How did “Corona” affect cinema and enhance the opportunities of “online” platforms? - Al-Ghad newspaper

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Esraa Al-Radaydah

Amman - The film and cinema industry has recently been living in a situation that has become the prevailing normal at the present time, due to the “Covid 19” epidemic that has swept it since last March and the closures that imposed themselves on it, completely changing the form of revenues at the box office.

With the closure of cinemas and the halting of production for a few months and its return to rotation after the application of preventive measures, this led to widespread increases in the use of online media, in all its forms.

Movies that are usually shown in cinemas have been released directly to video-on-demand streaming services, while online gaming communities such as “Fortnite” and virtual concerts will add millions, so that the time spent by these two has grown exponentially in the past few months.

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Locally, cinemas are still closed, and they have not even opened to incubate the upcoming cinematic shows that will be part of the Amman International Film Festival - the first film at the end of this month. Or even at the 32nd European Film Festival in early September.

Jordanian media and producer Bassam Hijjawi says: “I believe that the longer the Corona pandemic crisis lasts, and the spread of the virus is not controlled, especially in the United States, the more cinematic production companies (studios) resort to electronic platforms, which forces owners of movie theaters to be late. Opening halls and returning to performances.

And Hijjawi adds, “Disney, for example, after it despaired of a quick return to theaters, showed its new films directly on its platform; In order to be able to compete with Netflix, whose shares have risen a lot, and have doubled the number of its subscribers by a huge percentage.

Hijjawi states that the losses of the film production sector are very large, and that new films will not be filmed before March of next year, which will cause the closure of many cinema complexes in the near future permanently.

This, according to him, is related to the lack of films and the high value of real estate rent, in addition to not allowing the operation of cold air conditioning in summer and warm in winter for fear of the spread of infection.

This, of course, makes attending a cinema show in closed halls disturbing and difficult.

Many festivals have stopped and some have been postponed, while some of them held their activities “online”, as in the Cannes Film Festival in its last session, amid a large and categorical rejection of the idea of ​​​​digital transformation of the entirety.

The “Corona” pandemic put cinema and film art festivals in a state of hibernation at the global, Arab and even local levels. However, the decision to announce the Amman International Film Festival - the first film on its new dates for its first session after it was postponed - broke the stalemate, to be the first Arab to announce the start of the film season.

“Cinema continues,” says the director of the Amman International Film Festival, Nada Domani, noting that holding the festival at the end of this month is a great challenge, but at the same time it provides hope for filmmakers.

The festival, which is the first in the world to hold its activities virtually and not virtually, through the equipment it has made, which gives them a space to display their films to the local audience, due to the “Corona” restrictions that were imposed on us.

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Domani adds that this imposed the development of various solutions, including external screening, taking into account social divergence and car cinema, in order to achieve pleasure, and this would not have been achieved without it The festival's supporters believe in its cultural role in achieving human and cultural communication, which is an urgent need in such circumstances.

Domani notes that the festival has turned to "online" in some of its activities, which include the Amman Filmmakers' Days, between August 24 and 26.

It includes a series of seminars and workshops by experts in the field, targeting filmmakers and students, as well as those interested in the film industry.

The two Amman Days marketing platforms will be the stage for presenting 14 distinguished cinematic projects from Jordan and the Arab world. Where the Amman Days jury will grant support to the best projects to contribute to pushing them towards completion.

For his part, the director and artistic director of the El Gouna International Film Festival, Amir Ramesses, stated that the festival is a meeting place for filmmakers, and facilitates communication in order to reach cinematic cooperation between filmmakers and other countries.

And Ramses says: “The festivals will not be completely online, although there are concerns about the countries where it is allowed to receive travelers, and we are waiting for that. We are in a state of optimism.

And Ramses adds: “With regard to the industry, we are in a confusing situation, but things were like this before that. The idea of ​​​​the existence of platforms is not new and continues before Corona, but now they are competing to obtain exclusive content, and they are now invading the world of series and cinema to increase the number of their subscribers.”

