NEWTON, MA — For the past four decades the West Newton Cinema has been a staple welcome for movie-goers near and far, to be counted on for a quality film, a date-night destination, or just a place to escape with friends. But four months ago, concern about the spread of coronavirus forced it to close its doors temporarily. Now, as the state moves into Phase 3 of reopening, the cinema is working on reopening sometime this month.
Owners David and Jimmy Bramante had set to work last week planning to reopen the week Phase 3 went into effect.
As has been the case, businesses that are reopening are doing so with specific guidance. While the usual face coverings, social distancing, sanitization and hygiene measures are in place, there are also updated gathering limitations. The state is restricting crowds in indoor enclosed spaces to no more than eight people per 1,000 square feet, or 25 people overall; Outdoor spaces can have 100 people. They numbered the seats so that they could assign seating and ensure proper spacing, setting up a more robust online reservation process, and setting up plexiglass near the concessions.
And then they found out that during this part of Phase 3, they would not be allowed to sell concessions.
"That was incredibly disappointing, not least because customers want to go get popcorn and drinks to go with their movie, but second to that it's a huge revenue for the theatre," said Bridget Bali, daughter of David Bramante.
The owners are in the process of reviewing the long set of guidelines, which mean each theatre room can only have 25 people in them at a time, even though some of their rooms hold 200. Only 150 people are permitted in the building, she said.
"We won't be operating at capacity, and we won't be having concessions," Bali said. "I understand why, but it makes it super hard to run a business."
Even AMC theatre, with all of its resources, announced they would not be opening until July 24.
In addition, the guidelines call for more frequent cleaning and sanitizing, which is more for staff to do. The theatre could hire more people, but that would mean fewer customers at a time permitted in the building.
Even though there still seem to be a few logistics to figure out, and constantly updated information coming to them from the state, and then there's the question of what films to show — there aren't any blockbusters out at the moment — the owners are hopeful it's worth it to open rather than to stay closed.
"There are so many unknowns," Bali said. "At this point right now we'd like to try to slowly reopen. No one has done this before, this is new for everybody. So we'll start to reopen and play it by ear. if we can sell 25 tickets for each show, then it will be worth it."
Twenty five tickets works out to about 12 couples, or about six families of four. The theatre is still accepting cash and check in person, but because of the limitation of capacity they're encouraging people to book online ahead of time.
An earlier GoFundMe to ask for help paying the bills and operating expenses that piled up while the independent cinema was closed was a success and floored the owners. Bali said they're hoping they won't have to make a second drive for money.
"There were so many people who said 'we're gonna come back,' so now we're going to have to see if people actually come back."
The unknowns are the hardest part about this, Bali said.
"It will certainly be difficult in the begging to say the least," she said.
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July 07, 2020 at 02:50AM
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