Effect of Covid-19 on Upcoming Movies and Cinema Halls in India

Hello friends! We hope you all are doing good and staying safe. As the whole world is going through the coronavirus pandemic, the situation in India is also not good. In fact, we are peaking further as far as new cases are concerned. It means we are yet to reach the peak.

Because of this pandemic, the cinema hall got closed all over India in the mid part of March. It is now around 50 days and there looks no chance of opening of theaters at least in the near future.

The film industry is going through the biggest crisis ever. Upcoming new movies all are getting affected. Many films are ready (or near about ready) to get released in theaters. But they simply can't. People related directly or indirectly to the movie industry are going through losses. We only wish that soon everything becomes ok and we are back to business.


Now coming to the opening of theaters again. If we go by the data of the USA, Italy, Spain. France. It seems the curve has flattened in those places. We can't say exactly of USA. But at least in other, the curve as far as new cases are concerned has got flatten. However, still, they are reporting new cases and deaths daily. And of course, cinema halls are closed in those places.

If we compare those data to India, we are somewhat 1 to 2 months behind them. It means the daily news Covid-19 cases reported in India may get flat in the next 1 to 2 month but chances are very less that cinema halls will open.

Thus, it is an open secret that theaters will not open at least in May and June for sure. Chances are also very slim that theaters will open in July. And yes, our demography and population density are not similar to countries such as the USA, Italy, Spain, or France. Plus, we have not reached the peak yet. Hence, it may take longer than the prediction to get the curve flat.

The consequence of this coronavirus pandemic is that few of the films will now get directly release in the OTT Platform. Already few deals are sealed and we expect the official announcement soon. Another few films are in the advance talks. The worst part is that many new negotiations are started or soon going to take place. If theaters don't get opened by July then further films might get directly release in OTT.

If we follow the trend of western countries, we don't see theaters getting open at least before August 2020. That is our personal opinion! Also, whenever theaters are opened we might not see a flurry of new releases at least for the first few weeks. It means that we may be heading for a massive clash of releases in the latter part of the year. It will be interesting to see the clash in festive time of Diwali and Christmas. Again all are assumptions and permutations.

Do let us know your thoughts on these matters in the comment section. And yes, please stay safe and stay indoors!

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