AMC Theatres, Regal Cinemas, Cinemark Theatres: All Three Theater Chains Now Require Face Masks to Watch Films

AMC Theatres, Regal Cinemas, and Cinemark Theatres Now Require Face Mask

AMC Theatres, Regal Cinemas, and Cinemark Theatres now require visiting patrons to wear a face mask. As the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic ravages lives and economy throughout the U.S. and aboard, the United States and its businesses are beginning the slow and careful process of reopening. One of businesses are movie theater chains.

Because movie theaters are a small, confined spaces containing circulated air, the requirement of face masks is a prudent one.

Studies have shown that widespread use of face masks will dramatically reduce the spread of coronavirus, and if just 80% of Americans wore masks while going out in public, the number of infections would plummet.

Even more prudent would be a mandate to wear disposable plastic gloves as well but lets not get into that.

Other safety steps some theaters are taking include:

implementing new cleaning procedures (extended periods between screenings to allows for a more thorough cleaning), placing hand-sanitizing stations throughout its theaters, and encouraging contact-less and cash-free concessions.

AMC [in particular] partnered with The Clorox Company and Harvard’s School of Public Health to help establish these new procedures, which recommended deploying electrostatic sprayers, HEPA vacuums and upgraded MERV 13 ventilation filters.

AMC Theatres, Regal Cinemas, and Cinemark Theatres will also be instituting limited seating in each of their  film auditoriums, following the CDC’s social distancing requirements for mass-seating businesses.

At first, AMC will only make available 30% of capacity in every showtime. Over time, that will increase to 40% and then 50% capacity. AMC hopes that it will be able to have half of its auditoriums full by Labor Day and projects that it will be at full capacity by Thanksgiving.

The reopening of these three theaters chains will begin this month and ramp up in mid-July to coincide will the release of Mulan and Tenet at the end of July. Cinemark, for instance, will reopen a portion of its 344 theaters on June 19, 2020 and all of its theaters by July 10, 2020.

Regal Cinemas will reopen all of its 564 locations by July 10, 2020.

AMC will be opening 450 of its venues on July 15, 2020 and plans to reopen all of its theaters, 600, by the end of July.

Mulan is scheduled to be released on July 24, 2020 and Tenet will be released on July 31, 2020.

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