What will make Americans feel comfortable going out to the movies again?
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Soon, as more people got sick, local authorities would order them shuttered.
Within a few weeks, though, as the epidemics urgency waned, owners began to get restive.
They were losing money and wanted to get back to selling tickets.
A few managers were arrested for defying shutdown orders.
As it turns out, that long ago epidemic changed the movie industry forever.
Today, even before the coronavirus pandemic closed the cinemas, big changes were under way in the industry.
Even the best-managed cinema cant survive not selling tickets for much longer.
But you cant prepare to be closed for 90 days.
No business prepares for that.
Even with a hurricane, were closed for two or three days, a week max.
Were running out of cash quickly, as Im sure everyone else is.
Will social-distancing regulations render it impossible to make money with partly filled theaters?
says Patrick Corcoran, vice-president of the National Association of Theater Owners.
Ive got a good imagination, but its not that good.
I honestly cant tell you what happens.
That roughly coincides with the rise of television as a mass medium.
Next came cable, then home video, then streaming.
In recent years, many went into full-service food and drinks the Alamo and Nitehawk model.
Others refitted with recliners.
That was before this pandemic.
And those theaters that are also restaurants and bars have additional challenges from a public-health perspective.
Two, everyone should wear masks people who are selling the tickets and the people going into the theater.
Then, in the theater, youll want to separate people with the maximum distance, with staggered seating.
And assuring us of our safety may well come at a cost.
This could be another example of the new normal.
During weekdays, that number is closer to 75 percent.
Still, that may prove difficult if population centers like Los Angeles andNew York continue under stay-at-home orders.
Even in the states that are already slowly reopening, theater owners have been careful.
The vast majority of the cinemas in places like Georgia and Texas are closed.
The National Association of Theatre Owners has been clear about following the advice of public-health officials.
(Gully waited several weeks after Georgias reopening in late April to reopen his doors.
Theyll really want to wait until the smoke has officially cleared.
The pandemic has intensified the ongoing war between theatrical exhibition and streaming orvideo on demand.
Disney and Warners biggest bets such asMulanandWonder Woman 1984 have been moved to later dates to open in theaters.
The theatrical-release window has been shrinking in recent years, but theater owners are determined to preserve it.
Historically speaking, this is nothing new for movie theaters.
Its really the movie-theater owners trying to tell the attendees, Dont worry, youll be safe here.
In some weird way, this is all a part of the movie theaters mystery.
In movie theaters, that sense of vulnerability is transferred to the audience.
Which brings us back to Adolph Zukor and all those struggling theaters he bought up.
(For film buffs, this turned out to be mostly a good thing.
For the studios, not so much.
I mean, the fact that theaters are in the dark makes them scarier, right?
Theyre going to need to be white, and sanitary, and fun-looking, and upbeat.
It means that were kind of thinking together at the same time.
It means that were experiencing something together, says Szczepaniak-Gillece.
