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近日，受疫情影響，世界第二大連鎖影院Cineworld宣布將暫時關閉其在美國和英國的多家影院。疫情初期，無人來觀影、政府限制影院開放是影院面臨的主要難題。然而隨著政府放開限制，新片卻接連推遲上映，這導致影院無片可放，陷入停業危機。即便後續大片上映，國外院線或也難以恢復往日的輝煌。
Audiences may be ready to return. Will they have anything to watch?
IT IS turning out to be a long intermission. Cinemas across the West closed in March and, despite attempts to reopen in the summer, the box office has not recovered. From October 9th Cineworld, the world’s second-largest chain, will temporarily shut its 536 Regal theatres in America and its 127 British outlets. AMC, the biggest, will cut the opening hours at some Odeon cinemas in Britain.
Early in the pandemic the problem was audiences. In March Disney’s 「Onward」 flopped as people refused to breathe recirculated air with a crowd of strangers. Business got harder when governments ordered theatres to shut, or imposed profit-crushing closures of refreshment counters and caps on capacity.
As countries have eased restrictions and audiences prepared to return, cinemas are finding little to show them. In China, where covid-19 seems under control, studios have resumed pumping out hits. But Hollywood will not risk premiering costly blockbusters while many markets, including New York and California, remain closed, and cinema-goers wary. Most big titles have been postponed (see chart). The last straw for Cineworld was the decision on October 2nd by MGM and Universal Pictures to delay 「No Time to Die」, James Bond’s latest caper, from November until April 2021. No big release is planned until Christmas Day, when Warner Bros』 「Wonder Woman 1984」 will ride to the rescue.
She may be too late. Attendance was declining before covid-19. To distinguish a night at the movies from a night with Netflix, cinemas built snazzy multiplexes with waiters ferrying burgers to viewers lolling in reclining seats. This helped rack up debt: AMC’s $10bn-worth was more than six times last year’s gross operating profit. Cineworld’s ratio was almost as high.
Nine months without revenues from big releases would be disastrous. America’s National Association of Theatre Owners predicts that seven out of ten small or medium-sized cinema companies will go bust without a bail-out, which it has urged Congress to grant. Both AMC and Cineworld are likely to default or file for bankruptcy, believes Moody’s, a ratings agency; AMC could run out of cash by January. Share prices of Western operators have slumped this year, and are now worth a fifth as much as five years ago. (Chinese ones have done better.)
Cinema bosses have urged studios to keep the films coming. Eric Wold of B. Riley, an investment bank, says Hollywood may need to 「take a hit to feed the industry」 and keep it from 「completely falling apart」. Warner Bros took one by releasing 「Tenet」 in the summer; with takings of just $45m at the American box office, the sci-fi thriller may not break even. And studios cannot afford charity. Disney recently laid off 28,000 workers from its covid-hit theme parks.
One day the blockbusters will return. Even then, cinemas will have to defer investments, raise prices and close branches to shore up their balance-sheets—just as viewers have more reasons than ever to stay home. The average American household subscribes to four streaming services, reckons Deloitte, a consultancy. Film studios are bargaining down how long films are shown exclusively in theatres; AMC recently let Universal put future releases online after just three weekends in cinemas, in return for a share of the takings. Even if covid-19 doesn’t smash it entirely, the big screen is likely to get a lot smaller. ■
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Oct 10th 2020 • Business • 597 words
文章倒數第三句話「Warner Bros took one by releasing 「Tenet」 in the summer; with takings of just $45m at the American box office, the sci-fi thriller may not break even. "中的 takings 作何解釋？注意這裡用到了複數名詞 takings，表示「營業收入，營業額」，英文釋義為 the money that a business, shop etc gets from selling its goods over a particular period of time, 看一個例句：Cinema box-office takings in 2001 were £600m. 2001年電影的票房收入為6億英鎊。文章這裡就是在說，華納兄弟(Warner Bros)在今年夏天推出了《信條》(Tenet); 這部科幻驚悚片在美國的票房僅為4500萬美元，可能無法實現盈虧平衡。(查看更多講解，歡迎加入《閱讀訓練營》，踏踏實實提升閱讀理解能力，詞彙量過八千隨來隨學)
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本文全文摘選自The Economist/《經濟學人》(Oct 10th, 2020)，僅供個人學習交流使用。歡迎轉發至朋友圈。商業轉載請在正文前註明「本文來自新英文雜誌公眾號」。
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