TCTTS said:
J. Walter Weatherman said:
I think my biggest fear is this becoming a chicken/egg situation between no one going to theaters because there aren't any good movies and no new movies releasing in theaters because no one is going to the movies. It seems like most of the country outside of the west coast and NE is basically back to normal outside of wearing masks, so at some point the production companies will be the ones responsible if the theaters go under right?
I'm not so sure. For instance, my dad, who lives in Texas, is looking forward to Top Gun: Maverick more than just about anyone, and if that had been the movie to "save" theaters instead of Tenet, he *still* wouldn't have set foot in a theater. And he's not even that overly paranoid about the virus. My parents used to go to the movies all the time, but neither of them nor anyone they know their age has set foot in a theater in months, and won't until we have a vaccine. I know that's an incredibly small/specific sample, but I don't believe that things are "basically back to normal" in terms of indoor habits, at least. I still know tons of Texans who aren't setting foot in restaurants, theaters, etc.
I don't disagree, and I'm sure there are still a percentage of people, especially older ones, who aren't ready to go out yet. Anecdotally I think maybe 10-20% of people I know either socially or through work have similar perception, including my parents who are still being really careful. I'm just speaking to the overall atmosphere at least in Houston, where restaurants and bars are getting full, traffic is getting bad (again), and I think we're down to reporting a couple hundred cases a day, which is basically a rounding error in a city of 4 million+.
I guess my bigger concern for theaters in particular is that production companies will base their decisions on the atmosphere in California where things are still significantly shut down, vs most of the rest of the country where you even have football games with 20k people in them, etc. Regardless of why that difference exists and whether it goes away after the election or not, there's no question the situations are very different.
Either way, I'm just yelling at clouds at this point as it's not like there's anything anyone can do. Guess I just need to see Tenet again this weekend and order 8 bags of popcorn plus a few drinks to do my part haha