The Future of Cinema Entertainment After COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has taken over the world by storm. Love it for hate it, the damage has been done. It has affected countless industries and the livelihood of those in the business that involves getting people together. In the time where social distancing is encouraged, that goes without saying that one of the most affected industry is cinema entertainment. No one wants the cinema hall to become a hotspot for virus transmission. Not after everyone watched how Disney has botched the latest Star Wars trilogy, that would be putting salt on top of the wound.

That being said, cinema operators would still have to find ways to deal with the upcoming challenges even after the Movement Control Order has been lifted. You see, this whole pandemic is not like anything that comes with a switch where you can turn it on and off at ease. By flattening the curve, it will only slow down the spread of the virus and there are still possibilities that it would make a comeback. That means the general public will still be cautious of the physical interactions in the public places especially in a dark cinema hall full of strangers.

Booming Time for Streaming Business

According to a report, Netflix has witnessed an 85% growth in March 2020, which you guessed it, many countries started the whole movement control order to prevent the virus from spreading out of control. Hence, people spend more time on their home entertainment, especially online media streaming services. That includes the group of people who previously never subscribed to any of the streaming services. In other words, this whole MCO is indirectly boosting the business for online streaming services. Not to mention that once the users have experienced the convenience of on-demand streaming services, it is highly unlikely they will stop.

Now you can see the pattern. As the cinema operators struggle with their survivability, it also affects the whole film making industry as box office is one of their main income sources. For sure, no one wants to sit tight on a sinking Titanic and thus Hollywood studios have responded. The Lovebirds will be the first movie that is released on VOD platform before hitting the cinemas. Besides, plenty of other movies also had their VOD release date brought forward.

Inevitable?

We’re not sure how the cinema industry will survive for the next 18 months. Even if they do, for sure sacrifices were made in the first place such as closing down unprofitable outlets and cutting jobs. We never expected this to happen in the year 2020. Everyone has high hopes and it has a special place in our heart especially us Gen-Y will always remember our previous prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir’s Wawasan 2020 (Vision 2020). (Well, even though it has become a meme.)

It has come to a point of no return, our ministers and plenty of experts has stated, there’s no return to our normal life even after the MCO has been lifted. Even the development of a vaccine could take up 18 months earliest, hence forcing us to change our lifestyle such as how we greet people and how cautious we need to be in times of pandemic. It will leave a long-lasting effect on our generation and that applies to our current entertainment industry as well.