From GoFundMe:
That's why every dollar donated to Fund the Bat is going to the Motion Picture Television Fund's Covid-19 Emergency Relief Fund.
Please give generously to support the thousands of out of work carpenters, hair stylists, drivers, make up artists, painters, set dressers, electricians, editors, grips, camera people, actors, writers and directors who created the shows and movies that have kept you entertained during this difficult time. Your gift is tax deductible.
The silly COVID-themed Batman short film features actor Jeff Ward, who appeared on recent seasons of the highly-underrated Marvel's Agents of SHIELDS, and was made in collaboration with other AoS creators including producer Jeff Bell and Marvel Transmedia Producer Geoffrey Colo.
The campaign has the lofty goal of raising $320 million dollars. This might sound absurd on the surface, but once you consider how many people are involved in the TV/film industry—many of whom are just living on average working class wages—it's actually probably a low-ball number. From the World Economic Forum:
Global box office revenues totalled $42 billion last year – an all-time high – contributing almost one-third of the estimated $136 billion in the value of worldwide movie production and distribution.
Hollywood supports more than 2 million jobs and 400,000 American businesses; British film and TV are worth around £60 million each day to the UK economy.
Couple that with this reporting from Fortune:
The box office could still face up to a 60% loss compared with 2019, with global loss in box office revenue projected to be as high as $17 billion.
And it's a stark reminder that there are, indeed, a lot of people hurting. I happen to have a lot of friends whose middle-class livings are entirely dependent on the gig work of the entertainment industry, which has all but disappeared in the last 9 months.
Luckily, the "Fund The Bat" campaign will be able to disperse all of the money it raises, even if it doesn't reach that $320 million goal.
