Coronavirus's impact on the worldwide box office 3 3

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And from the ashes comes forth a protector.

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Not long after the Parks around the globe have had to furlough a portion of their employees, Walt Disney Studios has had to follow along and also furlough a portion of their employees.

 

THR is reporting that: Furloughs have hit Walt Disney Studios, Hollywood’s sprawling movie empire. The expected notices, which impact an undetermined number of employees, were handed out Thursday.

 

This affects a huge portion of employees spread out across all of the film studio’s companies, including:

• Walt Disney Studios
• Pixar
• Marvel Studios
• Lucasfilm
• Walt Disney Animation Studios
• 20th Century Pictures
• Searchlight Pictures

Luckily, there are some good things about this. One thing is that all furloughed employees are still employed with the company, and they will be getting full health care benefits. And those employees with the Disney Aspire Education Program will still be able to access to it. However, it will still be a heavy financial blow.

 

THR also said that: Additionally, employees with available paid time off can elect to use some or all of it at the start of the furlough period and, once furloughed, they are eligible to receive an extra $600 per week in federal compensation through the $2 trillion economic stimulus bill, as well as state unemployment insurance. 

 

The Walt Disney Company did release a statement on April 2nd, and that statement said in part: The COVID-19 pandemic is having a devastating impact on our world with untold suffering and loss, and has required all of us to make sacrifices. Over the last few weeks, mandatory decrees from government officials have shut down a majority of our businesses. Employees have received full pay and benefits during this time, and we’ve committed to paying them through April 18, for a total of five additional weeks of compensation.

 

This is pretty bad for any employees of the Studios across the board. Multiple productions across all Disney-owned movie brands have either had production halted, or those films were delayed or released early to On-Demand and Disney+. This will undoubtedly affect the entire Entertainment conglomerate and have severe ramifications over the course of the next year in multiple and various different ways.

 

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Walt Disney World will temporarily furlough 43,000 employees at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando effective April 19, President of Unite Here Union Eric Clinton said in a video address on Sunday. 

 

Clinton is president of one of six unions in the Service Trades Council Union that represents 43,000 cast members at Walt Disney World.

 

“This is a decision that the union doesn’t like, however, it’s within the company’s right to lay-off and furlough employees in this situation,” he said.

“Disney has reached agreements with several unions for hourly cast members that will maintain members’ health insurance benefits coverage, educational support and additional employee assistance programs during a temporary furlough effective April 19,” a statement from a Disney spokesperson reads.

 

Clinton explained that the union secured a historic agreement that “provides healthcare for 12 months to any Disney cast member that currently has healthcare at no cost to them at all.”

 

“These agreements provide an easier return to work when our community recovers from the impact of Covid-19. We are grateful to have worked together in good faith to help our cast and members navigate these unprecedented times,” the statement from Disney reads. 

 

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Alibaba Pictures, the entertainment arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, has issued a profit warning, saying it expects losses for the financial year ended March 31, 2020 to range from RMB 1.1B-1.2B ($156M-$170M). That would be an increase of over 330% as compared to the previous year. The company cited “complicated difficulties in pursuing profitable operation faced by the entertainment industry in mainland China since 2019” and a “significant decrease” in the group’s fourth quarter revenue as a result of the outbreak of the coronavirus.

 

In a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange late last week, Alibaba Pictures noted there is “additional uncertainty in the overall operating environment of the industry.” With movie theaters closed since late January due to COVID-19 — kiboshing the lucrative Lunar New Year period — and production halted, entertainment companies have been exposed to mounting pressure. That’s coming off a 2019 that hit a new box office record but nevertheless saw slowed growth with just 5.4% versus 9% in 2018 on a local currency basis, and an admissions hike of just .5%.

 

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The former C.E.O. thought he was riding into the sunset. Now he’s reasserting control and reimagining Disney as a company with fewer employees and more thermometers.

 

The Walt Disney Company turned franchises like Marvel and “Star Wars” into the biggest media business in the world, and last fall it was putting the finishing touches on the image of a storied character: its chief executive, Bob Iger.

 

In late September, Mr. Iger, 69, published “The Ride of a Lifetime,” an engaging work of self-hagiography. The handsome executive, who seriously considered running for president this year, spent the next month on the kind of media tour that Disney is known for: he reveled in the successful start of a streaming service that immediately rivaled Netflix, was hailed as “businessperson of the year” by Time and described as “Hollywood’s nicest C.E.O.” in an article in the The Times by Maureen Dowd. Even his friends wondered if the soft-focus Instagram ads produced for his MasterClass on leadership were a bit much.

 

It all went so well that Mr. Iger decided it was time to do something he had postponed four times since 2013: retire as C.E.O.

 

In early December, Disney executives say, he told his board that he was ready to leave. Around that time, a handful of people in Wuhan, China, began developing mysterious coughs.

 

At the end of January, a few days after Disney was forced to close its Shanghai theme park as the coronavirus spread, Mr. Iger and the board stuck with their plan, agreeing that he would step back to become executive chairman and that the low-profile head of the parks and cruise business, Bob Chapek, would take over immediately as chief executive. They finalized the arrangement even as the stock market began to shudder. And on Feb. 25, they shocked Hollywood with the news that Mr. Iger’s 15-year run had ended.

