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AMC may not reopen


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The main reason I say state and local governments is because theyve been left out, and they provide necessary services. The two biggest budget items in Ohio are K-12 education and Medicaid, things that are specifically necessary for the poor (Ohio school funding is a joke, and the wealthy have super ridiculous public schools)

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The main reason I say state and local governments is because theyve been left out, and they provide necessary services. The two biggest budget items in Ohio are K-12 education and Medicaid, things that are specifically necessary for the poor (Ohio school funding is a joke, and the wealthy have super ridiculous public schools)

I totally understand that. Where I live, education is pretty bad off, too. I was just talking hypothetically if prioritizing had to take place, and the rational being if someone is out of work and about to lose the family home, I think they should come before funding states. But oftentimes, when funding like that takes place, they can do multiple priorities at the same time.

 

The way the government funds things doesn't need to be this, then that, and then that. It is usually goes this, AND that, AND that. If funding needed to be pulled, I am sure the DOD can take some cuts and still survive.

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I know, were just talking priorities. The other thing is that the states pay unemployment, not the Feds, and that needs to be protected. I also will admit that I have a personal stake in it to some degree as I work for the state, but my Department is pretty safe because we are one of the few that operates at a profit. But it also makes more aware of the dangers that are around the corner.

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You have a good point with unemployment. I see that as a good argument to give priority above all. However, I think given this extraordinary and unprecedented time, the feds need to step up, and think outside the box to get people taken care of beyond unemployment, as well as compensate businesses that suffered as a result of complying voluntarily with the federal shut down of commerce. It wasn't all that long ago we were throwing $trillions at Iraq and Afghanistan, and sending pallets of $billions to Iraq in the dead of night, which ran our national debt up to record levels. Now, this is a time to spend, even if it means cutting DOD spending or going into debt, to help US citizens.

 

This is drifting off topic somewhat, but we should remember that businesses are people (not in the corporate person hood sense), and to loop it back around to AMC and theaters specifically, those people have livelihoods that were disrupted, and many are out of work. A multi-pronged approach, including helping out theaters, should be done to help all. Not just to preserve the movie industry, but those who work in it.

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On the one hand, this is really stunning news, and if it does tank I feel awful for the employees.

 

On the other, the city I live in survives being ignored by the huge national brands by making our own versions. The first AMC theater only opened in my city about five years ago. The area is dominated by a local theater franchise called Loeks, which was doing extremely well before the lockdown. They also know how to not make their businesses one trick ponies - their latest theater is also a restaurant complex, event space, and concert venue, with apartments on the higher levels. They also do things - huge parties for big releases, indie movie series, collaborations with Founders Brewing, special shows for kids with sensory processing disorders - AMC basically just has low ticket prices and recliner seats, and they seem to consider the movies themselves enough draw. Corona may have exacerbated the problem, but they dont seem to have prepared very well for the changing times in general.

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Where I live, it is a suburb of a large city, and we have something similar called Harkins. They are a chain now in multiple states, and are every bit as nice as AMC, in that they have recliners, bars that serve alcohol, and their snack bars serve actual food, along with popcorn and drinks. Now, in my town, you pretty much just have a choice between AMC and Harkins, as over the last 20-25 years, the smaller, non-chain, sticky floor variety of theaters have been torn down to make room for chain theaters. I actually miss (or maybe its just nostalgia for?) those smaller theaters, as now the ones that survived are small businesses that tend to show indy films, or other niche films. They are usually kind of a drive for me so I don't frequent those.

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Yup! You can still find those theaters around here in the coastal tourist towns and the rural areas, though I believe Loeks owns most if not all of them. But they all went the way of the dodo in the city and its suburbs, in favor of the "experience" theaters with the recliners and bars.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, heres a sad one. Theres a contemporary art museum in my area thats always had a theater for showing independent cinema. Other theaters will show indie film series, but they arent dedicated to indies. And this museum theater knew how to draw really great crowds that the other theaters dont.

 

Well, Covid did the theater in. Theyre being forced to sell their space and downsize, with no space for a theater in the new building.

 

Theyre losing their public access art studios, too.

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Well, heres a sad one. Theres a contemporary art museum in my area thats always had a theater for showing independent cinema. Other theaters will show indie film series, but they arent dedicated to indies. And this museum theater knew how to draw really great crowds that the other theaters dont.

 

Well, Covid did the theater in. Theyre being forced to sell their space and downsize, with no space for a theater in the new building.

 

Theyre losing their public access art studios, too.

That really sucks. We had a new indie cinema that was planning to open in March (no major corporation backing like the one and only art-house cinema our city's had for years), but then came All This.

 

They apparently received an okay number of initial memberships and donations for starters, so they've been holding watch parties while waiting for the world to change. Hopefully someday they actually get to open.

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Fingers crossed that they can keep it afloat.

 

Okay, so, AMC got saved - but you have to wear a mask while you're in the theater.

 

So, how are they going to manage concessions? You can take your mask off in a dining room when you're at your table, but there's social distancing measures in place in dining rooms. If everyone is compliant in mask wearing, yeah, I'd be willing to give it a try. But how are you supposed to wear a mask and eat popcorn? And lets face it, maybe 30% of the public is truly compliant in mask wearing, at least in my area.

 

And anyone who wears glasses knows how awful it is to wear a mask and glasses. Something tells me 3D movies will fall out of style again.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Only chance I'm taking with the theater is with Tenet and that's going to be if they hold onto the film for about a month or two, the first matinee showing of the last week, and I'm buying seats around me so I'm not being coughed on because I have no doubts that people will get sly and not keep a mask on for the duration of the show because theaters don't keep in house ushers and don't check the houses at all during the FP.

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  • 1 month later...

Interesting.

 

This is how I understand this/see this playing out -

 

Movie studios that own theater chains will, like Netflix, prioritize their own movies, so you'd have to go to a Disney theater to see, say, the latest Avengers-or-whatever-they're-calling-themselves-at-this-point movie. But we've established that indie chains are still around and thriving in some areas (that new one I talked about earlier actually had an outdoor lawn theater already, and has been running socially distanced movies quite successfully this summer). In kind of a reverse-Netflix, those theaters would then license from the studios like normal.

 

Am I getting this right? Or should I be worried about my indie theater dominated town?

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It all depends on how the companies will make the most money, and thats hard to say. If they find that running things solely through their own distribution platforms (theaters, streaming services, direct neural upload) is better for business, they will crush those indies like crazy.

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Looking forward to hobbling into my local cineplex in 2031 like Robert Forster in Jackie Brown ("What are ya gonna see?" "Something that starts soon and looks good.") only to discover all ten screens are showing Fast & The Furious XVII : G-g-g-g-ghosts Galore! all day, everyday.

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I said it above-- but the money made at theaters was already in favor of studios and distributors. They took the lion's share of B.O. and the theaters chains make most of their money from the food counter. As Brando says, if the studios take over theaters they are going to figure how best to monetize them. That may mean bulldozing them. That will definitely mean block programming their own movies, and charging a premium to other studios to show their movies.

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