Memphis movie theaters to reopen this weekend
Some Memphis and Shelby County movie theaters will reopen Saturday, cinema owners said Tuesday.
The reopenings will be allowed under a new directive from Shelby County Health Department, which in the wake of decreasing infection numbers is loosening some of the restrictions intended to inhibit the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The Malco-owned Paradiso, Stage, Collierville and Wolfchase Mall cinemas will return to operation, as will the Hollywood 20 in Bartlett and the Palace cinema on Old Summer Road.
Other theaters will reopen in a slow rollout over the coming weeks, depending on health protocols and audience response. (The Summer Quartet Drivein and the two Memphis-area Mississippi multiplexes, the Desoto and the Olive Branch, remain open, as usual.)
Theater owners and movie fans hope the news will signal the start of a less chaotic year than 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic caused theaters to close, reopen and close again with frustrating regularity and with a confusing number of restrictions. (Some theaters operated only on weekends, and most eliminated matinees.)
The stop-start scheduling was particularly frustrating for Malco, which completed a number of multimilliondollar upgrades and expansion projects during the pandemic, including the addition of a new MXT screen at the Collierville multiplex at 380 Market Blvd.
As was the case before the most recent closings in mid-december, ticket sales will be restricted, with no more than 50% of the seats in any given auditorium being available for purchase.
Movies screening will mostly be recent releases that under normal circumstances likely would have found a good deal of success at the box office, including the superhero sequel “Wonder Woman 1984,” the animated “The Croods: A New Age,” the Tom Hanks Western “News of the World,” and “The Marksman,” with Liam Neeson.
In addition, a Turner Classic Moviespresented big-screen revival of the 1941 Humphrey Bogart classic, “The Maltese Falcon,” is set for 3 p.m. Sunday at the Paradiso.