The horror!
The tradegy!
WONDER WOMAN toys grace Walmarts around the nation.. but the kids jst don’t get it.
1984 was not released (though this year felt more like Orwell’s 1984 than anything else) ..
NO other big time summer blockbusters busted blocks either.
Covid-19 shut it down.. shut it all down.
So how are movie theater chains responding?
ENTER AMC!
AMC theaters have reopened in numerous international countries but have remained shuttered in the U.S. since March. The chain touted the reopening as “Movies in 2020 at 1920 Prices.” And now this: Thursday that it expects to open the doors to more than 100 cinemas — or about a sixth of its nationwide locations — on Aug. 20 with throwback pricing for a day.
During its opening-day promotion, AMC will show catalog films, including “Ghostbusters,” “Black Panther,” “Back to the Future” and “Grease.” Those older films will continue to play afterward for $5!
Theaters have an increased challenge in facing COVID.. tight cramped theaters that loved the idea of filling theaters to the max. Now social distancing and masks are the ideals to be met.
The 1918 flu halted Hollywood, too. This isn’t new.
And people then said it was the beginning of the end of tinseltown at that time.
Hadley Meares wrote in April 2020:
On Oct. 11, L.A. City Hall ordered all theaters, motion picture houses, theaters and places of amusement closed until further notice. In all, 83 movie theaters were closed, shutting out thousands of film fans every week. “Did the young man pleasure-bent seek recreation at his favorite matinee or picture theater?” the Los Angeles Times asked. “Lo, a sign greeted him ‘closed by order of the health commissioner.’”
Studios were also coming to terms with the dangers of filming during the outbreak. Word arrived from New York that popular actor Bryant Washburn had infected co-star Anna Q. Nilsson while shooting Venus in the East. On Oct. 16, Frank Garbutt, vp and West Coast manager of Lasky Photoplay Corp., announced that three pictures in production were being rushed and that most of the studio would go dark for a month. The Metro, Mack Sennett and Triangle studios followed suit. Stars like Constance and Norma Talmadge agreed to forgo their salaries so that regular employees could continue to work.
As silent-film producer Benjamin Hampton told it, panic set in as the still-young “studios closed entirely, or operated on part time, and pessimists croaked that this was the beginning of the end.” Popular Metro matinee idol Harold Lockwood, 31, died of the influenza Oct. 19, and Russia’s first movie star, Vera Kholodnaya, would also succumb to the Spanish flu in Odessa, breaking the hearts of millions of European fans.
And here’s to Hollywood and all its flaws!
We sure do miss you..