Dont Tell NetflixDont Tell Netflix

By George Robbins

Movie theaters just haven’t had any luck these past few months since the pandemic began back in March and it isn’t getting any easier. Many privately owned theaters have already opened their doors to the public in order to try and drum up some kind of business. Most chain theaters won’t be opened up again, however, until the middle of July so there are still a large number of theaters that are shut down to the public. Those that have opened up are in nothing but trouble at this point anyway due to the fact they have no new movies to show anybody. This means that many theaters have no choice but to pull out classic movies that they know people may want to see in order to bring in customers. This is made even more difficult by the fact that they now have limitations they must follow as well.

Movie theaters must follow the new health guidelines that have been put into place, so they must regulate how many people are in their theaters at all times. Capacity limits have made it necessary that theaters have had to make adjustments that force people to be separated from one another. This means that even if they manage to draw crowds in to watch movies they have available, there won’t even be a lot of them allowed in the theater at once. This kind of limits the amount of money they can bring in and they must try and fill every seat that they can. Thus, the second problem they face soon becomes apparent and that is the fact that people are worried about going back out to such a public place.

In order to try and rebuild consumer confidence in their businesses, movie theater owners made the decision to play old movies that they know would draw people back into their theaters. This is why movies such as ‘Jaws‘ and ‘Jurassic Park‘ are being brought back out in an effort to get people out of the house and into theaters. People are looking for a reason to escape from their homes at this point and this is the perfect opportunity for them to do so, at least in their minds. There weren’t even that many theaters opened this past weekend, with only a couple hundred nationwide. Not every state is allowing them to be opened at the moment even if they say they are ready to open their doors, which is another reason numbers are kind of low.

Despite overall numbers being low due to the lack of customers and a lack of opened theaters, the box office still had something to report this past weekend. ‘Jurassic Park’ topped the Box Office charts this past weekend, even over 27 years after its initial release with ‘Jaws’ following right behind it. At over $500,000 this past Father’s Day Weekend, ‘Jurassic Park’ may not have record numbers, but it is far more than what was listed over the past few months. We normally expect millions, but taking into account everything else that has been said at this point, this isn’t too terrible for theaters. It isn’t all that great either, but it shows that people really do just want to get out of the house at this point and going to the movies is a good outlet for it.