Beginning on Friday, June 12, movie theaters throughout California will be allowed to reopen, but don’t expect all of them to throw open their doors.
As locations around the United States continue to move forward with their reopening measures, movie theaters have been a giant question mark. By their very nature, exhibitors are attempting to get as many people as possible into a showing, so there will have to be some concessions made.
California has announced that when theaters reopen on Friday, they will be limited to 25% seating capacity. This, unfortunately, will just not be enough for some locations to reopen their doors.
According to Deadline, the chains that are going to wait things out include AMC, Regal, Cinemark, Alamo Drafthouse, Arclight Cinemas, Laemmle, Cinepolis, and Landmark.
Drive-in theaters are currently allowed to operate at full capacity throughout California.
Current guidelines for theaters do choose to reopen includes a separation between cars in the parking lot, coordination of crowds between screenings, and face masks to be worn by patrons except for when eating or drinking.
The hopes are that theaters can get to 50% within a few weeks allowing Warner Bros. to release Tenet on July 17. If that shouldn’t happen the belief is that the summer movie season will essentially be written off. It is now very much a wait and see game between theaters and the coronavirus.
