AMC Theatres, Regal Cinemas, and Showcase Cinemas are reducing capacity in their theaters by 50% due to coronavirus. The coronavirus, or COVID-19, has been spreading globally and halting everyday life, closing schools, businesses, and events. Coronavirus has had a visible impact on the entertainment industry as well. In fact, Netflix has just announced that it would suspend the production of its movies and TV shows in both the U.S. and Canada for at least two weeks. This includes Stranger Things season 4.
Outside of Netflix, CW's Arrowverse shows have all suspended production for the same reason. Marvel also recently halted production on the upcoming Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings. In fact, the delayed Shang-Chi production is causing Disney to lose over $300,000 a day. Release dates for movies have been pushed back as well. Among the delayed releases are Mulan, No Time To Die, as well Fast & Furious 9, which now won't release until next year.
According to Deadline, AMC Theatres, Regal Cinemas, and Showcase Cinemas are all reducing the capacity in their theaters by 50% due to the coronavirus. AMC was the first big movie theater chain to address the coronavirus issue publicly. AMC will accomplish this by putting a limit on ticket sales for every showtime in each of its auditoriums. That limit will be equal to exactly half of the normal seat capacity. For AMC's biggest auditoriums, of which some seat more than 500, ticket sales will also be capped at 250 seats. The company also discussed their plans to focus on keeping their theaters clean. CEO and President of AMC Theatres, Adam Aron, expressed that, “The health and safety of our guests and theatre teams are of the utmost importance to AMC."
Regal Cinemas and Showcase Cinemas similar things to say regarding the matter. A statement from Regal reads, "The health and safety of our customers and staff is very important to us. We are continuing to follow and monitor official guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health organizations." Regal also shared the steps the company would take to ensure safe environments for guests and employees. These steps included educating the staff on prevention and cleaning high contact points more frequently.
Reducing the capacity of theaters is part of an effort to create social distance which can help to reduce the risk of coronavirus spreading. Precautions are being taken all around. There are still some holdouts. Warner Bros. is planning to continue filming on movies like The Batman and The Matrix 4, even despite the coronavirus. However, things seem to be moving extremely quickly these days, and more and more delays are likely.