Welcome to our late summer edition of Cairns on Cinema, which normally at this time is devoted to our annual recap of the winners and losers at the summer box office.
Obviously, to heck with that this year because of the havoc wreaked by the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown. The summer box office of 2020 can be summed up like this:
Winners, no one.
Losers, everyone.
Instead of serving up a box office recap that would amount to the shortest column in Cairns on Cinema history, I will try and fill you in on the latest news of upcoming releases.
Yes, there is some good news to report. Movie chains in the USA have reopened on Aug. 21 and here in Canada, Cineplex announced that their entire chain of 164 theatres was now open as well. That means new movies are finally being scheduled.
I should tell you about the much-delayed Warner Bros. release of Tenet. Finally, at long last, it is being released!
What has happened is an international release beginning Wednesday Aug. 26 to several markets, including the UK and other European markets, Japan, Australia and Canada!!!
The decision was made to release the movie early to markets that had gotten COVID-19 under control — something you cannot say about the USA. As for the USA, the plan now is to release Teneton Sept. 3.
As previously reported, the Capitol in North Battleford is showing new releases again! According to their website, their latest releases as of the Aug. 28 weekend are Tenet, The New Mutants, and Bill and Ted Face the Music; they also scheduled a re-release of Slap Shoton Aug. 27.
Earlier in August, the Capitol showed Unhingedstarring Russell Crowe, and The Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run, the first new releases into the new post-shutdown COVID-19 environment (such that it is, since the virus is still raging on).
The other big story is the controversy surrounding Mulan. Disney had long intended to release this movie to the cinemas, but COVID-19 messed up those plans and the release was delayed as Disney waited for a more favourable economic/health climate.
Finally, Disney decided to quit waiting. Mulanis not going to cinemas in mass release at all now, and it is instead being offered immediately on video-on-demand on Disney+ at a premium price of $30.
Needless to say, the cinema chains are hopping mad, because they were hoping to eventually show Mulanand recoup a lot of money. One cinema owner in France went nuts and a viral video was posted of him destroying a Mulanmovie pop-up ad!
From my vantage point, it seems Disney finally waved the white flag and decided to cut their losses, and recoup whatever money they can with Mulanon VOD. They’re not getting rich by doing this, believe me. Personally, I wouldn’t pay $30 for Mulanon video on demand — that is extortion as far as I’m concerned. But they’re doing what they have to do.
There have been a lot of stories about how VOD and digital delivery is going to cut into the cinemas’ business. There was the huge news story earlier this summer about the chain AMC doing a deal with Universal to cut the window for theatrical releases to 17 days — after that, they can be released on premium digital. Before, the window was something like 90 days. There’s now plenty of talk about what a blow this is to the cinemas and how this is a real game changer, with more talk that digital will become much more important in the years ahead.
Looking ahead, it promises to be a weird and subdued September as the Toronto International Film Festival becomes the latest festival to deal with the challenges of COVID-19. It is still going ahead, but with a reduced schedule of 50 movies from Sept. 10-20. This is described as a “hybrid” festival: there will still be indoor screenings, but more movies will be offered digitally and a few are being shown outdoors.
I don’t know what more to say. It really has not been the most uplifting movie summer ever, as I have likely said before, but I’ve tried to make the best of it by catching up on old movies on TV and my old DVDs. Also, it continues to be a big year for the outdoor drive-ins so I’m happy to see that.
Good news! The city’s Send Off to Summer event returns Sept. 11 in North Battleford, south of the CUplex, with the screening of Abominable.
On a more positive note, the fall and winter looks more promising. Things are getting better, COVID-19 cases are going down again, new releases are finally happening, and hope is on the way. The best news is that it will be only four more months before we are done for good with the year 2020!
I hope never to report on a summer like this, or a year like this, at the cinemas ever again.
UPDATE: It turns out I am not done. We got word last week that the action Chadwick Boseman has died of cancer. Boseman played roles such as Jackie Robinson in 42, James Brown in Get on Up, and Thurgood Marshall in Marshall.
His most famous role, though, was King T’Challa in the megahit Black Panther. Boseman had been fighting cancer for the last four years. Needless to say, the entertainment world is shocked and devastated.
What else can be said other than … 2020 strikes again. With that, I really am done for now.
