Coronavirus leads Hollywood to catastrophe

What we never imagined as possible has already taken over our lives. So don't give it another spin. Until now, surrealism was what Salvador Dalí said and did while he smoothed his mustache or what happened in "Black Mirror." Very far from the madding crowd of a type, or type, normal. Nothing to do with this series B movie confinement. A plan that, in the mind of the middle white of the western world, only seemed doomed to science fiction or, at best, to distant Asian lands that mattered little. However, the fact is that the Covid-19 affects everyone. He does not understand race, gender, or ideology. It also strikes, and how it does, the entertainment industry, unable to keep itself out of a pandemic that has forced it to shut down in cinemas, theaters and concert halls. Only "sofa activities" are saved, for the moment. Although it took a little longer to get to Europe, quarantine measures have already been made official in the United States. Precautions that, without a doubt and as it is being verified in Spain, are going to be hard for exhibitors and, basically, for any entity involved in one way or another in the industry. Even for that mastodon called Hollywood.

Caught in New Zealand

The cancellation of filming, of different festivals and the delays in the premieres are marking an unprecedented milestone. As an example, the dating program "Love Island", canceled by Amazon Studios when it was only two weeks old. With the entire team in Cape Town, the English ITV halted production after the South African president declared a state of alarm in the country. More notable has been the suspension of filming of the series "The Lord of the Rings", in which a large team of 800 people worked, now waiting to leave New Zealand, as the country closed its borders on 13 March. Netflix, one of the first companies to react, has done the same with the fourth season of "Stranger Things", with "Red Notice", "The Prom" and "Hollywood", the next film by Ryan Murphy. Hulu's "Handmaid Tale" just the same. Not even Marvel superheroes have been able to cope with the virus and have paralyzed everything until further notice. Also the premieres of the rooms. Movies like the new James Bond movie, "No Time to Die," has already delayed its release to November, and "Peter Rabbit 2" and "A Quiet Place 2," among another good barrage of tapes, follow suit. To which "Fast 9" and "Mulan" will be added. And many others.

Hollywood tries to adapt as it can to the new reality while viral fever rages on its plot. The first to notice it, do not hesitate, the curritos, pioneers in being dragged by this abrupt change: hundreds of layoffs. "Many workers have lost their wages overnight. Everyone is in shock, "says one of those affected, Lia Towers, until recently, a location assistant. "They haven't told us when we are going to start shooting again," he assumes with resignation.

The Mecca of Cinema projects its idyllic figure into the collective imagination as a place for the rich and handsome, but when they are badly given, the reality is quite different. The ones who really make the business stand up for gyrfalcons and stars are the «others»: assistants, electricians, makeup artists, cameras, assistant directors, catering ... People who live from paycheck to paycheck while working on a series or a movie, or both. They jump from production to production in order to get a decent salary and pay their bills. So the inevitable decision to stop all productions leaves them unprotected. "I'm not going to have any income from now on," explained Mathew Walsh, assistant director on one of the suspended productions. "I'm going to claim what they owe me for unemployment, but that will only serve to pay the rent and some food, electricity, internet and the rest will have to come out of my savings." And it is that the crisis extends far beyond production. It also hits all companies that rely on the movie business. Emma Clinch, an actress based in New York, pays most of her expenses with her job as an usher in "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" at the equally closed Broadway lyric theater. "Everything has gone to hell."

Health first

With the clear premise that the most important thing continues to be health and that the measures taken are necessary, the entertainment industry now asks itself several questions: what price will the most humble employees have to pay? To what extent Are the large production companies going to increase the losses? How is the industry going to face this domino effect with regard to the premieres scheduled and already delayed? ... The avalanche of cancellations and delays in events and movie premieres, in short, Hollywood gasoline, will be notable, according to experts, until well into 2021. Point to which should be added the more than possible recession that haunts the US, present for months, and that will have a greater impact after the latest events. Recall the overwhelming decline in the New York Stock Exchange this week, a chill for potential buyers. "This is going to force us to take charge of a lot of aspects of the industry that haven't been considered for a long time," says a Los Angeles studio executive to another X in the equation: the "box American office »had been running for weeks before this break with the lowest collection since 2000.

For the moment, neither the studios nor the streaming companies have given any solution on how they are going to face this dark period that is presented. Teleworking has only been imposed for those who can: "If we stay at home we can use the stipulated sick days, but once they are over, they don't pay us," explains an angry production assistant: "Even the boss He even told him that if he gets sick it is his fault, when we are in a pandemic ».

Going a step further, already in the postcoronavirus world, according to Rob Gale –CEO of Tubular Labs–, the events related to this industry will be significantly reduced and "what will prevail is the law of the fittest". A scope of damage that is still very premature and "difficult to measure", they say, since in the United States day-to-day cases of patients increase and the economy suffers from uncertainty. There is no similar precedent and the measures are practically improvised on the fly, a somewhat worrying formula.

Almost as much as the $ 5 billion loss to the American film industry that experts estimate at first glance. This figure assures that it will increase as the releases are delayed. Unless the "streaming" makes up the results somewhat, because there is only the option of being cautious and staying at home watching the wide variety of series, feature films and documentaries to which we have access from the sofa. From going to the cinema, nothing at all.