AMC Theaters Reducing Auditorium Capacity by at Least 50% During Coronavirus Pandemic
The big AMC movie theater chain has announced that they will be reducing capacity in each of their auditoriums by at least 50% starting tomorrow Saturday, March 14th, and it will continue through April 30th, 2020. With all of these events combined the movie industry is going to take a huge financial hit. At least movie theaters aren’t shutting down completely… yet.
It’s explained that the chain will be “capping ticket sales for each showtime in each of its theatre’s auditoriums to an amount equal to 50% of the normal seating capacity. In those auditoriums with more than 500 seats, AMC will further cap ticket sales to a maximum of 250 in any case. AMC is also actively complying with all local authorities’ directives on social gathering and is further reducing the availability of tickets to comply with any current or future federal, state or local governmental order.”
The theater chain also ensured that they’re adhering to “stringent health and safety cleaning protocols that have been enhanced to ensure that at least once per hour within an AMC building, the theatre team is cleaning hightouch point areas, including kiosks, counter tops, restroom areas, glass, handrails and doorknobs.” The chain also promised that they will clean every auditorium between every showtime.
Adam Aron, CEO and President, AMC Theatres, said in a statement:
“The health and safety of our guests and theatre teams are of the utmost importance to AMC. Therefore, AMC is proactively taking action to cut in half the number of tickets that we will make available at all our U.S. theatres. With this action, we are facilitating the ‘social distance’ between guests who still want to see movies on a big screen.
These are uncharted times in the United States. We are very closely monitoring the guidance of the CDC. We are complying with all directives from federal, state and local health and government authorities, and with our unilateral move to reduce capacity and increase social distancing we are going beyond what governments are requiring of us. Founded in 1920, AMC Theatres has a proud history that spans 100 years. As we enter our second century, AMC remains firmly committed to offering a clean, healthy, entertaining environment every time our guests come to movies at our theatres.”
I imagine that as the coronavirus continues to spread, more and more people will be staying home and not going out. So, cutting the auditorium capacity in half probably won’t even be a big deal as people won’t be showing up to go to the movies anyway. I guess we’ll see how things play out over the weekend.
UPDATE: Regal Cinema is also going to be doing the same thing. They shared the following statement:
“The health and safety of our customers and staff is very important to us. We are continuing to follow and monitor official guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health organizations.
As the situation surrounding Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to evolve, we are prepared to respond and ensure that Regal provides safe venues for our employees and our guests. We are paying extra attention to cleanliness practices with some of the following steps:
Educating our staff on prevention
Emphasizing frequent and proper hand washing
Cleaning high contact points more frequently
Providing hand sanitizing soap in all restrooms
Working with local health authorities
Additionally, we have reduced auditorium capacity by 50% and are complying, where applicable, with state mandates on social gathering limits. We welcome moviegoers into our theatres!”
Source: Deadline