Will Movie Theaters Survive the Pandemic?
A quiet business day at the AMC Orange 30. Photo taken on Sunday, May 2, 2021 at 3:30 p.m.
May 24, 2021
After more than a year since the pandemic started and with vaccines on the rise, will people start going to movie theaters again?
Popular theater establishments like AMC, Cinemark, and Regal, shut down at the start of the pandemic in March 2020 and reopened by the end of March. Ever since reopening, theaters have taken extreme precautions to secure a safe place for individuals.
AMC took the hardest hit and was on the verge of bankruptcy until they raised $917 million during the month of December to January. They raised or signed commitment letters to receive new equity or capital.
AMC is strict with their safety and health policies. These policies include wearing a mask regardless of vaccination, reduced seating to 50%, and social distancing. Their filtration systems have been upgraded and they use disinfectant sprayers regularly between each screening.
Both Cinemark and Regal Theatres have taken the same procedures as AMC theaters to give the safest immersive experience for their audiences. Movie theaters will return to normal eventually but the pandemic has changed the industry.
A shot of registers closed to maintain social distancing. AMC encourages guests to buy tickets online, but they can still be purchased at the theater.
Photo taken on May 2, 2021. (Alex Joaquin)
I am a huge movie goer and have made many memories going to movie theaters with family and friends in the last decade.
One special memory was watching “Avengers: Endgame” with my group of friends. We laughed and cheered with excitement during the final fight scene, the whole experience was phenomenal watching the action on the big screen.
My cousin, Leonardo Santos is also a huge movie goer. As soon as he heard theaters shut down, he was devastated. Once theaters reopened, Santos decided to return to his local movie theater and check out the new theater experience.
“The staff impressed me by showing how serious they are about their theater’s policies. They kept the theater sanitized every few minutes, everyone wore masks, so I felt safe being in there,” said Santos.
After announcing theaters would close, I was upset because theaters were a big part of my life. Fast forward to more than a year later, I was not that excited to hear movie theaters were reopened due to streaming services.
I strongly believe the movie experience will forever change with the rise of streaming services.
With many films being delayed, studios decided to release their movies through streaming services such as HBO Max, Netflix, or Disneyplus.
There are lots of pros to watching a film on a streaming service. You can watch films in the comfort of your home, take bathroom breaks without missing a moment, and watch the film several times during the span of 30 days. No doubt this will turn off a lot of people from going to the movie theater.
Although streaming services provide a whole lot more, I am going to always enjoy the theatre experience.
On May 28, I plan to watch the upcoming film, “A Quiet Place 2” in the theater.
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Kevin • Oct 28, 2021 at 10:04 pm
In my opinion I think that movie theaters wont survive the pandemic. AMC took a big hit with bankruptcy until they raised about $917 million duting the month of December through January. I think that one of the reasons why the movie theaters wont survive the pandemic is because not a lot of people follow the CDC guidliness. “AMC is strict with their safety and health policies. The policies include wearing a mask regardless of vaccination, reduced seating to 50%, and social distancing.” A PLETHORA dont like to wear mask or they dont have any of the vaccines. Another reason is that during the pandemic a lot of streaming apps went big since closures of movie theaters. For example in one of the paragraphs it claim,”with many films being delayed, studios decided to realease their movies through streaming services such as HBO Max, Netflix, or Disneyplus.” Movie theaters would have to adapt to the pandemic or shut down for good.
Evelyn • Oct 28, 2021 at 9:58 pm
I think more movie theaters will start to open up again, since they lost a lot of money due to covid. Movie theaters were always a fun hangout spot either to spend time with your family or on a Friday night with friends, to hangout. ”Although streaming services provide a whole lot more, I am going to always enjoy the theatre experience.” even tho watching movies from home is a safer, people just want to go out to the theater.
jacob lechuga • Oct 27, 2021 at 10:43 am
i think movie theater would survive the pandemic because people will still injoy the experience
Alex • Oct 26, 2021 at 10:58 pm
I believe that movie theaters will most likely survive the pandemic, but will still have a difficult time in competing with streaming services. Though they have greatly improved their safety precautions when it comes to dealing with the pandemic, they still need to be able to FABRICATE a good awareness campaign to indicate that cinemas are being better at general safety cautions, for those still worried. “The staff impressed me by showing how serious they are about their theater’s policies. They kept the theater sanitized every few minutes, everyone wore masks, so I felt safe being in there,…” It would also be important to note how they should go about dealing with pricing for tickets. Most streaming services are extremely cheap, at around $5 a month, for a PLETHORA of movies and series you can watch anytime. While tickets for cinemas can range to about $15 per person, as well as pricing for food and drinks. “There are lots of pros to watching a film on a streaming service. You can watch films in the comfort of your home, take bathroom breaks without missing a moment, and watch the film several times during the span of 30 days. No doubt this will turn off a lot of people from going to the movie theater.” In the end, although going to the cinemas to watch the movie is the main experience, opting for streaming services to watch films saves you the DRUDGERY of it all.
Gustavo Saucedo • Oct 26, 2021 at 7:13 pm
In my opinion, I think that Movie theaters will recover from the pandemic but it will never be the same.I prognosticate that when the pandemic is over the movie theaters will be open but there will be some protocols.This will not be noticed to much but it might not be the same because people like to watch movies with different streaming services.
Melissa Guerrero • Oct 26, 2021 at 2:12 pm
It is good that these big movie theaters like AMC and Cinemark theaters can open up again. They seemed to be closed for an INTERMINABLE amount of time. Because there is still Covid around, it is good that these theaters have decided to take measures to prevent the spread of Covid. There are measures like “reduced seating to 50%”. The experience of going to a movie theater will “forever change”. But it will soon seem less odd to go to the movies once the pandemic is over.
Roman Pena Diaz • Oct 26, 2021 at 9:28 am
In my opinion Movie theaters will not survive the pandemic unless they try and evolve to fight Streaming services that have cheaper prices for more movies in a safe way to watch. A way they can survive the pandemic is drive in theaters which are well known for being a safe way to watch movies on the big screen in the safety of your car
Roman Pena Diaz • Oct 26, 2021 at 6:34 pm
. They would also need to do the change to Drive in fast due to the ABOUND amount of streaming services. Another way they can survive is through the vaccine. That may not work so theaters are stuck between waiting or adapting to this change in a safe way. The article states “AMC,Cinemark, and Regal, shut down at the pandemic in 2020” because of this they have lost a lot of money even when they reopened streaming is killing them in business. The article also states “AMC took the hardest hit and was on the verge of bankruptcy” which proves how much money theaters are losing since AMC is one of the biggest theaters out there and they nearly went bankrupt in the pandemic