With movie theaters closed for the most part of 2020, a lot of these companies are raring to open as soon as there are new movies to show. The announcement regarding Tenet’s new release date has spurred movie theaters like Regal to announce reopenings of their own.
Deadline reports that the Cineworld-owned Regal theaters have announced an Aug. 21 reopening following the Aug. 26 release date announcement for Tenet. The planned reopening was hailed by Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger as a “celebration for...our team and our industry.”
Of course, the movie theaters will be reopening with a number of health and safety measures in place as the global coronavirus pandemic is still in full swing in the United States. Social distancing and lowered theater capacity will be maintained through a booking system. Sanitation and cleanliness procedures will be tightened and movie schedules will be adjusted to avoid long lines.
This confirmation comes after Regal had earlier put up a schedule on their website putting the release of the movie on Sept. 4. As GamesRadar points out, the information has now been taken down from the website.
GamesRadar also quotes a statement from Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman Toby Emmerich that reaffirmed the studio’s commitment to have the film released theatrically as well as expressing gratitude for the continued support from exhibitors.
Exhibitors certainly need a blockbuster to convince people to go back to the movie theaters, especially during this ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Because of the months-long closures brought about by the pandemic, a number of theater chains have suffered tremendous losses. AMC Theaters, for instance, has incurred a loss of $2 billion, enough to trigger concerns about bankruptcy.
Cineworld, Regal’s owner, has already been implementing a staggered re-opening of its theaters around the world as the global coronavirus pandemic rages on. The chain had reopened its movie theaters in the Czech Republic and Slovakia on June 26; its theaters in Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania on July 3; and Israel on July 9.
Whether Tenet will be enough of a draw to bring back moviegoers to theaters remains to be seen, especially since streaming services like Netflix have become the main source of entertainment while people have been in lockdown.
The still ongoing global coronavirus pandemic is also caused for concern and could still stymie the efforts of theater chain owners to reopen. As of the July 27 situation report of the World Health Organization, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide is now at 16,114,449. There are now 646,641 people that have died from COVID-19.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest update puts the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States at 4,225,687 people. Deaths caused by COVID-19 in the United States now stand at 146,546 people.