“Our main message now to our customers is: Come back to the cinemas that you love, because they are safe and they are waiting for you.” So said Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Cineworld, during a virtual press conference last week, but he wasn’t just speaking for Cineworld, which owns Regal Theaters and is the second-largest cinema chain on the globe (behind AMC). The event was a webinar sponsored by the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO), with Greidinger joined by representatives from AMC, Marcus Theatres, Cinemark, and IMAX to announce the implementation of “CinemaSafe,” a coordinated set of nationwide health and safety protocols, to be followed by all participating theaters and chains (“over 340 companies representing over 32,000 screens nationwide,” according to the CinemaSafe website).
“We want our customers to feel safe,” Greidinger explained, as the chains begin to reopen the doors with auditoriums at reduced capacity, with expanded coronavirus-inspired policies in place for cleaning, contact, and mask-wearing. “Our ultimate goal is the health and safety of our customers and our employees,” announced Rolando Rodriguez, CEO and President of Marcus Theaters. But a closer look at the specifics of the program, and the unavoidable risks of theatrical exhibition as the virus continues to spread, offers little comfort for the hesitant moviegoer.
“Events where people are indoors, in close proximity for extended periods of time, are the most risky when it comes to spread of coronavirus,” explains Dr. Anne Rimoin, a Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Center for Global and Immigrant Health at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “The virus is transmitted through droplets when we talk, laugh, and breathe. A room full of strangers eating and drinking for two to three hours is exactly the type of scenario.”
And make no mistake, that’s what they’ll be doing. The chains have vowed to make mask-wearing a requirement, for patrons and staff, while inside their theaters. “It’s easy to enforce this policy because this is what moviegoers want – and we know that because they told us that,” said AMC chairman and CEO Adam Aron, whose embarrassing, initial soft stance on the mask requirement led to a quick reversal. “We will not let people into our theaters if they don’t wear masks, we will not let them stay in our theaters if they don’t keep their masks on – except for those few minutes where they’re sipping on their Coca-Cola and eating their butter and salted popcorn.”
That, of course, is the rub. “Concessions are part of the movie experience,” grants Dr. Rimoin. “The problem is that you have to take your mask off when you eat or drink. In a closed room with no windows. This is exactly the type of situation we are asking people to avoid.” To truly reduce the risk of transmission in this kind of public space, theaters would close the concession stand entirely, so that masks could not be removed for any reason. But that would eliminate the key source of revenue for exhibitors – and one that they particularly need for a high-profile title like the forthcoming “Tenet,” for which Warner Brothers is keeping a “near-record high” 63 percent of ticket sales. So it seems that, with this policy, economic concerns have trumped public health.
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Participating chains will also operate at reduced capacity (figures vary from 30% to 50%), with the Cinemasafe protocols mandating that “at a minimum, the amount of physical distance defined in all applicable federal, state, and local guidance is maintained in all directions inside auditoriums, except for members of a household or those that attend together.” So what this actually looks like can vary from market to market and theater to theater, but AMC’s guidance (provided to /Film) defines their policy thus:
“At recliner auditoriums, AMC’s ticketing engine will automatically block out one seat on either side of every party.
At non-recliner, reserved seating auditoriums, AMC’s ticketing engine will automatically block out one seat on either side of every party and the seats in the rows in front of and behind each party, as well as the diagonal seats in front of and behind each party.
In non-reserved seating auditoriums, AMC will block out every other row of seats for every showtime.”
But control and enforcement of this policy has already proven tricky for the chain, which found itself in spin control mode after social media reporting of lax distancing on their ticketing engine went viral. And even with that issue (reportedly) addressed, the enforced distances may not be sufficient.
“The recommendation is that people remain at least six feet apart,” notes Dr. Rimoin. “I’m not sure that alternating seats would be six feet apart in all directions. Furthermore, six feet is the minimum and in a closed space with poor ventilation, spread would still be possible. There is no zero-risk scenario when you have people in a congregate setting in a closed room, likely without masks, while eating and drinking.”
Even Dr. Robert Lahita (chairman of medicine at St. Joseph’s Health in New Jersey, professor of medicine at New York Medical College, and adjunct professor of medicine at Rutgers), whom I’ve talked to throughout the shutdown and is otherwise bullish on reopening, finds this spacing insufficient. “Just to be safe, I would do two empty rows,” he says. “That’s what the churches are doing and the temples are doing. And then you can be sure that you’re really not going to get coughed on by the person behind you – because no matter how you cut it, there’s always going to be a cough or sneeze or in the theater.”
