Everyone knows about the damages and problems Covid-19 has caused in the year 2020. While there are more important and crucial things affected like voting, employment, and social events, TV and movies have also been affected big time. Because of Covid-19, tv shows and movies are being delayed in production, delayed in premiering, or just being flat out canceled. 

Production of TV shows and movies have been delayed because of the virus. Many productions just paused work on shows and movies once the quarantining started and still have not begun progress again. Others have begun to return, but they have to find specific ways to film. Lucas Foster, a long-time movie producer, explained some of the new ways he has to work around restrictions in a Washington Post article. He says,”I had to figure out how to do a crowd with no more than a few people at the same time. And with very specific camera angles. And by taking actors who would normally be close together and making them not close together.” Production has had to limit crewmembers and the amount of sets and locations used in the making of the film or show. Filmmakers have had to take more days to film because it takes much longer to film scenes. Until Covid-19 is taken care of, films and TV shows will have to limit crowd scenes, on-screen romances, fight scenes, and the use of real-world locations.

However, throughout all of these troubles, films and movies have found ways to still create their productions. While many still had to be delayed, big films such as Mulan, Tenet, and Wonder Woman 1984 have already debuted or are set to debut in 2020. 

If these films are being released, how are they supposed to be viewed? Well, movie theaters such as Regal worked hard on returning after closing down at the beginning of the pandemic. Regal theaters began to reopen in late August hoping to make up for the time lost during the pandemic. Many people were hesitant to go to the movies and did not show up when it reopened. The local theater even started using food and movie deals to no avail. Because of this, many theaters have begun to shut down for the second time this year. The timeline for Regal is to close for the rest of 2020 and see if they can reopen in 2021.

Patrick Gilluly, senior at the high school and employee at the local Regal Movie Theater, was interviewed about the status of the movie theater after it reopened. He states, “In August, business was very slow and barely anyone came in to watch movies.” He also explains the disparity between pre-Covid and post-Covid. He says, “The movies that have been released to the public are very limited. Before covid, new movies would release every other week and the staff would be excited for the new released movies. Now, they have brought back old movies that are already on TV which defeats the purpose of a movie theater.”

While the cancelations and delays of production harms the film studios, the closing of the theaters themselves seriously affects the future of movies. People were already signing up for multiple streaming services before quarantine, but with all the time on their hands after quarantine started, almost everyone has signed up for something. With everyone already being able to watch new movies and shows on services, the need for movie theaters is decreasing more and more rapidly as the theaters stay closed. Eventually, if the theaters stay closed for too long, the theaters may have no business when they reopen.

Overall, TV shows and films aren’t the top priority during the Covid-19 pandemic, but it is being equally devastated. The entire film and television industry is losing revenue and profits from the postponing and cancelations this year. This loss of profit could prove to be catastrophic for the future of the business and industry.