2020-03-26 The Hollywood Reporter

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 10 MARCH 26, 2020

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Behind the Headlines

The Report

carry a heavy debt burden, like

ViacomCBS, Endeavor and theater

chain AMC Entertainment (see

page 18), or those that rely on

travel to theme parks and cruise

ships, like Disney. Cowen analyst

Doug Creutz has cut his earnings

estimates for all the entertain-

ment companies he tracks

through 2022, slashing his price

target for Disney from $159 to

$101 and for ViacomCBS from $

to $17. Widespread

layoffs are expected

in an industry that

had expanded to

meet the demands

of the streaming

content bubble, with agencies

including Endeavor and Paradigm

already cutting staff and with

UTA slashing employee salaries.

The question for many in enter-

tainment is how permanent

these changes will be — will

the industry rebound once the

pandemic has passed and come

to resemble its former self or will

this crisis cement a new normal

in Hollywood?

When Universal executives

called Blumhouse CEO Jason

Blum to discuss plans to make The

Invisible Man available for home

rental just three weeks into its

theatrical run, along with another

Blumhouse movie in theaters, The

Hunt, “I was supportive of their

decision,” Blum says. “It was a

very tough decision. In a time of

crisis ... you have to look forward.

You have to adapt.” Universal had

released Invisible Man wide in

theaters Feb. 28 and made it avail-

able to rent March 20 at a cost of

$19.99 in the U.S., narrowing the

theatrical window to just 21 days.

The $9 million movie, which had

grossed $123.6 million worldwide

before theaters closed, was the top

movie on Fandango’s VOD service

over the weekend of March 20-22.

Blum says Universal execs assured

him their strategy is a tempo-

rary response to the crisis while

making it clear that the Comcast-

owned studio will be using the

unplanned experiment as a way to

learn what consumers will toler-

ate. “Is the audience going to see it

Blum

6:25 P.M.

TUESDAY, MARCH 17

Hollywood Boulevard

6:29 P.M.

TUESDAY, MARCH 17

Theatre at

Ace Hotel, downtown

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