By File this one under completely obvious but, the AMC opening has been delayed until “mid-to-late August.” Originally the theater chain had grand and, for a moment, maskless plans to open this month but as COVID-19 cases continue to rise across the U.S. it is now pretty obvious that really shouldn’t happen nor would it be worth it to them to even try.
The dominos started seriously falling when Tenet got delayed but it also doesn’t help that many cities aren’t even allowing movie theaters to open up anyway. It doesn’t matter how loud AMC shouts that they’re open if New York won’t let them do it. There’s also the question of if anyone would even come to a movie theater if opened. The idea of sitting in a room with recycled air with a bunch of people I don’t know is not even close to the idea of fun, even if they’re all six feet apart and wearing masks. I worked at a theater, I know how poorly cleaned they are.
There’s still some films scheduled to release in August, of course, with the biggest one being Mulan on August 21. That date, however, seems incredibly unlikely to be hit at the moment and chances are Disney will delay the movie yet again sometime soon. We’ll also probably see other film chains follow AMC’s lead here as it’s just stupid and dangerous to open them right now.
The big question now is how do these theater chains survive if the pandemic continues to stretch on and what does the film landscape look like once it ends.
Source: Collider
