AMC reopens: Did people get their 15 cents’ worth?
“Safe and clean”: Those are the bywords AMC Entertainment Group hopes can reassure moviegoers straight back into theaters that, until Thursday, had been closed since March because ofCOVID-19.
The AMC signage greets the customer on the doors and walls, next to the hand sanitizer next to the parking validation. Safe and clean. “Enhanced cleaning procedures.” “Because we care about your health, masks are REQUIRED for all guests & crew.”
One “safe and clean” sign reads: “Not Feeling Well? We’re excited to see you return to the movies, but if you have symptoms such as fever or cough, or havecome in contact with someone who has symptoms, Please DONOTsee amovie today.”
It’s tough to stay afloat when your boat has been dry-docked for five months. At many of theAMCtheater locations, including in the Chicago area, evidence of 2020’s colossal retail struggles is everywhere, in the too-quiet malls housing some theaters, on the streets where not much is open for business.
But the world’s largest multiplex chain reopened for business Thursday at 113 U.S. locations, with a throwback, century-old 15-cent admission fee. New movies are coming, slowly, soon: “New Mutants” on Aug. 28, “Tenet” on Sept. 3, with sneak previews startingAug. 31.
For now audiences are making do with what they’ve been seeing all summer, and half their lives before that. “The Empire Strikes Back” and such. (That’s the best “StarWars” movie, for the record.) AMC audiences, to be joined Aug. 21 by the “soft launch” reopening of the Regal theater chain and other operations, also have the option of Vin Diesel in “Bloodshot,” the lastmovie they might’ve seen in a theater in March, just before the U.S. decided the pandemic was a disaster movie worth taking seriously.
“I told my friend: ’You sure you want to do this?’ ” On the sunny sidewalk outside the AMC River East 21, a few minutes before noon Thursday, Balezka Ramos of Chicago talked about reentering the theater experience, coronavirus edition.
“She was like, ‘Yeah,‘ so I was like, ‘OK, as long as we’re safe, social distancing being careful. I thinkwe’ll be good.” They were about to see “Grease,” and Ramos’ attitude, in tune with the 1978 musical, landed somewhere between “had me a blast” and“ThereAreWorse Things I Could Do.”
Eddie Delgado hadn’t seen a movie in a theater since “Joker” last year. “I just love doing this,” he said. “I really don’t want to see the movie theaters die out.” Another midday customer identifying himself as “Damian O.” came down
Illinois Street. He and his girlfriend, who declined to give hername, were heading into “Grease.”
“It’s been a minute,” Delgado said, “and I was missing going to the movies. He noted that AMC’s 30% seating capacity, responding to current and varying state and localCOVID-19 reopening regulations, helped ease his doubts.
Hopping off his bicycle and masking up for the movies, another noontime River East moviegoer, Will Simmons, concurred. “Thirty percent capacity, I mean, you get an outside patio at a restaurant and that’s potentially a lot more crowded,” he said.
At theAMCNaperville 16, “Bloodshot” played some auditoriums while the Christian drama “I Still Believe” played others, alongside “Back to the Future” and other so-called legacy titles.
“I couldn’t wait to come back Lagman to the of movies,” Oswego Randy said Thursday. Going to themovies, said Craig Mattes of Plainfield, is “a big thing for us.” He came with his 15year-old son, Will. The Mattteses were looking forward to the upcoming Christopher Nolan thriller “Tenet,” an actual big new movie. said, Saturday Lagman “We’re Meantime, to took see coming ‘Inception.’” heart Craig from back AMC’s safety protocols. “I noticed they had the seats pretty spread out. My wife asked me, ‘Do you really want to watch a movie with amask on?’ and I told her: ‘I doesn’t really matter, I’m going to be eating popcorn.’ ” (Masks are not required while eating or drinking.) “So. Not a big deal tome.”
With current seating capacities, it’s not hard to sell out a screening of “Beauty and the Beast” or “Sonic the Hedgehog” or “Grease,” once you get two or three dozen takers. Following its one-day, 15-cent ticket neargiveway Aug. 20, AMC is charging $5 per ticket for its current slate of retro favorites.
The social distancing, the staggered start times, the omnipresent plexiglass shields all conspire to create a conspicuous effort at putting a lot of air and space in between customers, and between customers and AMCworkers. Alittle before noon, the ticket taker behind a thick clear plastic barrier, stationed at the second-level escalators at the AMC River East downtown, resembled a lone TSA official at the world’s most socially distanced airport.
Will peoplecomeback? Is traditional moviegoing dying or just forcibly hibernating, while millions stream at home, where plexiglass isn’t a thing?
“I would miss it,” Gold Coast resident Mike Griffin said Thursday, on theway in to see “Black Panther” for the first time.
“The fact that it’s 15 cents to get in today made the news,” he said. “But for me it’s not really the prices so muchas justwanting to see a film. It’s opening day. I haven’t been to a theater in so long.” Griffin was in the mood for a Marvel movie. “Light and dark, good and evil — these are notions philosophically not unrelated to the dayswe’re living in right now,” he said. Michael Phillips is a Chicago Tribune critic.
Wendy Fox Weber is entertainment editor and columnist for the Lake County News-Sun, the Beacon-News, the Daily Southtown, Naperville Sun, the PostTribune, the Courier-News and Pioneer Press.