Can James Bond save Australia's cinemas from coronavirus?

Last year's top blockbuster in Australia was Avengers: Endgame, which took in a staggering $84,164,634.

This year, pre-COVID-19, war thriller 1917 made $23,249,709.

The Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia said the country's top film since lockdown — Tenet — had only managed $11,888,551 so far.

"The industry is really hurting at the moment," Hoyts chief executive Damian Keogh told the ABC.

"If it wasn't for JobKeeper, which is effectively paying our casual staff who look after people at the cinema, we probably wouldn't be able to open our doors."

He said the company — which has 50 cinemas in Australia and New Zealand — was operating at about 30 per cent of normal levels.

"In South Australia and Western Australia, where the virus has been very low in terms of transmission, people have been very confident about going out and returning to the cinema," Mr Keogh said.

"They've been a little bit slower in places like Sydney; however, the biggest issue we've had really is around content."

Cinemas resilient for now

Traditional Hollywood releases like Greyhound, the Borat sequel, Mulan and Pixar's upcoming Soul, have all gone straight to streaming.

Others, like the new James Bond flick No Time To Die, have been delayed repeatedly as the virus rages in the United States and Europe.

"This has been a terrible year for so many industries, for so many people," film critic Giles Hardie said.

"In the context of all that, this has been an awful year for cinema and the entertainment industry.

"If anyone can guarantee an audience, it's James Bond, but I don't even know if James Bond can save us from this one.

"There are rumoured figures that Netflix was only willing to offer $400 million for No Time to Die … and MGM wanted between $600 and $700 million.

"These are the figures that streaming services are offering to these filmmaking companies.

"This is why these films could keep going to streaming services because those companies have the budgets and they have the audiences."

Hoyts said cinemas were resilient.

"People thought TV would kill off cinema in the early 50s, then it was the VCR in the 70s, then it was the internet, now it's streaming. I think cinemas are going to be around for a long, long time," Keogh said.

Film production ramps up in relative safety

If cinemas need new content, then state and territory film houses like South Australia's are ready to call action.

"We're getting a lot of inward enquiries, especially US and UK-based productions, that are looking to have a safe place to start up again," SA Film Corporation chief executive Kate Croser said.

Filming has been underway on movies and TV shows on "COVID-safe" sets around the state, while post-production work — involving companies like visual effects studio Rising Sun Pictures — has carried on through lockdown.

"We absolutely love to have a consistent pipeline of work, but we do think it's important to strike that balance," she said.

"It's incredibly important to stimulate the local sector, and to produce work that's actually generated here in South Australia, because that work is actually owned by South Australian companies."

The work will flow through cinemas and streaming services in the coming months and years.