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The news that Cineworld will indefinitely shut down all of its sites in the UK and Ireland has sent chills through a traumatized film exhibition sector.
First thoughts should be directed to staff who, like so many other modestly paid workers, have been struggling to settle accounts during the Covid crisis. Already closed due to government restrictions, Cineworld on Parnell Street, the company’s only Irish venue, has now been placed (at best) in a state of suspended animation. Some 5,500 jobs in the UK and Ireland are at risk.
The announcement confirms that James Bond has become a metaphorical canary in the fairground coal mine. On March 4, about a week before the full scale of the lockdown was revealed, MGM and Eon Productions announced that No Time to Die, the 25th film in the franchise, would be moving from April to November 12. A lot has changed since then. Over the weekend it was confirmed that No Time to Die will now open on April 2.
Daniel Craig playing James Bond in the delayed Bond movie No Time To Die. Photograph: Nicola Dove / PA Wire
In March, many industry observers thought there was no reason to change the dates. Many more thought that going back six whole months was an absolutely absurd overreaction.
Other studies took only a few days to do the same. Summer was supposed to welcome Top Gun: Maverick, Black Widow, Fast and Furious 9, and many others. All of those movies were eventually carried over to 2021. Others, like Mulan and Trolls World Tour, were transferred to streaming services.
No Time to Die finally ended up as one of the few remaining blockbusters sticking to a 2020 release. Last week, distributors released a James Bond podcast and a new video for Billie Eilish’s title track. It seemed as if they were digging in their heels.
Along with Wonder Woman 1984 and Dune, still slated for a December release at the time of this writing, Bond was featured as one of the brave imperialists defending Rorke’s Drift in Zulu. That cause seems lost for now.
Few would bet their life savings on Dune, adaptation of Frank Herbert’s space opera, and Wonder Woman, the latest from DC’s Expanded Universe, which arrives during the holiday season. But you never know. Certainly, Bond’s disappearance contributed to Cineworld’s hopes of a return to the safes in November.
Christopher Nolan’s interpretation of the Tenet made absolutely nothing clear. Released in late August, the epic thriller was tentatively spoken of as the movie that would save the cinema. Nobody really knows what to do with their performance. The film has currently grossed just over $ 300 million worldwide. That is not enough to generate profit and is far from what Warner Brothers would have expected in a normal year.
But who knows when we will see a normal year again? Perhaps the studios would also be taking the best nine-figure sum they can get. The Cineworld staff on Parnell Street would certainly favor that option.
We hardly have space to list the rarity of this year’s film year. As the summer wore on and the biggest titles kept disappearing, it seemed that Bad Boys for Life, released before the virus hit Europe, could end up as the highest grossing movie of the year worldwide. Now it seems that honor, for the first time since records began, will be claimed by a film in a language other than English.
Currently at $ 441 million, the Chinese epic The Eight Hundred is almost certainly out of reach. There is some good news buried in that arcane statistic. The Chinese box office is on the mend. The territory that was first hit by Coronavirus is returning to something close to normal.
Yet it’s hard to imagine the industry ringing its biggest beasts when major markets like New York and Los Angeles (along with smaller ones like Dublin) remain closed.
Forty-three years ago, Star Wars opened in Ireland six months after its debut in the United States. In an age of digital piracy, globally intertwined media, and instant communication, these strategies are no longer viable. Great American movies won’t be released worldwide until they can be released profitably in their home territories. Commercial theaters will struggle to survive without the blockbusters dominating the industry like never before.
Meanwhile, the fate of Cineworld remains in doubt. Dublin moviegoers will mourn the (temporary, we hope) loss of another location in the city center. Until the 1980s, there were still movie theaters throughout the area. The Green, Cameo, Adelphi, Ambassador, Metropole, The Film Center, and The Carlton are just a few of the places that have disappeared since then.
The essential Irish Film Institute opens its own art groove on Eustace Street. The lovely Light House does a good job two to three stops from Luas to the mall. However, when the restrictions are lifted, it looks like the venerable Savoy will be the last mainstream cinema to operate in the heart of the capital (including Odeon at the Point is a bit of a stretch).
Cineworld has never been the loveliest place. Opened in 1995 as Virgin Cinemas before moving to UGC in 1999 and then Cineworld in 2005, the venue nonetheless has an immovable place in the heart of the city’s film enthusiasts.
The huge screen 17 brought IMAX back to Dublin. Various incarnations of the Dublin International Film Festival unfolded in its labyrinths.
Many are the grown men and women whose parents went on their first date before a Hollywood blockbuster on Parnell Street. Hopefully that pattern repeats when No Time to Die or Black Widow finally hits theaters.
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