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"The spread of COVID-19 around the world has been a horror movie for the industry and the fresh wave of infections is the latest instalment in what's been a devastating story for cinema chains."
Susannah Streeter, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, made that grim assessment after the world's second-biggest cinema chain, Cineworld , announced it was bringing down the curtains on all of its** theaters** in the UK and the U.S., leading to tens of thousands of job losses.
Cineworld reopened its doors in July hoping to recover from its losses during the COVID-19 lockdowns, but the postponement of the new James Bond film
No Time To Die
and others including Marvel's Black Widow
left it and other cinema chains with no movies to show.
Rival cinema chain, Vue , also said the lack of movies was a big blow for the company, but boss Tim Richards optimistically told BBC Radio: "We are likely going to make it through." Though he added he was "concerned about the independents and the small regional operators right now that are going to really struggle , and when they close, they may not reopen."
But as people shun the movie-less theaters and look for entertainment elsewhere, another giant in the industry has been benefiting – gaming . With people confined indoors, more and more video games are being played than ever before.
Scroll down to watch a video from CGTN Europe's
The Agenda with Stephen Cole
program about just how well the gaming industry has been doing. And while you're there, read our interview further down with a titan in the industry, game developer Richard Garriott , who explains how successful the gaming sector really is.
Enjoy reading,
Arij Limam
Digital correspondent
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Cineworld is to close all of its UK and U.S. movie theaters this week, leaving around 45,000 workers unemployed for the foreseeable future as it battles to survive a coronavirus collapse in movie releases and cinema-going.
Microsoft will invest in cloud services infrastructure in Greece , a boon to the country's economy, potentially bringing financial benefits of one billion euros ( $1.2 billion ) in the long term to the country, which has been weakened by a decade-long debt crisis and COVID-19, senior executives of the technology giant have said.
Japanese car makers Toyota and Nissan are bracing for an additional 10 percent EU tax on automobile imports from Britain, if the government fails to agree on an EU trade deal, and are demanding that the UK government pays for such extra customs costs, the Nikkei financial daily has reported.
British defence company BAE Systems has said the number of people working on Tempest, the UK-led project to build a new fighter jet with Italy and Sweden , will rise to 2,500 by next year, from more than 1,800 now.
Hungarian budget airline** Wizz Air **said passenger numbers were down 59 percent in September compared with the same month last year as the second surge of coronavirus infections across Europe holds back travel.
The combination of COVID-19 and a failure to secure a post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union could cost the UK around 134 billion pounds ( $173 billion ) each year in lost GDP for a decade, research by law firm Baker McKenzie showed.
British****new car registrations fell to their lowest level for a September in more than two decades, as the coronavirus pandemic continued to hit the sector, an industry group said on Monday. Sales dropped by four percent to 328,041 cars, the smallest figure since 1999, when the dual number plate series was introduced in Britain.
France's finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, has said that 13 projects would receive a combined 12.8 million euros ($15 million) in investment to help the country's automobile and aeronautics sectors modernize and deal with the impact of COVID-19.
Slovenia's biggest telecoms operator, Telekom Slovenije , has begun rolling out 5G technology for mobile phone users, saying it aims to cover by the end of the year 33 percent of the population within the current frequency spectrum.
Germany's service sector barely grew in September, but strong manufacturing helped the private sector in Europe's largest economy to remain on track for a solid recovery in the third quarter, the newly published IHS Markit survey has shown.
Scottish engineering company Weir Group is quitting the oil and gas industry to focus on mining. It said on Monday it had agreed to sell its oil and gas arm to U.S. heavy equipment maker Caterpillar for $405 million in cash.
The eurozone's economic recovery faltered in September as a resurgence in coronavirus cases led to the reintroduction of some restrictions on activity, sending the bloc's dominant services sector into reverse . IHS Markit's final composite Purchasing Managers' Index fell from 51.9 in August to 50.4 in September , close to the 50 mark separating growth from contraction.
**CLICK: **
HOW THE EDUCATION SECTOR IS ADAPTING TO COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS
**WATCH: **More people are now playing video games than ever before and by the end of this year the industry is estimated to make more than $90 billion in revenue.
How has the sector stayed in such good health during a global pandemic?
02:27
**CGTN Europe's **
The Agenda with Stephen Cole
** program spoke with British-born American game developer Richard Garriott, who has been described as the "founding father of video games," about the success of the gaming industry today.**
The gaming industry now makes more money than music or film. So, why is it so lucrative?
Back then, the industry was very small, so the big media empires, the television and film empires largely ignored us.
But as it grew, it was interesting to watch how the tides have turned, now video gaming or computer gaming, they're both, from a revenue standpoint, from an employment standpoint, and frankly, from a social impact of the art standpoint, video games are now bigger than all television, all movies, all music combined, you know, times about a factor of 10. So it is a completely dominant art form now.
So, who is making the money?
What has changed is that it's no longer one person makes one game, now it's a team of literally hundreds working usually for a few years on the creation of a game, at least for a triple-A game that makes most of the money – you're spending at least a $100 million and there are some games that spend up to $1 billion over what could take up to five years of development.
But the big companies that make these biggest triple-A games can earn billions of dollars in the first days or weeks of the launch of one of the mega titles that are out these days.
What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the gaming industry?
It has been, if anything, helpful. For our industry, going online or going virtual hasn't been much of an impediment.
It's been fascinating that games seem to be recession-proof, meaning, whether the economics are going great or going poorly, people still play their video games. And unlike the movie theaters, which still are mostly shut down around the world, playing a game at home with your friends virtually through your connection, obviously is still available.
Eurozone retail sales were much stronger than expected in August due to a sharp surge of online purchases and increased clothing sales amid the COVID-19 pandemic, although July sales were revised downwards, newly released data have shown.
