As cinemas closed down, and productions ground to a halt across the globe, in the wake of COVID-19, the film industry suffered unprecedented losses. And, these are set to continue, even in Malta. 

For, despite the raising of restrictions over the past few weeks, the limited availability of titles is resulting in low cinema attendance, according to Simon De Cesare, Chief Executive Officer of Eden Leisure Group, who said that their theatres are only seeing six to eight per cent of the business they had last year, a situation he described as “heart-breaking”.

“It is much less about consumer confidence than in product availability. With the delay in cinema openings in the US and in the UK many of the planned films to be launched in July onwards have been pushed to later in the year or even next year,” he explained.

Moreover, “some titles have decided to go directly to streaming platforms and bypassed traditional theatrical releases.” He pointed to the planned end-August release of the much-anticipated film, Tenet, directed by Christopher Nolan, which he hoped could “breathe a little life back into the industry.”

Yet, the film’s release has not come without some controversy: just last week, Warner Bros announced it would release the film in 70 countries across the globe, but not in the US due to the high COVID-numbers being registered in the territory.

In the meantime, Disney’s Mulan has also been pulled from major theatres across the US, UK, Europe and Canada, and moved online to the company’s PVoD, Disney+, in a move which was slammed by exhibitors seeking some recovery.