2020 was a disappointing year for Star Wars fans. In June of last year, Disney announced the cancellation of its Star Wars Celebration 2020. Due to take place in August in California, it was decided to postpone it following discussions with state authorities and public health guidelines.
It is due to take place instead between 18 and 21 August of 2022, situation pending of course.
The event is typically a big event in the Star Wars fan community and signals a new era of films, as well as series’ that are streamed via Disney+. The news was disappointing for fans, many of which had already purchased tickets. Thankfully, in these cases, they can transfer their current ticket to future dates, or receive a credit or refund.
But things took a turn for the worst in November when Star Wars actor David Prowse died. The actor who was famous for playing Darth Vader in the very first Star Wars trilogy passed away at the age of 85. His daughter Rachel, during an interview with the media, said that his death occurred following a Covid infection. She spoke of how she and her family were unable to see him to say goodbye. The 6ft6 actor was hired to play Vader, but his voice was provided by another actor, James Earl Jones.
The pandemic also messed up filming schedules and resulted in big delays for the upcoming and eagerly anticipated new releases. A total of three untitled new Star Wars films have been pushed back a full 12 months each. They are now scheduled for release in December 2023, 2025, and 2027.
Other films that suffered
The COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns, and social distancing also impacted many other big releases. For example, the four upcoming Avatar movies were all delayed by a year with the first release due in December 2022. The Batman was postponed on three occasions, firstly until June 2021, then October 2021, and finally March 2022. Disney’s live-action version of Mulan, two Mission Impossible sequels, and long-awaited children’s classic The Secret Garden were also victims of the pandemic.
Significant losses across the board
Delaying and postponing film releases also meant that big financial losses were being incurred as studios were forced to take interruptions in revenue streams. In China, the industry lost $2 billion by March and North America saw it’s worst weekend at the box office since 1998, in the same month. Even when things picked up a bit, revenue was far below the normal rate.
The highest-grossing film of the year, The Eight Hundred took less than $500 million- the first time since the global financial crisis that a top film grossed less than $1 billion.
By December, the second-largest cinema chain in the world was doing its best to avoid bankruptcy after shutting its doors back in October.
Not all bad news
But it wasn’t all bad news. Streaming services rose in popularity and sites such as Amazon, Netflix, and Disney+ noted a big increase in subscribers. For Disney, this was extremely important as they were able to recoup some losses through the streaming channel, with The Mandolorian continuing to be a major hit.
Netflix saw a steady increase in its share value throughout the year, reaching a peak in January of this year. Hitting the milestone of 200 million paying subscribers sent its value soaring. It was the same story over at Amazon as sales tripled and more and more customers signed up to the Prime service, including entertainment and streaming.
This was good news for the foreign exchange markets, in particular the USD. As Amazon, Netflix and Disney are all US-based, their increase in value led to increased investor security and a knock-on positive impact on the dollar. In fact, despite a somewhat difficult year which included the presidential elections, the dollar managed to retain a semblance of stability throughout. This stability coupled with the possibility of volatility meant that more traders signed up to trade forex and stocks, particularly the US dollar, and stocks in well-performing US companies. Those new to forex trading were keen to snap up some of the best forex bonus deals offered by different forex brokers. So while the tumultuous nature of the industry was bad news for movie fans, in fact, it provided several opportunities for investors.
As for 2021, one would hope that the studios can keep to their schedules now that vaccinations are being rolled out throughout the US and EU. Even so, we can expect to see a few more delays over the coming months as lockdowns and restrictions cause havoc on set.