New CinemaSafe Guide Lines

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

They are available at this linly.

https://www.cinemasafe.org/

[Brad Miller]

Nice effort NATO, but this isn't going to help. At least in the US in regards to this virus there are *generally speaking* 2 groups of people.

Group 1 - It's a hoax, science isn't real, let whoever dies from this die, don't take people's rights away by forcing mask wearing, etc. This will only annoy them and make them NOT want to visit the theater.

Group 2 - Medical science is real, as is this virus, we can save lives with basic mask wearing, hand washing and social distancing, etc. These people will be happy to see that theaters are taking extra steps, but you're fooling yourselves if you don't think even the people in this group are tired of reading this same crap over and over regarding "these troubling times". The people in this group know everything stated on that website and practice it daily anyway. Basically, they got it the first ten thousand times! The problem with this group comes with the knowledge that this group of people will know this is not actually policed and they face no consequences if they don't keep things sanitized as claimed. As such, just like any new policy, the actual efforts at each theater will be relaxed as each week passes by since there is no real punishment for anyone failing to take the extra steps. (Plus theater owners will benefit from not spending money on all of the sanitizing supplies and additional payroll all of this costs, so there is a financial incentive for them to not self-police too much.)

This would have been better served letting each theater company make a dedicated page in their main menu for "Covid 19 safety" to go over their specific internal policies for anyone that wants to read about it. That seems to be what all of the theater websites I've looked at are doing anyway (and none of the ones I saw even gave a link back to this website.) Besides, how many ticket sales are being lost due to a last minute "reminder" that going to the movies might not be safe? That's likely why so many theaters aren't even prominently making a Covid 19 page on their website.

What NATO really NEEDS TO BE DOING is fighting the fight on behalf of the entire cinema exhibition industry! Our industry which we all love and have dedicated our lives to supporting is literally dying right in front of us. Why is NATO not being a MASSIVE pain in the ass to various representatives of congress, etc to get some sort of financial aid? The way I see it, if the government or state is going to FORCE a business to shut down, they should be FINANCIALLY OBLIGATED to cover all costs while that business is stuck not being able to operate. Please NATO...get on THIS. THIS is what is important, not only to the actual cinemas, but to tech companies like Film-Tech that provide sales and service to theaters, janitorial services who have been suffering from closed theaters, front end screen companies, concession suppliers, the list goes on and on.

FYI, all of you people who somehow feel the need to get offended at these two groups, I DID clearly state "generally speaking" above.

[Leo Enticknap]

Amen to all of the above. There is also a group 3: this is an existential threat to humanity, and we must lock down the entire country and freeze the economy completely, until a vaccine is proven to be effective and in mass distribution. Needless to say, these individuals are hardly likely to be heading to their local movie theater any time soon.

To be fair to NATO, they need a "cover your ass" protocol that they can use while doing this lobbying, in order to convince lawmakers (and, just as importantly, the unelected government officials who are driving a lot of the decisions - especially county health chiefs) that the industry has a set of policies and procedures that will enable movie theaters to operate at no greater risk to their customers and staff than other businesses that are now back open. It can also form the basis for legal and/or political action if these people don't see sense. But it's now time to see the action you call for.

[Steve Guttag]

What we also from NATO is more experts that present the counter argument and now the statistics of opened cinemas with respect to COVID-19. Other "experts" are going unchecked by proclaiming that theatres, in particular, are more unsafe than other indoor activities. It is complete unsubstantiated BS. My wife's theatre opened this Friday since Maryland allowed cinemas to open (with capacity restrictions, of course...like that was going to be an issue). The local health department in the county where the theatre is located implored people to avoid going to the cinema just the same!!!! They actually brought inspectors out on the day of the reopening to measure the seats (they have recliners and are 6-feet seatback-to-seatback and have been keeping up with the place all summer to keep it spic and span. Not finding anything wrong, they resort to telling residents/patrons not to go and declaring the industry loss isn't sizable enough or worth the risk. How is that not slander and libelous? They have nothing on the evidence side to back their claims and I don't think it is there place to merely voice an opinion like that.

I see this sort of crap everywhere. People are being told that cinemas are an equivalent risk to going to a sports stadium. It just isn't true and there is no evidence to back the claim. But once you scare people, it is tough to overcome. NATO should be hammering the message about the relative safety of cinemas and counter-claiming these "experts" that don't have the goods to back their claims.

[Brad Miller]

Regarding Leo's comments, extreme anything is never good. There has always got to be a reasonable balance.

At this point though, regardless of what side of the fence you stand on, there are so many people fired up over their rights by being asked to quarantine or wear a mask that this problem won't go away anytime soon.

