US cinemas are no nearer reopening despite the publication of federal guidelines by Donald Trump at a coronavirus briefing on Thursday.
The guidelines specifically mentioned movie theatres as among the types of venue that would be allowed to operate “under strict physical distancing protocols” in the first phase of the White House’s plan, titled Opening Up America Again. However, no timeframe has been set, and the president has reportedly said state governors will decide when and if to put the plans into operation.
Box-office analysts also remain sceptical. Jeff Bock, senior analyst for data agency Exhibitor Relations, told USA Today: “I shook my head when I saw this … I don’t know how that happens right now when lives are still at stake.” Bock has previously suggested that cinemas “will be closed until at least late June, possibly longer. Even then, they won’t be at normal capacity.”
Cinemas in North America shut down almost entirely in mid-March, with only a handful of drive-in venues remaining open, albeit under strict distancing rules. All major releases have been postponed, with audiences turning to streaming platforms during lockdown conditions. Studios have experimented with video-on-demand releases, breaking the traditional window between cinema screening and home entertainment availability, but so far kids animation Trolls World Tour is the only putative blockbuster to have premiered on a streaming format. Its studio, Universal, has not released figures but said the release was a success, with trade publication Deadline suggesting it made $40m-$50m in its first few days.
The cinemas themselves are still grappling with the financial fallout from the shutdown, with a report from investment bank Loop Capital, quoted in the New York Post, suggesting that a quarter of the US’s screens will close permanently as a result of the pandemic. The US’s largest chain AMC, which operates over 600 venues, has announced a plan to sell off $500m of debt to try and remain liquid and has furloughed around 25,000 employees. Its majority stakeholder, Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda, has denied speculation the company will seek to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Mooky Greidinger, the CEO of Cineworld, which owns the US’s second largest chain Regal, said in a Q&A with Deadline that he believed “that towards the end of June, we will be able to open the cinemas and hopefully in early July, we will see the first blockbuster released”. Greidinger also said that “most” of Regal’s employees had been furloughed, and blamed “a big noise in the media” for protests over its initial plans to terminate its staff in the UK, before the treasury announced its Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. The US’s third biggest chain, Cinemark, has revealed it had laid off over 17,000 staff, and was planning to sell $250m of debt.
