Los Angeles County cinemas are expected to reopen with limited capacity on Saturday.
The county had to meet several requirements, such as the distribution of two million doses of vaccine to underserved populations and having less than 10 new cases per day for every 100,000 people. Governor Gavin Newsom says California is expected to reach the vaccination milestone on Friday. As soon as the state reaches this limit, county officials will have to sign in order for the cinemas to reopen.
“Southern California, LA, will be a big beneficiary of this new metric,” Newsom said during the daily news conference on Wednesday.
Given the rapid turnaround, however, it is unclear which cinemas – if any – will be able to reopen until this weekend. In particular, some major theater circuits believe that their venues will not be operational until March 19.
When they get the green light, the multiplexes in the country’s most populous county will be able to operate at 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is less. Indoor gyms and restaurants, with limited capacity, will also be included as California moves to the red level.
The announcement came shortly after New York’s movie theaters resumed operations, meaning that the country’s two largest film markets currently have approval to welcome customers back. It is a positive sign for the film industry, which can inspire Hollywood studios to release their big budget films in theaters.
For those who make a living showing films on the big screen, it was a brutal 12 months. After the coronavirus pandemic forced theaters to close last March, the studios began showing their hottest titles en masse. While a select few – including “Tenet”, “Wonder Woman 1984”, “The Croods: A New Age” and “Tom and Jerry” – have still made their way into theaters, many potential box office hits have been delayed or sent to streaming services. Attendance remained low in selected American cities where cinemas were able to reopen, partly because people were not comfortable returning to the cinema and partly because there was not much to see.
In recent weeks, however, the studios have optimistically changed the release dates for “A Quiet Place Part II” (May 28) and “Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway” (May 14). Theater operators expect the trend to continue as coronavirus cases decline and more people are vaccinated. Universal has changed plans for the sequel to “Fast & Furious”, “F9”, but it still intends to debut the last installment of the high-octane franchise this summer.