The global movie theater industry is in big trouble. COVID-19 has utterly destroyed the industry in just a few months despite record box office revenue in 2018. Some of the largest movie theater chains in the world are on the brink of bankruptcy, due to months of little or no global attendance. AMC, one of the largest movie chains in the world, recently disclosed a net loss of over $2 billion in the first quarter of 2020. The movie industry, as a whole, has experienced its share of damage during this time as well. But production companies have been relatively insulated, due to new digital home release schemes. Physical theaters have faced wildly different restrictions and countless reopening delays. Now, as America begins to reopen, theaters are hoping that movie attendance will steadily increase back to pre-virus levels. While experts believe that full normalcy won’t return for at least a year, movie theaters are hopeful that big upcoming releases, such as Christopher Nolan’s “Tenant,” will be able to reignite the lost excitement and movie going.

When was the last time you’re at the mall? If it’s like me, it’s been a couple of months. And the crisis has not only brought to light some new problems, it’s also exacerbated the class warfare that’s been going on for about the past 15 years. When people talk about shopping centers, they often refer to them as Class A, B, or C centers. Class A malls are the malls that have stores like Apple and Tiffany, and they generate the highest sales per square foot and the most traffic. Class B and C malls are the less busy malls that you find in suburban areas in the middle of the country. Going into the crisis, Class A malls had actually been doing pretty well. A lot of the locations in spots like New York, Los Angeles and Miami, were seeing record interest from foreign travelers and amazing sales growth, especially brands that really recognize the value of having that location. Class B and C malls have been suffering for some time. When you’ve got stores like Gap and Pennies that are easily replaced with online retailers like Amazon, there’s really not the reason to go into the mall. And the Coronavirus has only made that problem worse. You know, when you look at a store like Gap in the first quarter of this year, they saw their online sales more than double. But they also saw their overall sales declined by 40%. Where is their money going? Into the online platform. The same day they announced their earnings, it also came to light that Simon Properties, one of the largest mall owners in the US, had filed suit because they failed to pay over $60 million in rent payments. There’s also the question going forward of what this means for communities. Collectively, shopping malls pay about $400 billion per year in property taxes. Everybody’s got an interest in seeing what happens to the mall in the future. Now, some people are speculating that maybe stores like Pennies could get replaced with fitness centers and Whole Foods stores, places that you’d go most every day so that the mall can turn back into a regular stop in your daily routine. Other people have even speculated that companies like Amazon, looked at buying Pennies or looked at buying other major retailers in order to have a distribution hub for a business that’s done mostly online, but has a new form of pickup. In either case, there’s going to be some serious changes to the mall and next time you go there, and it’s not just going to be the mask you wear or have to wear, it’s probably going to be a few of those famous signs saying “coming soon” and “construction.”

Restaurants, both in malls and on the street, are witnessing a hodgepodge of higgledy-piggledy reopening timeframes. In Michigan, we’re currently in the 4th phase of a six-stage reopening plan. Restaurants earlier this month were allowed to offer dine-in options earlier this month, as long they were under 50% capacity, waiters were wearing masks and people were spread six feet apart. These restrictions, according to the Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association (MRLA), may force about a third of restaurants (in Michigan) to close, with roughly $1.5 billion lost in sales lost already. Many restaurants have opened or expanded their outdoor seating, but with many hours or days of operations reduced, that may not be enough. The National Restaurant Association actually recommends the federal government set up a $240 billion recovery program to help save a lot of restaurants and bars. Currently, the state of Michigan is considering a bill called Cocktails To Go, which would allow restaurants to sell unopened beer and wine, and allow local governments to designate certain areas for public drinking.