New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced the state”™s movie theaters ”“ excluding New York City venues ”“ can reopen on Oct. 23, but with new capacity restrictions.
Under the guidelines, theaters will be able to operate at a 25% capacity, with a maximum of 50 people per auditorium. Theaters must designate assigned seating and moviegoers are required to wear masks while in the theaters and can only remove them for eating or drinking.
In addition, theaters will be required to meet the state”™s air filtration, ventilation and purification standards. The governor”™s announcement covers counties with an overall Covid-19 positivity rate of less than 2% and no significant Covid cluster zones.
New York City is the country”™s second-largest moviegoing market behind Los Angeles, which also has yet to reopen its movie theaters.
Last week, the Global Cinema Federation sent an open letter to Cuomo urging him to let theaters reopen, stating their continued closing will force the Hollywood studios to delay their remaining 2020 releases into next year. Several major Hollywood releases including the James Bond thriller “No Time to Die,” the science-fiction epic “Dune” and the Steven Spielberg version of “West Side Story” have seen their release dates pushed back into 2021.
“The state of New York is an important market for the exhibition industry, not only in the United States but also around the world,” the letter stated. “With New York”™s theaters shuttered for nearly seven months and no indication of when they will be allowed to reopen, the studios that supply new movies have been reluctant to release their latest films to the point where almost no new major films will be released globally until 2021 and beyond. Without new movies to play in our cinemas, many members of the global exhibition community will be forced to close their doors again. Many of these companies will not survive.”
