Today, AMC Theaters became the first major theater chain in the US to announce that they will be reducing capacity in auditoriums by 50% starting tomorrow. Those measures are set to be in place until April 30th, 2020. With fewer films now in the marketplace, this isn't expected to have an overly detrimental affect on ticket sales.
However, with Scarlet Johansson set to return as Marvel's sultry superspy in
Black Widow for preview screenings on the 30th, it's possible Disney will start to contemplate postponing the film.
"The health and safety of our guests and theatre teams are of the utmost importance to AMC," says Adam Aron, AMC Theatres CEO. "Therefore, AMC is proactively taking action to cut in half the number of tickets that we will make available at all our U.S. theatres. With this action, we are facilitating the ‘social distance’ between guests who still want to see movies on a big screen."
Regal Cinemas has also reduced auditorium capacity to 50% where applicable with state mandates on social gatherings.
"The health and safety of our customers and staff is very important to us," they confirm.
"We are continuing to follow and monitor official guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health organizations."
Both chains are implementing extra health measures to keep theaters as germ-free as possible, but this weekend is expected to be a disappointing one in terms of box office revenue.
F9,
Mulan, and
A Quiet Place: Part 2 are among the upcoming films which have been delayed, and Black Widow soon following suit feels like an inevitability at this point unless things drastically change and coronavirus disappears over the next six weeks. Unfortunately, that seems unlikely.
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Black Widow news from CBM!
In Marvel Studios’ action-packed spy thriller Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.
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