'Film After Corona: What Can We Expect?'

Cinemas are finally beginning to reopen – but not in their usual form

For the first time in what must be decades, they have not been showing any new films. Rather, most locations are screening films that came out earlier in the year, or even blockbusters from several years ago such as the Harry Potter series or Star Wars.

Films are an incredibly important part of our collective consciousness. They align us together, uniting people under one huge screen. Someone from Limerick might not have anything in common with someone from Los Angeles, but they both know who Luke Skywalker is.

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I have been thinking about this over the past few months while waiting for cinemas to reopen. After going for the first time in what feels like forever a few days ago, I felt like I was being reunited with an old friend. But it got me wondering – has there ever been another time in history when release or production of films (as well as TV) had to be stalled due to some worldwide incident or pandemic? 

The answer seems to be no. Even during wartime, studios kept spitting movies out; during WW2, Hollywood films were utilised as propaganda to support US involvement. ‘Following the declaration of war on Japan, the government created a Bureau of Motion Picture Affairs to coordinate the production of entertainment features with patriotic, morale-boosting themes and messages about the “American way of life,” the nature of the enemy and the allies, civilian responsibility on the home front, and the fighting forces themselves.’

Therefore, we have lived through in incredibly new time in film history - a time when there was no film at all.

During the SARS outbreak in the early 2000s, films also kept being made. It even inspired Contagian, a 2011 film in which Gwyneth Paltrow ruins everything for everyone – apparently Goop can’t cure everything.

It will be interesting to see how the film industry is affected by these events in the coming months, and even years – particularly if a second lockdown is to occur. Not only that, but what kind of stories is this whole thing going to inspire on our screens in the near future? 

I’m excited to find out. As long as they don’t involve Gwyneth Paltrow.

Source: https://www.britannica.com/art/history-of-the-motion-picture/The-war-years-and-post-World-War-II-trends