The Park is Sort of Open
After reopening the parks, Universal Studios has had a major setback. They had announced a reopening in mid June, and they actually ended up following through on it. Now, towards the beginning of July, Universal Studios is finding itself in a bit of a tough spot.
When numbers failed to really see much of a marketable profit, Universal gave some bad news to employees. In the face of a resurgence in COVID cases as well as just soft reopenings not picking up steam, layoffs are around the corner.
Universal Studios formerly announced that some of the staff at the park would be getting laid off. Due to low attendance numbers and the perceived future attendance not picking up for a little while.
“This decision was not made lightly, but was necessary to prepare us for the future. We are aware of the impact this will have on those affected by this reduction and their families, and we are working to support them through this process. This includes severance pay, subsidized health benefits and professional reemployment assistance.”
So at least there is that small silver lining to things. They’re not just throwing people out onto the curb, they will be assisting in making sure that former employees land on their feet. Obviously there’s no saying how effective those measures will be, but it’s better than just being let go with no fallback.
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Not Limited to JUST Universal
Theme parks like Disneyland in California aren’t even that lucky. Disney reported that they will be closing down their California parks once again in wake of the second COVID wave. Six Flags has still yet to reopen as well as other venues like Sea World. Although Sea World should honestly stay closed.
The pandemic is going to make things repeatedly tricky to try and sort out as it goes on. Entertainment is slowly seeing a relative return to normal. Most movie productions are starting back up.
Recently Netflix’s The Witcher got the green light to resume production on Season 2. DC’s The Batman began filming again with hopes to wrap by October. Jurassic Park: Dominion began shooting. But, movie releases are getting a little bit trickier now as well.
AMC and Cinemark were hoping for a July reopening, but now they’re not so sure it’ll happen. Tenet, one of the year’s most anticipated movies, got another delay in wake of the second COVID wave.
Right now we just have no idea what the future really looks like. Universal Studios is just one of several entities that are going to have a rough go of things as the year goes on. If this trend continues, Disney will continue to lose billions and Universal Studios will have to make harder decisions.
We hope that those affected by Universal’s layoffs find work as soon as they can. The last thing we need is a repeat of the last 3 months, in more ways than one.
For more updates, news and COVID updates, stay tuned right here with us at Scoophash!
