“There’s an interchange of money, you put your hands on the counter, you wait to get the popcorn and the soda and all that.” Though some theaters will use contactless methods for concession transactions, and others will not offer condiment stations, there is still the issue of masks - and the need to take them off to consume food and drink.īut Lahita notes that as long as theaters are enforcing reduced capacities and social-distancing measures, with empty rows and empty seats between parties, eating in a theater might not be as dangerous as you think. “That’s comparable to a buffet in a restaurant,” Lahita said back in June. Should I Eat Concession-Stand Food While I’m at the Theater?
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“But when people want to be entertained, they want to go to the theater, that’s their business,” he says, adding, “If you’re going to do phase four opening of essentially nonessential locales such as restaurants, gyms, tattoo parlors, and barbershops, I would think those would be of more risk than going to a movie theater, because of their inherent proximity to strangers.” “It is not an essential locale,” Lahita agrees. Even if you are at 50 percent capacity with one or two seats between the two of you, this is a risk situation and … movie theaters are not that high on the list of essentials.” You are seated there for a long period of time.
Though New York’s positivity rate has remained below one percent for nearly two weeks, and the state and New York City are well into phase four, Governor Andrew Cuomo has kept theater doors closed, noting that “on a relative risk scale, a movie theater is less essential and poses a high risk. Lahita works in New York and New Jersey, which are not among the states where the chains will open their doors this week, since their governors have explicitly excluded movie theaters from reopening. Thankfully, AMC and Regal reversed course, announcing that guests would be required to wear masks - though their present policy allows for masks to be removed while eating and drinking concessions.īut Why Are Only Some Theaters Reopening? If you don’t wear a mask, you take your chances.” You know how the air is in a theater: It’s not circulated very well. Unless you’re sitting 20 or 30 feet from the other person, you run the risk of being infected. “You’d have to be nuts” not to wear a mask, he says. The chains’ initial reluctance to require face masks on all guests, however, had Lahita concerned. “There’s always an inherent risk, but I was actually surprised at how thorough some of the planning is,” Lahita adds of the broad strategies he’s seen. So these guys are going to open theaters when we have an increase of infections?”Ĭoncern over rising infection rates aside, Lahita believes basic safety measures - including socially distanced reserved seating, frequent cleaning of screening rooms, and temperature checks at the Cineplex door - will go a long way for those attempting a return to the theater. “It seemed there was a flattened curve, and then all of a sudden, we’re going up again. “We’ve seen 30,000 new cases popping up in the southern states and the Sunbelt,” Lahita told us back in June. Should I Go to a Movie Theater Right Now? Joseph’s Health in New Jersey, professor of medicine at New York Medical College, and adjunct professor of medicine at Rutgers, to discuss whether or not we should be rushing to the box office this week. Robert Lahita, chairman of medicine at St. AMC finally began the staggered reopening of its locations Thursday, with Regal and Marcus Theaters following suit Friday all are hoping to have significant screens available for Tenet’s American rollout, which is now scheduled to begin Labor Day weekend. has rescheduled (and re-rescheduled) Tenet’s debut date, and cineplexes in many states have remained closed. Since then, Disney has moved Mulanto its streaming platform, Warner Bros. But those plans were scuttled as COVID-19 continued to spread across the country, and the death toll rose. The major theatrical chains were planning to reopen the following month, in time to lure moviegoers back with the double-whammy releases of Mulan and Tenet, then slated for late-July openings. When we last checked in with our public-health expert on the safety of returning to theaters in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, his outlook was bleak: “It’s like Russian roulette,” he said. This piece has been updated with new information concerning nationwide plans to reopen movie theaters this summer. Photo: Alain Benainous/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images Robert Lahita attempts to answer all of our questions about cinema’s grand reopening this August.