Covid-19 Economic Impact

MGM explored the possibility of selling "No Time to Die," the upcoming James Bond movie, to a streaming service on a $600 million deal. The movie was originally slated to debut last April, but was postponed initially to November and then to April 2021.

MGM took a $30 to $50 million hit as a result of the postponements, so far.

An MGM spokesperson stated: "We do not comment on rumours. The film is not for sale. The film’s release has been postponed until April 2021 in order to preserve the theatrical experience for moviegoers."

AMC Theatres, the world’s largest movie theatre chain, announced Tuesday that its cash resources "would be largely depleted by the end of 2020 or early 2021."

The company has reopened more than 80% of its US cinemas since March, but the lack of a vaccine and with few new movies to show, the attendance has been abysmal -- a decline of 85% compared to the same period last year.

AMC said it has two ways out of its cash crisis: Either more customers need to buy tickets, or it will have to find new ways to borrow money.

After abruptly closing on March 12, 2020, the Broadway theatres will be shut down at least until May 30, 2021. There is no exact date for the performances to resume, but producers are offering refunds and exchanges for tickets purchased for shows through May 30.

Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League, said: "We are working tirelessly with multiple partners on sustaining the industry once we raise our curtains again."

The "Jurassic World: Dominion" production will be halted for at least two weeks after multiple cases of Covid-19.

In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, a spokesperson for Universal Pictures said that "due to our rigid protocols and to ensure that the safety and well-being of our entire cast and crew is paramount at all times, those who initially tested positive are currently self-isolating, as are those who they have come into contact with. As a result filming has been temporarily paused and will resume in accordance with established safety guidelines."

The movie, the third film in the new Jurassic trilogy, had been scheduled for release June 11, 2021, but it has now been moved to June 10, 2022.

The Coronavirus pandemic could push as many as 150 million people into poverty by 2022, living on less than $1.90 a day, the World Bank said Wednesday. The number is depending on the severity of the economic impact of Coronavirus. Regions most affected will be countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Poverty will also affect more educated and urban residents.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed has announced that in order to support the artistic community 130 artists will receive $1,000 per month each for a limited period of six months starting in 2021.

She stated that "San Francisco is only at the beginning of what we know is going to be a long road to recovery" from the pandemic and that " it’s going to take that same collective effort to confront the economic devastation caused by this virus".

President Donald Trump has halted negotiations with Democratic lawmakers over a Covid-19 relief bill until after the election.

"I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business," Trump announced on Twitter. The US stocks fell by more than 2% after the announcement.

Shortly after, Trump tweeted he "was ready to sign right now" if "sent a Stand Alone Bill for Stimulus Checks ($1,200), they will go out to our great people IMMEDIATELY."

United States President Donald Trump has tweeted that he has "instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business,"

As a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the Cineworld Group has announced that all operations in the United States and the United Kingdom will be suspended.

They stated that "In response to an increasingly challenging theatrical landscape and sustained key market closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cineworld confirms that it will be temporarily suspending operations at all of its 536 Regal theatres in the U.S. and its 127 Cineworld and Picturehouse theatres in the U.K. from Thursday, 8 October 2020".

The closures will impact around 45,000 employees, and it is not clear when the cinemas will reopen.

Laying out his vision for a world after the Covid-19 pandemic, Pope Francis has stated that the "magic theories" of market capitalism have failed during the pandemic.

He has called for a new dialogue and solidarity in order to prevent war at all costs. He stated in response to the political actions from countries during the pandemic that "anyone who thinks that the only lesson to be learned was the need to improve what we were already doing, or to refine existing systems and regulations, is denying reality".

In addition, he states that "it is imperative to have a proactive economic policy directed at ‘promoting an economy that favours productive diversity and business creativity’ and makes it possible for jobs to be created, and not cut".

No Time to Die, the 25th James Bond film, had its release delayed until April 2, 2021. Supposed to arrive in April 2020, the movie release had already been postponed to November 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"We understand the delay will be disappointing to our fans, but we now look forward to sharing NO TIME TO DIE next year."

The movie marks Daniel Craig's final appearance as British secret service agent, 007.

Amazon recently revealed that 19,816 of its US Amazon and Whole Foods Market front-line employees have tested positive for Covid-19, equating to 1.44% of the company's 1.37 million workers. The company made a quarterly profit of $5.2 billion, in the three months ending in June.

