Cinemas are finally opening again: do you want to go?

Theater owners are getting ready. Some Hollywood executives promote delayed movie releases. And for movies set to hit theaters in the coming weeks, customer interest in returning, plus blockbuster hits in New York City and San Francisco, will begin to test the wisdom of studios’ unprecedented decisions over the past year, namely to premiere films. simultaneously in theaters and on digital streaming services.

Movie theaters elsewhere in the US have been open for months, including in Florida, Texas and Ohio, but box office results are grim. The largest US cinema markets make up a large percentage of box office revenues when a movie comes out.

“Adrenaline is definitely pumping and certainly excited about its reopening,” said Scott Rosemann, who runs New York City’s Angelika Film Center in trendy SoHo, as well as two other city theaters. “With the fact that we should vaccinate all adults in the US by the end of May, it gives me good hope that we will have a summer blockbuster.”

President Biden said earlier this week that he expects the US to have enough vaccine supplies for all American adults by the end of May.

Still, theater owners can’t pack auditoriums, and many major theater markets remain closed, including in the home of Hollywood studios in Los Angeles.

Cineworld Group CNWGY 3.28%

PLC’s Regal Entertainment Group, while encouraged by reopenings, said it will delay resumption of operations in its more than 500 US theaters until the leadership is confident that big-budget movies are sure to follow. “Once Los Angeles follows suit, we are confident that the studios will set their release dates for new films, allowing us to reopen our theaters,” the company said.

Both New York City and San Francisco require theaters to limit attendance to 25%, and cinemas will require moviegoers to wear masks. And it remains unknown whether a long-awaited pent-up demand for popcorn and big screens will manifest itself, following more than 500,000 US deaths from Covid-19 and ongoing public fear of gathering in indoor spaces.

Hollywood’s largest studio, Disney

DIS 1.04%

has some confidence. Friday, the studio will debut with “Raya and the Last Dragon” in more than 2,000 North American theaters. It’s been a year since Disney opened a new movie in domestic theaters.

Disney is simultaneously making the movie available to subscribers of its Disney + streaming service for an additional $ 30, meaning some people will likely watch the animated family movie at home.

The last movie Disney released exclusively in North American theaters was Pixar’s ‘Onward’. It hit more than 4,000 theaters on March 6, 2020, but sputtered at the box office amid the worsening pandemic and theater closings.

John Krasinski, director of Paramount Pictures’ highly anticipated sequel “A Quiet Place Part II” announced on Twitter late Thursday that the release of his film has been moved to Memorial Day weekend in May from its previously scheduled September premiere.

Sony Pictures Entertainment is also increasingly optimistic about May. This week, the studio said it would release “Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway” in May instead of June. The studio chose to debut the film earlier in theaters due to recent signs of recovery and the encouraging demand for family films, said a person familiar with the matter.

Family movies have outperformed others in recent weeks. Universal Pictures’ animated sequel “The Croods: A New Age” had grossed $ 52.4 million last weekend, according to Comscore, after a relatively strong 14 weeks in theaters. Last weekend there was another family title, Warner Bros. “Tom & Jerry,” took the top spot domestically after generating $ 13.7 million in ticket revenue, Comscore also said.

Like all of the studio’s releases in 2021, “Tom & Jerry” can also be viewed on streaming service HBO Max, which, like Warner Bros., is a unit operated by AT&T Inc.’s

WarnerMedia.

During the pandemic, Hollywood studios either focused on their streaming services, delayed the release of their most coveted projects, or sold movies to competitors for online distribution. As a result, the country’s largest theater chains including Regal, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. and Cinemark Holdings Inc.,

CNK 1.93%

saw their income generation opportunities diminish. AMC has been able to fend off bankruptcy several times in the past year.

As select cities and states relaxed restrictions amid the fluctuations of the pandemic, AMC and Cinemark have reopened some theaters with reduced capacity. They also implemented measures to distance themselves from society and strengthened hygiene protocols.

Many theater owners expect Hollywood studios to return to high-profile films only after moviegoers demonstrate that they are comfortable returning to the movie theater complexes and that the rest of California, especially Los Angeles, will also reopen.

Franchise films, such as MGM Holdings Inc.’s latest James Bond episode “No Time to Die” and Disney’s Marvel spin-off “Black Widow,” typically make up the majority of ticket sales. The two films, among many other big budget titles, have been repeatedly postponed during the pandemic. Currently “Black Widow” is scheduled for release in early May in the US and Canada, while “No Time To Die” is scheduled for October 8th.

In an effort to bring life back to normal, Texas Governor Greg Abbott took a more aggressive approach than many other states and businesses when he lifted pandemic-related restrictions on Texas businesses and rescinded the state’s mask mandate.

The move entails many complications for companies, including cinema chains. Tim League, founder and executive chairman of Austin-based chain Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas Holdings LLC, joined a chorus of companies that said they would continue to follow public health recommendations and enforce Covid-19 protection protocols. The chain also announced this week that it had to permanently close two locations in Texas as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

“If you now relax the mask mandates, what about the people in the room who work there every day? They’re in danger, ”Mr. League said.

While Mr. League says he considers this week’s news to be some of the best he’s heard in months, its Alamo theaters in New York City and San Francisco will remain closed this weekend as the dining experience the chain offers requires additional preparation before reopen. .

“There are many signs of encouragement and I am confident that we will return to some level of normalcy later this year,” he said. “But it all depends on people’s comfort level getting out of the house.”