You are crying without toilet paper. I am crying without entertainment. Shane Hettiarachchi ECO004

Covid-19 has become quite widespread. People have started to panic. Australian’s have started to hoard toilet paper, and other household goods. To the point where there is no more goods on the shelves at supermarkets.

But while most people are worried about the lack of household goods for sale in shops, I am more worried about the impact Coronavirus has on the entertainment industry.

First of all, in America alone, the film and television industries contribute 41 billion dollars to the US Government and employs over two million people. As you can imagine, the entertainment industries contribute a great amount of money to the economy worldwide.

Some notable event cancellations have been, the NBA season, , the Grand Prix in Melbourne, and many live concerts and shows have either been cancelled or have been delayed.

Most of these events have been cancelled after participants were tested positive for Covid-19. Rudy Gobert was recently tested positive for Coronavirus, and as a result, the NBA season was suspended “until further notice”(https://www.foxsports.com.au/basketball/nba/season-suspended-nba-goes-into-total-lockdown-as-star-tests-positive-for-coronavirus/news-story/fa96630d562b7c887ef3d32964c1689c)

Although the NBA made 8 billion dollars in revenue in 2019 (https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/071415/how-nba-makes-money.asp), I personally think that this was a good call for the league to make. This will reduce the risk of spreading the virus, if they continued as planned, it would have been more likely for the virus to spread., which will ultimately lead to the economy becoming worse than it already is. This will have an impact on the US economy as brand deals, advertising, and televising contracts will be neglected for this season.

Major music events have also been cancelled, such as Billie Eilish’s tour in America, The Jonas brothers Las Vegas concert, J Cole postpones Dreamville festival and many other music festivals, and tours have been either postponed or cancelled. Again, personally I think that was the right decision to take, as large gatherings is something that should be avoided at the moment, as it is very easy for viruses to spread in large gatherings. However, this also means that the crew and teams behind such events are going to lose their jobs and pay. People that were looking forward to these events will be disappointed.

The Coronavirus has also impacted the cinema industry. No Time to Die, the new James Bond movie, was postponed due to the virus. A Quiet Place 2 was cancelled and Fast 9 was postponed. DisneyLand Paris and Tokyo were closed, DisneyWorld was closed and Universal Studios theme park was also closed as a result of Covid-19. Although this is going to reduce the chances of the virus spreading, it will also result in many people losing their jobs, or at least need to find other work while waiting for the parks to open. This will also impact the economy as people are not travelling or visiting the theme parks. People would cancel plans to the theme parks and indirectly impact the economy by not spending their money on these places, which will impact the employment of the workers.

Movies that had a large hype around it, like No Time to Die, have been delayed after the coronavirus outbreak. This is most likely due to the high chance of the movie not doing as well as it could have. People are not going to gather in large groups to watch the movie at the cinema as there is a chance to contract the virus. The delay of these movies will increase the chance of getting a higher return, as more people will got to watch it when the virus settles down. The actors of these movies and the many number of editors, cameramen, producers, writers, directors will not get their share of the profits until the release of the movie, which is unfair for them, but waiting until people regain the confidence to go to the cinemas where a large number of people gather will be the best option from a sales perspective.

As a result of the Coronavirus many types of entertainment have been affected. But it makes sense to either delay the event or cancel it altogether. As the Government has now banned any gathering larger than 500 people, these events would not do as well as they would if the virus was not around. As people are scared of contracting the virus, they will not go, and therefore the revenue of these events will decrease indefinitely. Waiting for the virus to settle down is the most effective approach, as after people regain the confidence to go to these events, the overall return on these events will be higher.

References –

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/mar/13/coronavirus-culture-arts-films-gigs-festivals-cancellations

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51744374

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/touring/9323647/concerts-canceled-coronavirus-list