Movies

The English actor Idris Elba announced on Monday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, sharing the news with fans in a video that he posted on Twitter.“This morning I tested positive for Covid 19,” Mr. Elba wrote in a post that accompanied the video, referring to the disease caused by the coronavirus. “I feel ok, I have no symptoms so far but have been isolated since I found out about my possible exposure to the virus.”Mr. Elba, 47, is best known for his roles in the HBO series “The Wire” and as the title character in the BBC police drama series “Luther.” He said he was tested “because I realized I was exposed to someone who had also tested positive.” He said he learned about that person’s positive test result on Friday. “I quarantined myself and got a test immediately,” Mr. Elba said.“This is serious,” he said in the video, urging people to be vigilant about handwashing and social distancing.The announcement came less than a week after the actor Tom Hanks said that he and his wife, the actress Rita Wilson, had tested positive for the coronavirus, putting a famous face and name to an outbreak that was spreading around the globe.Mr. Elba said his wife, Sabrina Dhowre Elba, who appeared in the video with him, had not been tested. But, he added, “she’s doing OK.”“We’ve told our families, they’re very supportive,” he said. “We’ve told our colleagues. Transparency is probably the best thing for this right now. If you’re feeling ill or you feel like you should be tested or you’ve been exposed, then do something about it. It’s really important.”It was not clear where Mr. Elba was tested.In the video, Mr. Elba lamented that “we live in a divided world right now, we can all feel it.”“But now’s the time for solidarity,” he said. “Now’s the time for thinking about each other. There’s so many people whose lives have been affected.” More

LOS ANGELES — For most of last week, movie theater executives clung grimly on.At issue, among other things, was CinemaCon, an annual Las Vegas event intended to bolster the most fragile part of the film business: leaving the house, buying a ticket and sitting in the dark with strangers to watch stories unfold on big screens. The National Association of Theater Owners was under pressure to call off the convention because of the coronavirus pandemic, but worries abounded about potential consumer fallout.What message would canceling the confab send to potential ticket buyers, including those increasingly likely to skip cinemas — even in the best of times — and watch films on streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus? American cinemas, after all, were staying open in the face of the pandemic.Reality eventually made the association pull the plug on CinemaCon, another example of how seemingly every part of American life has been disrupted because of the coronavirus. For movie theaters, however, the pandemic could be a point of no return.The National Association of Theater Owners has insisted that streaming services are not a threat. “Through every challenge, through every new technology innovation over the last twenty years, theatrical admissions have been stable and box office has consistently grown,” John Fithian, the association’s chief executive, said in a January news release titled “theater owners celebrate a robust 2019 box office.” Ticket sales in North America totaled $11.4 billion, down 4 percent from a record-setting 2018.Many analysts, however, see a very different picture. Looking at the last 20 years of attendance figures, the number of tickets sold in North America peaked in 2002, when cinemas sold about 1.6 billion. In 2019, attendance totaled roughly 1.2 billion, a 25 percent drop — even as the population of the United States increased roughly 15 percent. Cinemas have kept ticket revenue high by raising prices, but studio executives say there is limited room for continued escalation. Offerings in theaters may also grow more constrained. Even before the pandemic, major studios were starting to route smaller dramas and comedies toward streaming services instead of theaters.And now comes the coronavirus, which has prompted people to bivouac in their homes, theaters to put in place social-distancing restrictions and studios to postpone most theatrical releases through the end of April. Rich Greenfield, a founder of the LightShed Partners media research firm, predicted that the disruption would speed the ascendance of streaming.“The behavior was already shifting, but this hits the accelerator pedal,” Mr. Greenfield said. “I think most of the global exhibition business will be in bankruptcy by the end of the year.”He added, “Now studios are going to think more and more about why they are relying on third parties to distribute their content.”As studios have postponed theatrical releases like “Mulan” and “No Time to Die,” they have been careful to express loyalty for theaters. “We believe in and support the theatrical experience,” Paramount Pictures said in a statement on Thursday, when it announced that “A Quiet Place Part II” would no longer arrive in theaters on March 20. But a question looms: Could the pandemic hasten long-brewing changes in the way that new movies roll out?Most movies still arrive the same way they have for decades. They appear first in theaters, for an exclusive run of about 90 days, and then in homes. Theater chains, including AMC, Regal and Cinemark, have fought off efforts to shorten the exclusivity period. They worry that people will be reluctant to buy tickets if they can see the same film on their living room television set or iPad screen just a few weeks (or days) later. More

They were told not to go to their schools or offices. Concerns about long lines and shortages had discouraged them from going shopping. They could not visit libraries or museums; no concerts or shows were being held. There were no sporting events on TV, and only so many times that they could watch “Love Is Blind.”So, during an anxious weekend when the coronavirus outbreak had forced the closure of many cultural institutions and the cancellation of countless events, some Americans did what they still could to take their minds off the widespread uncertainty: They went to the movies.Though filmgoers did not turn out in overwhelming numbers — a Friday afternoon showing of Ben Affleck’s alcoholism recovery drama, “The Way Back,” at the AMC Magic Johnson Harlem in Manhattan was attended by only one customer — they came to sit in darkened rooms and escape into other people’s stories because it was all they could think to do.Seated alone and well off to the side of a theater at Landmark’s Century Center Cinema in Chicago, Mike Donovan, a 66-year-old retiree and volunteer prison chaplain, explained that he had gone to a Friday matinee showing of the period drama “First Cow” practically out of habit.“I figured there wouldn’t be many people here,” Donovan said. “I’m glad it’s open because I’ve got nothing else to do.”“I’m a big movie guy,” he added. “This is what I do.”Across the country, movie fans went in search of a sense of normalcy and continuity, and cinemas did what they could to provide it.At the AMC Magic Johnson Harlem, employees wore plastic gloves to sell candy from concession stands and scrupulously wiped down touch screens on self-service soda dispensers. “Into the Unknown,” a power ballad from “Frozen 2,” played loudly through the sound system of a largely empty lobby.Marion Johnson, accompanied by her 5-year-old daughter, Karie, said they had gone there that afternoon from the West Farms neighborhood of the Bronx to see the Pixar movie “Onward.”Explaining that her daughter’s classes and after-school activities had been canceled, she said, “Usually on Fridays, her school has Fun Fridays. I figured we’d do our own thing — make our own Fun Friday.” More