LA theatres to open at 25 percent capacity early next week, announce public health officials

After almost one year of watching movies in homes, cinema-goers in Los Angeles, California, will finally move to theatres as the LA County Department of Public Health has announced the reopening of cinema halls at 25 percent capacity. As reported by Variety, the department declared this decision on Thursday, 11 March, and the reopening will take place between Monday, 15 March, to Wednesday, 17 March. According to the report, the county has been waiting for the state to achieve the aim of administering two million COVID-19 vaccines in underserved areas. Once that gets done, LA will resume its theatre services in regards to the ‘Red Tier’ reopening guidelines. On Wednesday, 10 March, Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, had said that the state will be achieving its vaccine target by Friday, 12 March. Counties that have less than 10 new cases per 100,000 a day will be moved to the red tier. However, the report further added that most theatre owners will not be able to resume services because of the sudden development. The report also mentions that business owners have also expressed concerns about the profit they would be receiving due to the limited capacity. Reacting to this development, Adam Aron, CEO of theatre chain AMC, said that no matter what happens, they will be reopening the theatres on Friday, March 19, reported Deadline. On the other hand, a Cinemark spokesperson has said that they are excited about the prospect of reopening theatres, however, further updates will be shared once the government restrictions are announced. According to Deadline, some LA theatres like Regal will not be operational before May 2021 while Laemmle is going to take another four to five weeks in order to retrain their staff. Not only theatres, the rules will also be relaxed for other services like restaurants once the vaccination target is achieved in the county.