Hollywood and COVID: The Worst Power Couple
By Braylon Sport
It’s 6 o’ clock in the evening; you step into the theater and are instantly surrounded by an overwhelming aroma of fresh popcorn and soda. You get your movie tickets and sit down in the theater ready to watch an amazing movie with friends and family. This is an experience that holds nostalgia among the majority of Americans, but this is a quickly fading experience. As COVID-19 continues to ravage the country, the film industry suffers more and more. The decline of the movie theatre has never been more evident than in movies such as “Tenet,” “SpongeBob: Sponge On the Run” and “Black Widow.” Every one of these movies lost unimaginable amounts of money due to the pandemic that swept the world in 2020.
“The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run”
Photo of “The Spongebob Movie” poster taken from IMBD
SpongeBob is not a franchise typically related to failure, though “SpongeBob: Sponge on the run” lost millions. This movie took a different approach than Marvel’s Black Widow and they decided to release the film in the heart of the pandemic, when most movie theaters weren’t open. With a total budget of $60 million there were high hopes for this animated film. Unfortunately, these hopes were shattered when the movie hit the box office and only accumulated $3.9 million. This devastating blow left the producers with nothing but a few memes to show for their hard work.
Over the past year, many in the film business have lost millions due to Covid-19. So what does this mean for the future of the entertainment industry? How will movie companies deal with Covid? Truthfully, we may never know. What we do know though is that the industry will live on, even past Covid. All we can do now is hope that this power couple soon finds themselves in a breakup.
Photo of “Tenet” poster taken from IMBD
“Tenet”
Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated project “Tenet” heavily suffered from theater closings. Instead of delaying the movie and waiting to release at a later date, “Tenet” released when COVID-19 was still prevalent. Consequently, this led to the movie suffering from the poor timing. The Observer reported that “Tenet” lost around $100 million on the film. While some of this can be attributed to low scores on critic sites, such as Rotten Tomatoes, COVID-19 primarily contributed to the movie's failure.
Photo of “Black Widow” poster taken from thebatt.com
Scarlett Johannsen: “Black Widow”
Though Marvel’s “Black Widow” was seen as a success, the controversy surrounding it is seen differently. Black Widow was delayed due to COVID-19 just like countless other movies at the time; however, unlike other films during this time, there was never a theatrical release. Instead, Disney opted to release the film only on their streaming platform, Disney Plus. Typically this would not be a major issue, but Disney had promised Scarlett Johannsen, the actress that portrays Black Widow, money based on box office sales. Johannsen is now suing Disney over the $50 million that she lost out on. This lawsuit will not only affect Johannsen but will also determine the fate of many other actors and actresses in similar situations.