During the pandemic, the movie theater industry has taken a substantial hit. Even as other businesses have begun reopening, the question remains: should we prioritize entertainment or minimizing risk during this time? Local theaters struggle with striking this balance, even though many guidelines and safety precautions have been taken along with alternatives. According to FactSet data, AMC stocks have dropped “27% since the start of the year.” Box office sales have consequently been drastically impacted as well.
In an Instagram survey, some high school students expressed they would still go to the theaters. “A lot of other people wouldn’t want to go, so there would be less people,” said Maada Coomber, a high school student who often went to the movie theaters with his friends before the pandemic. Another high school student, Lucy Yu, disagreed, saying it is “too risky both for employees and customers as people eat and drink there, so the mask will be off a lot.”
Many theaters opened up in the summer. For instance, the ShowPlace ICON Boston reopened on July 16. But “all of us are struggling to continue being open until a bigger film opens up,” said Jim Nowicki, marketing director of ShowPlace ICON in the Seaport District. The Boston Film Festival did virtual screenings of all their films from September 24 to 27, but there was also limited seating for in-person theater showings of certain films at the Boston Showplace Icon Theater.
Suddenly on September 15, ShowPlace ICON decided to temporarily close the Boston Seaport location until they have a more sustainable schedule of new movies. They plan to reopen around early November 2020. While they were open, ICON staff made lots of efforts to make movie theatres as safe as possible. Their goal was “to educate the community of all the health and safety procedures that we are taking on. I think that will build more confidence as people come out to the movies again,” said Nowicki. Some of the precautions include “automatically closing seats off on each side of the customer,” adhering to state capacity mandates, no concession sale, contactless paying options, active sanitizing in high traffic areas, and a “misting system” between shows to clean the rooms.
The National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) created a global enhanced health and safety program called “CinemaSafe.” After the CDC reported that COVID-19 is more contractible indoors in small, confined, poorly ventilated areas, theaters implemented a new filtration system to increase airflow. Nowicki said that when they reopen, they “will continue to adhere to all the safety protocol,” which is outlined on the CinemaSafe website.
Huntington Theater Company (HTC) was shut down on Friday, March 13, said Temple Gill, Director of Public Affairs and Strategic Partnerships at Huntington. During that time, they were on their first performance of a world premiere play. As for the shows planned out this year, Gill said they have “made a commitment to all of the shows and artists that we’ve previously announced.”
In the meantime, HTC has shifted its efforts to creating virtual programs. Gill said they have “created a series of micro audio plays called Dream Boston, [and] commissioned local playwrights to write plays for one or two characters set in the not so distant future.” They have produced four different plays of five to seven minutes in length. The Huntington Theatre Company plans to record their next project in November — an audio recording of a full-length play anticipated to be broadcast in December.
It is still uncertain when live theatre performances are safe to return. Gill said, “We think we could start as early as next March or April, but I don’t think it’s going to be any earlier than that.” She adds that “We want to be respectful of the science and the advice that we’re getting from scientists and from elected officials when making those decisions of coming back. That is why there are regulations in place on laws for having live performances indoors.”
Steve Wilson, Director of Corporate partnerships at The Ambassadors, operates the Emerson Colonial Theatre in Boston and over 50 other venues. Since the lockdowns started, the company has been meeting with artists, show producers, and programmers. Wilson commented that “everybody in the industry is doing the very same thing.” He said, “I have every confidence to think that when we do a reopen, the industry will rebound. And it will be a great time.” There are many predictions on when the industry will come back: “Many people are predicting that the industry will come back sometime at the end of this first quarter of next year. Others are saying it’s going to be more of the second quarter,” Wilson added.
Lyric Stage Company Artistic Director, Courtney O’Connor, said that the pandemic impacted them “pretty dramatically.” All this was unexpected, she explained, “when we first entered the pandemic, we thought we might be here for a few weeks. Certainly, we were not at a viewpoint of thinking we were going to be here for months, let alone an entire season. So I think like most other companies around us, we have had to adjust our thinking and adjust our approach, and think more long term strategy of what we can do.”
The Lyric Stage Company coped by finding a way to connect with their subscribers and audiences through weekly webinars. While this does not replace the theatrical experience, it does enhance and extend beyond the theatrical space. The Lyric Stage Company has been working on safety protocols for months, and they “have no intention of doing anything without safety being at the forefront of our mind,” according to O’Connor.
Theaters are struggling. O’Connor concluded by saying, “I support every company in whatever decision they have to make. It is complex. It is unique, and it is hard. And I think this is the time for us to just support each other as we make these decisions and these really difficult choices.”
