Now That I Have a Haircut, When Can I See "Black Widow?"
And that's not a bad question. Short of the reopening of churches and about 35 million recently shuttered jobs, what the typical US citizen needs now more than anything else to take their mind off the mess that all our lives have become is some good all-American cheap popcorn, fake butter and gallons of flat Mountain Dew. And if not a revival of 2019's "Cats," than at least a re-release of 2020's "Sonic the Hedgehog."
Seriously, while many cinemas may be gearing up to actually open their front doors in the next few weeks, the first question I'd propose is "What are they going to show?"
Soon after theaters started shuttering up last February, film companies quickly put the brakes on their planned release schedules. But because winter is always such a dead zone for film releases, there wasn't even all that many film openings to halt. January openings are always best ignored and so, the last legitimate films to open in theaters this year were February's new "The Invisible Man" and the Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus dramady "Downhill." After mid-February, films either went straight to video on demand or were postponed indefinitely.
So considering we've had literally no films open in the past four months, what will theaters show when they reopen in June and July? Except for Christopher Nolan's "Tenent," which currently has an opening day of July 31, 2020. And that's it, really.
On June 11th, there was a story that Marcus Theaters, "...the fourth largest circuit in the U.S.... announced plans to reopen six theaters on June 19 with enhanced protocols in accordance with current local health and safety guidelines that will be used to help fine-tune future phases of theater reopening in weeks ahead, in time for summer blockbusters based on when studios release new films."
In that Deadline.com article, Marcus went on to explain that they will start by reopening four days a week and show the Harry Potter films along with the last recent films whose openings were brought up short by Covid-19. Besides the aforementioned "Sonic" and "Invisible Man," Marcus also named "Bad Boys for Life" and :Jumanji: The Next Level" as possible screen-fillers.
Unfortunately, the six cinemas Marcus plans to reopen first are the Marcus Ridge, Renaissance, BistroPlex and Valley Grand Cinemas in Wisconsin; Majestic Cinema of Omaha in Nebraska; and the Roswell Movie Tavern in Georgia so who gives a shit?
On June 17th, the New York Post reported that "Cinemark, the third largest movie theater chain in the US, announced a phased reopening plan ... that will see all of its cinemas up and running by mid-July." The chain, which operates 555 theaters globally, said it will open a handful of Dallas locations on June 19 with the rest of its cinemas following suit between July 3 and July 17. Cinemark went on to clarify that it plans to have the "majority" of it's theaters open on July 10th and expected all locations to be open by July 24th.
Much like the Marcus chain, Cinemark also plans to offer moviegoers the chance to watch “classics” on the big screen like “Jurassic Park,” Ghostbusters” and “Inception” at reduced ticket prices. It will also screen new Hollywood releases, Disney’s “Mulan” and Warner Bros.’ “Tenet,” which come out July 24 and July 31, respectively.
Cinemark also spoke a bit about new safety precautions that will be in affect when their theaters reopen that amounted to little more than them promising to keep everything extra clean while employees continue to wear masks and gloves while providing hand sanitizer and seat wipes to all moviegoers.
AMC Theatres, the largest cinema circuit in the world, promises to open 450 of its U.S. locations on July 15 followed by the remaining 150 on July 24, in time for Disney's "Mulan" and Warner Bros.' "Tenet."
Are you starting to see a pattern here?
Aside from the promise to keep their theaters clean and the mandatory masks and gloves, AMC detailed how it plans to deal with crowds, social distancing and cinema capacity:
AMC will approach seating capacity limitations in four distinct phases. Phase 1, which commences July 15, reduces seating capacity to 30 percent. In non-recliner auditoriums, AMC will automatically block out every other row of seats for every showtime.
During Phase 2, capacity will rise to 40 percent and to 50 percent during Phase 3, which is expected to commence around Labor Day. Full capacity may not be allowed until Thanksgiving.
The US will continue to open its theaters on a state by state basis, with states deciding for themselves what's best for its citizens. As of the second week of June, California was among the first to reopen cinemas and are currently allowing theaters to operate at a 25% capacity.
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