The COVID-19 pandemic[1] has been brutal in its economic effects on America's entertainment industry. Theaters were closed for nearly five months and then reopened, only to close again[2]. Many feature films, such as the latest James Bond installment No Time to Die and the Denis Villeneuve's Dune remake, were delayed opening well into 2021[3] due to poor attendance and disappointing box office earnings[4] of new releases such as Tenet.
The closing of these movie theaters and the delays of these feature films have caused a domino effect by altering America's content viewing habits, shifting much of those activities normally reserved for theater attendance towards content streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and HBO Max.
The big-budget studios, such as Disney, which owns major intellectual property (IP) franchises such as Star Wars and Marvel, have taken baby steps by releasing direct-to-stream features for Disney Plus, such as Mulan and streaming-only TV series such as The Mandalorian. These have been moderate, but not significant successes when you compare them to major in-theater releases. Had this been Disney's only major challenge this year, it would be a temporary setback. But it's not.
Hey Mickey, that's a lot of debt
Disney is a vast company that has several large divisions. Its Studio Entertainment division produces film and television using its core IP, including Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar characters. In addition to licensing these films to movie theaters, the Direct to Consumer division releases to on-demand services and its Disney Plus streaming service.
Disney also now owns FOX Entertainment, which it paid approximately $71B for in March of 2019. In addition to all