Any chance of movie theaters reopening in California saw a curtain call Wednesday.
What’s happening:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that indoor businesses — like restaurants, movie theaters, family entertainment centers and museums — would be closed down for at least three weeks to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
- The governor said California would close all of these places across 19 counties in the state.
- California has asked counties to close down fireworks as well.
- California has seen 110 people die and 5,898 new cases of COVID-19 within the past 24 hours alone, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The state originally announced movie theaters could reopen on June 12 with 25% capacity, according to The Hollywood Reporter. But Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Monday there would be a “hard pause” on those locations reopening.
The biggest challenge
Ellis Jacob, chairman of the National Association of Theatre Owners, said Tuesday that the biggest problem with reopening national movie theater chains stems from major markets like New York and Los Angeles not being open yet, as I wrote about for the Deseret News.
- Jacob said: “The challenge has been some states like New York, New Jersey and certain cities in California, and we at NATO are working to make sure those cities and states get the final OK to reopen and people can then come in and have a safe experience and those movies can open on the dates they are committed to.”