Cinemark Says It Plans to Reopen Its Theaters in July
While we frankly remain cautiously pessimistic that any theaters are reopening this summer, one major chain thinks it’s happening. According to Deadline, Cinemark Theaters today held a call with investors where they announced plans to reopen to the public by “July 1.” The hope would be to do this in stages, with a warm-up period building to the time in mid-July when the next big movies still on the release calendar will (hopefully) debut.
Here’s what Cinemark executives had to say about their plan:
‘We won’t be everything back day 1, but dip our toe approach,’ said [Cinemark executive Sean] Gamble. Cinemark CEO and Board Director Mark Zoradi added there will be two weeks of ‘showing library product, high profile library product’ as the chain expects a slow ramp of attendance. The big blast off anticipated here is the weekend of July 17-19 which is where Warner Bros. Christopher Nolan’s Tenet is blasting off.
They also claimed that their theaters can be profitable at just “20% to 30%” of capacity, so they should be able to maintain social distancing in their theaters while making enough money to stay in business. Theaters could be open on a “state by state, county by county” basis, depending on demand and public health concerns.
That, of course, would require enough people to come back to theaters in early July — just three months from now — to fill 20 to 30 percent of theaters. That’s a big if. If there’s no effective treatment for coronavirus by then, will people be willing to theoretically risk their lives to see Tenet on the big screen? Honestly, some probably will! But whether enough will — and whether the pandemic will be under control enough to even give them the option — remain major questions.
Gallery — What We Miss Most About Going to Movie Theaters: