Book examines how Hollywood handled pandemic shutdowns

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many national and international industries needed to change how they operated. Companies faced personnel and staffing shortages, had to balance work with social distancing mandates and travel limitations affected efficiency. One of the industries that faced major shutdowns was film, particularly Hollywood.

“Hollywood Shutdown: Production, Distribution, and Exhibition in the Time of COVID” examines the true impact the pandemic has had and can continue to have on the California industry. Author Kate Fortmueller, an associate professor of entertainment and media studies in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications, has spent a career studying labor in Hollywood. In this book, she expands that study to include movie theater closures, movies released to streaming platforms, and the choices made by studios, networks, unions, guilds, distributors and exhibitors across Hollywood.

Taking a deep dive into the first nine months of 2020, “Hollywood Shutdown” looks at the past, present and future of Hollywood and the film industry in a pre- and post-COVID age.