2020-03-16_Bloomberg_Businessweek_Asia_Edition

 COVID-19 / BUSINESS Bloomberg Businessweek March 16, 2020

31

○ The crew fled so quickly after the Feb. 25 decision
to delay filming of Mission: Impossible  7 that
Paramount Pictures forgot to cancel the welcome
party at the opulent Gritti Palace Hotel in Venice,
Italy. The handful of straggling technical work-
ers who showed up feasted with silver cutlery and
exquisite china in a mostly abandoned banquet hall.
That kind of confusion—and needless spend-
ing—has been characteristic of Hollywood in the
coronavirus era. On-location production work,
often planned years in advance, has been resched-
uled at great cost. After halting filming in Venice,
Paramount said theMission: Impossibleshoot sched-
uled for Rome this month would also be delayed.
Even completed films are in trouble: Shuttered
theaters in Asia have forced studios to scrap some
premieres and rethink their 2020 schedules. On
March 4 the opening of the James Bond thrillerNo
Time to Diewas pushed from April to November.
Looking at the state of the movie theater industry—
the Chinese shutdown and plummeting attendance
in France, Italy, Hong Kong, and South Korea—
the film’s backers couldn’t stomach putting out a
would-be blockbuster for only half the potential
audience, says a person familiar with their thinking.
It’s likely more openings will be delayed, because
no one can predict how soon governments will lift
restrictions or when moviegoers will be comfort-
able sitting in a crowded theater. “The thing that’s
scary about the coronavirus today is that we don’t
know the extent of it,” says Jason Squire, a profes-
sor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and editor
ofThe Movie Business Book. Filming delays can cost
$1 million a day, he says. Festivals and press events,
including the unveiling of the Disney+ streaming
service in Europe, have also been canceled. Apple

Inc. and Netflix Inc. pulled out of the South by

Southwest festival in Austin, where they’d planned

to showcase new programming; only days later, on

March 6, the entire event was canceled.

Production problems are spreading through

the TV industry. The new lead character of The

Bachelorette, a reality dating show meant to offer

an escape from life’s concerns, will no longer be

courted by her male suitors in Italy next season.

The country has been in lockdown after a spike in

Covid-19 cases.

Hollywood productions are meticulously

planned, making it particularly painful when things

go awry. Every hour of each day is scheduled, and

there are complex tasks like shutting down city

blocks, doling out pay to dozens or hundreds of

crew members, and ensuring megaprops—say, a

yacht—are available, says Tyler Thompson, a pro-

ducer and president of Cross Creek Pictures.

Studios are used to dealing with emergencies,

particularly weather-related ones, but an illness that

keeps jumping to new parts of the world is unusual.

With theMission: Impossibleseries, the sets and

props are particularly ambitious. For the seventh

installment, slated for release in 2021, workers were

building a replica of the Gritti Palace. It’s now gath-

ering dust. And the crew that had descended on the

Italian city earlier this month is in limbo.

“They told us to pack our equipment and to leave

ASAP,” says Arianna Pascazi, a Roman scene artist

who’d just started to paint stained-glass pieces in the

windows of faux buildings for the backdrop of the

film’s action sequences. “They told us to leave some

of the scenes already made here. But to be honest,

we don’t know if we will come back at all.”—Kelly

Gilblom and Flavia Rotondi, with Christopher Palmeri

“They told

us to pack our

equipment

and to leave

ASAP”

*FILMS FOR WHICH THE NATIONS OF ORIGIN LISTING ON THE INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE INCLUDE THE U.S. BUT NOT CHINA. EXCLUDES THREE SUCH FILMS THAT MET THAT CRITERIA BUT HAD CHINESE PRODUCTION PARTNERS. STUDIOS MAY HAVE HAD ADDITIONAL PARTNERS ON THEIR FILMS AND IN SOME CASES ARE NOT THE PRIMARY PARTNER. †INCLUDES 20TH CENTURY STUDIOS FILMS. DATA: BOX OFFICE MOJO, IMDB, COMPANY WEBSITES

10% 20% 30%

Alita:

Battle

Angel

Fast &

Furious

Presents:

Hobbs &

Shaw

X-Men:

Dark

Phoenix

0%

Which Hollywood studios are most exposed to China?
Share of box officerevenue from the country among top-grossing movies of 2019*
Disney† AT&T (WarnerMedia) NBCUniversal Sony Other Global revenue

$1b