment is truly a sad one, but the way that the rest of the industry is handling the pandemic has been vastly different. Studios have been doing their best to get their films done in an appropriate amount of time in order to get people back on track and films ready for release whenever that may be possible. For instance, despite the fact that the pandemic has made it more difficult, studios have started their productions back up again the best way they possibly could. Every production that had to halt due to the pandemic has since been able to resume and many of them have actually finished by this point in time meaning that they are now just working on post and then they will be ready for release. Some movies have actually gone even further than that and are actually completely ready to go for their release dates which are now set for over the next couple of years.

There are actually plenty of movies that have been worked on pretty heavily over the course of the past few months that will not be able to show any time soon even if they are completely finished and ready to release. This is due to the state of affairs currently surrounding movie theaters these days but there isn’t really anything that can be done about that at this point in time. All they can do is wait for the proper moment to release their content and this seems to be a long way off because there is nothing that will get people to go back out to theaters the way they were before unless the pandemic is over. Thus, most studios are holding out to release their upcoming films until the point where they can release them in theaters where they will get their usual proper treatment. This isn’t necessarily the case with all of their films though as the digital release method has been a huge topic for discussion over these past months.

Among the countless films that we have seen discussed over the course of this past year since the pandemic began, many of them are actually films that are being worked on now or they are going to be worked on soon. Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done at the moment because of the state of the pandemic and the spike in cases as of late, but many are hopeful things will change soon. Once things are able to go back to their original plans we may just end up seeing everything fall back into place the way that they were before. Many are hopeful that this is the case as many of the upcoming titles are films relating to comics that people have been looking forward to seeing for a very long time. Comic book films have exploded over the past years stemming from the creation and perpetuation of the MCU and they aren’t going to be going away any time soon in the same vein.

The comic book movies have been a huge part of the film industry for quite some time now and things are definitely not going to change any time soon. Comic books movies are easily one of the most popular and profitable types of films out there because they take a readable medium and turn them into something that people everywhere will fall in love with regardless of where they are from. On top of this, they are a type of movie that most people can like because they are now formulized in a way that just about anyone can go out and see and therefore enjoy. This past year has managed to maintain a strong presence for comic book movies and it has cemented the fact that they will be around for quite some time still because of how it has managed to play out. Even though no new movies have really released this year, the news surrounding those films have taken precedence over most other films that have been discussed in some way over the year.

In the news, we have seen that many Marvel films will be starting production once again come the start of the new year and many will be releasing over the course of the next few years. The MCU has a lot of films coming its way and, as such, there has been a lot of news surrounding those movies coming out as of late. Included in that list of upcoming content and releases is the fact that many of their upcoming films will be filming from between January to June including films like ‘Thor: Love and Thunder,’ ‘Black Panther 2,’ ‘Ant-Man 3,’ and ‘Doctor Strange 2.’ All of these films, and more, will be worked on just starting early next year and these are just the start of comic book movie news. Some more specific things are also happening within the realm of the MCU and in other circles like the DCEU including some major changes that could affect the way they end up playing out in the future.

One big change that no one really expected to see was the fact that the ‘Doctor Strange 2’ director was changed from Scott Derrickson, who directed the first film, to director Sam Raimi. While not a bad thing, it is certain to affect the way that the new film ends up playing out in the end, but in a good way. Next up on the docket is the fact that it seems like all Spider-Man films, including the non-MCU ones, could end up being a part of the MCU with the upcoming ‘Spider-Man’ film with major characters like Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock and Jamie Foxx’s Electro returning for the film. Next up is the fact that Michael Keaton’s Batman will be returning for ‘The Flash’ which could pull non DCEU films back into the universe in some way giving credence to an insanely detailed multiverse in the DCEU. Of course we also can’t forget to include the fact that the Snyder Cut of ‘Justice League’ will also be releasing in the not too distant future.

The Snyder Cut for Justice League is one that people have been looking forward to for some time now as it will premiere as a four-part series on HBO Max where all parts are one hour long. This special cut for the film is very much anticipated and is sure to kick off an interesting year for HBO Max in one way or another. Then, there is the much more tragic side of things where Black Panther lead actor Chadwick Boseman unfortunately passed away due to a battle with cancer that very few knew he was going through. This is of course a massive blow to the community who immediately began mourning his passing and it is a blow to the industry who now have to try and find someone who can fill the void. While this may not really be possible, it is something they are still going to try and fix when they start filming once again and it is sure to affect the way that the movies come out from now on. It has been a rough year and things just aren’t done yet with many more issues to resolve by both the beginning of next year and the end of this one.

There have been countless issues cropping up this year and there has been even more news bound to shake things up going into next year. There just isn’t really anything that can be done to fix these issues anytime soon, but the film industry as a whole is trying their best to adapt to the situation at hand. This pandemic could possibly end some time in the very near future, but we are still a ways off before we reach a point where things are stable again. There has been countless good and bad news as of late, but we have to try and focus on the better side of things moving forward because this is the only way we will be able to properly cope with everything. Focusing on what is happening with comic book movies is just one way of trying to understand and cope with what is happening but it is just one such way of doing so. This upcoming year is bound to be an even more transformative one for everyone so it will be interesting to see how things go once the new year rolls around.