This year started out with some of the most anticipated movies in years, such as Top Gun: Maverick, Wonder Woman 1984, and Black Widow.  It looked like it might be a very profitable year for both movie theaters and the box office, but then the world was hit with the most challenging pandemic of our time – Covid-19.

The pandemic caused a major halt in the entertainment industry, with the production of movies and television shutting down, as well as movie theaters nationwide, with no answers as to when reopening would be possible. As a result of the pandemic, the industry lost millions of dollars in revenue.  As warmer months began to approach, drive-in movie theaters began to open up around the country and some state governments began easing restrictions, allowing for some movie theaters to open with limited capacity. With cinemas beginning to reopen, some hoped that the anticipated blockbuster movies would slowly begin to release, revenue would begin to rise, and audiences would begin to return, but this did not happen. 

The big film production companies that usually produce the extremely successful movies we go to see, began pushing back the releases of their movies. Some of these films, which were expected to be released this past summer, were pushed back to as late as summer 2022. With the industry having to face these new challenges, they began to create some alternatives, such as releasing movies on demand for families to rent during lockdown, as well as releasing them on streaming services, available to stream to all subscribers at their leisure. Although there is uncertainty about when things in the film industry will return to normal, many hope that some of the highly anticipated movies will be able to be enjoyed by all sometime in 2021.