What's the latest theatre to close or open you have heard about?

[Rick Raskin]

I agree with Steve on extension of payments and the process has to go completely up the food chain. I'm not sure what impact that would have on the markets though with investors being excluded from earnings on certain investments. Clearly some relief has to happen, especially since certain business closures have been mandated by governments.

[Harold Hallikainen]

I don't think suspension of rent payments and mortgages etc going upstream is the way to go. I think it should be more of an eminent domain situation where the government pays the cinema for the "public use" of it. It would be expensive, but we would all share equally in the expense of preventing the spread of a pandemic. Meanwhile, I hope that as we come out of this, there are "lessons learned" as to what works and what doesn't, and the cost of various risk mitigation measures. The government should do what gets the most "bang for the buck" and make appropriate payments to minimize risk.

[Gordon McLeod]

I don't want to get political and I don't think it does but I don't see how a government can shut down an industry, like it did and not also shut down the consequences of their action. That is, any business that is mandated to shut down should not have to pay ANY rent/lease (and no back rent either when it opens) and it should roll right on up the line, landlords shouldn't be paying any banks on those properties nor any taxes...etc. Nobody should be making out here but, at the same time, nobody should be extra-penalized (forced to pay for a business that is being forced closed or not allowed to operate at profitable capacities).

And, for all of the well-intentions, I still don't think there has ever been a traced spreading to any cinema, anywhere in the world.

I believe there was several traced to a cinema Quebec. That said in some of our locations we closed because the public refused to obey the rules of wearing masks social distancing sitting in the assigned seats

[Steve Guttag]

If you have any actual record of that, I'd be interested. Nobody has produced any documents, that I am aware of, that show spreading traced to any cinema.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I don't think suspension of rent payments and mortgages etc going upstream is the way to go. I think it should be more of an eminent domain situation where the government pays the cinema for the "public use" of it. It would be expensive, but we would all share equally in the expense of preventing the spread of a pandemic. Meanwhile, I hope that as we come out of this, there are "lessons learned" as to what works and what doesn't, and the cost of various risk mitigation measures. The government should do what gets the most "bang for the buck" and make appropriate payments to minimize risk.

I think the intrinsic problem is the enormous debt that we already accumulated and are still accumulating with all those government-based rescue packages, no matter how we structure them, it has to come from somewhere. This debt, has to be paid back, so we're essentially just kicking the can forward, hoping that the economy not only recovers to pre-pandemic levels, no, it actually needs to keep on growing to not cause immediate problems and new debts.

The economy is a thing we, humans, created ourselves. The problem is that it's almost impossible to find a consensus on a global scale. But imagine if we could find one, we could simply move all the debts created due to this pandemic into one giant big bad bank. Once this pandemic is over, we simply pretend this big bad bank never happened. We simply eliminate the debt by eliminating the big bad bank.

While this would be entirely achievable, such a plan would simply fail, because of the mistrust between the parties at hand. It's not just national politics, but also international politics. Some countries might use such a thing to their advantage and for some countries such a "deal" could be more desirable than others. As such, it will never happen.

But the alternatives we see now are just pretty hard to swallow. While some people are profiting big time from what's happening right now, others are losing their livelihood. Large parts of our economy are being systematically destroyed. Not only will it take years to get this all back, it will take even longer before the trust in those businesses as a viable business will be at the same level as before the pandemic. The bad taste will linger for years to come...

[Mark Ogden]

Leave it to The Onion to make fun of this:

https://www.theonion.com/cinerama-bl...wat-1846676347


dome.jpeg

Cinerama Blames Closure On More Viewers Choosing To Watch Movies From Own Geodesic Domes

LOS ANGELES—In a statement touching on the rapidly changing realities of the industry landscape, theater chain Cinerama blamed its impending closure this week on more viewers choosing to watch movies from their own geodesic dome. “It’s a sad day, but ultimately many of our customers have decided that they could get the same experience screening a blockbuster in the comfort of their own concrete geodesic dome,” read a press release from Pacific Theaters president Peter Grouse, adding that the chain of 200 movie theaters simply could not keep up with the rapid proliferation of personal geodesic-dome-movie-viewing technologies. “Back in the ’60s, it was rare to find a single household that could afford even a small geodesic movie theater attached to their nook or living room, let alone one that could rival Cinerama for the sheer number of hexagons and pentagons it incorporated into its design. Now though? Most houses have at least two geodesic domes—the kids are watching Pixar films in their bedroom geodesic dome, while mom and dad are watching the latest Oscar contenders in their own. How are we supposed to compete with that?” Grouse concluded that he should have seen the writing on the wall decades ago when he saw the number of his neighbors with geodesic domes adorned with life-sized Shrek, Spider-Man, and Minion statues.

[Frank B. McLaughlin]

Saw "PAINT YOUR WAGON" (70mm) there on a visit to LaLaLand. We were two of less than a dozen. What a shame. And we were on passes.

[Marcel Birgelen]

It's not like this Onion article feels more "personal" than most other articles, but I guess I'm not really the target of their kind of humor in general...

I sincerely hope Arclight and the Cinerama Dome will find a new home...

[Mike Rivest]

AMC Dine-In Montclair Place 12 (Greater Los Angeles) opened on March 22nd, 2021 per
https://www.dailybulletin.com/2021/0...-in-montclair/

[Leo Enticknap]

Not sure that I'd describe Montclair as "Greater Los Angeles": it's about 35 miles due east of downtown LA (about halfway between LA and the city I live in), and is generally thought of as being IE (Inland Empire - the exurbia that stretches for 70-80 miles along the 10 freeway) rather than LA. It's just over the border into San Bernardino County. The IE has seen an economic boom over the last year, fueled by an increase in logistics activity (the area's biggest industry) caused by everyone buying their crud online rather than going to stores, and by work-from-homers in the LA metro seeking out larger apartments and houses further east. Interesting, and encouraging, that a new theater is opening up. Plans to build one in Banning were axed around this time last year.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Cinepoint 6 on 12th St in Ogden, Utah is the only permanent theater closure out of everyone I service. I originally equipped this theater in 1999 for Reel Theaters. Reel went under and the current owners are the third ones. Since the current owners have had it the location has been second run.

[Leo Enticknap]

Studio Movie Grill has finalized a deal to exit bankruptcy. Out of their pre-pandemic 33 locations, 17 will reopen. I can't find a complete list of the sites that will and will not reopen, but per this story, Downey, Monrovia, Glendale, and Redlands in Southern California are gone. Interestingly, all are to the east of LA, and apart from Glendale, are in the Inland Empire. Sad and a bit surprised that Redlands will not reopen: it's the geographically closest movie theater to me, and after SMG took it over from Krikorian about five years ago, they sunk a lot of money into refurbishing it.

[Martin McCaffery]

The Prattville (AL) Cinema 12 (O'Neil's>Carmike>AMC>New Vision). It has been closed since last March and appears AMC has reclaimed it from the ruins of New Visions, but have not opened it yet. Got whacked by a storm front that came through on Tuesday (and took out two trees in my yard). Video footage:

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Jackson Hole Cinema, a twin screen, has closed and the land has been sold off for other development. No doubt this land being in a prime spot, filedata/fetch?id=10753&d=1620314181&type=thumb is worth millions. I serviced this place for many years and did the digital conversions there. Jackson Hole Cinemas will continue at The Movieworks a short distance away from, this site. Movieworks is a four screen complex.

[Mike Rivest]

Jackson Hole Cinema from March 30th, 1977