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World Tour) available to view at home on
demand. This unprecedented move from
a studio will likely see ripple effects
throughout the industry, and could cause
a permanent paradigm shift.Blitz Spirit
We have to go back to the start of World
War 2 to find anything on the scale of what
our cinemas are now facing. When war
was declared on Germany in September
1939, the UK’s government was so wary
of an imminent onslaught of air raids it
ordered all places of public entertainment,
cinemas included, to be closed
immediately. The decision was certainly
not a popular one – George Bernard Shaw
called it “a masterpiece of unimaginative
stupidity” in a letter to The Times – and
was rolled back within days outside of the
larger towns and cities. This bewildering
double standard prompted the Embassy
Cinema in Notting Hill (now called the
Gate) to post a sign outside its premises
telling locals that the nearest open
cinema was in Aberystwyth, 239 miles
from where they were standing.
Soon cinemas were allowed to re-open
in metropolitan areas as well, albeit with
restrictions. (In the West End of London
for instance they had to shut by 6pm, a
curfew later extended to 10.30.) By
December, three months on from the
beginning of hostilities, things had
returned to normal – so much so, in fact,
that admissions rose by more than a third
over the five years that followed.
Admittedly cinemas were as vulnerable as
any other structure – a bomb struck the
Whitehall in East Grinstead in July 1943,
killing more than 80 people. For all the
pounding Britain received at the hands of
the enemy, though, no more than 10 per
cent of its cinemas were closed at any
point during the conflict: a testament to
both the resilience of the nation’s
exhibition sector and the public’s need for
escapism at times of national trial.
During the Second World War,
cinemas could refuse entry to anybody
not in possession of a gas mask. Were
their 21st Century equivalents to make
disposable tissues and hand sanitiser
obligatory, it may go some way towards
restoring confidence in a leisure activity
that urgently needs both our patronage
and our trust. Here at Total Film, we’ve
seen all of the movies we’ve put on our
last four covers – ;eZ\dPb]hp, No Time To
Die, Fast & Furious 9 and A Quiet Place Part
II – fall victim to the coronavirus effect.
It’s a trend we don’t want to continue –
we’re as eager to share new movies with
you as you are to get back in cinemas.THENANDNOW
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acrossSloane
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theatredisplays
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Cancel
Culture
An at-a-glance guide to the state
of play as TF goes to press...Releases
A Quiet Place
Part II 20 March PostponedMulan 27 March Postponed
Peter Rabbit 2:
The Runaway 27 March 17 JulyNo Time To Die 2 April 12 November
The Secret Garden 3 April 14 August
The Lovebirds 3 April Postponed
The New Mutants 8 April Postponed
Antlers 17 April Postponed
Black Widow 1 May Postponed
Fast & Furious 9 22 May April 2021
Productions
The Batman Paused
Jurassic World: Dominion Paused
Shang-Chi And The
Legend Of The Ten Rings PausedBaz Luhrmann’s
Elvis Presley biopic PausedMission: Impossible 7 Paused
The Little Mermaid Paused
Nightmare Alley Paused
Peter Pan And Wendy Paused
Shrunk Paused
Events
SXSW Cancelled
BFI Flare Cancelled
Cannes ????
CORONAVIRUS
APRIL 2020 | TOTAL FILM