Most film lovers in New York City have been unable to see a movie on the big screen for the better part of a year, and it comes as no surprise that many theaters are feeling the strain.
Rubbing salt in the wound, the rest of the state has started to leave New York City behind. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that effective last Friday theaters may reopen, albeit at a maximum 25% capacity and with a maximum attendance of 50 people per film—everywhere except the five boroughs.
"Is he going to take two weeks to make a decision if there isn't a spike? Is he going to take a month? I have no idea," said Karen Cooper, director of the Film Forum, an independent cinema in the Village. "When I look at numbers, I'm looking at the same infection numbers as everybody else. Manhattan is very, very strong. We don't have a lot of Covid in Manhattan, and we certainly don't have a lot of it downtown. There are hot spots, obviously, but we are not among them."
As operations that gather large groups of the public in an enclosed space, movie theaters fall squarely within the definition of venues deemed unsafe because of the pandemic.
The damage of their extended shutdown is clear in New York: More than 1,000 people in the industry have lost work, filings with the Department of Labor show.
The way things are going, 70% of the nation's small and midsize cinemas could go bankrupt, according to the National Association of Theater Owners.
How New York manages to reopen its cinemas affects the broader industry. That much was clear when Cineworld shut down all 536 of its Regal Cinemas nationally, citing the wrench a delayed reopening in New York state had thrown into the chain of movie production.
"The prolonged closures have had a detrimental impact on the release slate for the rest of the year and, in turn, our ability to supply our customers with the lineup of blockbusters they've come to expect from us," Cineworld Chief Executive Mooky Greidinger said. "As such, it is simply impossible to continue operations in our primary markets."
The company reversed course after Cuomo's announcement, though its New York City theaters remain closed.
Revenue streams
Some city theaters will be saved, at least for now, by wealthy benefactors paying the bills. Such is the case at Midtown's historic Paris Theater, for which Netflix took out a multiyear lease in November. The company declined to clarify how long the lease will last.
Film Forum, which is a nonprofit, has been able to offset some of the damage to its bottom line through donations from its members. It also has earned some revenue by streaming films. It has brought in just $90,000 in seven months, Cooper said, adding that although those are strong numbers for a virtual cinema program, it's not nearly enough to make up for the nonprofit's losses. During normal times, a film can bring in $20,000 to $25,000 in a single week, she said.
"These figures are absolutely pathetic compared to what we would be earning if people were buying tickets and coming into a movie theater, our movie theater," she said. "So it's not the same thing. And yet we're considered very successful at this whole virtual cinema business."
Cooper said she's anxious for Cuomo to give word on whether guests will be allowed to come back to the theater. But even once they are, she recognizes that will be just the start of the recovery.
"I remember 9/11. We were closed for all of three days, and it took a year to recover the audience," she said. "People are traumatized by events like this."
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October 27, 2020 at 07:30PM
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Movie theaters struggling to survive after months of closure - Crain's New York Business
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