Mr Movie: Movie lovers wonder if Tri-Cities theaters will reopen

It’s early June. Theaters are still closed. Governments in various states are still trying to figure out how theaters and other similar venues might reopen. The rules for theaters will likely be somewhat similar to what is being done in restaurants.

Groups — like families — can sit together. Everyone else is spaced six-feet apart.

That’s the theory and it leads to the big question on the minds of movie lovers everywhere. Will theaters really reopen? Or will streaming first-release movies to networks and other services be the new normal? Will theater chains start their own streaming services? Will studios?

Good questions. No answers.

Back to reality and back to early June. Theaters are still closed and the world’s largest theater chain, AMC Theaters says it might not reopen. Ever. Though no longer in the Tri-Cities, Regal Cinemas — now the 2nd biggest — says if worse comes to worst it has enough cash to last a year.

Any longer than that and Regal Cinemas will cease to exist, too.

Cinemark Theaters is another huge chain that is hurting. In the Northwest, most of the chain’s theaters are in larger markets. Cinemark said it plans to reopen theaters in phases starting mid-month this month.

Locally, Jeff Fairchild of Fairchild Cinemas said the social distancing and the forced closure of their theaters has been, and is, tough. However, Fairchild is positive and says his family’s small chain will survive.

“We assume we can open later this month or in July so we will survive,” Fairchild told me in a social distancing phone call.

Like the rest of us, he’s pretty bored. Fairchild — like me, and probably like you — is ready to get on with the business of doing movies. “The people of the Tri-Cities are really ready to get out and go to movies,” he said. “One thing I think we all have learned is that we want out of the house. Our community has a strong desire to reopen. We’ve had a lot of questions from them asking when we will reopen.”

At this point no one knows, but reopening probably means late this month or early next.

“The State hasn’t issued movie theater specific guidelines yet but Phase 3 says we can open at 50% capacity. Our reserved-seat software lets us very easily block off seats and keep people six-feet apart,” he said. “If we can reopen before mid-July when studios start to release new movies, we’ll open with some fun older classics like ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ and ‘Top Gun’ at discounted rates.”

Fairchild also emphasized that Fairchild Cinemas is going all out to make sure you are safe and secure. “Understandably, many people may be concerned over COVID. We are positive we can set up our theaters in a way that will ease their concerns,” he added. “We’ve been in contact with the Benton-Franklin Health District who has already reviewed our health and safety procedures.”

As noted earlier, AMC Theaters — which owns Kennewick’s AMC Kennewick Classic Cinemas 12 — was planning to reopen its theaters in July. This week that changed and AMC announced it has lost too much money and may fold. I didn’t reach out to the local theater manager because local managers aren’t allowed to talk to media.

But do I believe AMC won’t reopen? Not really, and not any more than I believed AMC when it said it would no longer show films released by Universal Studios in its theaters. That threat happened mid-spring when Universal released “Trolls World Tour” online.

The ultimatum is pretty toothless. No one believes the chain will skip next year’s Fast and Furious flick, “F9” or “Jurassic World 3” and the millions of box office dollars that come along with hits that big.

Another question I have is how long will social distancing be in force in theaters and other venues. Earlier this week Cinemark’s CEO Mark Zoradi said he’s looking at 2022 before seating returns to what used to be normal.

It will be interesting to see how all this unfolds as we march into summer.

In the meantime, I don’t know about you but I’m ready to go back to movie theaters. For the last 30 years I’ve done a couple to as many as six or eight movies a week. The few movies I’ve seen in the last two months have been online. Movies on a large TV or a computer screen can’t compete with a big screen experience.

That leads to two things. One positive and one negative. The negative? For entertainment, I’ve been forced to watch TV. As I’ve noted in previous columns, I’ve watched more TV in the last two months than I’ve watched in the last 20 years.

Most of us have access to hundreds of channels, and within those channels and choices there are some very interesting programs, movies and TV series. However, most of what’s available is total crap. The more I watch the more I find myself agreeing with former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton Minow.

In May of 1961 he called television a vast wasteland. I totally agree. TV is pretty much a waste of time.

The one positive? I finally broke down and began binge-watching “Game of Thrones.” My, oh my. I’m now midway through season 7. Though, and as my previous comments indicate, I am not an experienced TV watcher, GOT is — no doubt — the best TV I’ve ever watched.

No. Let’s make that close to the best anything I’ve ever watched.

This story was originally published June 5, 2020 at 12:27 PM with the headline "Mr Movie: Movie lovers wonder if Tri-Cities theaters will reopen."