We’re all wondering when we can go back to the multiplex again, as spikes in coronavirus cases, AMC Theatres’ financial struggles and pockets of cinemas letting audiences through their doors again have added to the mood of uncertainty around a grand reopening of movie theaters. But it also begs the question: What will they look like on the other side of COVID-19?
Theaters have been largely closed around the country since March, when the pandemic created chaos within the industry: Hollywood shuttered, new films shifted to streaming, and studios sent their biggest summer movies packing, either to the fall or all the way into 2021.
Now, with states slowly unveiling reopening phases and a couple of high-profile projects scheduled to hit theaters next month – Disney’s live-action “Mulan” (July 24) and Christopher Nolan’s thriller “Tenet” (July 31) – Americans are weighing when exactly they can (and should) safely go back just as change to a pop-culture pastime seems inevitable.
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“It’s going to be an evolution, not a revolution, that happens in the way people consume movies in the theater,” says Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian.
Audiences may have “amazing memories” of going to the movies, but “those days may be gone for good if we don’t get rid of this virus or if another iteration of this virus happens,” says Jeff Bock, senior box-office analyst for Exhibitor Relations. “This one has scared people. And it was serious enough that it’s going to change habits.”
Here’s what movie theaters might look like in the near and far future:
Goodbye, high-end amenities; hello, hand-sanitizer stations
Because everyone is starved for human interaction, a return to movie theaters “will automatically feel like a big, communal win,” says Kate Erbland, deputy film editor for IndieWire. However, that’s not possible without also taking into account aspects like masks, socially-distanced seating arrangements and “simmering worry over touching things.”
The push in recent years for cushier, reclining seats and expanded concessions will now shift toward moviegoers’ health concerns as more states begin to open theaters: California, for example, is now allowing theaters to be opened at 25% capacity while cinemas are in Phase 4 of New York’s reopening. AMC Entertainment, the largest movie theater chain in the U.S., says it plans to be fully open globally by July.
Bock thinks “personal preference” will be the status quo for the first couple months of reopening. “You want to take a risk or you don’t, and that comes down to your personality, honestly.” Also important: world of mouth when it comes to cleanliness and following protocols. Bock points out one worry is an inconsistency among theaters when it comes to masks: “The No. 1 way to prevent (coronavirus) that we know of is a mask. And if they’re not enforcing that, there’s a huge swath of audiences that will just not go.”