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  • Los Angeles Times

    Movie theaters face 'existential' threat from COVID-19: 'Without new movies, it's over'

    by Ryan Faughnder, Los Angeles Times Jul 14, 2020 6 minutes

    After months of being shuttered, Texas movie theater chain Alamo Drafthouse published a blog post from founder Tim League last month detailing the company's new coronavirus safety protocols, including mandatory masks and employee temperature checks. The maverick exhibitor's message to nervous moviegoers was that its theaters would be "safer than a supermarket."

    Whether customers believe that's true will have a major effect on the movie industry's return from the COVID-19 pandemic.

    About 1,300 domestic movie houses are currently open, including 293 drive-ins, according to data firm Comscore. But the vast majority of the country's nearly 5,550 indoor theaters remain shuttered, and the recent surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in multiple states has postponed what was already expected to be a slow recovery. While drive-ins are doing brisk business, indoor theaters are struggling to draw audiences because of a lack of new Hollywood films.

    "Twenty days ago, I would've said we're on track," said David A. Gross, head of movie consultancy Franchise Entertainment

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