Along these lines I wonder how many theater managers and staff have had to deal with "anti-mask Karens" this weekend. The anti-mask Karens of the world will only make it so the people who make up Group 2 will simply want to stay away from cinemas for fear some Karen will lose it and go spitting in everyone's face. Hopefully theaters will swiftly boot the Karens out the instant they start in with their nonsense so the cinema doesn't become a place to steer clear of.

[Leo Enticknap]

There are pro-mask Karens, too. In the checkout line at Trader Joe's on Friday, one of them accosted the guy behind her, and delivered a lecture on how his mask is ineffective if it doesn't cover his nose completely. This elicited a response straight out of a Tarantino script: specifically, an invitation for the Karen to insert her mask into an orifice that was nowhere near her nose.

I find Steve's story shocking. So a cinema is opening totally in compliance with state law, but yet local county officials are going around telling people not to do business with a business that is operating entirely legally? Agreed completely that action is needed, and that NATO should be supporting that sort of action.

[Steve Guttag]

Their post was on Facebook...which I realize not everyone wants anything to do with so here is the actual text:

Be Excellent To Each Other
Opening movie theaters is a bad idea. Our priority as a community should be to reduce COVID infection rates as much as possible in order to get kids back in schools and allow working parents to get back to their jobs. There are nearly one thousand movie screens across the state. Each will be allowed to seat up to 100 people in an indoor space for 2+ hours 4-5 times/day. Reopening theaters to the public is bound to drive up infection rates.
Although our health department has been supportive of business re-openings during the continuing COVID pandemic, this latest state order defies logic. Until we have an effective vaccine for COVID, placing large numbers of people in close proximity for hours at a time is a danger to those in attendance and others they live and work with.
We implore residents of Calvert to think of others who may be secondarily infected as a result of infections picked up by moviegoers. Until people have the ability to receive effective vaccines, or the rate of COVID infections drops close to zero, we can make the collective sacrifice of watching feature films on the small screen (if you consider 72 and 80-inch home monitors to be small). And the popcorn is cheaper!
We do sympathize with theater owners and their employees, but this is one instance when the risks of disease transmission, the negative impacts on the resumption of in-class learning, and the financial costs to other employers greatly exceed the benefits to one small sector of the economy.
Be excellent to each other and catch Bill and Ted, Da 5 Bloods, or Shaun the Sheep from the comfort of your home, at least for now.

https://www.facebook.com/calvertadmin/

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Their use of Bill&Ted was another nice middle finger to theatres. Please note they also like to think that 80" TVs are large compared to movie screens. Just how is this the business of a local health department to sabotage a lawfully operated business? It sounds like an individual within the department using that department to speak for them.

[Leo Enticknap]

The NATO guideline site could actually be useful in pushing back against overreach like that. Making the argument to the judge that your business is following an industry standard protocol that have been developed by public health experts based on evidence, whereas these people are putting out emotive rhetoric, designed to damage legally operating businesses, without citing any evidence to justify it, would be a pretty powerful case for a cease-and-desist order, I'd have thought.

[Marcel Birgelen]

It's pretty strange that someone in a local government specifically targets the cinema business this way. I don't know what the legal ramifications may be, but I guess it's a rather difficult story. But as it stands right now, it feels pretty careless and lacking any real substantiation. Still, I think someone should challenge them and ask them to correct the information provided.

From what I've read over the last months, not a single super-spreader event has been linked to a visit to a theater. Dutch and Belgian theaters as well as German theaters all require you to register contact details for contract tracing. Like Carsten has mentioned in another topic, this information hasn't been pulled once in Germany and I also don't know of any instance of this same information being requested in either the Netherlands or Belgium.

So, from all the information we have now, with the capacity restrictions and additional hygienic measures in place, movie theaters don't seem to be much more problematic than restaurants or other businesses that seat people indoors.

[Steve Guttag]

It's a no-win situation. Sure, push back on the Health department...then look at your next health inspection. They can shut you down for most anything.

[Randy Stankey]

I think that there are too many people running around like Chicken Little, yelling, "The sky is falling!"

I think that branding or naming policies and procedures that should be common sense, by now, as "CinemaSafe" plays right into the hands of those "Chicken Littles."

I believe that coming up with a sensible policy, enforcing it like iron and posting a message to that effect on your front door and/or website is plenty good enough.

Once you've drawn your proverbial line in the sand, doing anything more than standing firm on your established policies is leading you toward a slippery slope. Once you've started down that slope it's nigh on impossible to go back.

Confidence, stability and reason are what's needed. Catering to every little scaredy cat who makes the slightest noise is not.

Besides, those scaredy cats aren't going to be the ones coming to your theater, anyhow. They just sit at home and pontificate from the safety and comfort of their living rooms.

People like that shouldn't be allowed to run other people's businesses.