There may be some hope yet for the American movie theater industry as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced over the weekend that theaters in the State of New York would be allowed to reopen under certain parameters.
Vanity Fair reports that theaters in New York State are allowed to reopen at only 25 percent capacity, with a maximum of 50 people allowed in each theater. Masks will be mandatory, as well as assigned seating. Aside from enforced social distancing, theaters are also expected to pass air purification, ventilation, and purification standards.
Other rules that theaters are expected to follow include the addition of staff who will ensure moviegoers are complying with seating, traffic, and occupancy standards set by health officials. Additionally, theaters are only allowed to reopen if they are in counties with less than two percent coronavirus infection rate.
Vanity Fair notes that this means only cinemas in counties like Westchester, Suffolk, and Nassau will be able to reopen. Cities like Syracuse, Albany, Rochester, and Buffalo will also be able to reopen their theaters. New York City theaters are still not allowed to reopen.
Despite these numerous restrictions, Deadline reports that movie theaters are “ecstatic” to be able to reopen. Quoting Bowtie Cinemas CEO Joseph Masher, the publication says movie theater owners are eager to show state governments that they can safely operate their venues.
Deadline also notes that the announcement is good news for mom-and-pop theaters and huge theater chains in New York that have been forced to either lay off or furlough workers since closures have meant no revenue for them since March.
The reopenings in New York could hopefully signal a turnaround for the movie theater industry in the United States, which has been rocked by bad news in the past few months. Just a couple of weeks ago, Cineworld floated the possibility of temporarily closing all of its theaters in the United States.
According to the theater chain, the move was spurred by the underperformance of Tenet in the American box office as well as the announcement that the premiere of the latest James Bond film, No Time to Die, has been moved to April of next year.
Last week, huge theater chain AMC warned its investors that it could run out of money by the end of the year if things do not change in the United States. The chain has been struggling to keep its theaters open due to a lack of blockbusters and even more lackluster attendance.
Whether these theater reopenings will continue in New York City itself depends on the COVID-19 situation in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention update for Oct. 18, there are now 8,081,489 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country. Deaths caused by COVID-19 are now at 218,511 people.