Tom Hanks says cinemas will ‘absolutely’ survive COVID-19 pandemic

Tom Hanks has given his thoughts on the future of cinema amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Hollywood legend, 64, whose latest film, News of the World, was released on Christmas Day, said he believed the cinemas  would ‘absolutely’ survive after a year in which the movie industry was cripped by the pandemic.

Speaking to Collider, the Forrest Gump actor said: ‘Will movie theaters still exist? Absolutely, they will. In some ways, I think the exhibitors — once they’re up and open — are going to have the freedom of choice of what movies they’re going to play.’

‘Big event motion pictures are going to rule the day at the cinemas. News of the World’ might be the last adult movie about people saying interesting things that’s going to play on a big screen somewhere, because after this, in order to guarantee that people show up again, we’re going to have the Marvel Universe and all sorts of franchises.’

The star added that big-budget franchise films are made for cinema screens with smaller films can easily be adapted for screening services.  

He said: ‘You want to see them [franchise films] writ large, because watching them at home on your couch actually might diminish them somehow in their visual punch.’

The star continued that smaller films will be ‘made and constructed’ for a widescreen TV at home. 

There is a growing number of concerns over whether or not the film industry, particularly in regard to movie theaters, will ever return to what they were before being shut down by the coronavirus.  

Across the world, movie theaters have been shuttered because of the pandemic. In October, Cineworld, the second-biggest cinema operator, closed all 546 of its screens.

The following month, the Wall Street Journal reported that the company was in talks with investors to secure a lifeline of financing to help to avoid filing for protection from creditors in insolvency proceedings.

Then, in early December, Warner Bros. dealt what was viewed by many as a death blow to the movie theater industry by announcing that the studio would be releasing all of it’s 2021 slate of films via streaming simultaneously with theatrical releases.  

Tom recently opened up about his plans with wife Rita Wilson to get vaccinated for COVID-19 at the right time, on the Today show. 

‘We’ll be getting it long after everybody who truly needs to get it gets it,’ said the Oscar-winner more than nine months after he and Wilson announced they had both tested positive in March.

The Forrest Gump star said that when he does get vaccinated, he will do so in public fashion to encourage others, a vow ex-presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have taken, as well.  

He stressed that a critical aspect of his battle with the virus was that he and Wilson had locked down in order to quell the spread.

‘I think that was much more important, as the second half of the COVID-19 formula, was that we didn’t give it to anybody,’ Hanks said. ‘Locking down, we’d wear masks and we still do, not just so that we don’t catch it but that you don’t give it to somebody.’  

The Saving Private Ryan star said he and Wilson weathered ‘a tough couple of 10 days’ in their initial battle with the virus, and have since donated blood to help researchers after the discovery of antibodies in their systems.

Hanks revealed his and Wilson’s health status March 11, on the same day NBA star Rudy Goebert tested positive for the virus, shutting down the NBA for months.    

In News of the World, the Hollywood icon plays Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, who, five years after the Civil War has ended, travels from town to town telling news stories about what’s happening around the world in the emotional Western.

Earlier this month the first trailer for the epic was released, marking Hanks’ return to the  big screen alongside talented newcomer Helena Zengel.     

News of the World, which reunites Hanks with his Captain Phillips director Paul Greengrass, hits theaters nationwide on Christmas Day from Universal Pictures.