A view of the Regal Loews Cinemas in Times Square in New York.
Noam Galai | Getty Images
After nearly a year of closings, New York cinemas will be allowed to open on March 5, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Monday.
The city’s cinemas will be allowed to operate at 25% capacity, according to the rules currently in effect for rentals in the rest of the state of New York.
The movie announcement follows a recent series of measures the governor has taken in recent weeks to reopen the state’s economy. Major New York City arenas, such as Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden, are preparing to host a limited number of fans for live basketball games starting on Tuesday.
Last week, Cuomo said that indoor family entertainment centers, such as arcades, trampoline parks and laser tag facilities, could reopen from March 26 and that outdoor amusement parks could return on April 9 with capacity. limited.
Notably, March 5 also marks the day that Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon” will be available in theaters and on Disney + and Lionsgate’s “Chaos Walking” in theaters. Later, in March, Warner Bros. ‘”Godzilla v. Kong” will also make its debut.
Required masks
“New York’s cinemas will be aligned with the rest of the state: 25% of capacity; no more than 50 people per exhibition; masks; designated seats; social distance; staff to control occupancy, traffic and seats to ensure the compliment, “said Cuomo. “They need the improved standards of air filtration, ventilation and purification that DOH has specified.”
Cuomo repeatedly said that the state saw the end of its post-holiday coronavirus spike, while alerting the emergence of highly contagious virus strains, such as the B.1.1.7 strain first identified in the UK, could hamper the state’s progress and reverse its downward trend in cases.
New York is reporting a weekly average of 7,400 Covid-19 cases per day, a decline of more than 13% compared to a week ago and the lowest state average since early December, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
“Theater owners are pleased with the announcement that cinemas in New York will be able to reopen safely,” the National Association of Theater Owners said in a statement. “The strict voluntary health and safety protocols have enabled cinemas across the country to operate safely and responsibly at higher capacity limits for many months, without a single outbreak of COVID-19 being traced back to cinemas.”
“New York City is a huge market for cinema in the United States; the reopening there gives film distributors confidence in setting and maintaining their theatrical release dates and is an important step in the recovery of the entire industry,” says the group, which represents more than 33,000 US movie screens
A key market
New York City is a vital center for selling movie tickets. There are almost 300 cinemas in the state of New York, but the main geographic metric that analysts focus on is New York’s designated market area, or DMA.
This is an area around New York City that includes part of Connecticut and New Jersey and excludes cinemas north of Albany and west of Cooperstown. Within this DMA are 234 cinemas that represent 7.4% of the total national box office, according to Comscore.
This is the second biggest driver of ticket sales in the USA, behind only the Los Angeles DMA, which accounts for 8.9%.
New York City has above average ticket prices and population density, which means it generates more money for the industry than other areas in the United States and Canada. That’s one of the reasons studios are eager to push films along the calendar and hope that New York theaters will reopen to the public.
The city also had great penetration of advertising. Good-performing films in the city generate buzz that helps to sell tickets in other parts of the country.
Not to mention that New York City is symbolically important because it is one of the places where there is a large concentration of Hollywood producers, directors and actors who live in the area.