Hollywood is starting to give up on 2020

电影档期一延再延，好莱坞开始放弃2020年

The coronavirus pandemic erased the entire 2020 summer movie season. For a while, Hollywood held out hope it’d still be able to release its biggest movies in theaters this fall and winter. But now studios are finally realizing that probably can’t happen either.

新冠疫情已经让2020年的整个电影暑期档化为泡影。曾有一段时间，好莱坞寄希望于今年秋冬在影院上映大片，但现在电影公司终于意识到这也是不太可能实现的。

Paramount Pictures announced lately it is delaying the releases of two highly anticipated blockbuster films again—this time until 2021. A Quiet Place: Part II will move from Sept. 4, 2020 to April 23, 2021, while Top Gun: Maverick will eject out of its Dec. 23 date and now land on July 2, 2021. Both films had already been postponed from their original release dates this summer.

派拉蒙影业近日宣布，将再次推迟两部备受期待的大片的上映日期——这一次将推迟到2021年。《寂静之地2》的上映日期将从2020年9月4日改为2021年4月23日，而《壮志凌云2：独行侠》的上映日期则从2020年12月23日改为2021年7月2日。原定于今夏上映的这两部电影的档期此前都已推迟过。

Other studios have made a number of similar announcements recently. Universal rescheduled Halloween Kills from October 2020 to the same month in 2021. Warner Bros. pushed Godzilla vs. Kong from November of this year to May 2021.

其他电影公司近期也发布了一系列类似的通知。环球影业把《万圣节：杀戮》的档期从2020年10月改为2021年10月。华纳兄弟电影公司把《哥斯拉大战金刚》的档期从今年11月推迟到2021年5月。

Hollywood studios are in an extraordinarily difficult position. If they wait much longer to release their films in theaters, there might not be any theaters left to show the films. As it is, the major theater chains are hanging on by a thread, generating zero revenue while still having to pay rent. But if studios release movies now, they’ll be doing so without the largest film market in the world (the US) and would be inviting unprecedented levels of piracy as Americans, desperate for new films, could resort to illegally watching recordings from other countries. Neither option is good, but the latter one would at least help the theater industry stave off total annihilation.

好莱坞电影公司的处境尤为艰难。如果他们还要等很久才能在影院上映电影，到时候可能没有电影院可以放映影片了。实际上，现在大型连锁影院已经朝不保夕，在没有收入的同时还要支付租金。但如果电影公司现在上映电影，他们将失去世界上最大的电影市场（美国）并将招致史无前例的盗版率，因为迫切想看新电影的美国人会非法收看来自其他国家的盗版片源。两种选择都很糟，但至少后者能帮助影院行业免于全军覆没的命运。

Until there is a widely distributed and effective vaccine, no theatrical release date should be considered safe. While experiences will vary by country, moviegoers in many locations shouldn’t expect anything resembling a return to normalcy until spring 2021 at the earliest. With all the delays, 2021 should be a big year for film—if the industry survives 2020.

在有效的疫苗能得到广泛发放之前，没有哪部电影的上映日期是能打包票的。尽管各国的观影情况不同，但对许多地区的影迷而言，最早也要到2021年春天才能有望恢复正常。在这么多电影被延迟上映的情况下，2021年应该是一个电影大年——如果影院能熬过2020年的话。