BIG-SCREEN MOVIES RETURN
Cinemas to open with safety rules
After five long months of no drama, big-screen movies finally return to Windsor and Lakeshore on Friday, but it will be a nouveau cinema experience for all film lovers in the age of COVID-19.
“We’ve been entertaining Canadians for 100 years — Friday is a really big day that we’ve really, really, really planned for,” said Sarah Van Lange, executive director of communications for Cineplex.
“It feels great. We’re superexcited to have our guests return,” said Gina Facca, chief operating officer for the Imagine Cinemas chain that includes a 10-screen facility in Lakeshore.
The twin openings come two days after the province permitted Windsor and Essex County to advance to Stage 3, which allows such businesses as cinemas and gyms to reopen and restaurants to begin serving customers indoors.
Cineplex’s Silver City Windsor Cinemas on Walker Road reopens Aug. 21. Facca said Leamington’s smaller Imagine Cinemas operation will remain closed as the company gauges moviegoer response elsewhere.
Windsor and Lakeshore might be two months behind the movie theatre reopenings of, say, Alberta, but the local timing is perfect for those yearning to gaze up in wonder at the latest Hollywood silver screen offerings.
“It’s an exciting day for Windsor, but it’s also an exciting day for North America,” said Van Lange. “For the first time in five months, big (new-release) Hollywood movies will be screened.”
Due to widespread restrictions on public gatherings as part of the fight against the novel coronavirus, movie production companies had been holding off on the types of big-screen releases that are typical over the summer. Cineplex will have 137 of its 164 Canadian theatre locations open by Aug. 14, but all had limited their offerings until now to movie classic reruns and popular flicks from the past, like Star Wars and Jaws. That changes on Friday.
The Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run will be the first big new Hollywood release in five months and starts screening at noon at Cineplex Odeon Devonshire Mall Cinemas and at 2:45 p.m. at Lakeshore’s locally owned and operated Imagine Cinemas.
As with so many other things, however, COVID-19 has forced a new movie house normal.
Locally, to get in you need a mask, and Cineplex is “encouraging
” moviegoers to reserve and pay for their tickets in advance, while doing both is compulsory at Imagine Cinemas. Facca said that process also helps her business keep track of who is attending should it later become necessary for tracing by health authorities.
“We’ve always been super-clean, but now we’ve really upped our game in terms of cleaning,” said Facca, whose 10-screen Lakeshore operation will only be reopening the six auditoriums that boast the more spacious “luxury seating.”
Seats and other touch points will be wiped down after every show, movie start times are staggered to prevent crowding and the concession stand is cashless payment only.
A big change for both city and county operations is the distancing of moviegoers while seated.
Van Lange said Cineplex ticket sales allow for couples or families to sit together, but there will be distance provided between different parties and every second row of seating remains empty.
Facca said the rows at Imagine Cinemas are already two metres apart but that distance will also be maintained between patrons in the same row.
What it means, said Van Lange, is that some Cineplex auditoriums will have up to 60- to 80-per-cent reduced capacity. Ontario currently only allows a maximum of 50 occupants at any single indoor gathering spot.
Asked how that could possibly be profitable, Van Lange said it’s about restoring confidence in the public movie-going experience.
“Our focus now is getting our guests back to the movies and getting our teams back in business — we know our profitability will come back,” she said.
As with other local independent businesses, Facca, who is based in Tecumseh, said her hope is that the community will show support for family-owned Imagine Cinemas and perhaps even attend on traditionally slower days like Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
With smaller theatre capacity, fewer new-release movies will be shown but on more screens. Devonshire’s Cineplex will initially only be presenting four different titles, with the Spongebob comedy, for example, having 15 different daily showtimes.
For more information on what’s showing and to reserve seats at Imagine Cinemas, visit imaginecinemas.com online. For Devonshire, go to cineplex.com.