 

[alexgross.com]

my 5 year old was eagerly awaiting TROLLS WORLD TOUR, and it dropped this weekend as a home rental for $20. we did it because i couldnt back out. its a very bad film but he liked it.

its great that new movies come right to our home now, but i'm not renting them for $20 a pop every weekend, unless it's something really special. a bit of a scam i think, since kids get excited and parents promise to rent the movie, only to learn later that it's more than 3x the usual rental charge. 

[Bosco685]

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You may be familiar with the fictional fast-food chain Mooby’s from Kevin Smith films such as Dogma, Clerks II and the Jay and Silent Bob franchise. Starting April 19 and through April 25, Mooby’s will come to life exclusively through Postmates in Los Angeles — and it will all benefit No Us Without You, a fundraiser that provides food for families of undocumented restaurant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Smith is collaborating with the team that brought us the Saved By the Max and Good Burger pop-up restaurants for Mooby’s. The menu will include exclusive new items created and prepared by Chef Royce Burke and the Secret Lasagna team.

 

Menu items include Mooby’s Meals like “Mooby’s Messy Lasagna Sandwich” (available vegan as well) with a side of “Hater Totz” & “Chocolate Covered Pretzels”. The menu for delivery will be available starting April 19  from noon to 8 pm via Postmates in Los Angeles.

 

[paperheart]

‘Soul’: Disney Moves Pixar Theatrical Release In Wake Of Distribution Cuts & COVID-19 Pandemic

https://deadline.com/2020/04/soul-disney-moves-pixar-theatrical-release-in-wake-of-distribution-cuts-1202907103/

Edited April 13, 2020 by paperheart

[paperheart]

Theater Chain AMC Reportedly in Talks to Hire Chapter 11 Counsel

Shares of AMC Entertainment , the largest theater chain in the U.S., dropped more than 20% following a report that the company is in talks to hire law firm Well Gotshal & Manges to explore a potential Chapter 11 filing. Talks are still in the early stages, according to a New York Post article citing sources. The team at Well Gotshal is being headed by Ray Schrock, who recently worked as bankruptcy counsel to PG&E, Fairway and Sears.

[paperheart]

Cinemark Planning To Re-Open Circuit Around July 1

https://deadline.com/2020/04/cinemark-re-opening-coronavirus-1202908960/

Tenet

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DCAU Wonder Woman voice actress Susan Eisenberg is auction office various items to raise money to help out comic book stores suffering financially due to coronavirus closure.

 

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[fantastic_four]

Time for drive-in theaters to start up again.  

[DiamondCityComics]

29 minutes ago, fantastic_four said:

Time for drive-in theaters to start up again.  

I was thinking about. So would they have the bathrooms open or do you go in the grass, bottles, cooler etc.

[Bosco685]

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Disney’s stock dipped more than 3% in early trading Monday after two analysts issued downgrades on its shares.

 

The latest setback followed reports of the company’s expanded cutbacks due to COVID-19. The Financial Times reported over the weekend that 100,000 employees, mostly in theme parks, would be furloughed, a move that is expected to save the company $500 million a month. The company is recommending the workers seek state benefits during the furlough period, the paper said.

 

The cutbacks affect nearly half of the company’s total workforce.

 

Shares fell below $103 in the early going. Barely two months ago, they were above $140.

 

[Bosco685]

As part of the #Creators4Comics auctions...

 

 

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As more studios experiment with bringing high-quality pics into the home during the current COVID-19 home quarantine, Warner Bros. is jumping into the mix by fast-tracking their animated pic Scoob! onto PVOD and premium digital ownership on May 15 in the U.S. and Canada. The Tony Cervone-directed big feature animated take of the Hanna-Barbera famed cartoon TV series Scooby Doo was originally set to open on May 15 in theaters.

Scoob! will be available for a 48-hour rental PVOD period for U.S. $19.99 or EST price of $24.99. Warner Bros. has no future plans to have big pics like Wonder Woman 1984, Tenet, In the Heights skip theaters and head into homes. In the Heights was re-scheduled today for June 18, 2021. If there are any movie theaters open in mid-May, I understand Scoob! will not play in cinemas.

 

The other reasons why, we hear, Warners is also taking Scoob! into the home is largely because the film is finished. Recently, Universal’s decision to take Trolls World Tour into the homes over Easter weekend with a $19.99 48-hour PVOD rental yielded an estimated first weekend stateside revenue between $40M-$50M. Recently, Paramount unloaded MRC’s The Lovebirds to Netflix, with STX sending their family live-action feature My Spy to Amazon Prime. Disney announced that Artemis Fowl, originally scheduled to open in theaters over Memorial Day weekend, would go to Disney+ at some point in the future.

 

Warner Bros. Chair and CEO Ann Sarnoff made the announcement about Scoob! today. Earlier today, AT&T announced that WarnerMedia’s HBO Max will be offered free or via promotion to “tens of millions” of its U.S. wireless, video and internet customers on the streaming service’s launch date of May 27.

 

“While we’re all eager to be able to once again show our films in theaters, we’re navigating new, unprecedented times which call for creative thinking and adaptability in how we distribute our content,” said Sarnoff.  “We know fans are eager to see Scoob! and we’re delighted we can deliver this feel-good movie for families to enjoy while they’re home together.”

 

[media_junkie]

Well, I personally think that is great.  A 48 hour rental price of $19.99 is cheaper than the $48.00 I'd have to pony up to see this in theaters with the kids.

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