AMC Plans To Open Theaters In July, Moviegoers Still Uneasy

When effectively shutdown Hollywood, the movie theater chain giant, AMC also saw its locations shutter. As the world begins to slowly open up, AMC hopes its theaters will be back in business as well.

July, that’s the target for AMC if things go as plan. During a recent earnings call, the company’s CEO Adam Aron boldly revealed that he expects that 97 percent of the company’s locations to be opened by next month The Wall Street Journal reports. AMC had to close all of its theaters back in March due to the COVID-19 global pandemic being that going to the movies falls under the mass gathering’s category.

That sounds good, and all but surveys suggest that people are saying aht aht aht when it comes to heading back to the theater to watch a flick. A recent study of 2,200 adults from Morning Consult throws cold water on the idea that there is a “pent up demand” to rush back to the movies. Just 22 percent of people are comfortable right now going to the movies. 33 percent said they need six months before they make it a movie night again, and 14 percent said: “they’d be happy to make a visit next month.”

Epidemiologists are also not confident that AMC will see success when they reopen in July. In a survey conducted by The New York Times, out the 511 professionals, a majority (64 percent) don’t see themselves hitting up large public gatherings like concerts, sporting events, or plays for at least a year.

Welp.

AMC, which relies entirely on public gatherings, posted a $2.2 billion net loss and made “virtually no revenue” for the last two weeks of March, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The movie theater chain is hoping the John David Washington led Christopher Nolan film and Disney’s live-action film Mulan will lure people back to theaters.

We would like to see it, but we won’t be shocked if that’s not the case, and both movies suffer the same fate as others get pushed back to a later date.

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Photo: Noam Galai / Getty