Effects of Coronavirus (COVID-19) On Entertainment & Tourism Industry

[Teebin]

$20 surcharge... Can you imagine a restaurant tripling their prices to make up for fewer guests? That $30 entree is now $90 dollars and tips are now a 42% gratuity.

 

[Nick]

$20 surcharge... Can you imagine a restaurant tripling their prices to make up for fewer guests? That $30 entree is now $90 dollars and tips are now a 42% gratuity.

I'm not sure if it's them making up for fewer guests or if it's because they need to pay for more staff to do extra cleaning procedures now. Either way, there's no way that a surcharge like that is sustainable and they'll quickly find out people won't pay it.

 

[Scott W.]

$20 surcharge... Can you imagine a restaurant tripling their prices to make up for fewer guests? That $30 entree is now $90 dollars and tips are now a 42% gratuity.

Christ, I never read that as a surcharge, I figured it was a minimum spend. That’s a giant yikes and no from me, not that I would go for free anyway.

 

[lowbudget]

Alamo may not be a giant, but they have the "movie going experience" that all theatres will have to have to stay alive. The days of sticky floors, $12 popcorn, and having to deal with rude people are coming to an end.

Cinemark and AMC will need to change their business model to stay viable past 2030, the Genie is out of the bottle, VOD is viable for a significant portion of movies.

Just my $0.02

 

[UniversalManiac]

Parkscope brought on a thing posted on twitter, confirming that tenants are looking to reopen Universal Citywalk as soon as May 11th. Ambitious, it is.

I don’t understand how this can be the case if Citywalk is closed till 31st. Maybe some sort of retraining going on or something?

 

[JawsVictim]

I don’t understand how this can be the case if Citywalk is closed till 31st. Maybe some sort of retraining going on or something?

Might be to allow employees to come back for training prior to May 31 or to hire new staff.

 

[Bobharlem]

Carnival Cruise lines announced today they are restarting cruising on August 1st from limited ports (Galveston, Miami, Port Canaveral) All other ports cancelled.

 

[RedRightDan]

Another possible major movie may be skipping theatrical release.

Amazon had a link up temporarily that allowed you to pre-order New Mutants for $25.

It’s down now, but the fact that they had an option for it probably means that someone flipped a switch too soon.

This thing has been pushed back so many times, it’ll be good to finally let the public see it.

 

[Nick]

 

[JawsVictim]

RIP Disney. Universal didn’t even need Potter, just a global pandemic.

 

[Mad Dog]

RIP Disney. Universal didn’t even need Potter, just a global pandemic.

That's kind of worst case scenario though . Kind of what we keep seeing from an advertising starved media, namely disaster scenario stories to get clicks from a public they keep panicking. Business analysts in general are still giving them decent marks, even some buy recommendations......But if it does indeed unfold with those numbers, they'll be ripe for a takeover target.

 

[JawsVictim]

That's kind of worst case scenario though . Kind of what we keep seeing from an advertising starved media, namely disaster scenario stories to get clicks from a public they keep panicking. Business analysts in general are still giving them decent marks, even some buy recommendations......But if it does indeed unfold with those numbers, they'll be ripe for a takeover target.

I agree with you, but my comment was meant to be satire. I certainly hope Disney stays the course once we’re on the other side of things because we’ve been in the midst of a theme park war and us fans have benefitted greatly.

 

[Mad Dog]

I agree with you, but my comment was meant to be satire. I certainly hope Disney stays the course once we’re on the other side of things because we’ve been in the midst of a theme park war and us fans have benefitted greatly.

Yes I know. That's why I gave you a 'like'. :thumbsup:

 

[JawsVictim]

Yes I know. That's why I gave you a 'like'. :thumbsup:

My bad! Didn’t see that when I replied.

 

[GhostHost85]

If Alamo ever implements a policy requiring a two guest minimum, I will definitely never go to one of their theaters. As an introvert, I often go to the movies alone and I'm not going to support a business that doesn't allow that, even if they just do it temporarily. Plus, no way would I pay a 20 dollar surcharge for a movie. Theaters like to whine about the studios, but at this point, it seems like they are becoming their own worst enemy.

