Movie theaters may soon cut their capacity to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. But that might not hurt business overall since movie theaters have dealt with low numbers for years.
Experts recently told The Hollywood Reporter that movie theaters are used to reduced capacity.
The experts, who were unnamed, told The Hollywood Reporter that “it isn’t unusual for 50% of seats at U.S. theaters to remain empty on the weekends without dampening business overall.”
Movie theaters might drop capacity to 25% or 50% because of the coronavirus pandemic. Checkered seating might become a thing, too.
Chris Aronson, Paramount president of domestic distribution, said the summer schedule might allow for increased chances to see movies — even if there’s social distancing in place.
“Even at reduced capacity because of social distancing, there would will be plenty of seats for the summer release schedule the way it is mapped out now,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.
Consider Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s comments to CNBC last week that movie theaters might be hard-pressed on Friday and Saturday nights for new releases. He added that movie theaters don’t fill auditoriums during the rest of the week, as I wrote for the Deseret News.
“It really only becomes an issue on Friday night and Saturday night and to a lesser extent on Sunday night,” he said. “In that particular case, I think that can be managed. I think it will be up to our exhibitors who we partner with. I think that is a very good release date for that particular title.”
Let’s look at some data. There are currently 40,613 indoor movie theater screens (with an additional 559 seats for drive-in theaters), according to the National Association of Theatre Owners.
The average movie theater capacity fits 200 to 300 people. So you’re talking close to 8.1 million to 12.1 million seats overall for one showing of a movie. If a single movie airs five or six times a day (if not more), you’re talking close to 75 million to 90 million seats available overall for a film.
“Avengers: Endgame” — which broke records with its opening weekend box office total — filled 44 million seats.
“Movie theaters aren’t like sold-out Broadway shows,” one source told The Hollywood Reporter.
“I’m happy to max out at any capacity we have to abide by,” Ted Mundorff, new president and chief operating officer of Arclight Cinemas told The Hollywood Reporter. “It means people want to come back to the movies. And 50% would be a very healthy crowd.”