Is Andrew Cuomo killing the movies?
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is killing the movie industry. So said Joe Masher, chief operating officer of Bow Tie Cinemas and president of the National Association of Theater Owners of New York State. The whole sector is on the verge of collapse, he said, and the coronavirus restrictions imposed by New York are to blame.
To be clear, Masher wasn’t just talking about the movie business in New York. He said Cuomo is killing the movies internationally.
New York City is a hugely important market for the in
dustry, he said. If the city ’s theaters can’t open because of state restrictions, movie companies won’t release blockbuster movies. And without those blockbusters, Masher said, theaters everywhere are in danger of going under.
Indeed, after MGM announced it would again delay releasing the newest James Bond adventure, “No Time to Die,” Regal Cinemas on Monday said it would indefinitely close all of its U.S. cinemas. As my colleague Edward Mckinley reported, the company also blamed Cuomo’s COVID -19 rules for the industry ’s struggles.
The governor’s office did not seem particularly sympathetic.
“Give me a break,” Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi said when asked about Masher’s concerns and the Regal shutdown. “We’re moving heaven and earth to stop a second wave (of COVID -19 cases), and this is the nonsense you’re shedding ink on? Let them be unhappy with us. Better unhappy than sick or worse.”
There’s something to Azzopardi’s point. A person could reasonably argue it’s the pandemic killing the movie business, not Cuomo.
But Masher noted that movie theaters are now open to varying degrees in 48 states, with only New Mexico still joining New York in a complete shutdown. He argued that Cuomo is being capricious and illogical, given the loosening of rules for bowling alleys and other indoor activities.
Masher pointed to restaurants: If they can operate at 50 percent capacity, as state law now allows, there’s no common-sense reason movie theaters can’t do the same, he said.
But the governor’s office has yet to even suggest a timetable for when movie theaters might be able to reopen. The shutdown goes on and on, with no end in sight.
“We’ve done everything we can. We’ve proven we can reopen safely,” Masher said. “But it’s crickets from the governor’s office. We’re banging on his door every day, and there’s nothing.”
This isn’t just about entertainment or people wanting to get out of the house. There are significant economic ramifications to the cinema shutdown.
Regal, the nation’s second-largest chain, employs 40,000 people at its 536 theaters, including locations in Guilderland, Colonie, East Greenbush, Clifton Park and Queensbury. The company has nearly 2,000 employees in New York state alone.
Movie theaters are often key to the success of their surroundings — to suburban malls like Crossgates and Colonie Center, both of which contain Regal Cinemas; to cities like Schenectady, where Bow Tie operates downtown; to small towns like Cobleskill, where the one-screen Park Theatre sits dark and forlorn. With those theaters shuttered, the impacts ripple outward.
As the Empire Center for Public Policy recently noted, New York’s secondquarter gross domestic product fell by 36 percent. That’s easily the biggest drop on record, and among the biggest decreases reported by any state.
New York, in other words, is experiencing an alarming economic crisis deepened, at least in part, by Cuomo’s especially aggressive pandemic restrictions.
Economic woes don’t top public health concerns. Still, the 10,000 New Yorkers once employed by movie theaters deserve more than a “give me a break” dismissal from the governor’s office. The industry deserves an explanation for why people can eat at a restaurant but can’t go to a movie.
“We need to open soon,” said Masher, who lives in Connecticut but grew up in Brunswick; he credits the old Proctors theater in downtown Troy for launching his love of movies. “If we don’t, this entire industry is going to be ruined.”
The movie industry has proven resilient despite frequent predictions of its demise, surviving not only past pandemics but the arrival of television and VCRS. People love a shared experience, Masher said. They crave community. They want to cry and laugh together.
For that reason, Masher had always been sure movie theaters had a future.
He isn’t so sure now.