Is the era of the Hollywood blockbuster over?

In 2020, the billion-dollar blockbuster has been defeated by Covid-19 more convincingly than by any on-screen villain.

Most of the year's proposed blockbusters - films with a budget of more than £100 million - are on hold.

The James Bond film No Time To Die has been postponed twice; Disney's live-action Mulan was released on the studio's streaming platform; and Top Gun: Maverick is still riding a motorbike to nowhere.

Even Marvel films such as Black Widow - reliable stalwarts of the summer event season - have been pushed back indefinitely, as studios wait for a return to normality.

But while screen heroes can't currently save the world, they may still be able to save the big screen experience, says Screen International's chief film critic, Finn Halligan.

"It's like we've been having a staring contest," she says, of the stand-off between film studios and cinemas. "Someone's got to blink."

A small sign of eye movement came with recent news that Wonder Woman 1984 would be released simultaneously at both US cinemas and online, on Christmas Day 2020.

The film, which plunges Gal Gadot, as the returning superhero, into an '80s universe, cost around £145m ($US 200m) to make. Originally scheduled to open in June, its release has already been delayed twice.

"The studios haven't wanted to sacrifice any potential billion-dollar movie during the pandemic," explains Halligan. "They're too much of a valuable commodity."

But the longer cinemas remain shut, the harder these decisions become.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, No Time To Die is costing film studio MGM $1m in interest every month. That money, which it originally borrowed to make the film, can't be made back until 007 hits the big screen.

Last year, nine films made more than $1bn at the global box office - including The Lion King, Joker, Avengers: Endgame and Captain Marvel.

Fast forward to summer 2020, and Christopher Nolan's Tenet - a film with a budget of $205m (£150m) - was the only mega-budget movie to be released in cinemas, grossing around $350m (£270m).

"The profits of Tenet spooked them, although I don't think it did badly in the circumstances," says Halligan.

"Studios still hope they can get the numbers, but the crunch point isn't the future existence of the blockbuster, the stress point will be the cinemas themselves.

"Will audiences feel safe to come back for a new Marvel film in the cinema, or wait for it on Disney+? And how long can cinemas survive in this situation":[]}