CinemaCon and ACE Comic Con Northeast are the latest events to be canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak. After first making itself known in Wuhan, China, the coronavirus has started to spread around the globe, including in the United States. As the virus continues to spread, many events around the world have been reevaluating upcoming dates, with many even making the ultimate decision to postpone or cancel their upcoming dates to ensure maximum safety for attendees. The entertainment industry, in particular, has seen a massive amount of change over the past couple of weeks due to growing concern of the virus.
Most recently, major events such as South by Southwest (SXSW) and the video game convention E3 have taken to canceling their upcoming dates. But, it's not just industry events and conventions seeing these major changes, movies have also started to reevaluate their schedules. Most recently, the release of James Bond's 25th outing, No Time To Die, took a step back following growing concerns surrounding the virus, setting a new release date seven months later in November. Even late-night shows have stopped filming with a live studio audience to limit the spread of the virus. Now, it looks like more conventions will be taking a hit to ensure public safety.
According to Variety, CinemaCon 2020 is canceling its upcoming event. NATO's John Fithian and Mitch Neuhauser released a statement explaining that "due to the travel ban from the European Union, the unique travel difficulties in many other areas of the world and other challenges presented by the Coronavirus pandemic, a significant portion of the worldwide motion picture community is not able to attend CinemaCon." Because of this, the global circumstances make it impossible "to mount the show that our attendees have come to expect," which led them to make the call to cancel. ACE Comic Con Northeast will also be canceling their upcoming dates, revealing in a statement that, following a State of Emergency being called in Massachusetts, "it was determined that running the event at its regularly scheduled date/time is not possible due to 'force majeure'," but they are working to have the event rescheduled. Their full statement can be read here:
There are still a number of events and upcoming movie premieres within the entertainment industry that are up-in-the-air due to the unpredictability of the virus. Another major upcoming event for the film industry that's on many people's minds is the Cannes Film Festival in France, which the festival president has exclaimed will only cancel if the outbreak worsens. However, in more positive news, Screen Rant did reach out to Comic Con organizers who say that they're still planning on proceeding with WonderCon and San Diego Comic Con.
As sad as it is to see these events being canceled, it is being done for good reason. It's nice to know that everyone's health remains a top priority, and multitudes of individuals are working hard to slow the spread of the virus. The cancellation of ACE Comic Con and CinemaCon may be another hard hitter for fans of the entertainment industry, but minimizing exposure to the virus should absolutely be a top priority. It wouldn't be surprising to see more events over the coming weeks following their same path as well.
Source: Variety/ACE Comic Con