Cinemark Theaters is Confident That Christopher Nolan's TENET Will Be Released on July 17th
Movie theaters are going to have to open back up at some point if they want to stay alive. They can’t stay closed forever not making money. When they do reopen, it’s going to be a slow process to getting back to normal, if there will ever be normal again.
As you know, director Christiopher Nolan has a deep love for the movie-going experience and he has been pushing for his upcoming action-spy thriller Tenet to open up in theaters on its original release date, July 17th. That date continues to be shared by the studio with the trailers that have been released, so it seems like they are sticking to that date, but that could easily change at any moment.
Cinemark Theaters is planning to start slowly open starting on June 19th with only five theaters in the Dallas/Fort Worth area in the first week. The second week will see about a third of the entire chain’s theaters reopening, then another third of locations in the next week, and then all of their theaters opening on the weekend of July 10th.
Cinemark Theater feels confident that Warner Bros. will stick with the July 17th release date. In fact, they are kind of counting on it. They have to, as Tenet is the movie that will start bringing people back to movie theaters.
Deadline recently listened in on a quarterly earnings call with Cinemark CEO Mark Zoradi, and this is what he said:
“We’ve been in close contact with Warner Bros. and they remain optimistic and positive, as well as Christopher Nolan, about the July 17 opening. Of course, it depends on the continued positive movement due to the decline of COVID-19 and government restrictions being reduced.”
That’s great news! Cinemark’s CEO went on to explain that they will be able to “operate profitably with all the (safety) techniques we put in place.” Those safety techniques include extensive cleaning and disinfectant practices, providing hand sanitizers and sanitizer for seats. They will be reducing the use of paper tickets, and also screening the health of their employees.
Cinemark is also implementing something called “seat buffering technology,” which will make it so people can’t buy seats next to others. They just want people to feel safe and comfortable in this time of fear. But, they won’t require their guests to wear face masks. Zoradi went on to say they will just encourage it.
“We have been intensely focused in developing enhanced health and safety protocols, understanding that these factors will weigh heavily on the confidence and peace of mind of our employees, guests and community as we reopen our theaters. [We will be] requiring all employees to wear face masks and encouraging guests to do the same.”
I guess the reasoning behind that is how are people going to eat popcorn, candy, and drink soda with a face mask on? I don’t know, I know the face mask thing might turn a lot of people off, but there are others that it won’t bother. As we’ve seen on the news over the past few months lots of people have no problem not wearing face masks.
During the weeks of Cinemark’s phased reopening, they will be screening catalog movies from studios with reduced ticket prices. Regardless of Cinemark’s confidence in Tenet being released in July, the CEO did say, “We can’t promise you nor Warner Bros that Tenet can open on July 17.” If the movie is pulled and pushed to, let’s say August, then the company can pivot their phased reopening plans to the next month.
What do you think about all this?