The Book of 2020: Part 1

As the last chapter of 2020 flips the last page, we have to ponder an important question. Is this the beginning of the end of the pandemic, or the beginning of the end of life as we knew it in January 2020?  The year started out as any other mundane year, but we had no idea what 2020 had in store for society, the way we live our life and all the things we took for granted.

When I was growing up in the 90’s, the year 2020 seemed so far off and fantastical.  We were promised self driving cars, men on Mars, longer life spans, among other things.  Unfortunately I still have to drive my own tired ass to work every morning, not on Mars and people living past 100 still isn’t common place.  Instead we got wildfires, lockdowns, murder hornets, institutional racism, and a global pandemic.  Basically the whole world just went to hell in an handbasket.  Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, 2020 threw another plot twist on the dumpster fire.  To round the year our we had the most divisive Presidential Election in history, which seemed like it might end in civil war.  Throw in a couple mysterious monoliths around the world, and it seemed like we might be finishing the year off with an alien invasion.  But alas, we finished out the year with no extraterrestrial contact.

So here we are only a day behind us in 2021, and the effects of 2020 are still part of our daily lives.  With a vaccine making its way out there is a glimmer of hope for a maskless future and a return to normalcy, but it is going to be a long road and some things will never be the same.  Aside from the tragic loss of life, many peoples have become jobless due to shutdowns and social distancing guidelines.  The entertainment industry was one of the hardest hit, as it requires people to be in close proximity for long periods of time.  Most tv show and movie productions were shut down for months, stopping the flow of new content.  To make matters worse, movie theaters were shutdown for most of the year.  Mostly due to the difficulty to keep people social distance in a theater, but also because there weren’t many movie to play  and presenting movie to a half empty theater isn’t very profitable for movie studios.

With people locked down at home, and movie theaters closed, studios had to come up with a new distribution model.  For years now, streaming has been overtaking linear tv and has put video store out of business.  Now with the pandemic movie theaters look to be the next victim.  Universal was first to move a theatrical release to an at home streaming release with the sequel Trolls World Tour.  The movies was released on premium video on demand the same day it was slated to be released in theaters.  The movie would go on to make around $150 million from streaming rentals, proving the PVOD model a success.  Throughout the year most movies were either delayed to 2021 or released through this streaming model.  AT&T owned Warner Bros decided late in the year that its entire 2021 slate would be released day and date on its HBO Max service for no extra charge.  Alongside these home releases, Universal made a change to their at home release window.  Usually it would be 90 days from a movies theatrical release to be released at home, now that has been cut all the way down to 17 days.

With these changes, the future of movie theaters is largely up in the air.  Big theater owners AMC and Regal remain bullish on a return to pre-pandemic practices after the vaccine is widely available.  But if these new studio moves pay off, then there may not be a need for movie theaters.  Hopefully the theater industry will endure and adapt to this new world.  For the time being though it seems like we will be watching movies at home for the foreseeable future.

To be continued…