Some friends have missed going to A’s or 49ers games during the COVID-19 pandemic. Others have longed for concerts, live theater or dinner at a favorite table in a favorite restaurant.

I’ve missed going to movies. My favorite way of enjoying a few hours of collective entertainment has always been to join a crowd of strangers in a dark cineplex or arthouse theater.

So, it was a little exciting to learn that health officials had given movie theaters in Marin County the go-ahead to reopen. In the past week, several Marin theaters have begun screening the few films showing in theaters, including Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated, time-bending spy thriller “Tenet.”

I was curious. I also missed movie popcorn, so I ordered an online ticket for a 5 p.m. show of “Tenet” at the Century Northgate theater in San Rafael’s Northgate Mall.

But I had to wonder: Was it really safe to return to a theater and share an indoor space with strangers? Even if it was safe, wouldn’t it still be weird, especially with the requirement to wear a mask the whole time?

San Rafael’s Century Northgate theater got the OK to reopen because Marin County has risen to the “red tier” under California’s plan for reopening businesses. That means the county has a “substantial” spread of the coronavirus, but state officials say that theaters can keep patrons and employees safe by limiting capacity to 25 percent, or 100 people, to allow social distancing.

Other Bay Area counties, except Contra Costa, also have moved to the “red tier,” but individual counties have the discretion to reopen certain businesses more slowly, depending on local conditions. Alameda and Santa Clara counties are still saying no to movie theaters, but San Mateo County just gave cinemas permission to re-open Friday.

From what I saw on Wednesday afternoon, people haven’t started to rush back to the movies yet. Of course, fewer people tend to go to movies on weekday afternoons in normal times. But Northgate Mall, which houses the theater, also felt pretty lonely. I passed by a closed H&M and an abandoned food court before arriving at the Century 15 box office.

Three groups were lined up to get tickets, spaced out on yellow markers to keep the groups six feet apart. There was a couple with four school-aged kids; a trio of young adults; and a solo woman, like myself. We were all wearing masks.

The buttery, salty smell of popcorn welcomed me into the lobby, but so, too, did dispensers of hand sanitizer and other reminders of the pandemic. Movie posters for Scarlett Johansson in “Black Widow” and Daniel Craig in “No Time to Die” — both of which have been delayed due to the pandemic — hung beside signs about people needing to wear masks, or assuring patrons that the staff vigorously cleans the restrooms every 30 minutes. But the signs also were strangely reassuring — showing that the theater was taking precautions seriously.

“How are you doing?” said the employee, wearing gloves as he scooped popcorn into bags, his friendly greeting somewhat muffled by his mask. He sounded grateful that I was returning to a business that gives him a paycheck. He had a right to be worried: Six months of pandemic lockdown have been devastating to the U.S. exhibition industry, with some industry pundits wondering if we’re seeing the end of movie theaters.

I tried to sound encouraging: “I’m good. How are you doing?” I told his co-worker I was amazed to see I was only getting charged $8.25 for a popcorn and medium Diet Coke — a combination that usually runs in the double digits. “Everything’s discounted,” he said cheerfully.

Previews were playing as I found my seat in the back row of an auditorium. The trio of young adults occupied seats in the middle and a fourth person was off to the side — but we were all separated by dozens of feet. According to the guidelines, I could remove my mask during the movie, but only when I drank or ate. I tried my pop corn; it tasted really, really good.

The start of “Tenet” reminded me of the major reason I’ve missed going to movies. While I’m not a Nolan enthusiast, his works are propulsive, visually dazzling works that play best on very big screens. But I also prefer to see more intimate movies in theaters, when the enveloping sight and sound in the dark theater commands full attention — unlike when I’m streaming movies at home, and it’s easy to become distracted.

Without spoiling too much about “Tenet,” I didn’t find it to be the most diverting movie to see during a time of global crisis and uncertainty. Yes, it had glamorous, stylish stars rushing around the world to spectacular locations. But unlike, say,a rip-roaring Bond movie, “Tenet’s” self-serious, convoluted plot trafficked in the uncertainty and fear of global doom people might be trying to escape right now.

Even more eerie, “Tenet” featured start-to-finish action sequences that involved characters pulling on masks, apparently to keep out invisible, airborne toxins. While “Tenet” wrapped filming in November 2019, before COVID-19 was on the cultural radar, it somehow managed to anticipate people’s daily reality of having to wear masks. Maybe Nolan and his colleagues knew something.

I’m hoping I stayed safe during my cinematic adventure. Meanwhile, the experience couldn’t help but be weird — and sad, with the concern that many movie theaters, including my favorite Bay Area independent theaters, won’t survive. Still, I appreciated being back in a movie theater again, and I didn’t mind wearing the mask. I’ll probably return, if and when the movies follow suit.