Film Industry Faces Existential Crisis in Face of COVID-19.

Byline: Felix Richter

At an estimated total of $2.1 billion, the North American box office just had the worst year in more than three decades. With earnings down more than 80 percent from the previous year, movie theaters and the film industry have been hit incredibly hard by the coronavirus pandemic, as screens went dark in most parts of the world in late March, when strict social distancing measures were implemented to contain the virus. Box office earnings vanished practically overnight, and film studios were forced to push back movie releases to later in the year, hoping that things would be back to normal by then.

Unfortunately, things never went back to normal, as the virus returned in full force after a brief period of hope in late summer, when movie theaters had just started reopening. With the virus threat still imminent and mass inoculation expected to take months at least, 2021 is shaping up to be another challenging year for the battered film industry.

In a damage control effort, Warner Bros. Pictures announced last month that all of its 2021 releases would be...