Another day, another massive swing to the downside for the stock market. There is very little good news emanating from the media, and travel and entertainment companies in particular are getting a beatdown as worries mount that consumers will stay at home (willfully, or at the behest of the powers that be) to slow the spread of COVID-19.
The novel coronavirus is wreaking particular havoc on the movie theater industry. It's not just that the respiratory illness is influencing moviegoers to stay home, nor is it necessarily the result of public health organizations and government officials limiting the congregating of large groups of people (theaters in the U.S. haven't started shutting down ... yet). Rather, what was already shaping up to be a modest year in the way of new movie releases has been exacerbated by many of those new movies delaying their debuts.
2019 started out so promising, but it ended with a dud at the global box office. Avengers: Endgame came out in May and currently holds the record for biggest box office haul ever at $2.798 billion worldwide. While Walt Disney's (NYSE: DIS) Marvel superhero flicks tried their best to save the day, its Star Wars franchise didn't pull its own weight. In December, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was released to highly mixed and polarized reviews. Ultimately, the detractors won out, and the sci-fi epic brought in just $1.074 billion worldwide.