Movie Theaters are Making a Comeback

At around 6:45 p.m. on Friday, March 12, a couple walking hand-in-hand stopped and stared through the windows of the AMC Village 7 Theaters at its packed lobby. “Movie theaters are open now?” said the woman in the pair. Across the city passersby have been making the same realization that, yes, the theaters are open again, with new rules, of course.

Theaters in the city have been allowed to open back up and operate at 25% capacity — like those in the rest of the state — since March 5. AMC reopened all 13 of its theaters in the city. “Since reopening our first theatres with AMC Safe & Clean in August, AMC has welcomed back nearly 10 million moviegoers nationwide without a single reported case of COVID-19 transmission among moviegoers at our theatres,” said Adam Aron, CEO of AMC, in a statement. “We look forward to welcoming back our New York City guests to the big seats, big sounds and big screens that are only possible at a movie theatre.”

So, who has been going to the theaters? Are they like they were before? Is there some semblance of normalcy to the experience of watching an entire film on the big screen with half of your face covered?

In the mid-afternoon on Tuesday, March 9, at the Village East by Angelika, the people who came in and out of the theater were sparse, but there were plenty staring pedestrians as they passed by. One of the of the people slowly streaming out of the theater was Carly O’Neil who saw “Judas and the Black Messiah.”

“It’s kind of like having your own private movie theater,” O’Neil said. “A lot of the concession stand has moved to individual packaging, there’s no lines. We were two of the three people in the theater. It was kind of weirdly awesome.”

O’Neil said she is high risk and that she would feel comfortable returning to the theater again for a special occasion.

“Different Perspective”

Later, coming out of “Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Bit Blurry” with a friend was Yeram Fuentes, a film major at SUNY Purchase. “It was cool because we had the whole theater to ourselves ... obviously having that opportunity after Netflix on a computer is really exciting,” said Fuentes.

Fuentes had seen movies in theaters in White Plains during the pandemic a few times before. “I understand the stigma and the risks, but I guess I have a different perspective on it because film is what I do,” Fuentes said. “But as a person I think with the right precautions I think it’s something people should take advantage of now that it’s starting again.”

Over at the AMC Village 7 Theater, for the infamous Discount Tuesday, there were slightly more people, but the narrative stayed the same.

Quite a few people came out of the theater for the showing of “Raya and the Last Dragon.”

“I was dying to watch it. So, if there’s any movies coming up then, yeah, I’ll definitely come back here,” Keimen Leary said as he stood near the entryway.

A couple, Angel Torres and Marc Portelli also saw “Raya.”

“We felt pretty safe,” said Torres. “Everyone was spaced out enough that even when I was eating and taking off my mask to eat, I felt like there wasn’t anyone around. It felt very secure. And everything felt clean.”

Torres said there were about five or six other people in the theater with them. The film took a while to start up, so the theater gave the moviegoers complimentary tickets to see another movie.

“We really missed the movies,” Portelli said. “This is our first one since everything opened back up.”

In the evening Friday, March 12, AMC Village 7 Theater quickly became the site of a congregation of dozens of people, all waiting in line inside for tickets and concessions. A group of millennials had reserved an entire theater for their group of twenty friends. Onlookers stooped and looked at the glowing wall-to-wall windows and doors (yes, the movies are back).

“I just need to take a moment,” Qwentin Greer said after he walked out of the theater.

“I think it’s great that the theaters opened up, but we still have a long way to go with everything that happened last year ... I would say in a couple years from now we’re still trying to recover from all this pandemic and this outbreak and move forward,” Greer said.

Back at the Village East on March 12, elderly women came out, young millennials went in as afternoon turned into evening. Albert Diamond, 71, who has one vaccine down and one scheduled at the end of the month, was passing by the theater when he realized it’s now open.

“It’s been very difficult to navigate all the different streaming services and I think if it’s done safely with really proper precautions, I think it’s a good idea. And I always feel, like when I go, like early in the morning or something, it’s usually empty anyway,” said Diamond. So, I think it would be kind of safe. I have no real problem with that, and we have to keep the theaters open and keep these people employed. I think now is a good time to do it. We’ll have to see with the science to see how the numbers go and if they have to retract it, but I think it’s not a bad time to try it.”