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However, despite losses estimated at millions in Egypt and billions in the world, we expect companies to exit the market, new partnerships to appear, and a change in the form of partnership between distribution companies And content providers, and these platforms, which is reflected in the way the film is marketed in the world.

“The painful part is that as a director in the cinema, you always have solutions to make it, whatever the circumstances, and find a window to display it in a specific hall, but in light of the transformation of platforms, it has become the ruling hand in the nature of the content, the nature of its presence, its location, and the audience,” Ramses explains.

The impact of the transformation of Arab platforms is evident through the screening of the Egyptian movie “Saheb Al-Maqam” on the “Shahid” platform, which is the first Egyptian-Arab film to be shown exclusively through it, starring Yousra, Aser Yassin, Amina Khalil, Bayoumi Fouad, and written by Ibrahim Issa. Produced by Ahmed El Sobky and directed by Mando El Adl.

“Going to platforms is an idea that has been prevalent for a long time, but in Egypt and the Arab countries it is a rather new idea, and all of this was suspicious of its competition to the film industry, through huge productions in terms of cost and artistic value, such as the Irishman produced by Netflix,” he says. Egyptian critic Andrew Mohsen.

It is considered that, in practice, despite the influence of these platforms, they encourage going to the cinema, and are not a reason for complete transformation, especially since those films released by these huge platforms are released in theaters and allow ordinary audiences to watch them on a large screen.

According to him, the “Corona” pandemic has somewhat accelerated the rhythm, which has increased the number of subscribers to these Arab platforms such as “Shahid” and international platforms, so the show is on platforms, for example, as happened with the movie “Sahib Al-Maqam”, which was shown by the “Shahid” platform recently. It will not actually dominate, at least in the Arab world.

Mohsen wonders: “In light of the cost of production for these films, will these platforms pay a huge amount to obtain exclusive viewing rights for a temporary period, and this is something we will not know.” For example, the movie “The Washing Machine” announced that it would be shown to “Shahid”, but he went to the cinema, and was shown there exclusively as the Eid Al-Adha movie, and it was going to be shown at the same time on the platform.

And he says, “We are in an experiment phase, and the vision has not become clear, because theaters in Egypt have opened their doors at a rate of 25%, and the platforms may go to show their own films.”

Online video streaming services, especially users of sites like “Netflix” or “hulu”, spend significantly more time looking at screens every day.

As online streaming platforms continue to invest in creating their own shows and movies to cater to their growing user base, it is becoming increasingly important to understand the changing mindset of these viewers as the crisis continues.

All over the world, users of online streaming platforms such as “Netflix”, “hulu”, “Amazon Video” or “Disney” are showing increasing levels of concern about the negative effects of the emerging “Corona” virus, according to what was published by the website. "Globe Web Index".

In fact, users of these platforms are 40% more likely than average to be concerned about the “Covid 19” situation in their country, and that there is a 30% greater chance that the “Corona” virus will have a significant or dramatic impact on their money, and it is more likely to expect 20% that the situation in their country lasts a year or more.

Streaming platforms seem to have escaped this constant worry about the outbreak by spending more time on online media and more time spent on almost every device.

Right content, via streaming services, provides a huge opportunity to increase viewership.

While each service attracts viewers who are looking for different types of content, many people are discovering new genres they never thought they might enjoy.

In the early days of the outbreak, “Netflix” dominated the airwaves with its show “The King of the Tigers,” which juggled true crime and wacky docuseries.

The success of this promotion may be due to the fact that consumers, when asked which species they have discovered and liked more than they imagined, rated these three the highest.

When weekly users were asked what they were seeing more of during the outbreak, what they wanted to see more of, and what they expected to see in the future, comedy was the best response each time.

This would make comedy a driving force behind the show's success.

