During a press conference yesterday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced movie theaters outside of New York City can reopen at 25% capacity, or up to 50 people per screen on October 23rd. We also hear they can sell concessions. This is in effect for all counties with infection rates that are below 2% on a 14-day average.
“We hit 160,000 tests in one day, which is a record number and the highest we’ve ever done. When you’re doing that level of tests you get down to the block level. And then, when you start to see a cluster, you oversample in that cluster, so you get even more data,” said Cuomo. “Beginning October 23, movie theaters outside of New York City will be allowed to reopen at 25 percent capacity with up to 50 people maximum per screen. This is outside of New York City in areas that have infection rates below 2 percent on a 14-day average and have no cluster zones.”
A majority of major studios following the lackluster opening of Tenet moved their tentpoles out of the fall and Thanksgiving season, in part because of New York’s shutdown.
Indoor cinemas were initially in phase 4. However, as New York improved through the COVID-19 tiers and handled its cases, Cuomo decided that movie theaters would not open, given his questions about air conditioning circulation. The governor continued to reopen gyms and casinos, while sitting on theaters. This created plenty of ire among the major studios and exhibitors like Cineworld’s Mooky Greidinger, who publicly slammed the governor for choking movie theaters.
As recent as last Friday, Regal Cinemas used its Times Square multiplex marquee to admonish Cuomo for being just about the last pol in the country to reopen cinemas.
