How Movies Have Been Affected by COVID-19
Many movies have had to be postponed or skipped theaters completely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to this, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime have been releasing the movies that skipped theaters’ but they are charging an extra fee beyond the streaming service fee to watch them.
Some of these movies include “Irresistible” which was $19.99 to rent when it first came out on Amazon Prime, and “Mulan”, which came out on Disney Plus and was $29.99 when it was released. These prices are reflective of what a customer would pay if they saw them in theaters.
Another theory for the extra charge may be because the companies know they can make a lot of money from it. According to Freshmen Mia Reefs
“I think that they probably do it because it’s new and you can’t see it anywhere else so you probably just have to pay more for that,” Reefs said.
the extra fee has made many mad because they are already paying the streaming service fee, so they shouldn’t have to pay extra. Freshman Charlie Fehringer said he thinks,
“If you already paid it should already be in the package,” Fehringer said. “You should already be able to watch it without paying. I don’t know, I think it’s kind of greedy.” Fehringer said.
With movies being available on streaming services instead of in theaters, most movies were released earlier than the original release date. According to the article “Here Are the 2020 Movies Streaming Online Early Due to the Coronavirus” on esquire.com, “The King of Staten Island,” was supposed to be released on June 19, but instead was released on June 12, and won’t appear in theaters at all.
According to the article, “Here Are All the Movies Delayed Because of the Coronavirus – With Some New Release Dates” on Vulture.com, the Black Widow and the Jungle Cruise movie release had to be pushed back a couple of times. Black Widows release date was pushed back from May 11, to November 6, 2020. Now it is set to be released on May 7, 2021. The Jungle Cruise was going to be released on July 24, 2020, but it is now set to be released on July 30, 2021. So many movie releases had to change dates due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to the new way movies are being released and the overall delays, this historic pandemic may change the way movies are watched forever.
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Hello, my name is Emma Allen! I am a staff writer for Lance this year. I am currently a freshman and this is my first year on Lance. If you have any questions...
