by Conall Sahler ’20

A take-away since the COVID-19 outbreak has been that movie theaters may never be the same again. One of the many ways America’s multi-billion dollar movie industry has attempted to maintain its profits have been the at-home release of some of their movie theater-bound films. Films such as Pixar’s “Onward”, Universal Studios’ “The Invisible Man” and Dreamworks Animation’s “Trolls World Tour” (just to name a few) have been released for at home streaming for a price of $20 each. 

What this at-home style movie theater entertainment may mean in the long run is not yet known, but some have speculated this may be the beginning of the end for the movie theater industry. With the release of Dreamworks Animation’s “Trolls World Tour” on April 10 we have seen an unprecedented launch of a movie theater-bound film entirely on digital streaming. Along with its historic release Universal (Dreamworks Animation’s parent company) noted that the film had quickly become the highest earning VOD (Video on Demand) film of all time. Although no specific number was given by Universal they have stated it has made 10x higher earnings than their last largest earning digital release “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”. 

The future of at-home media being as profitable as it is appearing to be may have dire consequences to thousands of jobs relating to movie theater businesses. One of the movie industry giants AMC has recently been downgraded by Wall Street to a “default imminent” company meaning it will likely be unable to make payments regarding the company’s mortgage. 

AMC’s loss of revenue is not completely at fault for COVID-19, however, due to recent aggressive expansions of the company in an attempt to save what some feel is a dying industry. AMC spent billions of dollars on refurbishing their movie theaters and creating new programs for avid movie gowers. Nevertheless, AMC now sees itself over $5 billion in debt, a figure that will only grow during this global pandemic. 

The CEO of AMC theaters, Adam Aron, recently made the move to furlough ALL of AMC’s employees, from movie theater workers, the 600 corporate staff members and the CEO himself. This move has stunted the economic earnings of its more than 4,000 employees and their families. This was yet another attempt for the company to stop its $5 billion+ debt from getting even larger. Aron is also in talks of hiring bankruptcy law firm Weil Gotshal amid the shutdown.