THE FILM INDUSTRY
Read the article then copy / paste the questions into a Word document and save into your laptop folder FILM INDUSTRY. Email me by Thursday 8 October.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/cinema-giant-cineworld-to-shut-after-007-fiasco-d2rvdxjgw
Header for your document: Fia Brown The Film Industry: Exhibition
1. How many theatres does Cineworld have and how many jobs are involved?
5,500 jobs are at risk. 128.
2. MGM and the UK’s Eon Productions have decided to push back the release of the already delayed latest Bond blockbuster to 2021 with what impact on Cineworld?
Caused crisis in the cinema and had made many people less encouraged to go to the cinema. There is a crisis with paying the people they have brought back to work when the Bond film was due to come out.
3. What hopes had the cinema industry pinned on No Time To Die?
It would bring in a lot of income to the cinemas after a dry spell with the pandemic. They had hoped it would save the falling income of the cinemas.
4. What part did Christopher Nolan’s Tenet play in the decision?
This was set to be another successful box office film but was delayed from its previous scheduled release on the 17th of July. This meant that there was even more riding on the Bond film release.
5. When are Warner Bros’ Dune and Wonder Woman 1984 due to be released, and why at that time of year?
Late December. Because it is a commercial time of year when people want to do things inside when it is cold outside.
6. For Phil Clapp, chief executive of the UK Cinema Association, is Cineworld the only exhibitor threatened by the decision of the film studios to postpone big-budget releases?
No, He thinks that it will impact cinemas all around the UK and will force many cinemas to shut again like they did in lockdown.
7. How had Disney released Mulan?
On Disney Plus.
8. How have smaller operators like Picturedome managed?
By getting in comedians to entice a local audience.
9. What has the crisis meant for Peckham Plex, an independent cinema in southeast London?
It has meant that they have had to close.
10. Explain in detail the comment “The delay is not only a blow to cinemas.”
It has also had an impact on financial deals which are associated with the Bond film. Hundreds of millions of pounds with brands such as Aston Martin, brewer Heineken, watchmaker Omega and DHL have been lost or withheld because of this delay.
11. How many theatres are there in the Vue chain? 90
Cinema giant Cineworld to shut after 007 fiasco
The decision to push back the release of the new Bond film again could bring down the curtain on struggling cinemas
Daniel Craig in No Time to Die, his fifth and final outing as James Bond
Sabah Meddings, Liam Kelly and Shingi Mararike
Sunday October 04 2020, 12.01am, The Sunday Times
Cineworld, which has 128 theatres in the UK and Ireland, is this weekend writing to Boris Johnson and the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, to say that the industry has become “unviable” because of the decision by film studios to postpone big-budget releases.
It is drawing up plans to close all its UK sites as soon as this week, according to sources familiar with the discussions. The move puts up to 5,500 jobs at risk.
Film industry bosses had hoped that the planned release of No Time to Die would kickstart a revival of cinema-going next month and resuscitate a sector that has been fighting for survival since the lockdown in March.
But on Friday, MGM and Britain’s Eon Productions said the latest Bond film, due to hit UK cinemas on November 12 — having already been delayed from April — would be pushed back to April next year.
The decision follows a lacklustre box office performance for Christopher Nolan’s Tenet and leaves cinemas with virtually no big movies to lure families until late December, when Warner Bros’ Dune and Wonder Woman 1984 are due to be released.
Bond’s delay will be a huge blow to cinema operators who had brought staff back from furlough and reopened in anticipation of a busy opening weekend.
Phil Clapp, chief executive of the UK Cinema Association, said: “The announcement is probably the most serious blow to UK cinema operators of a number of similar announcements over the past few weeks and will undoubtedly cause a significant number of cinemas to close again.”
Film studios had already pushed back the release of some films and opted to show some on streaming services instead. Disney shunned cinemas altogether with its newest film, Mulan, which it released on Disney Plus. It has left cinemas scratching around for something to show.
Adam Cunard, whose Picturedrome group owns seven cinemas in towns including Bognor Regis in West Sussex and Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, has brought in local comedians to entice customers. Cunard, 33, said trading had been “horrendous” in recent weeks, with daily admissions down from 300 to just 20.
“When you rely on your summer release as Pinocchio, an Italian film dubbed in English, God help you,” he said. “All my staff can see the writing on the wall. There’s no one coming through the doors.”
Picturedrome is among the 150 smaller operators that run 350 venues in the UK, out of a total of 800. The Cinema Association estimates that about 70% of these are open. The rest had been planning to start up again in the coming weeks in anticipation of the release of No Time to Die.
Peckham Plex, an independent cinema in southeast London, wrote to customers last month to tell them it would be closing on September 25, after poor sales since it reopened in August. “For some it is the understandable concerns about the risks of Covid-19, but for most it is about the lack of available films,” the chairman, John Reiss, wrote.
Tyrone Walker-Hebborn, who has owned Genesis cinema in Whitechapel, east London, for 21 years, called the Bond postponement a “huge blow on top of many others we’ve had in the last few months”.
Despite a “brief shot in the arm” from the release of Tenet in July, Genesis has been taking about 30% less than it usually would at this time of the year.
Cineworld, which is expected to announce its closure as early as tomorrow, had reopened the majority of its cinemas in July.
The chain, which declined to comment, warned last week that it did not expect admissions to recover to pre-Covid levels until at least 2023.
The majority of its staff will be asked to accept redundancy, with possible incentives to rejoin the company when theatres reopen — likely to be next year.
The delay is not only a blow to cinemas. The 007 franchise has scores of commercial deals worth hundreds of millions of pounds with brands such as Aston Martin, brewer Heineken, watchmaker Omega and DHL, the delivery company. David Haigh, chief executive of the consultancy Brand Finance, said he estimated the Bond brand is worth as much as £10bn.
The delay means a painful few months ahead for British cinema. Tim Richards, chief executive of the Vue chain, which has 90 cinemas in the UK, said there were many occasions when a Bond release would be the biggest story of the year. “It will be a potential death blow to smaller operators,” he said.
Delete this.
ReplyDelete