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Movie lovers may be excited to return to theatres, but it seems they may still be wary of coronavirus concerns.
Cineplex reopened two locations in Saskatchewan on Friday, when it resumed operations at 30 locations across Canada. The chain closed its theatres in mid-March due to COVID-19 concerns.
Sarah Van Lange, executive director of communications at Cineplex, said the company was very pleased with the community response to its reopening weekend.
“We were excited about reopening our first location,” Van Lange said. “We’ve been spending a lot of time training our team and getting them familiar with the new processes and everything went really smoothly.
“We were really overjoyed to have guests back in our building.”
Cineplex theatres weren’t overly busy over the weekend, but Van Lange said guests were steadily returning to the cinema.
“I think our communities are still feeling their way through new operations,” Van Lange said.
Those who did attend had the chance to see the new normal for theatre protocols in action for themselves.
“We had really positive conversations with our guests and they were really impressed with the health and safety measures that we’d put in place,” Van Lange said.
Cineplex has prioritized showing movies and entertaining Canadians for more than 100 years.
“It’s what we do best,” Van Lange explained, “The past nearly four months (have) been challenging for our team so this is a really positive time and we’ve put a lot of preparations into the ability to open our doors.”
Van Lange said staff have been thoroughly trained and are wearing masks and practising physical distancing while serving guests safely.
“Really, they’re excited about having life go back to coming into work and rejoining their colleagues,” Van Lange said.
Landmark Cinemas CEO Bill Walker said the biggest thing keeping guests away from the movies this weekend wasn’t COVID-19, but hot, sunny weather.
“The weather wasn’t helping the movie business,” Walker said, adding that summer temperatures are hard for theatres to contend with.
Walker said hundreds of people attended Landmark Cinema’s Regina location in its opening weekend.
“Our concessions sales were good and we were overall reasonably pleased with our initial response,” he said.
The big hit at the Landmark box office was Trolls World Tour, with many families heading to the theatre to enjoy the show.
Of the older classic films being shown, Walker said he was surprised when the original Jurassic Park took top spot.
“It’s funny because we were watching what theatres were doing in the U.S. and Jurassic Park was played but it wasn’t one of their top-performing titles, but there seems to be some Canadian demands to see Jurassic Park,” Walker said.
Walker said the feedback management received from guests on reopening weekend was “overwhelmingly positive.”
“People felt good about our procedures that were in place, the cleanliness of the theatre, and still being able to maintain and enjoy a nice experience and night at the movies,” he said.
Both Landmark Cinemas and Cineplex have set a $5 cost for all movies showing at their theatres during this time of reopening, with Tuesday’s films shown at a reduced price.