New York Still Unsure of When Theater Reopenings Will Happen
By George Robbins
Movie theaters are among one of the most discussed topics at the moment due to the reopening of other businesses as of late. The biggest reason for this is because many theaters are still not allowed to be opened back up again. Thus, theater owners aren’t exactly happy that they won’t be able to open back up to the public when they originally wanted to and they still have to wait. What is also being pointed out is the fact that although theaters are not allowed to open in many places, other public spaces are opened up. This is seen as hypocritical, so they aren’t exactly happy about the situation that is currently happening.
Many theaters are prepped to reopen their doors, but they just simply haven’t been given the green light yet because those businesses are seen as a risk. Theaters have had to put plans in place for when they reopen and they have all come up with plans that are in accordance with health and safety regulations. However, just like many venues, they are a closed in space that has a high risk of transmitting disease. While the argument can be made that other public places that have already been opened are just as risky, the fact remains that many see theaters reopening as a huge risk. One of the places that considers it a bad idea to open them just yet is New York.
New York was among the places that was hit the hardest from the onset of the pandemic and it has since been a source of a large number of infected individuals. This has made it difficult to reopen any kind of businesses whatsoever because of the high risk involved. Although parks have been reopened, they are considered a huge public space and so long as people are following the rules, they can stay opened. Many public spaces that have been reopened in New York are similar in that they can also be monitored correctly in order to see if people are following guidelines. Many enclosed venues, however, are not opened up as of yet and this includes movie theaters.
As such, theater owners aren’t exactly happy about not being able to open up their theaters in New York. As of now, it would appear that Governor Cuomo has no plan in place to reopen movie theaters in New York and theater owners aren’t happy with this. This lack of a plan isn’t necessarily surprising considering the fact that New York has been very strict in terms of what happens and how it happens within the past couple of months. Cuomo has said that even with theaters having limited capacity, the amount of people sitting in one spot for hours is too great a risk as the chance of exposure will definitely be higher. We will just have to wait and see at this point how long it will be before they decide whether it is safe enough to reopen theaters yet or if it isn’t.