For the first time in almost a year, New York film operator Nicolas Nicolaou can breathe easy. That’s because Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that cinemas in the five districts could reopen starting next month, a potential extension for an entertainment industry sector that was hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Nicolaou owns three cinemas in the city – Cinema Village in Manhattan, Alpine Theater in Brooklyn and Cinemart Cinemas in Queens. Due to damage from frozen pipes, he does not expect these locations to reopen before April 2. When he can rekindle the marquee lights, his venues will be running at 25% capacity, or 50 people per auditorium – meaning that it will be almost impossible to make money. Still, he says he is grateful for the opportunity to welcome customers after what he calls “the worst year of my life”.
“With 25% of the capacity, you cannot operate profitably,” he says. But he plans to restart his business anyway, because he feels it will be “proof that the coronavirus cannot be traced back to the movie theaters”. He adds: “Within a reasonable period of time, we expect to be able to operate at 50%, which makes the most economic sense”.
The approval of the reopening of New York cinemas has a meaning that goes far beyond the Big Apple. With the multiplexes in the country’s most populous city closed, the studios were forced to delay their biggest films – or send them to streaming services. Although the news does not necessarily mean that box office hits will greet the big screen soon (cinemas in Los Angeles, another mega movie market, remain closed and cinemas that reopened elsewhere are almost all empty), many still consider this a positive development in the reform of the battered film industry.
“It’s a very important piece of the puzzle,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “We hope that this will encourage the studios to release their great films. I don’t want to be too Poliana, but at least it gives us a chance to get back to normal. “
For big movie chains, like AMC Theaters, it is more realistic to reopen in two weeks, despite the short term. AMC, which has the largest presence in the country, plans to reopen all 13 locations in New York on March 5. Adam Aron, the company’s CEO, said on Monday that the decision is “another important step in restoring the health of the film industry. “
Consistent with protocols at other AMC locations, he says NYC locations will adhere to the AMC Safe & Clean policy, which includes “social distance and automatic seat blocking in each auditorium, mandatory use of a mask and updated air filtration with air filters. MERV-13, as well as many other important health, sanitation and cleaning efforts. ”The National Association of Theater Owners, the film industry’s leading lobby group, noted that cinemas across the country have been operating“ safely and responsibly ”at higher capacity limits for many months without any outbreak of COVID-19.
Regal Cinemas and Cinemark, the country’s second and third largest circuits, will not be affected by the announcement. All Regal locations have been closed since September and will not reopen until the studios start releasing more franchise films. And Cinemark has no locations in the city.
Alamo Drafthouse, a smaller chain known for theater dinners, plans to reopen its space in Brooklyn in the immediate future. It is not clear how independent cinemas in New York City, institutions like Angelika, Film Forum, IFC Center or Metrograph, plan to operate. For many, it may be more financially viable to remain closed.
A spokesman for Alamo Drafthouse said: “We don’t believe we will arrive until March 5 – there is a lot to do – but we are looking forward to reopening City Point [in Brooklyn] as soon as possible, and we will make a lot of noise when we do. “
Dusting the projectors is only half the battle. There’s also the question of, you know, getting people to go to the movies.
Before the pandemic, New York-based Stephanie Walls frequented movie theaters with the same compulsion that could inspire someone to go to a bodega to keep warm in the winter. If she simply passed a theater, she would check the opening hours and buy a ticket on a whim. That was partly how the 34-year-old actor started watching “Black Panther” seven times in the week Marvel’s blockbuster debuted in 2018.
But despite his deep and almost reflective love for going to the movies, Walls doesn’t plan to return anytime soon. She has not yet received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and even when she does, she predicts that she will be afraid to resume her old way of life.
“I don’t know if I believe in how the country handled the pandemic,” said Walls. “I can only control what I do and make sure I have as little exposure as possible.”
Drew Katz, 24, a Brooklyn native, says he used to go to the movies twice a month and estimates he saw “everything”. Now, he says, nothing less than a vaccine will get him back.
“There is no way to know if the air filtration is working,” he says. “No distance will convince me that it is safe to sit in a room with 49 other people for two hours.”
Juan Manangon, who lives in Brooklyn and interrupted his subscription to the AMC Stubs A-List, admits he is not sure how to feel about the reopening of cinemas. “I want it to be like it was in the Before Times, but it won’t be,” says the 39-year-old media researcher. “If I decide to go, I would wait a few weeks to see what people are saying – reviews of health protocols and how the city is doing in terms of infection rates.”
It’s less foggy for 35-year-old Matt Parker. He won’t be back until he’s vaccinated. “It just isn’t worth the stress of worrying about risk,” he says. “We have made so many sacrifices. [I] you need to see this until it was worth it. “
Antonio Harris, from Brooklyn, on the other hand, does not hesitate. He considers returning to the cinemas as a restoration of “some kind of normality”. With the cinemas in the neighborhoods closed, he traveled to Jersey City to recover – watching “Promising Young Woman” three times.
“There was never anyone there,” he says. “It was a strange feeling, but I was fine with it being empty. It was a relief. “
He told himself that he would not afford light snacks, but in the end the buttery popcorn fascination was too tempting to refuse. “I needed to answer,” said the recruitment coordinator for a 24-year-old technology company. When he wasn’t chewing popcorn, he made a point of being doubly masked.
Brennan Jackson, 25, also says he is excited to return to watching movies on the big screen. He plans to buy a ticket to Disney’s animated adventure “Raya and the Last Dragon” on March 5, the day when cinemas in New York can reopen. “It is a sign that things are slowly but surely starting to return to normal,” he says. He has not yet been vaccinated, but says the precautionary measures in place are sufficient to make him feel safe. He compares a trip to the cinema with the same level of risk of going to the supermarket.
“If there was no capacity limit for theaters, I wouldn’t want to go,” he says. “But seeing that they are limiting up to 50 people is fine with me.”
“Honestly,” he continues, “I need a place to go after being alone for almost an entire year.”
Nicolaou, the theater owner, expects other New Yorkers to feel equally uneasy. In the decades that he owned his venues, he kept ticket prices low to ensure that residents of all financial backgrounds could afford a film draft. Even with reduced pedestrian traffic, he plans to continue charging lower fees.
He recognizes that it can be a slow process. And while the virus is still spreading in the United States, Nicolaou remains optimistic that the country will emerge from the global health crisis by following pandemic safety guidelines provided by science experts.
“We have to listen to Fauci,” he says. “He’s from Brooklyn.”