"We compared COVID-19 case rates to the general population, as reported by Johns Hopkins University for the same period, accounting for geography and the age composition of our employees to make the data as accurate as possible. Based on this analysis, if the rate among Amazon and Whole Foods Market employees were the same as it is for the general population rate, we estimate that we would have seen 33,952 cases among our workforce," the company wrote in a blog post.

In a memo sent to employees on Tuesday, Disney announced it would lay off 28,000 employees across its parks, experiences and consumer products segment. Around 67% of the laid-off workers were part-time employees.

The company blamed prolonged closures and capacity limits at open parks for the layoffs. While Disney's theme parks in Florida, Paris, Shanghai, Japan and Hong Kong have been able to reopen with limited capacity, both California theme parks have remained shuttered.

Canadian filmmaker and director James Cameron has recently confirmed that filming on Avatar 2 and 3 is almost done after the Covid-19 pandemic had delayed shooting.

"We've got about 10 percent left to go. We're 100 percent complete on Avatar 2 and we're sort of 95 percent complete on Avatar 3," Cameron said in a video call with Terminator friend Arnold Schwarzenegger. "Covid hit us like it hit everybody... We lost about four and a half months of production. As a result of that, we've rolled around one more full year for a release in December of 2022. That's been announced already. Now that doesn't mean I have an extra year to finish the film, because the day we deliver Avatar 2 we'll just start working on finishing Avatar 3."

According to a union official, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has left the British low-cost airline group EasyJet "hanging by a thread".

"If easyJet don’t have a good summer and make money next summer, I suspect none of us will have a job this time next year," pilots’ union official Martin Entwisle said in a now leaked recording of an EasyJet staff conference call. Entwisle claimed the information was shared by the company’s chief financial officer, Andrew Findlay, who allegedly warned that the company's situation was "even worse than their worst fears."

"The easiest way to put it is: the company is hanging by a thread," Entwisl added.

EasyJet has denied that Entwisl's comments "reflect what EasyJet or its finance officer said."

Rio de Janeiro delayed its annual Carnival parade, that would take place in February 2021, as Brazil continues to face the Covid-19 pandemic. The League of Samba Schools (LIESA) announced that the spread of the coronavirus has made it impossible to safely hold the parades, and it is studying the possibility of holding the parade on another date.

Jorge Castanheira, the president of LIESA, said Thursday: "We only imagined the parade with a vaccine. Failing to get a vaccine or action plan that will guarantee safety for everyone by mid-September, it will be difficult to present in the current mold. After that, it may not be possible to present the carnival as it is known today. In today's condition it is ethically unlikely to have the parade."

The Dutch Finance minister Wopke Hoekstra said Sunday Air France-KLM needs to lower its costs to survive its current crisis. Air France-KLM stated last month that it was losing 10 million euros per day due to the Covid-19 crisis.

In an interview with the Dutch public television, Hoekstra said, "The survival of Air France-KLM is not a given, They will have to address their cost base even as things stand now. And suppose this situation lasts until the end of next year, then they will have to cut even deeper."

Back in July, French and Dutch governments loaned a total of €10.4 billion, and in return, KLM has said it would reduce its staff by 20%, and Air France would reduce 16% of its workforce, through 2022.

Amazon is being accused of price gouging on essential items during the early days of the pandemic in March, so Washington-based consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.

"Amazon has fundamentally misled the public, law enforcement and policymakers about price increases during the pandemic," so Public Citizen's Alex Harman.

The group found that prices increased for various products, including face masks, antibacterial hand soap, disposable hand gloves and toilet paper. Amazon has refuted those claims, saying there was no place for price gouging on their website and that their systems were "designed to offer customers the best available online price."

The drug trade continues to flourish despite Corona and thanks to digital sales channels. In 2019, the offenses in this context continued to increase, with cocaine in particular increasing.

The German "Federal Criminal Police Office's report on drug crime 2019" shows an increase of 2.6% compared to the previous year.

Above all, the sales channels in the Darknet would take retail off the street and make investigations more difficult. The Berlin trend of so-called "coke taxis" (mobile delivery) would also increase constantly.

The federal government would like to continue to focus on prevention, especially in schools.

The Austrian car sales are heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to a -67% and -65% decline in sales in March and April. The market since then recovered to a low of -18% in June and went back to -20% in August.

The statistics are based on the registration number of new cars per month.