 

[Nick]

If Alamo ever implements a policy requiring a two guest minimum, I will definitely never go to one of their theaters. As an introvert, I often go to the movies alone and I'm not going to support a business that doesn't allow that, even if they just do it temporarily. Plus, no way would I pay a 20 dollar surcharge for a movie. Theaters like to whine about the studios, but at this point, it seems like they are becoming their own worst enemy.

Running a movie theater is certainly a razor thin business so you can get why they complain... but at the same time, you can't go around trying to just rip $20 from people on top of what they already are paying just because people will never support that and while it may give an extremely short term boost to Alamo's business, it will hurt them in the long run.

But again, i'm more interested in what AMC, Regal and Cinemark do, since that will be what the majority of moviegoers experience. Their biggest problem going forward is that they have these huge 20-24 screen theaters and a lot of the smaller movies that fill up those screens normally I think you'll see go to VOD as the years progress. Eventually, the theaters will only be around to play the big blockbuster movie the way I see it and I don't know that the huge multiplexes can survive that. I think there's definitely going to be a lot of theater closures going forward. They'll still be around, but it will be far fewer of them I think.

 

[GhostHost85]

Running a movie theater is certainly a razor thin business so you can get why they complain... but at the same time, you can't go around trying to just rip $20 from people on top of what they already are paying just because. People will never support that and while it may give and extremely short term boost to Alamo's business, it will hurt them in the long run.

But again, i'm more interested in what AMC, Regal and Cinemark do, since that will be what the majority of moviegoers experience. Their biggest problem going forward is that they have these huge 20-24 screen theaters and a lot of the smaller movies that fill up those screens normally I think you'll see go to VOD as the years progress. Eventually, the theaters will only be around to play the big blockbuster movie the way I see it and I don't know that the huge multiplexes can survive that. I think there's definitely going to be a lot of theater closures going forward. They'll still be around, but it will be far fewer of them I think.

It will be kind of sad when only the major event movies are playing in theaters. I will definitely miss watching smaller movies in theaters, but theaters can't survive in their current form with what Alamo is considering.

One issue on the studios' side is how movie budgets have ballooned out of proportion. There is no reason a movie with as little action or special effects as Birds of Prey should have had a 90 million dollar budget. I think that movies will start having more reasonable budgets going forward if they have to rely mainly on VOD to recoup those budgets. There are a lot of smart ways to make movies feel big without spending 200 million plus on them. It could lead to them having to be more creative, which is ultimately a good thing.

 

[Nick]

It will be kind of sad when only the major event movies are playing in theaters. I will definitely miss watching smaller movies in theaters, but theaters can't survive in their current form with what Alamo is considering.

One issue on the studios' side is how movie budgets have ballooned out of proportion. There is no reason a movie with as little action or special effects as Birds of Prey should have had a 90 million dollar budget. I think that movies will start having more reasonable budgets going forward if they have to rely mainly on VOD to recoup those budgets. There are a lot of smart ways to make movies feel big without spending 200 million plus on them. It could lead to them having to be more creative, which is ultimately a good thing.

You can also look at The Irishman as a prime example of ballooned budgets. That was a straight drama and it cost $170M (before marketing). The ONLY reason that it cost as much as it did was because Scorsese HAD to cast DeNiro, Pesci and Pachino, which meant using de-aging technologies. And now Scorsese has another straight drama he has already pitched to studios and been turned down by all of them because it is projected to cost $200M. So now of course he went back to try and get some of Netflix's endless supply of money...

Absolutely ludicrous that budgets have gotten so out of hand.

 

[Jerroddragon]

LOL at the 20 bucks surcharge for a movie....I'd rather spend 20 dollars on anything over that. I get they need money but god it makes me want them to fail. This is the time for deals not charging more for less.



Also Speculation, but from the projected deaths going up and the way Dr Fauci talks about what is going on now...I'd be very surprised if we don't have a wave two this fall. Forcing things like heme parks to have to push back even loner before opening. Its like the more people try to force things open now the longer this will go on.

 

[Nick]

Its like the more people try to force things open now the longer this will go on.

Until there's a vaccine or some form of treatment, this is pretty much what we're looking at.