And in that event, there’s the even bigger question of ventilation. The EPA is recommending air cleaners and HVAC filters to “reduce indoor air pollutants that are airborne including viruses” in single rooms or areas, which would include movie theaters, and Dr. Rimoin concurs: “The layout and design of a building, as well as occupancy and type of air conditioning, ventilation, and HVAC system, can all impact potential airborne spread of the coronavirus.” It’s a concern the chains have attempted to address, or at least acknowledge; during Friday’s event, AMC’s Aron explained, “Our Harvard University School of Public Health experts were on this issue of air quality, I think, long before anybody else – they were telling us back in May, almost instantly, that we needed to dramatically step up our HVAC systems, and that the safest way to a healthy building is more fresh air, much higher filtration.”
In response to that, Aron continued, “we went to MERV-13 air filters, which is basically quadruple the filtration that we had prior to this COVID outbreak.” The “Safety and Health Policies” page of AMC’s website further trumpets this innovation [emphasis mine]: “For superior air quality, we’ve upgraded our HVAC systems with MERV 13 filters wherever possible.”
“Given that movie theaters are closed rooms with no windows, ventilation systems will be very important,” says Dr. Rimoin. “I also noted that the recommendations said ‘whenever possible.’ That’s not good enough for me to want to consider going to the movies.” It’s a fine point. What, exactly, does “wherever possible” mean? Is the upgrade “possible” in a thousand theaters? A hundred? Ten? [Editor’s note: AMC’s has created an entire Safe And Clean policy and video with detailed steps and visual example within, but perhaps tellingly, the MERV 13 filter section is the least detailed and most vague of them all; Cinemark’s similar video has zero information about any air filtration systems].
It’s not a question AMC wants to answer. At the risk of delving too deeply into how the sausage is made, journalists were allowed to submit questions during Friday’s session, and I did just that, with a specific question for Mr. Aron: “AMC has said they will use MERV 13 air ventilation filters ‘whenever we can.’ Do they have more concrete numbers about how many of their theaters will use these filters?” However, when the question was read out by the moderator in the session, it had been revised thus: “I know the issue of air filtration is an important one, you guys have taken a look at it, what are the various ways and options you’re addressing that question?” AMC’s CEO was thus allowed to explain what they were doing in impressive-sounding (complete with Harvard name-drop) yet vague language; I sent two follow-up emails to the AMC public relations contact provided by NATO, again asking for concrete numbers regarding these filters’ implementation (and if there is any way for moviegoers to know if they’re in use in the theaters they’re attending). To date, they have not responded; we will update this article if they do.
On one hand, perhaps it’s persnickety to focus on this data point; on the other, these are literally questions of life and death. But more than that, AMC’s lack of transparency on the MERV-13 issue is indicative of the entire ethos of these exhibitors, and the CinemaSafe initiative; it’s a question of appearance versus actual effectiveness. Yes, you must absolutely wear masks at all times – except when enjoying the food and drink they should, in the interest of health, not sell you to consume in a confined space. Yes, they’re ensuring proper social distancing – as long as the ticketing system works and everyone cooperates. Yes, they’re ramping up cleaning protocols – though the vast majority of spread is person-to-person and not surface transmission. And yes, they’ll implement all of these important initiatives – though enforcement is another question altogether.
For their Friday event, NATO provided two scientists to provide assurances: David F. Goldsmith of George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, and Joyce Sanchez, an infectious disease specialist and director of the Travel Health Clinic at Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin. “There isn’t any medical literature or published studies out there that show that a movie theater has been a venue for viral transmission,” Sanchez noted, and Goldsmith concurred that “there have been no published medical or epidemiological findings that show a link between going to see a movie and contracting COVID-19.” But, as Rimoin confirms, these statements are scientifically meaningless, as theaters were closed by mid-March, and only a handful have reopened in recent weeks.
Even those scientists have to cloak their endorsements in language of risk versus reward, with Goldsmith adding, “There is no iron-clad guarantee that there is zero risk” and Sanchez agreeing, “As far as risk goes, it isn’t risk-free.” Even under the most heightened of protocols, even with all the rules followed, i’s dotted, and t’s crossed – even with theaters fully enforcing their rules, which is not exactly something they were known for pre-COVID – the inherent risk of this activity is unavoidable.
“Right now we should be focusing on doing all we can to reduce spread of the virus, not putting ourselves in situations that promote spread,” Dr. Rimoin says. “This is an issue of forgoing present pleasure for future greater gain.”
