Hayden Cole
Lantern Reporter
When the United States shut down in March, it was unclear how long it would take many businesses to resume operation. Some of these key businesses affected included restaurants, gyms and movie theatres. Movie theatres especially struggled during the shutdown. According to Forbes, AMC alone has lost close to $2.5 billion because of the restrictions of social distancing. AMC Theatres has made plans to reopen on Thursday, Aug. 20.
The company intends to reopen theatres with new rules in accordance with the CDC recommendations. In discussing these rules and regulations, the CEO and AMC President Adam Aron stated, “The health and safety of our movie theatre guests, and movie theatre staff is our absolute highest priority at AMC.” A video on the AMC website explains how they intend to follow the guidelines and keep customers and employees safe when reopening. The video states that AMC has partnered with Clorox to help with sanitation as well as the purchase of electrostatic disinfectant sprayers, HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filter vacuums and upgraded MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value) 13 Air Filters. Also, AMC will clean each theatre between every showing. Furthermore, theatres will prefer to use cashless transactions to reduce contact and exposure risks. Theatres will also be restricted to 40% capacity. Simplified menus and hand sanitizer dispensers will be put into place to help reduce lines for concessions and help others stay safe.
With these new safety measures in place, hopefully people will be able to enjoy new movies through this crisis. On the day of their reopening, AMC is running a promotion to celebrate 100 years of business. All tickets, even to new movies, will cost 15 cents.