However, users of “Netflix” today also want to see more content in other categories, noting that the percentage of its subscribers increased by about 17 million subscribers in the first and second quarters, so that the total number of its subscribers exceeded about 193 million subscribers around the world.

Weekly viewers of “Netflix” spend a lot of time on the platform now, of which 41% watch every day and 63% watch 4 or 5 days a week. Hulu users are very similar to the Netflix audience because they subscribe to a high percentage of their audience.

Hulu's greatest opportunity may lie in diversifying its content compared to its direct competitors.

Amazon Prime viewers are the least likely to view other platforms on a regular basis.

As such, they are actually eager to have fictional stories; 44% say they want to see more action, adventure and fantasy content, and 37% say they want more science fiction (higher than any other audience).

The real challenge for this audience may be getting them hooked on this new content. They are the audience most likely to say that viral advertising, or what "trends" on a platform's home screen, has little effect on viewing decisions.

Of course, broadcasters like Netflix have benefited; As the number of its subscribers doubled, despite the fact that filming had stopped, and the company's shares soared to record levels.

The animated DreamWorks also moved quickly; Where she decided to show her movie “Trolls”, to move from a global tour directly to the digital world.

It broke digital records, competing with cinemas and doubling numbers within 5 months. After that, Universal caught the wave.

Disney quickly followed suit, releasing “Frozen 2” several months ahead of schedule, after only weeks of racing through on-demand streaming services, joined shortly after by “Star Wars,” “Skywalker” and “Skywalker.” "Pixar".

However, broadcasting is not scheduled to completely replace cinema, while “Universal” has no plans to bypass the role, and it seems that broadcasting and cinema will continue to coexist peacefully, and that cinemas are not doomed to perish as we imagine.

Movies are valuable content. Last year, global box office revenues totaled $42 billion (an all-time high), contributing to nearly a third of the $136 billion worldwide film production and distribution value.

Hollywood supports more than two million jobs and 400,000 American companies; British film and television are worth around £60m a day to the British economy.

These films are released directly to consumers, the range of films available to film distributors is limited, and they allocate large content budgets to shift the balance of power.

The apparent depletion of choice in theaters, as opposed to the rich content available via streaming services, is expected to exacerbate downward pressures, even as some are optimistic about the prospects for cinemas.

If content creators are going digital, they have discounted potential box office suites and satellite rights as a massive source of revenue generation for producers.

Moreover, movie stars are made for the big screen experience, where they want their movies to be shown.

Media companies no longer optimize releases for fixed schedules or TV slots on common business times or weekends.

Instead, the goal is to increase the number of users and thus improve retention of users and data about the reach of content. A corollary to this is an expanding demand for private content.

As Kamal Gyan Chandani, CEO of PVR and Head of Viability Reduction Strategy (PVR) describes, “I expect investments in content creation to come from distribution platforms rather than studios.”

It is likely that studios and platforms will co-exist and thrive, especially in markets that are not as heavily penetrated as India.

Theatres take up to 50% of ticket sales; Now that income stream is under threat, and these disputes will be followed by a process of standardization.

Independent theaters are expected to be hit hard. Even before the pandemic hit, studios often granted exclusive rights to franchises to larger films or mandated blocking smaller venues, regardless of demand.

Many operators are responding by better targeting consumers by understanding what people like to see and which cinemas they want, using technology that integrates this data into systems to identify all the touch points that users have in cinemas in their daily lives.

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With fewer films available, blockbuster franchises are taking a growing share of box office revenue.

The portion attributable to franchising has increased from about 30% in the 1980s to 40% today.

Disney plays a larger role in the growth of franchises. Since 2000, the share of box office revenues collected by the six major countries has grown by more than 10%, and Disney's share has doubled in the same period, most of it in the past decade.

By design, this platform is attracting more children and parents with children with shows you would normally find on Disney TV.

But the Disney+ catalog also includes franchises from the "Star Wars" and "Marvel" universes, which should appeal to a diverse audience.

