After about a year of closure during the COVID-19 pandemic, Los Angeles’ beleagured movie theaters want to open their doors next week, with several venues set to reopen Monday.
AMC Theaters, the world’s largest cinema chain, said two of its largest locations in Los Angeles – AMC Burbank 16 and AMC Century City 15 – will open for business on Monday afternoon. AMC’s 23 remaining cinemas in Los Angeles will be ready to reopen on March 19, Leawood, Kan American exhibitor, said Friday.
Cinemark, Texas, in Plano, said the Long Beach location will start showing again on Saturday. The country’s no. 3-Chain said other theaters in Los Angeles County will reopen Monday.
Theater circles were desperate to reopen in Los Angeles, Hollywood’s largest box office market.
The rush to start selling tickets again comes after theaters got the state and provincial government the go-ahead to finally start again.
Los Angeles County on Thursday paved the way for businesses, including theaters, indoor dining halls and gyms to reopen next week, with strict capacity restrictions and other restrictions such as wearing a mask.
Movie theaters in provinces listed in California’s second most restricted reopening level – the red level – can open 25% indoor auditoriums with reserved seating and at least six feet distance in all directions between any groups. Provinces entering the less restricted orange level can move up to 50% capacity.
Los Angeles County was eligible for reopening when the state reached its goal of administering 2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to residents. most disadvantaged areas. By clearing the bar, the state has relaxed the threshold for counties, including Los Angeles, to move from the most restrictive purple level to the less restrictive red level.
Regal – the country’s no. 2-Chain – did not immediately provide an update on when she would be able to open Los Angeles theaters. Regal, which is owned by Cineworld, closed its establishments in America in October after reopening shortly due to lack of new films and poor attendance.
Smaller chains can take longer to do business again. Local operators spent much of Thursday figuring out when to continue operations after provincial officials gave the green light. Larger circles bring workers back in anticipation of the opening of Los Angeles.
Laemmle Theaters, based in LA, has set a timeline to reopen within four to five weeks, while the company recalls general managers, who then have to retrain staff and retrain in new health and safety protocols. Laemmle, which has seven seats, for example, did not use a reserve seat before the pandemic, but this must now be done due to safety requirements.
While larger chains with a nationwide footprint are working on the reopening protocols in less stringent states like Texas, Laemmle, which operates entirely in Southern California, will start from scratch.
“They have the advantage of doing it in other markets so they know what the process is,” said Greg Laemmle, president of Laemmle Theaters. “We want to welcome the public back as soon as possible, but we want to be able to do so safely and orderly.”
Hollywood studios have postponed their biggest blockbusters until they are confident that Los Angeles theaters can reopen. The industry got a boost last week when New York City, another big movie screening market, opened its cinemas, also after a year of downtime. New York coming online has boosted confidence that big movies could be released in the coming months.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek said this week that Marvel’s “Black Widow” is still planned for May 7 and that Universal Pictures’ “F9” will be released on June 25.
Analysts said the studios would adapt more to current release plans as Los Angeles and New York would increase to 50% of theaters’ capacity in the coming weeks.
Prolonged closures and the lack of new Hollywood blockbusters have hurt the finances of U.S. theater chains, with a number of applications for Chapter 11 protection against bankruptcy, including Alamo Drafthouse in Texas.
AMC, which sees its share rise, thanks in part to interest from retail investors inspired by Reddit forums, said on Wednesday that its losses in 2020 will be $ 4.6 billion.