New York City to reopen theaters for the first time in nearly a year

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will allow New York theaters to open with limited audience capacity for the first time in nearly a year.

As part of the restrictions, cinemas will only allow a maximum of 50 people to sit in a single screening (capacity limitation to 25%). Participants must wear masks and sit in their assigned seats. Theaters will also need to implement advanced air filtration systems, according to Cuomo. While theaters outside New York have been allowed to reopen in recent months, the high number of cases in the city has kept people from going. Theaters initially closed due to the pandemic in mid-March 2020.

Allowing New York City theaters to open is a big deal, especially for studios like Disney and Universal, whose executives are likely worried about the timing of upcoming big releases like Black Widow (May 7) and F9 (May 28). Ticket prices are much higher in key markets like New York and Los Angeles (where theaters still can’t open). Additionally, New York and California account for 21.5% of all US viewers. Failure to open these theaters, even in limited capacity and with higher ticket revenues, is devastating for films that could potentially gross $ 1 billion in pre-pandemic days.

While industry insiders have speculated that Disney may move Black Widow to Disney Plus as a Premier Access title, and then as the film released internationally where movie theater attendance is better, it was also increasingly evident that Marvel Studios did not want to go that route. Black Widow is a film over 200 million dollars; Moving it to Disney Plus, even as a $ 30 Premier Access title, would never generate the same upfront revenue it might earn during a pre-pandemic theater.

Without New York or Los Angeles, Disney probably would have delayed the film again. But with New York City theaters reopening, even at just a quarter capacity, that likely gives studio executives hope that Los Angeles could keep up in the weeks to come, and there might be a better chance. for a decent exit for Black Widow (well, according to pandemic standards). Add a burgeoning movie business in key markets like China, one of Marvel Studios’ largest demographics, and Black Widow could break even – potentially even make a small profit.

The alternative is a situation that the American public has seen with Wonder Woman 1984. With a production budget of $ 200 million and tens of millions more in marketing budget, the film had to generate at least a few hundred million dollars to break even. This was not going to happen in December 2020 with the closure of theaters in New York and Los Angeles, as well as the limited capacity of theaters in other states.

Warner Bros. decided to move the film to a simultaneous release, premiering it in theaters and on HBO Max in the US on the same day. At the end of January, executives at AT&T (the parent company of Warner Bros.) told analysts that Wonder Woman 1984 pushed a wave of new HBO Max subscribers, bringing the number to 17.2 million cumulative activations, more than double the number of activations in AT & T’s previous quarter (8.6 million). The film ended up grossing $ 159.9 million, of which about 73% of that total came from outside the United States. To compare, the first Wonder woman the film grossed $ 821 million worldwide, of which about 50% came from the United States alone.

It’s also a big win for theater owners, whose executives have asked Cuomo and California Governor Gavin Newsom to open theaters in New York and Los Angeles over the past two months. AMC CEO Adam Aron thanked Cuomo when New York state theaters were authorized to reopen in October 2020, noting at the time that the company continued to “work closely with state and local authorities for the reopening of New York, which we hope now. with growing confidence is not far away.

Still, studio directors and theater owners can’t predict whether people will actually show up to theaters now. As more vaccinations roll out across the country, people may feel more secure being in a theater with strangers while maintaining appropriate social distancing. For others, however, it may be some time before they are ready to watch a stranger six feet away throw popcorn in their mouth or sneeze.