Tis the season for going to the movies.
At least, that’s what folks at AMC and other movie theater companies are hoping as the holiday season heats up.
Of all the industries negatively affected by the coronavirus pandemic, few, if any, have taken a direct hit across the fiscal bow quite like the entertainment industry.
There’s no take-out option for movies from AMC. Sure, you can stream, or rent online, but the theaters aren’t seeing that money.
Just look at the latest box office numbers.
The top gross film from last weekend? The Croods: A New Age. It took in $4.4 million with a total gross since release of $20.3 million. The number two film? Half Brothers, making a crisp $700,000 opening weekend.
If it tells you anything, the fifth-highest grossing film was Elf, the 2003 holiday comedy starring Will Ferrell.
Compare that to the same weekend in 2019. Frozen led the way with a $35.1 million weekend in its third week of release. In fact, the top five films were all at least in their second week of release or later and still did better than last weekend’s best film.
You have to go back to the first week of September, when the Top 10 films took in $26.9 million, bolstered by a $20.2 million debut from Tenet.
Needing a Boost
Theaters were one of the first casualties of statewide pandemic restrictions back in March. The option to reopen presented itself three months later. Some facilities, like the AMC Classic at the Ohio Valley Mall, waited until September to open the doors.
It did so without reduced capacity, allowing only 40 percent of seats to be filled with mask-wearing customers. First-run films were in short supply as well as film production companies held back some of their more anticipated releases.
That means theaters are having to subsist on delayed releases, previously released films and nostalgia pictures making a return to the theater.
“The issue is if there’s no product being produced or distributed, there’s very little motivation to go to the theater,” said Anthony Cafaro of the Cafaro Company. “Overall the entertainment and hospitality industry, it’s about as bad as it gets as far as feeling negative effects of the pandemic.
“But we’re hopeful the theater is going to come out of this challenge.”
Presently, AMC at the mall is open only Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The theater will go back to seven days a week viewing on Friday, Dec.18. The curfew in place is also limiting late-night showings.
That means, at most, a particular film is shown twice per day.
Wonder Woman to the Rescue?
This weekend and next, AMC Classic is playing The Gal Gadot-starring Wonder Woman from 2017. Theaters are doing so in anticipating of fans wanting a catch-up before Wonder Woman 1984 finally hits theaters on Christmas Day after a lengthy delayed release.
That’s not the only new movie debuting Christmas Day, but consider this: the mall theater is showing it at six different times on three different screens.
The Tom Hanks drama News of the World also debuts that day, but only is scheduled for three time slots on the same screen.
Translation? Wonder Woman 1984 may end up being the bellwether, for good or bad, of how major releases are viewed by the public going forward. A positive showing will be a good sign for things to come.
Excitement was tempered, however, when Warner Bros. first decided to simultaneously release the film on digital platform HBO Max. Then, Warner Bros. opted to do the same with all its major releases for 2021.
Theater companies were noticeably none too thrilled. Adam Aron, the president and CEO of AMC Entertainment, said via a release that:
“These coronavirus-impacted times are uncharted waters for all of us, which is why AMC signed on to an HBO Max exception to customary practices for one film only, ‘Wonder Woman 1984,’ being released by Warner Brothers at Christmas when the pandemic appears that it will be at its height. However, Warner now hopes to do this for all their 2021 theatrical movies, despite the likelihood that with vaccines right around the corner the theatre business is expected to recover.”
Importance of the Theater
For Cafaro, a lot of issues as they relate to the theater are out of his control. But he knows how integral the movie theater is to the overall Ohio Valley Mall experience.
“How it ultimately plays out is not something as a mall operator we have much control over,” Cafaro noted. “It’s definitely a global issue.”
But he doesn’t envision the demise of the theater industry as a whole, and not in the Ohio Valley in particular.
He noted many areas of the country are “overfilled” with megaplexes, offering multiple 15-20 plus screen theaters in near proximity to one another.
The Upper Ohio Valley doesn’t have that issue.
There’s the AMC Class 11 at the Ohio Valley Mall, the Marquee Cinemas Highlands 14 near Wheeling. The AMC Class 6 at the Fort Steuben Mall closed on March 16 for the pandemic. It was later announced in June that the closure would be permanent.
That leaves immediate Ohio Valley residents two nearby options without having to drive deeper into Pennsylvania for larger complexes.
“If you look at our region, there is a definite need,” Cafaro said. “The Ohio Valley Mall theater is basically by itself with not a lot of overlap. There is minimal with the Highlands theater, but there is enough business in this market for when things do return to normal.”
As for this writer, I’m doing my part. Christmas Day night, my daughter and I will cap our holiday celebration by taking in Wonder Woman 1984. It’ll be good to be back at the theater. Won’t you join us?
