After months of room closures and no new Hollywood primary films, cinemas are still beginning to resume operations in the United States, but the return of consumers will have a key question: do they feel safe?
On Friday, major film networks argued that the embedd exhibition industry was doing everything possible to prevent it from spreading COVID-19 as they desperately struggled to stand up. The national association. Of Theatre Owners (NATO), the industrial organization representing cinemas, has presented its new national criteria for fitness and protection for hygiene, masks and other measures, which it has called “CinemaSafe”.
Washington-based lobbying organization said more than three hundred companies, adding up to about 2,600 individual theaters and 30,000 screens in the United States, signed volunteer protocols before the release of new films like Russell Crowe with “Unhinged” and Christopher Nolan. “Principle.”
Regulations come with a mandatory mask for painters and customers, unless they are actively dining or drinking in the auditorium. The theatres that were registered also pledged to perform clean-up measures and diminish the capacity of the auditoriums to inspire social estrangement. Protocols also require cinemas to ensure that their CVC systems work properly, with greater ventilation “wherever possible”.
Most movie companies have already established their own more detailed procedures to make sure that others aren’t sitting too close to each other while watching a movie, with online tickets and blocked seats, for example. However, with distance criteria that vary significantly from state to state, theaters firmly argue that cinema is safer, or at least as safe, as going to a restaurant, flying on a plane, or worshipping in a church.
NATO made its presentation at an hour-long Zoom press convention that was also attended by leaders from AMC Theatres, Regal, Cinemark, Imax and Marcus Theatres, as well as two fitness experts.
“It was very transparent that a national program that combined the IndustryArray … it was what consumers were looking to say, “I feel safe and feel comfortable going back to the movies,” Imax Entertainment President Megan Colligan said at the conference. “The way we do it and how we keep our consumers safe is vital to everyone around the world.”
In fact, if consumers feel comfortable coming back it’s an existential question for movie theater owners, whose theaters have been largely closed since mid-March. AMC, which remained closed during the pandemic peak, lost $561 million in its last quarter, with revenue falling nearly 100%. Exhibitor AMC, the world’s largest theater company, founded in Leawood, Kansas, has also restructured its debt to stay afloat.
Cinemas have begun to open slowly, with about 1,500 venues open in the U.S. And Canada (about a quarter of the total) this weekend, according to Comscore.
But business has been slow due to the lack of new films, and theaters have basically focused on legacy titles like “Jaws” and “Jurassic Park.” In a quirk of the COVID era, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” of 2001 this week crossed the $1 billion mark in the workplace due to its premiere in reopened Chinese cinemas. “Unhinged” opens this weekend, followed by “The New Mutants” (August 28) and Disney’s “Tenet” (Labor Day Weekend).
It is unclear when cinemas will be allowed to reopen in primary markets such as Los Angeles and New York. A ruling issued in New Jersey this week rejected NATO’s offer of an initial court order to allow cinemas to reopen in the state. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo did not give an express date for the return of cinemas. And California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered last month to close theaters amid a stockout of cases.
However, cinemas continue their marketing campaigns to put others in their place. AMC reopened some theaters with a one-day promotion that offers 15-cent tickets on Thursday. Movie theaters like Cinemark have posted videos on social media showing clean-up measures. Alamo Drafthouse, in Austin, Texas, says its chain will be “safer than a supermarket.”
In an interview this week, Mooky Greidinger, ceo of Regal’s British parent company Cineworld, said a special of experts visited the company’s sites twice a week to make sure the safety curtains were up to the task.
“We put a lot of effort, especially on protection issues, because the priority for us is the protection of our consumers and our team,” he said.
However, he said it may be a long time before the theater industry regains its full force. Analysts expect the cinema to fully recover, at least until a coronavirus vaccine is widely available.
“There’s no doubt we met the numbers we had at this stage,” Greidinger said. “But protection is the priority.”
Questions remain about whether cinemas will put mask wearing policies in a film of more than two hours as “Tenet” into effect.
AMC took a huge step back by uttering earlier that would only strongly inspire the mask on its circuit, but temporarily replaced the course when the company hit social media. AMC said about two-thirds of its 630 U.S. theaters would be open until the end of the month.
Adam Aron, CEO of AMC Entertainment, at the Zoom conference, called the mask “a theme close to our hearts,” adding that it would be “easy to put this policy into effect, because that’s what moviegoers want. We won’t leave them in our theaters if they don’t wear masks, and we won’t let them stay if they don’t stay as their mask.”
Cinemas dedicated to protocols will demonstrate a “CinemaSafe” badge on their internet sites and cinemas to publicize their efforts, NATO said.
While theaters promote security, studios are also launching marketing campaigns to get consumers back to theaters to see their new movies.
For the first installment of Solstice Studios, the R-rated mystery of rage and momentum “Unhinged”, Crowe made a video that at first appears to be an honest public service announcement about the return of cinema. But after some high-level commentary, Crowe takes a tricky turn toward a profane, confrontational speech that launches his film about manic homicide.
“They say there’s a catalyst at the center of the film experience,” Crowe sings wistfully in the video. “But who are they? Preteceous, preteceousArray … they are looking forArray … in your pocket and they tell you it’s raining? Array… I’ve been given a movie that comes out. It’s called “Unhinged.”
Solstice Studios marketing director Vinny Bruzzese said discovering how to sell the dark “Unhinged” mystery of a global fitness crisis would not be easy.
“It’s not just about raising awareness and motivating other people about ‘Unhinged’,” he said. “It’s about giving other people back the habit of going to the movies, period.”
NATO stated that its protocols were designed on the basis of rules established through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration and fitness experts.
During the conference, Dr. Joyce Sanchez, an infectious disease specialist at the Wisconsin School of Medicine, and Dr. David F. Goldsmith, an environmental epidemiologist at George Washington University, broadly supported the association’s statement that their protocols would mitigate the risk.
However, Sanchez warned that no public activity was safe and would inspire others to minimize their consumption of popcorn and soft drinks in a theater. Customers deserve the virus’s track record in their local communities before venturing into their hometown multiplex, he added.
“It’s not without risk and it’s vital that the public understands,” Sanchez said.