Despite some trepidation, trip to movies gets two thumbs up

Everyone has had their favorite form of entertainment drastically altered or even outright canceled in the last several months.

For my family, that has been going to the movies. With streaming options and surround sound, it seemed like we could give up going to a theater for a long time. There were even movies coming out on demand — we recently watched “The King of Staten Island” and “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” on Amazon Prime, and “Palm Springs” on Hulu. These are three very different types of movies, and all were good.

So when AMC movie theaters announced they were reopening in July and made a point to say they would not require customers wear masks, I opted to just continue to watch movies at home as they were released for the time being.

It didn’t take long for

AMC to reverse their stance on masks, though. And the major theater chains were all announcing similar protocols, including policies such as online advance ordering of snacks, cleaning rooms between screenings, and strict social distancing.

The major chains are all in the process of reopening at this time, as I wrote about last week.

And that’s when I started to cave. I have been thinking a lot about winter, specifically about how little I enjoy spending time outside in winter. Walks outside, alone and with our new puppy, are significantly helping to keep me upbeat. What will I do when winter comes? I have to find something I can feel safe doing outside my home, even if it’s only every now and then.

I decided to give going to the movies in a COVID-19 world a try. My family pretty much thought I was nuts. And I think the rest of the country may be on my family’s side here. The No. 1 film last weekend, according to Box Office Mojo, was the Russell Crowe road rage thriller “Unhinged.” It made $4.1 million. Admittedly, it looks just terrible, but the second highest grossing movie last weekend, “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run,” made $550,000. These two movies just came out in August, in a time with few other out-of-the-home entertainment options available.

It is hard to overstate how disappointing those box office numbers are to studios, and to theaters. Even accounting for the fact that these movies opened in about 300 theaters, people simply did not rush back to the movies in droves.

But last week, I wanted to try it. I figured I always get my tickets online anyway. I can social distance with the best of them. At least for the first time out, I wasn’t going feel comfortable eating popcorn in a theater, so I just didn’t get it.

On Aug. 20, AMC Naperville 16 reopened with 15-cent tickets and a slate of older films. The 15-cent tickets were a promotion to celebrate the company’s 100th anniversary by offering tickets at 1920 prices. I was surprised they followed through with this promotion because I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that 100 years ago, the world was

recovering from another largescale pandemic.

I picked “The Empire Strikes Back,” and ordered three tickets so no one could sit next to me on either side, all for the princely sum of 45 cents. I was committed now.

It turned out, I didn’t need to order three seats. Being a Thursday

afternoon, the theater was relatively quiet.

Still, every person I talked to said the same thing as Randy Lagman from Oswego, “I couldn’t wait to come back.” In fact, most of the people I talked to already had tickets to other films opening soon, specifically the much-delayed (even before COVID-19) 20th Century Studio and Marvel Entertainment’s “The New Mutants” and Christopher Nolan’s hotly anticipated new thriller

“Tenet.”

Honestly, I also couldn’t wait to come back. And it wasn’t really that different. It’s not a big deal to watch a movie with a mask on, pulling it down only to sip your pop. People were following the rules better than at most places I’ve been to in the last five months. I still like “The Empire Strikes Back.” In fact, it remains my favorite “Star Wars” movie.

It was a very relaxed experience, and perhaps not representative of a weekend crowded day on the opening weekend for the upcoming Marvel movie “Black Widow,” or the opening weekend for “Tenet,” for that matter. But I will be coming back, even if my family isn’t ready to join me yet, if it’s up to me.

And that is an important factor. There are a lot of eyes on movie theaters right now to see if these new protocols will help keep customers safe from a virus we are only beginning to understand.

But for now, if you decide to come out, I’ll see you at “Tenet.” I’ll be the one in the mask, waving from 6 feet away.