With harsh COVID-19 pandemic restrictions still in place, California has been one of the very last states to see its beleaguered exhibition industry return to business. Finally, we are seeing an increasing number of Santa Clara and San Francisco theater locations owned by Cinemark reopen, albeit with a revised way of doing business designed to still cater to local lock down restrictions.
That’s not to say all will be back to normal. A key part of these restrictions involves the 25% occupancy limit placed on movie theaters. As if this wasn’t bad enough, the total occupancy limit remains at a 100 person total occupancy limit and concessions cannot be sold at all in key markets like Santa Clara and San Francisco.
While reopening under these restrictions has, in fact, been an option in the state since late September, it’s no surprise that we’ve seen an across-the-board delay in any movement to get the screens up and running. With concessions off the table in some areas, and such harsh bums-on-seats restrictions, many theater owners are reluctant to open the doors at all, seeing it as less expensive to simply stay shuttered. Yet they will need to reopen to prove to studios that exhibition is still a relevant market, creating an interesting catch-22 situation.
We’ve finally seen Cinemark opt to reopen as of late October, however. With a San Francisco multiplex, several San Francisco Bay locations, Alameda County, and many locations in Santa Clara County all on the table to reopen, this is perhaps the biggest development in state-wide reopening we’ve seen in recent weeks.
We may not see a huge buy-in from other theater chains while concession sales stay off the table, but at least this move towards reopening the state can be seen as a positive step forward for the exhibition industry overall. BLAKE & WANG P.A one of the top entertainment law firms Los Angeles hopes they see a rapid return of the theater-going public and plenty of state-wide support.
Film and Television 