Lights, camera, no action ...? Hollywood rocked by coronavirus as shoots, schedules and film releases get affected
The new James Bond movie delayed, Studios scrapping film festivals. Blockbuster pro- ductions shut down. Hollywood is being rocked by an unprecedented challenge of the new coronavirus, insiders revealed this week. "I have never seen anything where so many films are going to be affected all at once," said Jeff Bock, senior analyst at Exhibitor Relations. "There are isolated incidents or tragedies that happen that might affect a certain film. But this re-ally does infect all the industry from top to bottom." Industry estimates put financial losses from Asian theaters already shuttered this year at about $ 2 billion. Major Hollywood titles including Mulan, Disney's China-set live-action blockbuster, have been put on hold in China. The last-minute global delay of o07 adventure in No Time To Die, in-cluding its US and European releases, highlights the borderless impact of the virus. For now, US theater attendances are holding steady spreading infection of fears and Mulan is being penned for launch this month in North America. But new coronavirus outbreaks in California and New York, and multiple deaths in Washington state, could impact receipts. "We'll see a little bit of downturn this week, by the time Mulan comes out. If this breaks as big as it did in China, it's going to change the entire landscape," said Bock. including