A lack of big tentpole titles and continued uncertainty about the near-term future of cinema distribution put a damper on this year's, online-only, American Film Market.
News, announced on Monday, the first day of AFM, that a coronavirus vaccine from drugmaker Pfizer was more than 90 percent effective in initial tests gave hope to the industry that movie theaters will reopen next year and production, hampered by the difficulties of shooting during the pandemic and of the cost of insuring against COVID-19, could return to normal.
But that hope doesn't mean much for the sale of finished films, or for pre-sales on titles that expect to be hitting theaters in the next few months. "We don't know when, and how, theaters are going to reopen,".