The cinemas in this important market have been closed for almost a year due to the pandemic. The well-known actor will appear at AMC Lincoln Square to present his latest action film, ‘The Marksman’.
Hollywood studio executives are not alone in celebrating the reopening of cinemas in New York this weekend, after almost a year closed due to the new coronavirus pandemic.
Actor Liam Neeson, who received his first vaccination shot, will personally thank viewers for coming before his last action shot passed Friday night at a prominent Upper Westside multiplex.
“This is for the diary,” said Neeson The Hollywood Reporter during an interview this week. “It will be nice to receive people. I think going to the cinema is a bit of a sacred experience. I feel that way since I was a child.”
New York is not only the country’s second largest cinema market behind Los Angeles – where cinemas remain closed – it is critical in terms of generating buzz and advertising for Hollywood titles and the box office in general, while trying to recover .
“The reopening of New York is a strong symbolic gesture for audiences going to the theater that it’s okay to put your toe in the water,” said Tom Ortenberg, head of Open Road / Briarcliff, who is distributing The shooter In the USA
On Thursday, new research by the National Research Group showed that film buffs’ confidence was growing at its highest level since Principle opened in late summer. With President Biden’s announcement earlier this week that all adults can be vaccinated by the end of May, the NRG survey showed that consumers feel much more optimistic about returning to cinemas in the coming months.
Theaters in San Francisco and elsewhere in the bay area have also been given permission to reopen, while Los Angeles may continue for the next few weeks.
Without Los Angeles and New York at stake, Hollywood studios have delayed their efforts. Now, there is hope that there could really be a summer season at the box office.
In New York City, capacity is limited to 25%, or no more than 50 people per auditorium. While this makes it difficult for cinemas to profit, it is a start.
AMC is opening all 13 of its locations in New York, while icons of art such as the IFC Center and Angelica are also opening Friday. Regal, which is owned by Cineworld, aims to reopen in April.
According to Comscore, there are a total of 62 cinemas in New York City.
“The consumer’s appetite is there,” says Joe Masher, who heads the New York chapter of the National Association of Theater Owners. He is also head of Bowtie Cinemas, which has locations in Upper New York Sate, Connecticut, Maryland and Virginia.
“The reopening of New York theaters will give studios the impetus to release their biggest films,” says Masher.
Earlier on Thursday, however, Universal announced that it is postponing the launch of Fast and furious installment F9 from the end of May to the end of June, due to an abundance of caution.
“I’m upset, but I understand their decision,” said Masher. “At least they didn’t move him into oblivion.”
On Friday, Masher will accompany Andrew Yang, a Democrat running for mayor of New York, to an undisclosed cinema in the metropolitan area.
As for his comments, Neeson will probably talk about a story that is close to him. Famous actor duo Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson – the grandparents of his late wife, Natasha Richardson – starred in London’s West End during the World War II blitz.
“People didn’t panic,” says Neeson. “Sometimes the plays would stop and Sir Michael would go to the orchestra pit and start playing the piano and sing. Vanessa Redgrave, who was my wife’s mother, told us this story over the years and I thought, ‘wow, this is extraordinary. ‘”
“There is a small parallel with what is happening now,” says Neeson. “We are being bombarded by these invisible microscopic bombs.”
March 4, 6:34 pm An earlier version of this story stated that Andrew Yang was running for governor of New York City, but was corrected to reflect that he is running for mayor.