AMC and Cinemark Theaters Announce Plans to Remain Open After Regal Cinemas' Temporary Shutdown
Erin Lefevre/NurPhoto via Getty Images
A day after Regal Cinemas announced the temporary closing of its venues due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, AMC Theaters and Cinemark have affirmed their plans to remain open.
Both theater chains said Tuesday that 80 percent of their U.S. locations will remain open to the public, even as certain states, most notably California and New York, are not allowing theaters to reopen.
“We take great comfort in knowing that literally millions of moviegoers have already visited our theatres,” AMC CEO Adam Aron said in a press release. “Our guests are telling us that our theatres have never been cleaner, and that they recognize the great effort AMC is making to keep them healthy and safe.”
Aron, who heads the largest movie theater chain in the country, added that there are some films, such as Universal’s The Croods: A New Age, that have upcoming theatrical releases planned.
Matthew Lynch/CSM/Shutterstock
RELATED: Regal Cinemas to Temporarily Close All Locations Due to Pandemic, Affecting 40,000 Employees
“Fortunately for AMC, our groundbreaking agreement with Universal Studios announced earlier this summer puts AMC in a position where we can open our theatres when others may feel the need to close,” he said. “We are fully comfortable showing Universal films in our theaters, even as they implement premium video on demand as we have mutually agreed. This is because AMC will share in premium revenues coming from their early availability in the home.”
As for Cinemark, the company said that in addition to new releases, the theater chain will screen their “Comeback Classics” and host “Private Watch Parties.”
“Cinemark’s reopening plan was designed with multiple contingencies in place to ensure we are able to be nimble and react as needed to this ever-changing environment,” the company said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
Spencer Platt/Getty
RELATED: James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood & More Ask Congress to Help U.S. Movie Theaters
The news from AMC and Cinemark comes just one day after Regal Cinemas, the second-biggest movie theater chain in the country, announced its plans to suspend operations.
On Monday, Cineworld, the U.K. parent company of Regal, said it will temporarily shut down all of its 536 Regal movie theater locations in the U.S., effective Thursday, Oct. 8. The closures will affect nearly 40,000 U.S. employees who work for Regal.
“This is not a decision we made lightly,” said Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Cineworld, in a press release, “and we did everything in our power to support a safe and sustainable reopening in the U.S. — from putting in place robust health and safety measures at our theatres to joining our industry in making a collective commitment to the CinemaSafe protocols to reaching out to state and local officials to educate them on these initiatives.”
Last week, upcoming movies like the James Bond entry No Time To Die and Fast and the Furious' ninth installment rescheduled their theatrical releases to 2021.
