After nearly a year of closings during the COVID-19 pandemic, Los Angeles’s besieged theaters plan to open their doors next week, with several locations due to reopen on Monday.
AMC Theaters, the largest cinema chain in the world, said that two of its biggest locations in the Los Angeles area – AMC Burbank 16 and AMC Century City 15 – will open on Monday afternoon. The remaining 23 theaters in AMC’s Los Angeles County will be ready to reopen on March 19, said Leawood exhibitor Kan.
Plano, Texas-based Cinemark said its Long Beach location will begin showing movies again on Saturday. The nation’s third network said other Los Angeles County cinemas will begin reopening on Monday.
Theater circuits are desperate to reopen in Los Angeles, Hollywood’s biggest box office.
The rush to start selling tickets again came after the cinemas obtained authorization from state and municipal authorities to finally resume business.
On Thursday, Los Angeles County paved the way for companies like theaters, indoor dining rooms and gyms to reopen next week with strict capacity limits and other restrictions, such as wearing masks.
Cinemas in counties listed on the second most restrictive level of reopening in California – the red level – can open indoor auditoriums with 25% capacity with reserved seats and at least six feet apart in all directions between groups. Counties entering the less restrictive orange level can move up to 50% of capacity.
Los Angeles County became eligible for reopenings when the state met its goal of administering 2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to residents in its most disadvantaged areas. By clearing that barrier, the state relaxed the limit for counties, including Los Angeles, to move from the more restrictive purple layer to the less restrictive red layer.
Regal – the nation’s number 2 network – did not provide an immediate update on when its cinemas in Los Angeles would open. Regal, which is owned by Cineworld, closed its locations in the United States in October after a brief reopening due to the lack of new films and the poor public.
Smaller networks may take longer to return to the market. Local operators spent much of Thursday trying to figure out when they could move ahead with operations after county officials gave the go-ahead. Larger circuits have brought workers back in anticipation of the Los Angeles opening.
The LAemmle Theaters artistic circuit, based in LA, has set a timetable to reopen in four to five weeks, when the company calls back to general managers, who will then need to rehearse and retrain the team on new health and safety protocols. For example, Laemmle, which has seven locations, did not use reserve seats before the pandemic, but must now do so because of security requirements.
While larger networks with a national presence have started working on their reopening protocols in less rigid states like Texas, Laemmle, which operates entirely in Southern California, will start from scratch.
“They have the advantage of doing this in other markets, so they know what the process is,” said Laemmle Theaters president Greg Laemmle. “We want to welcome the public as quickly as possible, but we want to be able to do so safely and in order.”
Hollywood studios have postponed their biggest box office hits until they are sure Los Angeles cinemas can reopen. The sector gained momentum last week, when New York City, another major cinema market, opened its cinemas, also after a year of stoppages. New York’s entry into the Internet has increased confidence that big films can be released in the coming months.
Disney Chief Executive Bob Chapek said this week that Marvel’s “Black Widow” is still “currently” planned for May 7, and that Universal Pictures’ “F9” is scheduled to launch on June 25.
Analysts said studios would be better able to follow current release plans if Los Angeles and New York expand to 50% of theaters’ capacity in the coming weeks.
Prolonged closings and the lack of new Hollywood box office hits have shaken the finances of America’s cinema networks, with some Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection requests, including the Texas Alamo Drafthouse.
AMC, which saw its stock soar thanks in part to the interest of retail investors inspired by the Reddit forums, said on Wednesday that its losses totaled $ 4.6 billion in 2020.