Any place where crowds of people tend to gather have been hit hard by the pandemic and the closures that came with it. This includes movie theaters, which struggled to avoid closing by instituting social distancing measures in theaters, but eventually that wasn’t enough. The closure of theaters has put the entire film industry in a difficult place, but now it looks like things will be starting to get back to normal, as the largest U.S. theater chain has confirmed plans to reopen in July.
While a specific date was not given, likely because theaters will be opening on different dates around the country, CNBC reports that AMC has confirmed it plans to have theaters open in July, in time for the slated release of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet on July 17, and Disney’s Mulan which follows a week later on July 24. We could see things opening even sooner than that with Sony’s announced plan to open The Broken Hearts Gallery on July 10.
The announcement from AMC resulted in a strong boost to the company’s stock price, though investors are still cautious as reopening is likely only a first step toward profitability for AMC and other theater companies. When theaters reopen they’ll see limited capacity and many seats will be blocked off to allow for social distancing.