While it's not surprising that Disney+ viewers say they've watched more action, adventure, and fantasy content, it's interesting that this audience also has a greater appetite for these types of movies and programming going forward.

Almost half of them say they want to see more of this content in the future, while another quarter say they want to see more family and kids content, while the last quarter has diverse interests.

It may be an opportunity for content producers who target Disney viewers more than ever, as they see a high percentage of the audience as a discovery of interest, especially with the growth of the proportion of “Disney” subscribers to about 60 million subscribers globally.

Covid-19 has made film financing more risky due to increased health security and insurance costs. Independent studios, for example, may find it difficult to raise capital.

This could have the unintended consequence of limiting the diversity of film content, a fear that has been developing since Disney bought Marvel in 2009.

The box office share of films based on original scripts is also shrinking.

On the distribution side, consolidation of theater operators could increase smaller studios' reliance on alternative platforms to finance and promote films.

The gaming companies are also sensing an opportunity. Fortnite recently hosted a screening of a movie titled Christopher Nolan, to name one.

There is a lot of room for growth, especially new revenues based on film intellectual property, such as video games, games, books and parks.

Hollywood has become the underdog, so it's not yet time for the movie industry to die out.

The movie “Greyhound” is a particularly stunning example of a war movie based on true events about a conflict between American ships and German submarines during World War II that was originally set to be released in cinemas earlier this year.

With the closure of cinemas due to the “Corona” virus epidemic, “Apple” was sold from “Sony Pictures”, and the movie starring Tom Hanks, and it displays many visual and digital effects.

The value of the deal was $70 million (8.61 million euros), according to the latest Hollywood news website.

Now the first film lavishly produced for the big screen is now available on screens at home, and it's an amazing film in its own right.

But studios, producers and distributors have no real choice. Ultimately, films need to get to the audience, and that's simple, otherwise they'll face bigger losses.

These films are expected to generate millions of dollars in the box office around the world.

It would be a financial catastrophe if they, too, could not show it in crowded cinemas.

In Hollywood, blockbuster blockbusters are delayed again and again, and this has an impact on movie theater owners, film distributors and the film industry's infrastructure all over the world.

Disney, for example, was anticipating the huge Chinese market in "Mulan", but after reopening some cinemas in China are closing their doors again; Some regions are facing a second wave of “Covid-19” infections.

The situation is no different in the United States, which is facing a sharp rise in the number of infections.

Currently, the mechanisms that have worked for decades are being called into question, and in the so-called film release window, a film will be shown on the big screen, ensuring income for producers, distributors and cinema owners.

Subsequently, the film will be available on DVD, Blu-ray Disc and, more recently, on streaming platforms as well.

The third source of income, which was again delayed due to the sale of rights and licenses, was the free television market.

However, the system is currently undergoing dramatic changes, and the industry has to ask itself whether the film release window may disappear entirely, or apply only as an exception, and whether the system may be back on track if the coronavirus crisis is contained. Once contained.

There are also those who face other challenges, as the major US studios (Disney, Sony, Warner, Universal, Paramount) stand on the side of the major international companies, while small independent producers and the entire art house sector stand on the other side, and this system seems to be Collapses.

Successful streaming providers like Netflix are serious competitors to major studios and their revenues are threatening to collapse.

Part of the confusion and ever-changing situation is that Disney now has its own streaming platforms, so what about the independent scene in this crucial competition?

If streaming platforms offer new movies from the start, or if they are marketed as DVDs or offered as video-on-demand,

There are several questions: who makes money? Will the expensive products still be worthwhile? What are the cinemas that will survive? Are countries and local authorities (at least in Europe) financially committed to making films? Will cinema then be a supported culture like opera, theater or concerts?

At present, no one can answer these questions. And everything depends on the development of a vaccine or effective drugs.

No one can predict the evolution of the epidemic, so the film industry is facing a jungle struggle.