Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1266179
13 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 JULY 2020 NEWS streaming won't cinema just yet musical 'In The Heights' from three-time Grammy winner Lin-Manuel Miranda was also pushed back from its June re- lease. Fans will now have to wait until summer 2021 to see the be- loved Broadway musical on the big screen. Indeed these changes have forced cinemas to think outside of the box. "Most studios have postponed their releases towards the end of summer or beyond. With no new releases available we need to think out of the box to have a well-curated film pro- gramme throughout the summer months, to screen a variety of cult classics as well as newer content to ensure there is something for everyone," De Cesare said. That is why Eden is now screen- ing Brian De Palma's classic 1983 crime movie 'Scarface'. It is not the first time Eden dabbles with past favourites, such as its screen- ing of 'Titanic' in 2017 for its 20th anniversary, which De Cesare says was widely successful due to younger generations wishing to watch classic movies on the big screen. In recent years Eden Cinema also invested heavily in event cinema to show a varied range of live and recorded entertainment, excluding traditional films, such as sport, opera, musicals, ballet, music, one-off TV specials, cur- rent affairs, comedy and religious services. "So aside from the usual Hol- lywood blockbusters, we show art exhibitions on-screen, con- certs, musicals, operas, ballets and more. Thankfully we have a strong upcoming slate which will still be available," she said. While the future of COVID-19 is still very unpredictable, De Cesare said if there are any oth- er postponements, Eden is hop- ing to return to some form of normality in August. "If there aren't further postponements, we should start seeing some normal- ity sometime in August as new content will become available once more. In the meantime, we will continue to show a diverse programme of films as well as al- ternative content," she said. Eden Leisure Group has fol- lowed the direct recommenda- tions of the health authorities to ensure a safe environment for its staff and patrons, with Perspex dividers installed at the bar where patrons can buy tickets as well as food and drinks to allow minimal contact. The cinema also offers ticket machines for zero contact, as well as social distancing inside cinema halls op- erating at a capacity of 25% less and par- ties separated with two seats empty on either side. ONE of the effects of the COVID pandemic has been a displacement of cinema au- diences to a new "piracy au- dience". According to data compa- ny MUSO, film piracy spiked in the last week of March as countries went into lock- down, with data for April shows a continuation of this trend. Whilst it is unclear wheth- er this trend will continue or settle back to pre-COVID lev- els, there are some insights within the data that may point to a new audience having dis- covered piracy. For example, Bloodshot, starring Vin Die- sel, was the last major movie to be released before cine- mas worldwide were affected by the coronavirus pandemic in March. Bloodshot's release strategy changed to coun- ter the impact of COVID-19 and was made available to rent and buy digitally on 24 March. As soon as it was avail- able legally, the high-quality version leaked to piracy. Additionally, MUSO meas- ured a massive piracy spike of over 1.2 million torrent down- loads on 25 March, far high- er than for any other film in recent times. Bloodshot saw torrent downloads totalling over 2.4 million and stream- ing visits over 8.7m in March. Comparing the last week of March when lockdown began to the last week of February 2020, MUSO saw film piracy increase by 41% in the USA, 43% in the UK, 50% in Spain, 62% in India and an astonish- ing 66% in Italy. These num- bers would seem to confirm that it has never been easier to view content illegally and people have never been more relaxed about doing so. "While cinema survived be- ing closed for lengthy periods of time during the Spanish Flu epidemic, it had no competi- tion; no TV and no streaming platforms. A hundred years on, and it's anybody's guess if cinema as we know it will survive. If this pandemic has taught us anything, it's that very few things are actual- ly essential," MUSO said in a White Paper on the subject. Indeed, luxuries such as cinema tickets and entertain- ment subscriptions will be amongst the first expenditure to be sacrificed by people facing a tightening of belts – even though Netflix subscrip- tions have increased consid- erably. MUSO also found that whilst film piracy has risen consid- erably across all genres, the ones linked to escapism like horror, family, animation, science fiction have seen far more dramatic increases in demand than genres linked to releases like drama, crime and mystery. "It is unclear whether these new piracy audiences will return to pre-COVID-19 lev- els or not once activities like going to the cinema resume or whether they will actively remain after the pandem- ic fades, access to content, pricing and the economy will be key factors," a MUSO White Paper said on the piracy phe- nomenon. "What is clear is that piracy audience data reveals real intent and reflects the mar- ket and global conditions in near-instant time. This au- dience doesn't necessarily respect the commercial strat- egies and desired outcomes of the right-holders but the rights-holder can inform and improve their desired out- comes and commercial strat- egies by understanding pira- cy audiences." Pirates of the high web The world of films is yours: Eden is screening classics like Scarface while Hollywood's to-do list gets pushed back by the COVID lockdown