A year after the Covid-19 pandemic, Hollywood studios and movie theaters are waiting for the recovery to pick up.
Some theaters in two of America’s largest box office markets, New York City and San Francisco, will open this weekend after being closed for most of last year. As cities reopen public spaces and more Americans receive vaccines against Covid-19, filming is about to return, though much remains to be done until all screens in the country flicker. .
Theater owners are getting ready. Some Hollywood executives are advancing movie releases that had been delayed. And for films to be released in theaters in the coming weeks, customers ’interest in returning, in addition to box office results in New York and San Francisco, will begin to test the wisdom of unprecedented decisions of the studios last year, that is, to release films simultaneously in cinemas and digital broadcasting services.
Movie theaters elsewhere in the United States have been open for months, including in Florida, Texas and Ohio, but box office results have been negative. The few U.S. movie markets account for a large percentage of box office revenue when a movie comes out.
“The adrenaline is definitely very exciting and definitely excited about the reopening,” said Scott Rosemann, who runs New York’s Angelika Film Center in the modern SoHo area, as well as two other theaters in the city. “With the fact that we should vaccinate all adults in the United States by the end of May, it gives me a lot of hope that we will have a summer blockbuster season.”