There’s no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we live our day-to-day lives. With so many people required to stay home for months at a time and numerous businesses forced to close their doors, the world has had to adapt to its collective new normal, with some businesses left behind entirely.
The movie industry was one of the worst to be affected by the pandemic, with Bloomberg reporting that around 630 movie theaters remain closed across North America to this day. While some films are helping cinemas stay afloat ⏤ such as Spider-Man: No Way Home, which raked in $587 million in its opening weekend ⏤ many other movie theaters were unable to survive closures throughout the pandemic.
The highly contagious Omicron variant hasn’t helped matters, as some people still feel uncomfortable sitting in close proximity to groups of strangers.
The possibility of catching Covid is a worry for many viewers, but another negative is the exorbitant prices being charged by an increasingly outdated industry that’s been sinking for years.
Streaming has become more affordable in recent years and some movies even stream on platforms at the same time as their cinematic counterparts, so it’s no surprise that people are opting for a cheaper, more comfortable option, especially during the pandemic.
Even AMC, the largest cinema chain, is struggling to stay afloat. It reported losing $4.9 billion last year, though you wouldn’t know it by looking at their stock price, which skyrocketed from $2.01 at the start of the year to $62.55 in June before dropping down to the current price of $30.30 at the time of writing. This price increase was mainly attributed to meme-stock investors who pumped the share price up as opposed to an accurate reflection of AMC’s performance.
The pandemic is slowly becoming an endemic, but despite the world finding ways to adapt to the COVID-19 virus, it seems like cinema is a dying industry set to be left behind due to advancements in technology, following a path similar to that of record stores.
