2020年经济学人 电影院危机(1)（在线收听）

Business

商业版块

Cinemas

电影院

Curtains

无法摆脱的困境

Audiences may be ready to return. Will they have anything to watch?

观众们可能已经准备好回归电影院了。那他们有什么影片可看呢？

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.

事实证明，幕间休息时间的确很长。所有西方电影院都于今年3月份关闭了，尽管它们试图在夏季重新开放，但票房并未恢复。从10月9日起，全球第二大连锁影院电影世界将暂时关闭其在美国的536家帝国影院以及英国的127家影院。全球最大的连锁影院AMC将缩短英国部分奥迪安影院的营业时间。

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.

疫情初期，问题在于观众。3月，由于人们拒绝和一群陌生人呼吸循环空气，迪士尼出品的《1/2的魔法》扑街了。政府下令关闭电影院，强制关闭利润颇丰的零食柜台，并限制客流量，企业愈加艰难。

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. 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.

随着各国放宽限制，观众们准备回归，电影院却发现没什么影片能够上映。在中国，新冠疫情似乎得到了控制，各大影院已经恢复了影片的上映。但是好莱坞显然不会冒险首映巨制大片，毕竟纽约和加州等多地的影院市场仍处于关闭状态，电影院的观众也非常谨慎。大多数的大片全都延迟上线。米高梅和环球影业在10月2日决定将詹姆斯·邦德的最新电影《007：无暇赴死》的上映时间从11月延迟到20121年4月，这成为压倒电影世界的最后一棵稻草。在圣诞节之前，大片都没有上映计划，而华纳兄弟的《神奇女侠1984》将于圣诞节当天赶赴救场。