When it comes to the future of the film industry, particularly regarding release strategies, there are some serious differences of opinion. You have Netflix and other streamers talking about how everything is moving digitally and cinemas are going to become niche locations. You have theater chains talking about how the pandemic shows that changes need to be made but theatrical releases are here to stay. And then you have studios kind of throwing their hands up in the air and doing whatever it takes to make money. There aren’t any real answers to the big questions that face the industry, but the IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond is optimistic that a five-month pandemic isn’t going to wipe out cinemas.
Speaking to Deadline, Gelfond was asked about the future of IMAX after the pandemic and what he believes the industry will do with the influx of Premium VOD releases by studios over the past several months. As you might expect, the man who makes his money from film fans buying tickets to see a movie on a massive screen is keen on making sure people know its safe to do so and that IMAX isn’t going anywhere.
“So, I think the fact that a couple of movies moved to streaming has created this narrative that a lot of movies are going to go to streaming and in the case of blockbusters I just don’t believe that to be true,” Gelfond said. “And again, what do you say when nobody’s open? But I think starting this weekend with ‘The Eight Hundred’ in China and then going into ‘Tenet,’ I think people are going to see that people, where the virus is low, are going to return to movies in fairly significant numbers.”
He added, “I know it’s popular to say the world is forever changed, but I don’t think that 100 years of history gets changed in five months. Just like people have kitchens in their houses, they like going to restaurants. Just because people have a streaming service, I think they’re still going to want to go to the movies.”
Ultimately, Gelfond, as you might expect, is a fan of movie theaters and the theatrical experience, and thus, he believes that watching a film at an IMAX location is safer than a lot of the situations people find themselves in right now anyway.
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He said,”…I think if you look back, I don’t know of any case where COVID spread has come out of movie theaters so I don’t really understand. I understand people are cautious, but personally I think movie theaters are safer than restaurants.”
Obviously, there are studies that can back him up and studies that say the exact opposite. So, it’s really uncertain what is going to happen when theaters in the US reopen. Will people go? If so, will anyone get sick? And the biggest question, will cinemas ever bounce back to pre-COVID numbers?
**Stares awkwardly at “Tenet”** We’ll just have to wait and see.